el producto #267 🚀

New Meta values, Twitter ETH tips, Determining a startup's durability, Flexible roadmaps, The search engine for faces, Airbnb results, Learning > Experimenting & more

Welcome to a new edition of el producto

🎰 The week in figures

100B: Facial recognition startup Clearview AI said it aims to have 100B facial photos in its database within a year, which would be enough to identify "everyone in the world;" Clearview's facial recognition tool, dubbed a "search engine for faces," primarily helps law enforcement match photos of suspects to images in its database, which are found by scraping the web for publicly available photos; the company now has 10B images pulled from the web, up from 3B in 2020, and is adding roughly 1.5B photos every month

$1B: Cybersecurity firm Securonix raises $1B+; the company offers security analytics, threat detection, and response; the TX business plans to use the funds to hire senior talent and to expand its product portfolio; Securonix serves enterprises and governments

$900M: Akamai ($18B market cap) acquires cloud computing firm Linode for $900M; Akamai, known for its CDN and edge computing services, said the deal would help it become the world's most distributed compute platform; Linode offers virtual private servers, managed databases, storage, load balancing, and more; Linode will continue to operate as a brand for now

$630M: Used car marketplace Cazoo raises $630M via convertible notes; the raise will leave Cazoo with ~$900M in cash; the London-based firm employs 3.8k and has facilitated 50k vehicle sales; the company listed on the NYSE via SPAC merger last year

$400M: Conversational AI and automation platform Uniphore raised a $400M Series E, pushing its valuation to $2.5B; the financing is the largest ever raised in the call center AI market; Uniphore uses AI/natural-language processing to analyze customers' conversations with enterprises and try and determine what they are thinking/feeling to produce better responses

$270M: Ed-tech company Paper raises $270M Series D; the platform enables teachers to offer academic support, including help with homework, high-dosage tutoring, detailed feedback, and more; the company serves school districts, with 99.9% of customers based in the US

$250M: Payment platform Flutterwave raises $250M Series D at a $3B valuation; investors valued the firm at $1B in March of last year; the African startup serves 900k businesses, offering solutions for in-person point-of-sale, web/mobile app checkouts, and more

$200M: Genesis, a low-code development platform for financial services, raises $200M Series C; the solution offers 50+ building blocks for app creation and tools for importing data from internal systems; the London firm also automates infrastructure management

$200M: InMobi-owned Glance, which delivers news, casual games, and other content to the Android lock screen, raises $200M Series D; sources indicated a $1.7B valuation; OEMs preload the software on devices; Glance has reached 400M users; the Indian firm claimed 150M active users in its domestic market in September

$200M: Spotter, a YouTube channel scaling platform, raised $200M Series D at a $1.7B valuation; Spotter aims to solve a problem facing YouTubers who rely largely on ad revenue for their livelihoods; Ad revenue grows in proportion to a YouTuber’s back catalog, accumulating hits and consequently ad dollars; however, it takes a while for this to kick in, meaning that creators lack the capital to scale early in their careers

$170M: Veho, which offers end-to-end parcel delivery services for e-commerce clients, raises $170M Series B at a $1.5B valuation; the firm closed a $125M Series A in December; Veho plans to use the funding to grow its workforce from 500 to 2k by year's end, to improve employee benefits, and for M&A

$150M: Indian fintech startup Pine Labs raised $150M at a $5B valuation; Pine Labs provides merchants with terminals that enable them to accept digital payments; last month, the company filed paperwork for a U.S. IPO, where it's looking to raise $500M at a valuation between $5.5B and $7B; it has partnered with over 150k merchants in India and the Middle East, including Flipkart, McDonald's, and Starbucks

$144M: Funding Societies, a financing platform for SMEs, raises $144M Series C+ as well as $150M in debt; the Singaporean startup serves four Southeast Asian countries, including its home market, and plans to use the funding to expand into the Philippines; the company has disbursed $2B-plus across ~5M loans

$102M: Mobile-only bank Atom raises ~$102M at a $590M valuation from BBVA and Toscafund; the UK business expects to reach expects to achieve operating profitability in Q2 and plans an IPO in fiscal 2022/2023

$100M: Blockchain ecosystem company 5ire raises $100Mahead of a planned IPO; the firm focuses on accelerating the United Nations' sustainable development goals and has memorandums of understanding with government partners

$100M: Digital banking and finance platform Akulaku raises $100M; the Indonesian firm plans to use the funding to expand in Southeast Asia; last month the company was considering listing in the US through a $2B SPAC deal

8%: Decentraland's crypto token jumped over 8% as J.P. Morgan launched a lounge in the platform, calling the metaverse a trillion-dollar opportunity.

