el producto #383 🚀
OpenAI to compete with Google search, Airbnb & Uber results, New Apple products, Spotify's Supremium tier, 20 founder lessons on PMF, 101 Gen-AI use cases & more
Hey friends,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
🎰 The week in figures
$1.05B: British self-driving startup Wayve raised $1.05B in funding, making it Europe's largest AI funding round. Wayve is building a self-learning rather than ruled-based system for autonomous vehicles
$1B: Cloud security startup Wiz raised a $1B Series E at a $12B valuation, and plans to expand its business via acquisitions
$610M: British neobank Monzo boosts funding round to $610M to crack U.S. market, and launch pensions. TS Anil, CEO of Monzo, told CNBC his firm plans to use the cash to build new products and accelerate its international expansion plans
$600M: French AI startup Mistral AI is raising funds at a post-money valuation of $6B, up from $2B in December. Mistral is close to securing around $600M
$300M: Chinese self-driving startup Beijing Momenta Technology confidentially filed for an IPO in the US and could raise $200M to $300M as early as in 2024
$200M: French AI startup Holistic secured $200M in the initial phase of its funding round. Holistic, co-founded by former DeepMind scientists, aims to create "multi-agent" models where multiple AI systems interact. This includes memory, planning, and tactical decision making
$165M: Docusign is acquiring AI contract-management startup Lexion for $165M
100M: Following its most recent earnings announcement, with $1B in net profit on $8B in revenues, Brazilian neobank Nubank announced that it surpassed 100M customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Overall Brazilian fintech accounts have surged 77%, surpassing population count
💸 Q1 results
Airbnb: net income more than doubled to $264M from $117M a year earlier; revenue reached $2.14B, exceeding predictions of $2.06B. Gross bookings increased by 12% to $22.9B in Q1, decelerating from the 15% growth seen in the previous quarter
Uber: surpassed revenue expectations, reaching $10.13B, a 15% YoY increase. The company experienced a notable net loss of $654M, attributing it mainly to unrealized losses from the reevaluation of equity investments, resulting in a loss per share of $0.32 compared to an anticipated profit of $0.23. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter rose 82% YoY to $1.38B. Uber's monthly active platform users grew to 149M, while completed trips rose by 21% to 2.6B, marking significant YoY increases of 15% and 21%, respectively. Gross bookings from Uber's mobility segment rose by 25% to $18.67B, while delivery gross bookings increased by 18% to $17.7B yearly
📰 What’s going on
OpenAI plans to announce Google search competitor imminently. OpenAI could announce the feature on Monday, a day before Google's I/O developer conference
Apple plans to upgrade Siri with generative AI. Apple plans to enhance Siri by adding features like text summarization and more interactive chatting
Apple debuted the latest versions of its iPad Pro and iPad Air. The new iPads are Apple's first since October 2022, marking the longest time without an update. The tablets are available for pre-order and launch in stores next week
The latest iPad Pro has Apple’s new custom M4 processor, an “outrageously powerful chip for AI," the company said
The M4 contains a faster neural engine to power AI software. This includes real-time audio captions and a feature to identify objects in photos and videos.
The iPad Pro starts at $1,300 for the 13-inch model and $1,000 for the 11-inch, Apple's thinnest iPad yet
The new iPad Air comes in 11-inch ($600) and 13-inch ($800) designs. It features Apple's M2 chip, with a GPU and neural engine that's 50% faster than its predecessor
Apple also unveiled a Magic Keyboard ($300) that pairs new iPads with a keyboard and trackpad, making them laptop-like
The Apple Pencil Pro ($129), its updated stylus, supports haptic feedback and a new squeeze function to bring up a menu
Screenshots from Spotify’s new “Supremium” tier appear to have been leaked. Screenshots appeared on Reddit which include details about the new plan including hi-res, lossless audio. The company is also shifting its lyrics feature to premium only as it looks to nudge more users onto paid plans
Instacart partners with Uber Eats to expand into restaurant takeout, offering deliveries powered by Uber via Instacart's app or website in the coming weeks
Amazon launches its online store in South Africa, offering same-day and next-day delivery and 3,000+ pickup points
Audible is testing book recommendations using Prime viewing history, according to Audible’s CPO
YouTube rolls out Jump Ahead, which uses AI to let users jump to parts of a video where most viewers skip ahead, to all US Premium members using its Android app
YouTube is planning to compete with Spotify and Apple in podcasting. As video podcasts grow on YouTube, the platform is leaning on its ability to offer both video and audio to draw in listeners
Google Maps is undergoing a major redesign which removes several full screen UIs and replaces them with sheets that preserve background context
Google Deepmind announced AlphaFold 3, the third version of its AI model that could revolutionize disease research and treatments.AlphaFold 3 not only predicts protein foldings, as prior versions have, but also interactions with other biological molecules including DNA, RNA, and small molecules
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will offer a streaming bundle with Disney+, Hulu, and Max in the U.S. starting this summer. The bundle will offer both ad-supported and ad-free options, with prices yet to be disclosed
Microsoft announced plans to launch its own mobile game store in July, with the inclusion of Microsoft's first-party titles like Candy Crush and Minecraft. Initially web-based, the store aims for universal accessibility across devices and countries, circumventing closed ecosystem store policies
Snapchat has launched new AR and ML tools designed to help brands reach users. The new tools will enable users to experience AR inside new ad formats and the ML enhancements drastically reduce the time it takes an advertiser to transform a 2D asset into an AR experience.
Reddit tests automatic, whole-site translation into French using LLM-based AI
Ride-hailing, food delivery, and scooter rental services provider Bolt Technology is gearing up to launch scooter operations in several major cities in the U.S. The mobility startup is recruiting general managers and operations managers to help set up operations in Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, and other cities in the U.S
Revolut launched a standalone crypto trading platform, called Revolut X, for UK retail customers. The rollout marks Revolut’s renewed interest in crypto service offerings following the halt of crypto trading for its UK business clients and the termination of its U.S. crypto services amid a challenging regulatory environment
Nintendo said it will announce the successor to its Switch console by April 2025. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on X that the next-generation Switch will be announced “within this fiscal year," which ends March 31, 2025
📚 Good reads
20 lessons from 20 different founders on tackling the winding journey to product-market fit, by First Round Review. A great collection of advice that touches on all sorts of different mile markers along the PMF journey, from coming up with the idea and validating it, to talking to customers, building the initial product, and figuring out your market and messaging
How novelty effects and Dopamine Culture rule the tech industry, by Andrew Chen. AI apps with shitty retention, consumers with zero patience, and what happens next
7 battle tested strategies AI consumer products can use for retention. Great retention is a natural result of delivering the core product value to users, which of course varies by product. But recently, a few savvy founders have found ways to improve retention by applying specific methods — in some cases, increasing their D30 retention by a whopping 10-15%. In this piece, Bryan Kim from a16z breaks down the tactics you can use to boost retention
101 real-world generative AI use cases from the world’s leading companies. This in-depth report from Google Cloud gives you a snapshot of how leading companies are using generative AI in their businesses including Uber, Box, Paramount, Replit and more
That’s all for this week. As usual, feel free to reach out and share your thoughts by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Thanks for your support!
Angel