el producto #266 š
Big tech Q4 results, Apple's tap to pay and realityOS, Messenger split payments, Salesforce NFT services, YouTube metaverse and shopping, First Product Roadmap & more
Welcome to a new edition of el producto
š° The week in figures
$630M: U.K.-based car retailerĀ CazooĀ raisedĀ $630M; the company already has a presence in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Spain; Cazoo's car subscription line of business already has over 10,000 active customers
$450M: Sequoia Capital India led aĀ $450M fundingĀ into blockchain networkĀ Polygon, whose market cap currently stands at $13B; Polygon utilizes Ethereum's Layer-2 to facilitate faster transactions with low transaction fees compared to the Ethereum network
$312: GoCardless, an open banking platform in the U.K., raisedĀ $312M at a $2.1B valuation; GoCardless provides transaction processing for fintech companies such as challengerĀ bank Klarna and contracts automation platform DocuSign; former Klarna executive Michael Rouse and current CTO Koen Koppen joined GoCardlessā board of directors
$300M: ElasticRun secured aĀ $300M Series EĀ funding; the recent funding upped the valuation of the firm to $1.5B; ElasticRun connects neighborhood grocery stores with bigger brands to facilitate inventory and working capital from the bigger firms
$300M: Marketing tech providerĀ BranchĀ raisedĀ $300M at a $4B valuation; the company provides a cross-platform linking and attribution platform to offer solutions unifying user experience and measurement; Branch claims that 3M MAU across the globe have engaged with its links; it has been used by over 100,000 brands, including NBC, Under Armour, Airbnb, Adobe, BuzzFeed, Reddit, and Yelp
$300M: E-commerce logistics firmĀ XpressbeesĀ raises $300M Series F at a $1.2B valuation; the Indian company offers pickup, cross-border shipping, third-party warehousing, and more; Xpressbees claims 1k+ customers, including Paytm and Xiaomi, and processes 3M+ orders per day
$240M: Cart.comĀ raisedĀ $240M via debt and equity at an undisclosed valuation; Cart.comĀ offers online merchants a variety of services, including marketing and logistics. It has over 3,000 customers, including Guess and Haymaker Coffee
$200M: Cryptocurrency exchangeĀ BinanceĀ to take a $200M stake inĀ Forbes, helping that firm to finalize a SPAC merger slated for Q1; the investment will make Binance Forbes' second-largest shareholder
$200M: Web3 development startupĀ Alchemy raised aĀ $200M Series C1 round; Alchemy aims to be AWS for web3 by providing companies with the necessary infrastructure to build reliable decentralized applications; the funding round values the startup at $10.2B
$180M: Singapore-basedĀ LivspaceĀ raisedĀ $180MĀ Series F; the now-unicorn provides an online home interior decoration platform for Southeast Asian households; having focused on India and Singapore until now, Livspace will look to expand to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and additional Southeast Asian countries; currently, 80% of Livspaceās revenues come from India
$150M: Scandit raised $150M in Series D round; the company developsĀ smart data capture and augmented reality object recognition technology; theĀ latest fundraise brings the company's total valuation toĀ $1B; Scanditās technology combines mobile barcode scanning and text recognition with AR that converts a user's phone into a data capturing tool
$130M: French "buy now, pay later"Ā company Alma hasĀ raisedĀ a $130M Series C and $109M in debt; Alma did not disclose its new valuation; the company has partnered with over 6,000 retailers across Europe to offer two, three, or four payment installments to buyers without charging late payment fees; Alma processes about $1.14B payments annually with its current run rate
$114M: Vivid MoneyĀ closed aĀ $114M (ā¬100M) funding roundĀ at an $886M (ā¬775M) valuation; Vivid Money is a money management service with 3,000 stocks and 50 cryptocurrency investment options currently available; users have the option to pay fees per transaction or enroll in aĀ "Prime" subscription that forgoes the transaction fees for a monthly fee of $11.28 (ā¬9.90)
$100M: Edtech startupĀ ThriveDXĀ raises $100M+; the Israeli company, previously known as HackerU, provides solutions for business training and up-skilling, working with education institutions (New York University, the University of Michigan, others) to offer programs in cybersecurity, data science, UI/UX design, more
š° Whatās going on
AppleĀ purchasedĀ AI Music, a startup specializing in AI-created music, for an undisclosed amount; AI Music's technology generates personalized soundtracks and adaptive music based on user interactions
Apple announced a new feature,Ā Tap to Pay,Ā for U.S. merchants to accept payments with a single tap; the feature is expected to be launched later this year for iPhone XS or later devices, as it requires Background Tag Reading technology; Apple is partnering with Stripe and other third parties to make the platform available for app developers; Stripe will be the first platform to offer the feature; the second beta of iOS 15.4 released contains the necessary framework that developers need to implement Tap to Pay
References to ārealityOSā were spotted in Appleās code on a GitHub repo, suggesting work continues on an AR headset OS; the leak confirmed previous rumors of the name and that apps through an App Store would be available
