el producto #264 đ
The Apple-verse, Lessons from missed deals, Q4 financials, Metaverse land loans (and rentals), Scaling a multi-product business, AR and online shopping & more
Welcome to a new edition of el producto
đ° The week in figures
$700M: On-demand food delivery firm Swiggy raises $700M Series K at a reported $10.7B valuation; investors valued the company at $5.5B in July; Swiggy, which serves consumers in 500 Indian cities, claims to have doubled its gross order value over the past year
$550M: Fireblocks, which provides institutional crypto-custody and other services, raises $550M Series E at an $8B valuation; investors valued the New York City firm at $2.2B for a $310M Series D in July; Fireblocks claims $45B in assets in custody and $2T in total transaction volume
$450M: Autonomous air taxi firm Wisk, a joint venture between Boeing and electric aviation firm Kitty Hawk, raises $450M from Boeing; the firm reportedly plans to present a self-flying eVTOL craft for certification around 2028; Boeing said it would be the first such passenger craft certified in the US
$400M: Crypto exchange FTX US raises $400M Series A at an $8B valuation; the Chicago-based firm finalized its acquisition of LedgerX in October, bringing crypto futures and options trading to the platform; FTX claimed an average daily volume of ~$360M in the third quarter
$400M: Baidu-owned EV brand Jidu raises $400M Series A from Baidu and Geely; Jidu will use the funding to build out its mass production capabilities; the company plans to launch a mass-produced robocar (which the firm classifies as an automotive robot) in 2023
$250M: OpenAIÂ raises $250M Series A at an undisclosed valuation from undisclosed investors; the San Francisco firm, which counts Elon Musk as one of its six co-founders, seeks to ensure AI is safe and friendly
$225M: Spanish e-commerce delivery platform Paack raised $225M (âŹ200M) Series D; Paack's value proposition is to integrate the software used for robotic warehouse operations with a logistics website for its e-commerce customers; beyond its home market, Paack operates in the U.K., France, and Portugal; as a last-mile logistics operator, Paack wants to prevent its business from contributing to climate change, and it will deliver all parcels at carbon net-zero using electric vehicles and other measurements
$207M: Blockdaemon, known for its blockchain infrastructure, raised $207M Series C at a $3.25B valuation; the firm closed out 2021 with positive net income and added over 150 full-time employees, most of whom were engineers; Blockdaemon's tech provides the back-end for platforms including Infura and Alchemy, which undergird a wide swath of the crypto ecosystem
$200M: British instant grocery delivery startup Zapp raised $200M at an undisclosed valuation; Zapp currently operates in multiple cities, including London, Amsterdam, and Paris; the funds will be used to expand in its current markets and enter new unspecified "megacities"
$150M: Belgian delivery management startup Deliverect raised $150M at a $1.4B valuation; Deliverect's platform helps restaurants manage online orders, including delivery and takeout, in one centralized location; its technology serves 20,000 stores in 40 markets, including Taco Bell; the number of orders it processed grew by 300% YoY in 2021
$100M: CoinTracker (YC W18), which provides tools for tracking digital asset portfolios and crypto tax compliance, raises $100M Series A at a $1.3B valuation; the software connects with numerous exchanges and apps to import data, enabling users to report crypto profits and losses to the IRS
$58M: Fintech company Plaid agreed to pay out $58M to customers who used its service to link their bank accounts to Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase, and other financial apps; the settlement payouts stem from a class action lawsuit that accused the company of gathering more financial data than was necessary from its users
$30K: TerraZero, a Canadian technology firm, broke new ground by offering a mortgage loan to a borrower to help them buy land in the metaverse; the undisclosed borrower was loaned $30,000 to buy two parcels in Decentraland; Dan Rietzek, CEO TerraZero, said, "The price of the land, even though it's virtual, is increasing rapidly and soon will not be available at a reasonable price;" the borrower agreed to make monthly payments on the loan, but the NFT token is held by TerraZero as part of the agreement; TerraZero also offers metaverse rentals
Coinbase Ventures published a breakdown of its 2021 investments; the firm made 150 deals in 2021:
23% to each DeFi and CeFi, tied for the biggest allocation
20% in "protocols and web3 infrastructure"
17% in NFT and metaverse investments
15% went to platform and developer tools
2% went to uncategorized start-ups.
