el producto #301 🚀
Apple banking, Netflix's ad tier to launch in Nov, Experimentation at Airbnb, New Meta VR headset, BeReal growth, Getir to buy Gorillas, Proptech revolution, TikTok ecommerce plans & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend & welcome to a new edition of el producto.
🎰 The week in figures
$2.3B: Thoma Bravo will acquire SF-based identity management software company ForgeRock for ~$2.3B
$304M: TripActions, the travel-oriented corporate card provider, raised $154M in an equity + debt round at a $9.2B valuation
$300M: California-based startup Step raised $300M; Step is a fintech company that enables its customers to build a good credit score before they turn 18, in addition to offering cryptocurrency buy & and sell features; Step offers its own Visa card
$200M: DeSo, a new layer-1 blockchain, raised $200M to bring a decentralized version of end-to-end encrypted on-chain direct messages and group chats to the masses; the company's native token, $DESO, is listed on Coinbase as it looks to disrupt messaging services like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal
$165M: Uniswap Labs raised a $165M Series B at a $1.66B valuation; Uniswap’s native token has a current market cap of nearly $5B
$120M: Barcelona-based Factorial raised a $120M Series C at a $1B valuation; the startup builds HR tech for SMBs; Factorial has ~7000 customers across Europe with hundreds of thousands of users; the company says it has been growing 200% annually since 2019
$100M: Airwallex, a Hong Kong and Australia-based cross border banking startup, raised a 100M Series E-2 at $5.5B valuation
53M: BeReal has passed 53M downloads across the App Store and Google Play, and MAUs have grown over 2200% since January; however, only 9% of its active Android installs opened the app every day in Q3; for comparison, 39% of active Instagram installs open the app every day, with TikTok at 29%
11%: Brex laid off 11% of its staff (136 employees) during a restructuring due to macro shifts; nine months ago, the company raised $300M at a $12.3B valuation
📰 What’s going on
Netflix's ad-supported tier will launch in November at $6.99/month across 12 countries, including the US, UK, and Canada; some shows and movies will not be available due to licensing restrictions, and quality will be capped at 720p/HD; ads will last 15-30 seconds and will occur before and during the stream
Microsoft is planning to end its Microsoft Office branding after 30 years; the rebrand will integrate its products under the Microsft 365 umbrella, and new logos will roll out in January 2023
Microsoft announced Designer, a graphic design app with image-generation technology powered by OpenAI's DALL-E 2; Microsoft is opening up access to the Canva-like web app for free to users on a waitlist; to use the tool, someone can type in a text description of the image they want, and the AI will generate examples that they can add to their design
Microsoft announced a Teams Premium offering for Microsoft 365 that adds AI-powered features:
"Intelligent Recap" AI assistant for meetings: automatically shares highlights and creates tasks and "intelligent chapters" of meetings with relevant information
an AI-powered feature to translate live captions in 40 languages; the tool automatically translates from voice to text in real time
Meta unveiled its $1.5K VR headset Meta Quest Pro aimed at businesses and professionals; the Quest Pro boasts full-color pass-through and a sleeker design cutting its depth by 40%
During Meta’s annual VR conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed concerns about its metaverse platform Horizon after users found bugs and critics voiced skepticism; Zuckerberg confirmed the company will continue to work on the feature and promoted its use cases, including his own employees using it for work meetings
Instagram is expanding its AI age verification program to India and Brazil, which have ~400M MAUs between them; users upload a video of themselves, which Instagram runs through an AI system powered by Yoti to determine whether a user is aged 18 or older
Google Cloud Platform will accept crypto payments through Coinbase’s Commerce service starting in 2023; Google will initially accept payments from a handful of Web3 customers but plans to allow more consumers to pay via crypto over time
Google will allow users to search for Ethereum wallet addresses and track balances straight from the search engine; this crypto winter has brought more established firms into the Web3 space; Markus Thielen believes mass adoption would come "when the iPhone can be used as a crypto wallet"
Apple is taking a big step toward offering more banking services to its customers; the company announced it’s partnering with Goldman Sachs to launch a new Savings account feature for its Apple Card credit cardholders; the feature which will allow them to save and grow their “Daily Cash” — the cashback rewards that are earned from their Apple Card purchases
Apple's Mixed Reality headset will have the ability to scan irises; which will allow users to log in and quickly make payments by putting the headset on
Some iPhone 14 users had 911 called after their devices mistook rollercoaster rides and phone drops for a car collision; Apple responded that the technology is intended to provide peace of mind, but they will continue to improve it over time
Amazon is cutting Amazon Explore, a product it launched during the pandemic allowing users to engage in paid virtual tours of global locations, like a $50 tour of Venice and a $7.50 tour of a Costa Rican animal sanctuary; this is part of a larger halt in services to cut costs
Snapchat has added a CPR feature that aims to save lives by guiding users through heart issues; the feature is accessible by tapping the Lens feature; the new feature has been created in partnership with the Red Cross
Snapchat users can try on full-body, AR-generated Halloween costumes and purchase them in-app; Snapchat partnered with Disguise Costumes to launch augmented reality (AR) filters
TikTok is preparing to develop e-commerce logistics operations in the U.S.; the move would put the social media platform in direct competition withAmazon and Walmart; new job listings indicate that TikTok is developing physical e-commerce infrastructure to support what the company has called "a brand new and better e-commerce experience;" one of the roles calls for the holder to be "responsible for the business development of fulfillment service of TikTok e-commerce logistics in the U.S."
TikTok is in negotiations with music labels to expand its music streaming business to compete with Spotify; the US would not be part of the company's next expansionary phase; ByteDance's current streaming service, Resso, is available in a dozen countries such as Brazil and India
Pinterest has entered a partnership with Headspace to help creators manage stress; the deal is intended to prevent Pinterest's creators from being burned out by "the exhaustion of creation," said Malik Ducard, Chief Content Officer at Pinterest
Istanbul-based rapid delivery startup Getir is in advanced talks to acquire its rival, Berlin-based Gorillas, for a mix of cash and equity; Getir raised $768M at a ~$11.8B valuation in March, while Gorillas raised $950M at a $3B valuation in September 2021; Gorillas previously held talks with competitors about merging or selling its business
📚 Good reads
Beyond A/B testing : speeding up Airbnb search ranking experimentation through Interleaving. The interleaving experimentation framework tackles Airbnb’s problem of limited A/B test bandwidth and provides up to 50x speed up on the search ranking algorithm iterationa
Tactical advice for founders facing tough company building decisions, by First Round Review. The cognitive biases affecting us on tough times, and the mental models that can help
31 Startup business models (with examples). An insightful list by Navdeep Yadav to get you thinking about your next products
Lessons from implementing Netflix’s “Dream Team” model at 3 hypergrowth tech companies, by Reforge
🔮 Emerging trends
An upcoming Revolution in Proptech
NfX’s Pete Flint shares a great long read that outlines how we approach a watershed moment in Real Estate with emerging capabilities such as ownership fractioning, and programmability.
Flint envisions the potential to unlock a set of new business models and highlights the challenges for founders.
That’s all for today! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email
Angel
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