el producto #232 đ
Facebook podcasts, Wise IPO, Product Thinking, Apple Watch for extreme sports, Product Discovery pitfalls, 23andMe IPO, The messy beginning of Figma, & more
đ° The week in figures
$3.5B: Genetic testing company 23andMe closes up 21% in Nasdaq debut; the firm merged with VG Acquisition Corp, a Richard Branson SPAC, to raise $600M at a $3.5B valuation; 23andMe claims 11M members, 80% of whom have opted into sharing their genetic information for drug R&D; the company's drug discovery platform is currently running 40 programs
$2.5B: Waymo raises $2.5B from Alphabet, a16z, and others; the company said its Via delivery unit had partnered with JB Hunt Transport Services for cross-country cargo transport and that its ride-share business, Waymo One, had completed thousands of autonomous trips in Phoenix; the firm has raised $5.5BÂ to date
$2B: NFT sales totaled $2B in Q1, according to market tracker NonFungible; average prices for various types of NFTs have fallen following an initial surge of interest - and in tandem with cryptocurrency prices; weekly NFT sales hit a peak of $176M on May 9, but dropped to $8.7M on June 15
$1.5B: Mental health startups raised a record $1.5B across 124 deals last year; comparatively, startups in the space raised $275M across 69 deals in 2016; in the first quarter of this year, companies in the mental health space raised $795M in funding
$1B: JPMorgan Chase ($459.4B market cap) acquires online investment firm Nutmeg; terms undisclosed, but sources indicated a price near $1B; Nutmeg, a digital wealth manager founded in London in 2012, claims ~140k customers and $5B under management; previously raised $154M
$500M: MicroStrategy ($5.83BÂ market cap), which owns more Bitcoin than any other corporation, raises $500M in bonds to acquire more Bitcoin; the company had targeted a $400M raise; the secured notes are due in 2028
$430M: Brazilian fintech Ebanx raised $430M at an undisclosed valuation. The capital will be used to fund expansion efforts across Latin America. Last month, the company revealed it was looking for potential acquisition targets ahead of an IPO later this year. Ebanx processes payments for giant companies such as Alibaba, Amazon, Spotify, and Uber
$360M: Carro, a marketplace for cars, mostly used, raises $360M Series C at a $1B-plus valuation led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2; the company offers services for the remaining lifecycle of a given vehicle, from maintenance to recycling; Carro also operates a wholesale business serving dealers
$350M: Edtech company Byju's raises $350M for a $16.5B post-valuation from UBS Group and others, making the firm India's most valuable startup; the company operates a platform for live remote classes, with 11k active teachers and 170k active students; Byju's plans to use the funding for acquisitions
$260M: Faire, a wholesale marketplace connecting small brands with small retailers, raises $260M Series F for a $7B valuation led by Sequoia; the company aims to help SMBs compete with giant retailers like Walmart and offers a product filter to find items not available on Amazon; the firm expanded to Europe three months ago
$200M: BrowserStack, the maker of a platform for testing software in the cloud, has raised $200M Series B at a $4B valuation. BrowserStack counts Google, Amazon and Microsoft as customers
$200M: Iterable has been valued at $2B after raising $200M Series E. Iterable operates a marketing platform that is used by customers including mediation app maker Calm and proptech company Opendoor.
$138M: Beamery, which helps business clients to source, hire, and retain talent, raises $138M Series C at a reported $800M valuation; the company, which counts AstraZeneca and Nasdaq as clients, claims 1M roles filled over the past year and a 462% YoY increase in jobs posted
$115M: Philadelphia-based GoPuff, which offers on-demand delivery of various products, acquires fleet management company rideOS for $115M; GoPuff delivers food, alcohol, baby essentials, over-the-counter medications, and more; the company, recently valued at $8.9B, currently serves ~650 US cities
$115M: Berlin-based Uberall raises $115M at a reported ~$500M valuation, acquires fellow location-based marketing startup MomentFeed, based in LA, for $50M to $60M; Uberall said the combined entity would be the world's largest firm in the space, managing location-based marketing for 1.35M businesses
$50M: Duda, which offers a website platform for businesses, raises $50MÂ Series D; the WordPress-like software claims 17k users representing 1M+ published sites; CEOÂ Itai Sadan expects an IPO in two or three years
$40.7M: Business banking startup Novo, which serves SMBs, entrepreneurs, and freelancers, raises $40.7M Series A; the firm, founded in New York City in 2016 and now operating out of Miami, claims 100k SMB customers and $1B in lifetime transactions; Novo offers integrations with numerous finance and communication tools, and plans to launch lending products
$38M: San Francisco-based UserLeap, developer of a platform for product managers to personalize customer surveys and present them at the right time, raised $38M Series B funding from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Accel and Lenny Rachitsky.