Coinbase Ventures has made a total of 250 investments so far
đ° Whatâs going on
Apple CEO Tim Cook teased the company's metaverse plans, which prompted a strong investor response as the stock jumped nearly 5% in after-hours trading; the company is looking to expand its augmented reality apps and is also rumored to release its VR/AR headsets by the end of this year
Apple to roll out a feature that would enable small businesses to accept contactless payments on iPhones without added hardware; the tap-to-pay feature is expected to turn iPhones into payment terminals; businesses would be able to accept credit/debit card payments directly from the iPhone's built-in NFC (near field communications) chip without the need for external third-party hardware; the feature will be potentially included in iOS 15.4
Apple upgraded Search Ads to support custom product pages; now developers can create up to 35 additional versions of App Store product pages in order to showcase different app features, content or promotions for given search terms; these pages can also be integrated with Appleâs Search Ads, so they can be used as ads that appear at the top of search results on the App Store
Figma announced 32 little big updates to its prototyping tool and FigJam, its collaboration tool, including new shortcuts, design features, publishing options, and more; users can easily upload photos from iPhone into Figma and FigJam through support for HEIC uploads; publishing components has been made very easy and can be done by simply right-clicking them
Google Cloud creates a new unit to establish a business around decentralized apps; the company is exploring services for blockchain developers; Digital Assets Head of Strategy Richard Widmann said Google could reduce friction for crypto-capitalized clients by enabling crypto payments to centralized providersÂ
Google introduced Topics as the new technology that will replace third-party cookies; in 2021, it had proposed FLoC as the replacement but has pivoted from that plan following criticism; Topics determines areas of interest, like Fitness, Travel and Transportation, etc., based on a user's browsing history for that week and stores the data for three weeks before deleting it; according to Google, topics are selected entirely on the user's device and do not involve any external devicesÂ
To commemorate Data Privacy Day, Google announced new updates and tools for developers to build new applications for differential privacy; the latest updates will provide developers with useful insights and services without revealing information about individuals
Twitter has rebranded its in-development Trusted Friends feature as Flock and is testing it with some users; Flock enables users to create groups of up to 150 people and to post tweets only visible to those in the group; only group members can reply
Facebook's Diem project, once expected to bring cryptocurrency to the masses, is shuttering its operations; launched in 2019 as Libra, Diem was under fire from the very start despite partnering with big names such as PayPal, Visa, and Stripe
Meta announced an AI supercomputer that will help it train models, boost research, and develop augmented reality and metaverse tools; the company's AI Research SuperCluster is expected to be the world's fastest supercomputer for AI tasks once it's fully built out by this summer
Snapchat's AR shopping lenses will now show consumers up-to-date product information, including pricing details, color options, and product descriptions; as users virtually try on products, they will be given links to purchase them via Lens Product Cards
Coinbase added a new tax center feature to its app that will help U.S. customers understand how much they may owe the IRS in cryptocurrency transactions
Reddit had begun quietly testing a feature that would allow users to set their NFTs as their profile photo on the social network, similar to Twitterâs new feature; the company said the test was a small, internal experiment but had already demonstrated interest in NFTs following last yearâs release of its first digital assets, called CryptoSnoos
WeTransfer parent WeRock, which sought a $140M raise and a valuation of up to $813M for its Amsterdam IPO, has canceled the offering due to volatile market conditions; the company said it saw substantial investor demand for the debut; the Federal Reserve signaled a coming interest rate hike on Wednesday, and Europe's tech stocks fell on Thursday
Atlassian acquires Percept.ai (YC S17), which offers tailored AI bots for customer service; terms undisclosed; Atlassian will integrate the tech into its Jira Service Management solution, which helps IT professionals support workers and end-users; Atlassian ultimately plans a unified platform for all types of support and service
AccuWeather acquires Plume Labs, which offers a sensor and app for air quality tracking and personal alerts; terms undisclosed; the sensor is not required to use the app; Plume also provides an API for integrating air quality data into third-party apps; the team plans to expand into services addressing other environmental risks, like wildfires
Walmart and Ribbit Capital rebrand their fintech joint venture as One as it acquires early payday firm Even and neobank One Finance; terms undisclosed but the acquired startups had a combined valuation of ~$400M as of their last venture rounds; Walmart holds a majority stake in the joint venture, which plans a financial super app