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📰 What’s going on

Crypto apps surge in popularity following Super Bowl ads; Coinbase and FTX ran spots during the game, lifting Coinbase from the 186th most popular app in the App Store to the second; FTX's Blockfolio and eToro also saw download spikes; Coinbase's site went down following an ad that asked viewers to scan a QR code 

Twitter has given users the option to receive tips in Ethereum; this adds to the slew of crypto integration the platform has added in the last few months; Twitter enabled NFT profile pictures in January and Bitcoin tipping in September

Twitter launched Safety Mode into beta; the feature, which lets you automatically block trolls for a period of time while under attack, will now proactively suggest when it’s time to enable it

Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled Meta's new values: "Move fast," "build awesome things," and, most importantly, "live in the future;" Zuckerberg even went on to call his employees "Metamates" as the firm looks forward to making a big shift toward the next iteration of the internet; Zuckerberg writes,"Focus on long-term impact' emphasizes long-term thinking and encourages us to extend the timeline for the impact we have, rather than optimizing for near-term wins;" Facebook is encouraging people to apply for jobs with the company in areas of metaverse development and artificial reality; the company has also acquired a customer service management platform for an undisclosed amount

Meta pitched to a room full of advertisers with the message: "The metaverse is closer than you might think;" the meeting was filled with 40 top ad buyers, agency executives, and creators and led by Asher Rapkin, Meta's director of global metaverse business; the company reiterated the parts of the metaverse that are already here, including artificial reality technology; executives cited live stream shopping and sporting events on platforms such as Horizon Worlds, both of which are examples of the metaverse that already exists; AR/VR and mixed reality were described as distinct metaverses, with Instagram being an example of AR; Meta also criticized other companies entering the space and positioned itself as a metaverse operating system

Instagram introduced private Story “likes,” which appear as hearts next to people’s handles in the Stories view sheet, instead of cluttering up the recipient’s DM inbox

WhatsApp for iOS adds the ability to listen to your audio messages while you multitask by reading or replying to different chats; the update is available in version 22.4.75, shortly after the launch of the feature that lets you pause and resume while recording voice messages

Spotify acquires podcast ad analytics platforms Podsights and Chartable; terms undisclosed; both platforms track who listened to and acted upon audio ads; Spotify said it would use Podsight's tech for audio, video, and display ads across the platform

Google announced plans to adopt a new privacy policy that will prevent tracking across apps on Android devices; the company is developing new privacy-focused replacements for its advertising ID; this is a similar policy Apple adopted last year when it updated to iOS 15, and it could prevent digital advertising practices where companies like Meta collect data from billions of mobile devices to track consumer behavior; Google did not provide details on how its new system would work or what it would look like for users or advertisers, but noted it could be up to 2 years away

Apple’s iOS 15.4 beta 3 and iPadOS 15.4 rolled out to developers and public testers ahead of the rumored March release; the beta is now prompting users to add an emergency contact in their Emergency SOS setting, if they don’t have one set up already, testers found; the beta also offers 37 new emoji symbols, and an update to Face ID that allows it to work when a face mask is worn

Mobile app analytics firm App Annie rebrands as Data.ai; CEO Ted Krantz said mobile was the tip of the spear and that the company would expand its focus and incorporate AI to glean insights regarding customer acquisition costs, lifetime value, and more; the company also announced a data licensing agreement with web and mobile traffic analytics firm SimilarWeb

Slack is partnering with 11 essential tools (including Canva, Loom, Notion, Miro, Zapier, and more) and launching limited-time offers on their business plans

Didi plans to cut up to 20% of its workforce ahead of its public listing in Hong Kong; the cuts reportedly could affect up to 15% of the company's ride-hail staff (not drivers); Didi completed a $4.4B IPO in the US in June, but the Chinese government removed the app from domestic app stores days later as part of a cybersecurity probe

Amazon customers globally will be able to pay for purchases using Visa credit cards after both sides agreed to a new deal to end their dispute over interchange fees; in November, Amazon announced it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the U.K. after the company increased interchange fees from 0.3% to 1.5% post-Brexit; Amazon imposed a 0.5% surcharge on purchases made via Visa for customers in Australia and Singapore last year; Amazon will end the 0.5% surcharge and continue to accept Visa in the U.K.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) filed a patent that hints a move toward the metaverse, NFTs, and Crypto space; the application suggests that NYSE may build a VR/AR-focused marketplace that would allow users to trade virtual goods such as NFTs, digital media, and more; if the NYSE develops a marketplace that supports cryptocurrencies and NFTs, it would be a direct competitor to the largest trading platform, OpenSea

DoorDash partnered with Albertsons to launch a grocery delivery service that fulfills orders within 30 minutes; the service is currently available in over 20 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and Denver

The New York Times has added a dozen ad tracking apps to Wordle since it bought the daily word puzzle game last month for an undisclosed amount, according to the site's code; the trackers belong to the newspaper itself, as well as others that send data to Google, Oracle, and third-party companies; the original Wordle website was fully non-profit, meaning it had no ad trackers before it was integrated into the NYT Games suite of word games