Apple announced new āApp Store Sessions,ā which will allow developers to learn from Apple experts about new App Store features and get questions answered; the new sessions will run from February 15-March 29 and will focus on creating product pages, subscriptions, custom offer codes and in-app events
Appleās Siri is the first voice-based digital assistant to be able to initiate searches on Douyin, the Chinese version of ByteDanceās TikTok; the functionality aims to make it easier for users to search across Douyin, but would also seemingly give Apple access to Chinese usersā voice data, if permitted
Instagram added new features, including a āYour Activityā section to manage in-app activity, bulk delete interactions and content, filter and sort content and interactions by date, and more; itās also rolling out āSecurity Checkupā to users worldwide, allowing anyone to check login activity, review their profile information, confirm the accounts that share login information and update their account recovery information; a feature being tested will allow two friends to confirm your identity in the case youāre account has been hacked
Meta warns it might shutter Facebook and Instagram in Europe if new data-privacy legislation doesn't establish a framework for transatlantic transfers of user data; the European Court of Justice ruled in 2020 that existing transatlantic transfer schemes didn't protect users' privacy; Irelandās Protection Commission reportedly issued a preliminary order calling on Facebook to stop transfers
Messenger rolled out its Split Payments feature, previously in testing, to all U.S. users on iOS and Android; the Venmo-like addition allows users to share the cost of bills through the app, like dinners or household expenses
Reddit expanded its Clubhouse-like live audio product, Reddit Talk,Ā which now supports recordings, a desktop web version and a test of highlighting chats at the top of usersā home feeds
Block (previously known as Square) officially turned on bitcoin transfers via the Lightning Network for U.S. users of its Cash App, as recently promised
Salesforces said itĀ plansĀ toĀ offer an NFT Cloud service;Ā co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor made the announcement at a private company event; the company aims to provide a platform for artists to create content to be released on a marketplace like OpenSea; Salesforce also discussed possibly creating its own NFT marketplace for users to trade their creations; currently, OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace, with over $3.5B in monthly trading volume on the platform
NFT marketplace OpeaSea announced the launch of its investment division,Ā OpenSea Ventures, to focus on expanding the Web3 ecosystem; the fund will seek investments in startups working in domains such as NFTs, DeFi, blockchain, and others
YouTube announced that itĀ will introduce metaverse experiences starting with games; Neal Mohan, YouTube'sĀ CPO, said, "It's still early days, but we're excited to see how we can turn these virtual worlds into a reality for viewers"
YouTube says it will expand access to shopping across its video platform through shoppable videos, Live Shopping experiences and more; one test with Walmart and others had more than 2M views and 1.4M Live Chat messages
YouTube has started using DeepMind's MuZero AI algorithm toĀ boost its video compression; AI lab DeepMind said MuZero reduced the amount of data that YouTube needs to stream to viewers by 4% on average, with no loss in video quality; MuZero, a reinforcement learning system, has previously been used toĀ master gamesĀ like chess, Atari, and Go on its own without being taught the rules
Amazon willĀ increaseĀ its maximum base salary from $160,000 to $350,000;Ā Amazon said the increases were "meaningfully bigger" than normal and the result of a "competitive labor market;" in Amazon's 2021 employee sentiment survey, 45% of Amazon employees listed their base pay as a reason for wanting to leave the company; this was the second most popular reason behind "don't see a clear growth path"
Amazonās Ring updated its Neighbors app with support for new features, including Pet Profiles and Contact Me; the Pet Profiles will help users quickly share critical information with their neighbors if their pet is lost, like name, breed, weight, color and more; Contact Me introduces a way for users to customize how they want to be contacted ā SMS, phone or both, and will save them from having to share their personal phone number in the post itself
PelotonĀ announcedĀ its founder and CEO John Foley will stepĀ down effective immediately and be replaced by Barry McCarthy; McCarthy has served as CFO at Spotify and Netflix with extensive experience in subscription businesses; Peloton will cut about 2,800 jobs, including 20% of its corporate positions, citing a drop in demand and growing losses
SamsungĀ unveiledĀ three new flagship Galaxy S smartphonesĀ ā the Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra; the lineup is expected to become widely available on Feb. 25 and compete with Apple's iPhone 13; the smallest phone, the standard Galaxy S22, has a 6.1-inch screen and retails for $800 in the U.S.; the S22+ has a 6.6-inch screen and costs $1,000, while the S22 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch panel and sells for $1,200; all three phones support next-generation Wi-Fi 6
Deliveroo willĀ partnerĀ with supermarket chain Waitrose to test its Deliveroo Hop service, which delivers groceries in as little as 10 minutes; a delivery-only Waitrose location will open in southeast London later this month; Deliveroo already offers food delivery from 150 Waitrose locations