Elon Musk said Tesla's humanoid robot is the "most important" product it's developing this year after confirming that its Cybertruck is behind schedule; Musk said the "Tesla Bot" could become more significant than the company's car business over time; the bot's first application would likely be at Tesla facilities, moving around parts at a factory; the 125-pound bot would rely on the same AI technology that powers Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot tech for vehicles
Kollectiff, a web3 agency, partnered with U.K. indie legends The Wombats to offset carbon emissions during their NFT minting process, and bring big brands into the metaverse; Kollectiff's core mission is environmental sustainability as the agency finds ways to combat carbon emissions in the web3 space; the Wombats will enter the Sandbox metaverse and release 3,000 carbon-neutral NFTs, ensuring that all carbon emissions during the minting process are offset by 20 times; all buyers will receive a unique blockchain carbon credit from Moss
Nearly 40 new emoji have been added in Apple's iOS 15.4 software update, which is now in beta testing
Adadot, a âfitnessâ tracker for developers, was launched in ProductHunt. The tool claims to boost developer performance by analyzing productivity and collaboration data; Adabot integrates with GitLab, Google Workspace, and Slack to gather data, measure productivity, and share insights for improving code quality, shipping velocity, and better collaboration
Nike is turning to augmented reality in the Nikeland Roblox experience; the Nike Store will use a Snapchat AR lens to showcase avatars and games in a virtual reality replica of the physical store on New York City's Fifth Avenue
đ¸ Q4 financials
Apple ($2.6TÂ market cap) Q4 beats: $123.9B revenue, up 11% YoY and a new quarterly record ($118.66B expected); $19.52B services revenue, up 24% ($18.61B expected); $71.63B iPhone revenue, up 9% ($68.34B expected); $10.85B Mac revenue, up 25%; $7.25B iPad revenue, down 14%; $14.7B other products revenue; 43.8% gross marginÂ
Microsoft ($2.27TÂ market cap) Q4 beats: $51.73B revenue, up 20% YoY ($50.88B expected); $18.33B Intelligent Cloud revenue, up 25.5% ($18.3B expected); $17.47B More Personal Computing revenue, up 15.5% ($16.56B expected); $2.48 EPS (adjusted, $2.31 expected); $18.77B net income, up 21%Â
Robinhood Q4 beats: Q4 revenue of $363M, +14% YoY; net loss of $423 or 49 cents per share, a drop from its net income of $13M a year earlier; MAUs dropped to 17.3M in Q4 from 18.9M in Q3, however they increased 48% YoY; full-year revenue came in at $1.82B, a ~90% increase YoY; $3.69B in 2021 year losses, or $7.49 per share, down from the $7M profit reported in 2020
Tesla ($832.6BÂ market cap) Q4 beats: $17.72B revenue, up 65% YoY ($16.57B expected); $15.97B automotive revenue, up 71%; $688M energy generation and storage revenue, down 8% ($815.1M expected); 27.4% gross margin; $2.32B net income, up 760%; $2.52 EPS (adjusted, $2.36 expected)
Next weekâs earnings:
Alphabet (Tuesday); Q4 est revenue: $71.87B, +26%; EPS: $27.22, +22%
Meta (Wednesday); Q4 est revenue: $33.45B, +19%; EPS: $3.83 -1.2%
Amazon (Thursday); Q4 est revenue: $137.63B, +9.6%; EPS: $3.62, -74%
Snap (Thursday); Q4 est revenue: $1.2B, +32%
Pinterest (Thursday); Q4 est revenue: $828.6N, +17%
đ Good reads
The Million Dollar Question: How do you Scale a Multi-Product Business? A brilliant essay by Vaidas Adomauskas (CPO at Uncapped, ex. Revolut, Railsbank), full of advice and insights on how to scale a product org without trading-off velocity, focus, and therefore optimizing for success
Software is automating design - what does it mean for designers? Carly Ayres from Google's Material Design team looks at the paths that are taking shape in the evolution of design careers
The power of defaults - are network effects overrated? A brilliant essay about thinking in layers, diving into how network effects really work and some misconceptions around them
Bessemer Venture Partners, an early backer of Pinterest, Shopify, and Canva, has published its Anti-Portfolio, full of companies it missed out on; although Bessemer has done exceedingly well, you can't help but cringe at some of these misses, including: Airbnb (thought to be "crazy"), Coinbase (turned down along with an 8,580x return), and Apple (which seemed "outrageously expensive")
đŽ Emerging trends
AR will play a key role in the future of online shopping; AR lens will enhance the shopping experience by enabling the "try on before you buy" model without leaving your home:
When it comes to AR, most users are familiar with Snapchat-like filters that help create funny and entertaining moments with family and friends, but a more practical solution for AR technology is online shopping, where users can view their shopping cart in 3D from the comfort of their homesÂ
AR-powered shopping will allow customers to customize their merchandise and virtually try on clothing and shoes to get a sense of the product in a 360-degree overlay
Companies in this space include Snapchat, TikTok, Shopify, Meta's partnership with L'Oreal, and many more
Have a great weekend
Angel
el producto is free, but if you enjoy reading it, you can support my work and buy me a coffee đ