SenseTime has expanded beyond facial recognition with an AI-powered system for detecting defects in engine components; engine manufacturer Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Co. is now using the SenseSpring platform, which uses AI to free up workers from having to perform manual inspections

Snoop Dogg plans to make Death Row Records an NFT and metaverse music label; the rapper acquired Death Row Records, which was founded by Dr. Dre and Marion "Suge" Knight and helped Snoop launch his hip hop career back in the 1990s; Snoop said on Clubhouse: "Just like we broke the industry when we was the first independent to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse"

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💸 Q4 financials

Airbnb Q4 beats: Q4 revenue of $1.53B, a +78% YoY. Q4 net income $55M, marking its first Q4 profit. Full-year revenue was $6B, a +76% YoY, and narrowed its losses to $352M, down from $4.6B reported in 2020; the company reported 73.4M nights and experiences booked in Q4, an 8% increase from Q3

Nvidia Q4 beats: $7.64B revenue, up 53% YoY ($7.42B expected); $4.42B gaming business revenue, up 37%; $643M visualization revenue, up 109%; $125M automotive revenue, down 14%; Nvidia forecasts $8.1B in Q1 revenue (analysts had expected $7.29B); Nvidia expects significant product supply increase during H2

Roblox Q4 misses: Roblox allows users to create their own virtual worlds where they can interact and play with others, and it’s one of the first major players in the metaverse; Q4 revenue of $569M, +83% increase YoY; Net loss grew to $143.3M; full-year revenue more than doubled to $1.9B, and net loss widened to $491.7M; 45.5M DAU for Q4, a 40% increase YoY; Hours Engaged, which counts the amount of time spent on the platform, rose  28% in Q4 to 10.8B and 35% for the full year to 41.4B

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📚 Good reads

How to determine your startup’s durability. James Currier recaps (in 26 questions) the keyways to ensure durability, and a mental model to dive into its drivers: Durability = Network Effects + Economies of Scale + Brand + Embedding + IP

The use case of use cases, by Geoffrey Moore. Customers don’t really want to buy products, or even services for that matter. They want to buy outcomes. Use cases are inherently outcome-centric, providing the antidote to product-centric thinking

Platforms and aggregators - how to identify the most successful companies of the internet era. Tomas Pueyo gives a great intro on one of my favourite subjects: network effects. As an investor or worker, you want to invest in companies that do not have competition. The best ones are those with network effects, which make them grow fast and create a moat that’s hard to beat

The age of Social Good, the next level after customer centricity, by Kim Witten

Creating flexible roadmaps: break the rules without breaking the principles, by Emily Tate

Think learning, not experiments, by Itamar Gilad. Often you will find teams or even companies with such an obsession on experimentation that they miss the whole point: learning > experimenting. Experimenting is just but one way to learn (perhaps the best one!), but it is essential to have a wider perspective and to focus on learning, considering what suits the occasion best. Once that happens, you will find opportunities all around

A visual glossary for techniques used in design for behavior change, by Christina Wodtke

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🔮 Emerging trends

The metalawyers:

The metaverse, often described as the "next internet," will be built on AR, AI, decentralization, and real-time activity. There is a lot of hype around the metaverse, and there are unaddressed legal challenges surrounding this concept, which could give rise to avatar lawyers in the coming years. 

• The metaverse will come with a list of legal implications in the coming years:  

  • Bad actors in the virtual worlds can get involved with cyberstalking, cyberbullying, extortion, kidnapping, revenge porn, child pornography, and even simulated terrorist activities

• Avatar lawyers are separate from digital twins that will be purely AI-driven digital lawyers in the virtual worlds

• A New Jersey-based law firm called Grungo Colarulo has already established its office in the metaverse

• Intellectual property is an upcoming challenge, as issues surrounding patent protection, privacy, and ownership will add to the complexity of legal battles

• Security, privacy, and compliance in the metaverse will be a major change from Web 2.0 and earlier with all the machine-generated content

• Antitrust includes the involvement of large companies with extended corporation practices. Examples include Facebook's Meta or Microsoft's metaverse, which could lead to some type of collaboration between these companies, leading to antitrust concerns

• Metaverse forensics — the software that exists on the market has not adopted the current metaverse trends. In the coming years, there will be a need for the adoption of new processes

Meditation could be VR's next killer app:

• Meditation services were among the first to embrace subscription billing on Meta’s Quest app store, and Meta competitor HTC even built an entire VR headset around the notion of immersive wellness.

• It’s a surprising direction for VR, an industry that was squarely focused on gaming for years. But after fitness apps and services became an overnight hit in VR app stores, could meditation be VR’s next killer app?

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Have a great day

Angel

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