MoviePass to relaunch this summer with a points-based marketplace supporting all movie theaters; a customer will subscribe to a plan for a monthly balance of credits spendable on admission (credits will roll over), and to watch ads for additional credits;Ā the system will allow theaters to change pricing for peak hours;Ā the company will no longer offer an unlimited plan
Dating and social appĀ BumbleĀ acquires France-based dating appĀ Fruitz; terms undisclosed; Fruitz pairs people according to their preferences for relationship type, with each type (single night, long term, etc) represented by a kind of fruit; the app, which claims 5.6M global installs, will remain active under its brand but gain tech, including machine learning, from Bumble
DoorDash launches financing arm DoorDash Capital; restaurants can use the DoorDash app to apply for business loans covering equipment purchases, payroll, rent, and more; fintech partner Parafin powers the loans and determines payment structure
šø Q4 financials
Affirm Q4 beats: the "buy now, pay later"Ā fintech reported revenue of $361M, +77% YoY; net loss grew to $159.9M from $26.6M a year ago.; active merchants rose from 8,000 to 168,000 in Q2 thanks to its Shop Pay Installments option adopted by Shopify; active consumers were 11.2M, +150% YoY, and transactions per active consumer rose 15% to 2.5
Disney ($268BĀ market cap) Q4 beats: $21.82B revenue ($20.91B expected); the company gained ~12M Disney+ subscribers, and that segment saw $6.68 in average revenue per user per month in the US and Canada (up from $5.80 for the year-earlier period); $1.06 EPS (adjusted, $0.63 expected)
Lyft ($13.3BĀ market cap) Q4 beats: $970M revenue, up 70% YoY ($940M expected); 18.73M active riders, up ~50% (20.2M expected); $51.79 average revenue per active rider ($46.54 expected); Lyft forecasts $800M-$850M in revenue during Q1 (analysts expected guidance of $989.9M)
Twitter Q4 misses: Q4 revenue of $1.57B, +22% increase YoY, of which advertising revenue was $1.41B, +22% YoY; Q4 net income $182M; full-year revenue came in at $5.08B, +37% YoY
Uber ($77.8BĀ market cap) Q4 beats: $5.78B revenue ($5.34B expected); $11.3B gross mobility bookings, up 67% YoY; $13.4B gross delivery bookings, up 34%;Ā $892M net income; $0.44 EPS; the company saw 1.77B trips on its platform during Q4, up 23%
Zynga ($10.24BĀ market cap) Q4 beats: $695M revenue, up 13% YoY; $727M in bookings, up 4%; $534M in online game and user pay revenue, up 7%; $161M advertising and other revenue, up 37%; 184M average MAU; the firm saw a net loss of $67M; Zynga generated $2.8B in revenue during 2021, up 42%; Take-Two Interactive announced a deal to buy Zynga at a $12.7B enterprise value in January
š Good reads
The role of delight and difference in UX at Shopify. Cynthia Savard Saucier shares 5 principles that Shopify founder and CEO Tobi LĆ¼tke uses to guide the discipline of UX, and its impact on Shopify as a product
Your first product roadmap shouldnāt be perfect. Janna Bastow always on point, shows why and how a first roadmap should be just a prototype of your product strategy. Complement with this article I wrote for PlatoHQ, on how to evolve that first roadmap beyond the prototype stage proposed by Janna
Diversity and inclusion in Product: why it matters. As Ellen Merryweather points out: āProduct Management itself thrives on diversity. In product development, teams are strengthened by having a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and opinions in the room, as any product leader will tell you. Having a diverse workforce has a knock-on positive effect on a companyās outputs. Thatās especially true in the tech sector. Products are made for everyone, which means your products need to be built by everyone.ā Plus thereās the bit about simply being a nice and decent human being, respecting and supporting the rights, pursuits and work of others
The company-building cornerstones every founder needs to focus on, by HubSpotās Dharmesh Shah. āMost big successful companies, even in tech, were not successful because of some unique IP. Itās typically traced back to the business model and go-to-market. How do you get customers? How do you drive product-led growth? These arenāt lines of codeā
Using Foggās Behavior Model as a PM. Guodong (Troy) Zhao walks us through a simple yet interesting model to get a perspective on peopleās behaviors and what levers can be pulled to change them. The basis of the theory is that there are three elements (motivation, ability, and prompt) that must happen for a certain behavior to occur
š® Emerging trends
On-chain real estate. The first U.S. real estate NFT has sold forĀ 210 ETHĀ (~$653,000.)Ā The sale was facilitated by the NFT real estate platformĀ Propy. This marks a big step towardĀ simplifying the real estate process with blockchain technology, but it's still far from becoming mainstream.
How it works?
When you are buying a real estate NFT, you aren't really buying the housing deed itself. The NFT that you buyĀ is linked to an LLC that owns the physical asset.Ā
The vision for NFT real estate is to make the process of buying a property as fast as sending a Venmo while replacing the drawn-out, paperwork-filled process everyone is used to.
Where it gets interesting:
Don't expect this process to be used by normal people to buy theirĀ forever home anytime soon. Where this technology will most likely be leveraged is by crypto-native investors because ofĀ one key feature: the NFT becomes a DeFi asset that can be borrowed against
Have a great day
Angel
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