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| |  Image Credits: MIGUEL MEDINA / Getty Images | | Few people are using electric scooters or shared trips to commute these days, but investors are not pumping the brakes on mobility investments. Sales of e-bikes are up, on-demand delivery is hotter than ever and given the option, many hungry consumers would rather accept a pizza delivery from a robot than a human being in the COVID-19 era. We spoke to seven investors to find out what advice they’re offering companies in their portfolios, whether the pandemic has changed their investment strategy and which specific areas are ripe for innovation: - Ernestine Fu, Alsop Louie Partners
- Kate Schox, Trucks VC
- Jeff Peters, Autotech Ventures
- Shahin Farshchi, Lux Capital
- Stonly Baptiste & Shaun Abrahamson, Urban.us
- Rob Coneybeer, Shasta Ventures
Thanks for reading — have a great weekend! Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: MirageC / Getty Images (Image has been modified) | | “Q2 2020 is the least-certain quarter I’ve ever covered,” writes Alex Wilhelm in today’s column. To learn more about the surge in dry powder that VCs are sitting on, he analyzed a report from Prequin and First Republic Bank which shows “big funds raised lots of cash, while smaller funds appear to have put in a somewhat lackluster quarter.” Read more | | | |
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| |  Image Credits: Saul Gravy / Getty Images | | After SaaS stocks reached record highs last week, Alex Wilhelm reached out to three experts to ask what’s fueling such strong valuations: - Mary D'Onofrio, investor, Bessemer Venture Partners
- Astasia Myers, investor, Redpoint Ventures
- Anshu Sharma, co-founder/CEO, Skyflow
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| |  Image Credits: Steve Jennings / Getty Images | | In an Extra Crunch Live session this week, seasoned D2C investor Kirsten Green (Glossier, Bonobos, Hims) spoke about how the pandemic is changing consumer (and investor) decision-making, but she also expressed a fair amount of optimism about the future: “I think the biggest opportunity for companies right now in many ways is to create value by demonstrating their flexibility.” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Malte Mueller / Getty Images | | By making an offer for Grubhub, Uber has turned the food-delivery industry into an eating contest. The combined company would have the largest slice of the U.S. market, so Alex Wilhelm carefully deconstructed the costs associated with proposed deal in terms of cost and examines “how this acquisition could give Uber's bottom line a shot in the arm.” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: todaydesign / Getty Images | | Alex Wilhelm has been tracking growth-oriented, private companies that reached $100 million in ARR for since he started his daily Extra Crunch column. With the IPO window largely closed, the $100M ARR club is, in some ways, a waiting room for companies poised to go public. This week’s inductees: ON24, Recorded Future and ActiveCampaign. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: | | Former TechCrunch co-editor Alexia Bonatsos — now the founder of Dream Machine VC — joins Extra Crunch Live next week with Niko Bonatsos, managing director of General Catalyst, and also her partner. Moderator Alex Wilhelm says he plans to “cover the basics quickly” before shifting the conversation to the future. If you’d like to ask questions during the chat, buy a trial Extra Crunch membership and secure your spot. Read more | | | |
| |  | | Spinning up an accelerator to promote travel startups focused on Russia might seem like a strange choice when much of the world is sticking close to home, but security expert Eugene Kaspersky sees things differently. “I think now is the time to… turn life's lemons into lemonade by using this self-isolation period for personal development and improvement of business projects,” he told TechCrunch. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: RichVintage / Getty Images | | Cloud vendors are holding up well despite widespread uncertainty in public markets, but Shopify is performing very strongly, partially because so many consumers have turned from brick-and-mortar stores to digital shopping. To unpack the numbers, enterprise reporter Ron Miller and Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm looked at the company’s last few quarters and rewound the clock back to Shopify’s pre-IPO days. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Bloomberg / Getty Images | | Before the pandemic, logistics startups were helping companies in different industries manage their needs for materials and transportation. But since global trade has been disrupted, these historically analog companies are turning to these digital platforms to manage volatility and information. Now, the disruptors have become the first defense against, well, disruption. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Andrew Bret Wallis / Getty Images | | Three team members at Bessemer Venture Partners are bullish about the future of cloud companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The global economic slowdown will touch every company, but as the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index shows, this is a very resilient industry. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Alistair Berg / Getty Images | | Moving a real-world event online is more than just setting up a webcam and sharing a Zoom link — to create value for attendees, your event must be technologically sound, mentally stimulating — and crafted specifically for virtual audiences. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Guido Mieth / Getty Images | | Heather Hartnett, general partner and CEO of early-stage venture fund and startup studio Human Ventures, shared her firm’s thesis on health and wellness with Extra Crunch. Human Ventures has identified ten areas that will address what they describe as “the wellness deficit — the sum of human needs that have gone unmet in the areas of health and wellness.” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Treedeo / Getty Images | | In this week’s security roundup, Zack Whittaker reports on a human-rights watchdog that claims WeChat is intercepting files sent by foreign users to better train its censorship system in China. Plus: Europe’s largest hospital is hit by ransomware, Microsoft kicks the tires of an Israeli cybersecurity startup and Zoom acquired Keybase — but the company’s future is unclear. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Rex Gray / Flickr under a CC BY 2.0 license. | | The return potential on alternative assets like rare whiskey, vintage wine and fine art are compelling, but they’re also harder to manage than boring old stocks or bonds. This overview written by Vinovest founder Anthony Zhang looks at factors to consider, including liquidity, ROI, custody and portfolio diversification. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / Bryce Durbin | | Investors and founders can’t grab coffee or settle into a quiet conference room to read each other’s body language these days, which is why more investors are getting comfortable cutting checks remotely. Natasha Mascarenhas followed up with a handful of VCs to talk about how they’re sourcing deals and doing their due diligence — from a safe distance. Read more | | | |
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