$30M: Online learning platform ClassPlus is in talks to raise $30M at a $250M-plus valuation in a round led by Tiger Global; the startup enables teachers to conduct classes online and to create apps for selling original content; investors valued the firm at ~$73M in September
$24.5M: Transform, which helps companies glean metrics and insights from their data, emerges with $24.5M in seed and Series A funding; the startups' metric engine is similar to Big Tech firms' in-house solutions
$23M: Seattle-based marijuana marketplace Leafly raises $23M from undisclosed investors; the company, which conducted two rounds of layoffs last year, plans to use the funding to expand its 160-member team; in addition to sales, the company offers educational resources and claims 120M visitors per year
130: Google has transferred ~130 workers from its Health division to Fitbit and Search, according to an internal email; the company has consolidated the remaining ~570 Google Health employees into three teams and will not work on consumer-facing health products
đ° Whatâs going on
Facebook to launch its podcasting platform on June 22; when a user publishes an episode, it will post to the creator's Page and automatically appear in followers' feeds; the company plans a feature enabling listeners to create and share clips from episodes
Facebook acquires Seattle-based BigBox VR, the developer behind battle royale game "POPULATION: ONE"; terms undisclosed; the deal marks Facebook's fifth VR studio acquisition; BigBox VR will continue to operate as an independent studio
Wise (formerly TransferWise) plans a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, making it the first big tech firm to pursue an alternative listing in the UK; the deal could value Wise at $7B-plus; terms indicated the company would list during the week of July 5Â
Apple launches Podcasts subscriptions globally; subscribers get early access to some shows and can listen to ad-free programming, exclusive content, more; users can subscribe to individual shows starting at $0.49 per month; Apple also launched free and paid channels, enabling publishers to bundle shows
Apple plans to launch an "extreme sports edition" of the Apple Watch next year, according to Bloomberg sources; the company reportedly has pushed the launch of a body temperature sensor from this year to next and won't launch a version with a blood-sugar sensor for several years
Automattic acquires Day One, a personal journaling app for Apple devices; terms undisclosed; to date, the bootstrapped company has focused on private text-and-media journal entries, but Automattic will enable Day One users to publish content to WordPress.com and Tumblr; Day One CEO Paul Mayne and his 12-member team will remain in place
Amazon announces the Appstore Small Business Accelerator Program, promising reduced commissions for developers earning less than $1M per year from the company's app store; the firm will take 20% of members' app store revenue (down from 30%) and provide an additional 10% in AWS credits; a member developer who passes $1M in revenue will be eliminated from the program but can re-apply for the program the following year
Twitter is exploring @mention controls that would enable users to "unmention" themselves from conversations, control who can mention them in the future, more; in one concept, a user could unlink their name from a tweet and prevent replies using their handle - without blocking or muting anyone in the thread; another feature would allow the user to prevent mentions for a specified duration
Twitter to update profiles with a newsletter subscription button in coming weeks; a user with a Revue account will have the option to display the button, marked "subscribe"; creators will also have the ability to post sample newsletter issues to their profiles
Spotify acquires podcast discovery startup Podz; terms undisclosed; Podz uses machine learning to select 60-second clips from shows, then presents them to users in personalized feeds; previously raised $2.5M
Google makes Workspace available to all Google accounts for free; the bundle, formerly known as G Suite, which adds features and integrations to multiple Google products, was previously limited to enterprise accounts; Google also announced Workspace Individual: a premium offering with additional features like personalized email marketing and intelligent booking services
Microsoft names CEO Satya Nadella as board chairman, making him the first to fill both roles at the company since Bill Gates stepped down from the CEO role in 2000; Microsoft appointed Nadella as CEO in 2014 (replacing Steve Balmer), when Bill Gates stepped down as chairman; Nadella replaces John Thompson as chair
SurveyMonkey ($3.1B market cap) rebrands as Momentive; Momentive will serve as the parent of enterprise-focused Momentive and the consumer-facing SurveyMonkey; the company has served ~345k organizations and 98% of the Fortune 500
Bitcoin miners around the world have approved the cryptocurrency's first upgrade in four years; the Taproot update, slated to take effect in November, will add smart contracts, improve efficiency, and increase transaction privacy
đ Good reads
The 25 micro-habits of high-impact managers. âWhat are the small things a great manager has done that have stood out to you across your career?â First Round asked this question to their community of leaders, and shaped this insightful article. Whether you're a first-time manager or have a resume packed with leadership roles, the tools in your management toolbox frequently need sharpening
6 Product Managers that became CEOs, and how they did it, by Product School. Insights from the CEOs of YouTube, Notion, Slack, and more
Figma: the story about the messy reality of building a startup and the myth of overnight success, by Sam DeBrule
The âeasy featureâ trap, by Fu Fei. âWe are incredibly biased towards short-term thinking. We get so caught up in the short-term pain that we lose sight of the long-term side effects.â
Common product discovery pitfalls and how to avoid them, by Imogen Johnson
The power of Product Thinking, by Julie Zhuo. The simplest way to define product thinking is that it is the skill of knowing what makes a product useful â and loved â by people. As with all skills, it can be nurtured and developed; itâs not just an instinct one does or doesnât have (and even instincts are trained, after all)
Have a great weekend.
Angel
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