el producto #280 🚀
State of crypto 2022 report, Apple mixed reality glasses, Spotify NFTs, Uber trip planner, Netflix live-stream specials, Growth-hacking strategies, Biometric payments & more
🎰 The week in figures
$1B: Klarna is looking to raise $1B at a $30B valuation; this would be a ~30% drop from its last private valuation of $46B; Klarna is pioneer in the BNPL space; in 2021, Klarna lost ~$700M
$300M: Mobile payment technology company SpotOn nabbed $300M Series F, at $3.6B valuation; the San Francisco-based company provides point-of-sale and mobile payment platforms to SMBs across the retail, food, and hospitality sectors
$300M: Indonesian payments infrastructure startup Xendit raised a $300M Series D; Xendit helps companies collect and send payments as well as hold funds
$160M: Cloud infrastructure provider Thought Machine raised a $160M round at a $2.7B valuation; 35 customers including Morgan Stanley, Lloyds Banking Group, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered use Thought Machine to build smart contracts
$108M: Modulr, an embedded payments platform for digital businesses, has raised $108M series C; Modulr is a pioneer in the provision of embedded payments across a range of vertical markets
$100M: Near, a startup that sells anonymized data on people, locations, and products, has raised $100M alongside a SPAC merger at a ~$1B valuation; Near has 1.6B anonymized profiles covering 70M locations in 44 countries
$100M: Virtual coding school Masterschool raised a $100M; the company does not charge in advance, using a 10% income share model to pay tuition; courses take 25-40 hours per week
$100M: AI-powered contract management startup Evisort raised a $100M Series C led by TCV; customers including McKesson, Microsoft and Keller Williams use Evisort to analyze and manage contract obligations, liabilities and payment terms
$100M: Unified search startup Glean raised a $100M Series C at a $1B post-money valuation; over 70 companies including Okta, Confluent, Samsara, Grammarly, and Outreach use Glean to enable workers the ability to search across all their apps
Q1 results (APAC). More big tech Q1 results reported in last week’s edition
Grab Q1 results: revenue was $228M (up 6% y/y), delivery was $91M (up 71% y/y), mobility was $112M (down 22% y/y); net loss was $435M (a 35% y/y improvement); the Singapore-based superapp is trading down 70%+ from its IPO
Tencent Q1 Results: $21.3B in revenue, $5.8B in operating profit (operating margin decreased to 27% from 32% last year); profit was $4.1B (net margin decreased to 19% from 26% last year)
JD Q1 Results: Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com's revenue rose by 18% YoY in Q1 to $37.8B. The company posted a net loss of $444.1M, compared to the $533M net profit it recorded last year. This was JD's slowest revenue growth since it went public in 2014
📰 What’s going on
Spotify may launch NFTs to enhance the fan experience; the company will not launch an NFT marketplace but will direct users to OpenSea once launched; Spotify is currently testing adding NFTs on artists’ profiles; some Spotify Android users in the U.S. can now preview the NFTs on the artists' pages
At Uber’s Go/Get event the company announced new features including: options to book bus and passenger van seats, trip itinerary planners, voice ordering and an integrated EV charging map to support its new premium EV offering
Uber Eats is now using autonomous vehicles and sidewalk robots to make some food deliveries in greater Los Angeles; the pilot program is using technology from Serve Robotics, an Uber robotics spinout, and Motional, Hyundai and Aptiv's self-driving venture
Netflix is developing a feature to live-stream comedy specials, unscripted content, and other live shows for the first time; a small team is in the early stages of developing the product
Apple will now allow developers to increase prices with the auto-renew feature once a year as long as the increase doesn't exceed $5 and 50% of the subscription price for monthly subscriptions and $50 or 50% of the annual price; developers will still be required to provide advance notice of the increase
Apple's forthcoming XR headset could debut in 2023 and is "as ambitious as the iPhone;" sources indicate the company had a functioning headset prototype as early as 2016 but faced development setbacks due to lack of internal support; Apple recently showcased the headset to the board, which is a solid sign of progress
Apple has released few new accessibility features for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac, including a universal live captioning tool, improved visual and auditory detection modes, and iOS access to WatchOS apps; the new capabilities will arrive “later this year” as updates roll out to various platforms
FTX.US announced it will launch no-fee US stock trading; users will be able to fund their accounts with USDC; this comes one week after FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried took a ~7% stake in Robinhood
Robinhood has announced it’s working on a second crypto wallet; the new wallet will be non-custodial, giving users sole custody over the private keys necessary to control their money on the blockchain; that means users won’t be dependent on Robinhood if the system fails but will also risk losing their funds entirely if they misplace the private key
Revolut is planning a native crypto token that will aim to reward customers for their loyalty, CEO Nik Storonsky said in an interview, in which he also shared details on the neobank's forthcoming non-custodial wallet
TikTok is testing in-app mobile games in Vietnam as it starts expanding into gaming; TikTok has over 1B MAUs; no word on further expansion
Amazon launched Smart Commerce in India; the service helps businesses create online storefronts and manage inventory; business owners can choose to sell products on both Amazon’s site and their own storefront
Google has made its AI-powered job interview prep tool available to all internet users; the Interview Warmup tool uses AI to analyze people's responses to interview questions and offer observations and suggestions; users who visit the site are asked to choose a career and then answer five randomly selected questions (type or voice); AI then transcribes those answers in real-time to show speech patterns; it also delivers insights via ML-detected patterns, such as what job terminology was used and what words were said most often
YouTube said it will introduce a new feature that enables two content creators to simultaneously host a single live shopping stream later this year; in March, YouTube began testing a feature that lets creators add guests to their stream shortly before it begins
Meta launched the WhatsApp Cloud API to all businesses worldwide; businesses can quickly set up on top of WhatsApp and customize the experience for their customers
Meta freezes hiring for shopping team, Messenger Kids, and other products, and won’t touch the 17k staff on Reality Labs division
Mastercard launched a program that allows retailers to offer biometric payment methods, like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning; users can authenticate a payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card; the technology could one day help with the development of payments infrastructure for the “metaverse,” an executive said
The German Ministry of Finance released a declaration that selling crypto assets is tax-free if they are held for over a year; also, profits on crypto sales up to €600 per calendar year remain tax-free
📚 Good reads
35 questions managers should asks themselves regularly. First Round Review reached out to their huge network of Managers and Leaders, and collected important questions that PMs, or anybody leading teams, should be revisiting frequently. They also created a Notion version in order to make it easier to find them based on recommended periodicity and other criteria
8 growth hacking strategies for startups or new products. Eitan Levy made a nice compilation of mostly straightforward growth hacks used in the early days of Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Paypal, Tinder, and others. Some more sneaky than ethical (we don’t recommend you those ones!)
2022 state of crypto report, by a16z. A data-rich report for anyone interested to understand the evolution of the internet, and assess where we are on the journey towards a decentralized, community-owned and operated alternative to the centralized tech platforms of web2 – especially as it touches creators, entrepreneurs, other builders and anyone analyzing how innovation happens. Crypto is far more than just a financial innovation — it’s social, cultural, and technological. Where are the opportunities?
The regional differences of FinTech adoption. The Statista Digital Market Outlook reveals stark differences in the distribution of fintech segments across the globe.
🔮 Emerging trends
Web3 and shifting power from big tech to creators. Wired interviews Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, to talk about his vision for the future of the creator economy. As someone in the lead of one of the top creators’ platforms, his opinion is definitely one to pay attention to. Interesting to see his perspective on “freeing people from the tyranny of platforms and giving them control of their data,” while being at the helm of a huge centralized platform
Have a great weekend!
Angel
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