🛻 The Next Tesla?
Biggest IPO of the year, Microsoft enters the Metaverse, & Musk allows Twitter to decide on his fortune
We have something super exciting to announce this week ⬇️
🎉 This week’s newsletter is sponsored by On Deck’s First 50 Fellowship. It’s an 8 week virtual program that gives you the knowledge, skills, and network to land your dream job at breakout startups. Read more details at the bottom of the post to learn more 🎉
So, what happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? 🌍
The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
12 tech & startup stories in 179 super short seconds.
🛍️ Klarna Shops Around! Klarna announced last week it has acquired Pricerunner, a Swedish comparison site, for €930m. What does this mean? Our guess is that Klarna is working towards a ‘One Stop Shop’ for E-Commerce. A product partnership here would mean users could compare prices and pay through Klarna on energy bills, phone contracts and other frequent price comparison products. Get the full story here.
🚴 Is Peloton Struggling? Despite its lockdown boom, Peloton is struggling and has introduced a hiring freeze, seeing its stock falling 65% this year. Read the full story here. Say what you want about its business model, but there is no doubt Peloton has built an incredible brand image.
🌍 The Gates Empire Strikes Back Microsoft has struck a deal with the Greek government to preserve Ancient Olympia digitally. They will map the site and allow viewers to explore it through augmented & virtual reality as it stood more than two thousand years ago. This marks Microsoft’s own foray into the ‘metaverse’.
📈 2021s VC Backed SPACs! Crunchbase have pulled together this list of VC backed startups that are expected to go public via SPAC. notable names include Rover, Hippo Insurance and WeWork (who has just IPO’d). Still confused on what a SPAC actually is? You can find out more here.
🛻 The Next Teslas? In the largest IPO of the year, electric truck maker Rivian has gone public. They ended their first day of trading valued at $86bn, making the company as valuable as General Motors and more than Ford (but some way behind Tesla’s $1 trillion valuation). The hitch? They’ve only sold 156 trucks. Both Ford and Amazon however were winners as early investors. Rivian wasn’t the only trucking company to go public, 26 year old CEO of Embark Trucks also went public earlier this week (with no revenue yet).
⌚ Uber in Trouble (Again) The US Department of Justice is suing Uber, saying it discriminated against people with disabilities. The company has been charging people who are >2 minutes late for their rides, including those who are disabled. Uber are pushing back but let’s see how this one goes.
🥡 Competition Heats Up American food delivery giant Doordash will acquire Wolt, a Finnish delivery startup active in 23 countries, for $8.1bn. This marks Doordash’s imminent entry into Europe. It’s the latest in Doordash’s active M&A strategy that has included salad-making robot company Chowbotics.
🖍️ “Human One” Infamous NFT artist Beeple has sold his first physical sculpture for $28.9m. It is a 7 foot tall column of LED screen that displays a astronaut walking through dystopian landscapes. This comes months after he sold an NFT for $69m. That’s one rich guy.
💸 Get Paid in Bitcoin? Mode, a London Fintech, is trailing the UK’s first ever bitcoin Payroll product. Pretty cool. You can read more about this here.
💰 $76 Billion A Day The race is on to be the world’s number 1 crypto exchange, and Binance is currently winning it. The company operates without offices, licenses, or headquarters - all of which is drawing regulatory attention around the world. Check out a profile of the company here.
₿ TwitCoin Twitter has officially launched a cryptocurrency team. Their mandate will be to explore uses of crypto and blockchain for the social media giant. Will they push for Twitter to become decentralized? Create individual tokens for people? Allow tipping in crypto? Your guess is as good as ours.
💰 Musk Solves World Hunger? Elon Musk has sold $5bn (£3.7bn) of Tesla shares following a Twitter poll. What prompted this? Well, billionaires have been under pressure for paying little to no tax whilst the UN claims claimed that just 2% of Musk’s net-worth would solve world hunger. Read the full story here.
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Over & Out,
Nick & Louis