Extra Crunch Tuesday: Oscar Health raises its IPO price as Coupang releases a bullish debut valuation

Extra Crunch Newsletter

Tuesday, March 02, 2021 • By Walter Thompson

Welcome to Extra Crunch Tuesday Image Credits: Nigel Sussman Insurtech unicorn Oscar Health announced this morning that it plans to price shares in its IPO between $26 and $38, a hike from the $32-34 range we reported last week. South Korean e-commerce company Coupang plans to debut with a price range of $27 to $30 per share. Alex Wilhelm covers both IPOs in this morning’s column, noting that the valuation news “bodes well for other impending offerings, including a host of SPAC-led flotations.” Given the run of tech companies that have gone public in recent months with soaring valuations, I asked him if he thought we were in a bubble. “The IPO market is frothy, no one would deny that. But for the best signs of a bubble building, or possibly popping, check out the SPAC market,” he replied. “Some companies being taken public by blank-check companies are fine. But some SPACs are floating garbage instead of viable entities with enough operating history to warrant public dollars.” According to Alex, these dodgy SPACs reveal the outline of a market bubble. “And when those pieces of public-market flotsam and jetsam start to appear on the beach, we may have something of a drowning canary that the bubble itself is starting to degrade.” Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch! Have a great week. Walter Thompson Senior Editor, TechCrunch @yourprotagonist Read more

Kaltura files to go public on the back of accelerating revenue growth, rising losses Image Credits: Somyot Techapuwapat / EyeEm / Getty Images Video platform Kaltura was admitted to The Exchange’s $100M ARR Club in January 2020. While noting the company’s high gross margins and 25% year-over-year growth, Alex inquired: “How about an S-1?” Yesterday, he got the response he was looking for: Kaltura filed an S-1 that noted three years of accelerating revenue expansion. “Public investors, hungry for growth, may find such a progression compelling,” says Alex. Read more

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Corporate sustainability initiatives may open doors for carbon offset startups Image Credits: sharply_done / Getty Images Deloitte employees travel so often, the company is offsetting its carbon footprint by purchasing sustainable aviation fuel from Delta Air Lines. The partners claim the deal will offset 1,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, but climate editor Jon Shieber says it also signals a new trend that will benefit startups working to promote sustainability. "You're seeing a lot of large companies … are now investing significant amounts into really trying to understand their emissions profile and prioritize emission reductions in a data-driven way," said Davida Herzl, founder of Aclima, a startup that builds air quality sensors and analyzes the collected data. Read more

As Coinbase looks to list, Robinhood rides the crypto boom Image Credits: Nigel Sussman Platforms that allow consumers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency have done well since the pandemic began. “On the back of a strong 2020, and a particularly strong final quarter,” Coinbase plans to enter the public markets, but the platform makes nearly all of its revenue via transaction fees. Trading platform Robinhood, on the other hand, offers zero-fee crypto trading and has added more than 2.9 million users each month so far this year. “Sure, Robinhood is kicking the hell out of its former in-house crypto records, but… it's hardly looking like Coinbase is struggling,” says Alex. Read more

Why your organization needs product principles Image Credits: Slack Slack Design VP Ethan Eismann shared five product principles with Extra Crunch that “serve as the foundation for our entire product decision-making process:” Don't make me think. Be a great host. Prototype the path. Don't reinvent the wheel. Make bigger, bolder bets. Even with these guidelines in place, “it's vital to remember that product principles remain a work-in-progress and are never static,” Eismann said.   Read more

Justworks' Series B pitch deck may be the most wonderfully simple deck I've ever seen Image Credits: Justworks For a recent episode of Extra Crunch Live, our host and guests discussed the $13 million Series B round Bain Capital Ventures led for HR technology company Justworks in 2015. Jordan Crook moderated a chat between Justworks CEO Isaac Oates and Matt Harris of Bain Capital Ventures to discuss the evolution of their working relationship, product pricing and “why Oates never changed what must be one of the most simple pitch decks I've ever seen.” Read more

In freemium marketing, product analytics are the difference between conversion and confusion Image Credits: bankrx / Getty Images Considering that five percent or fewer of the people who use a free service eventually convert to becoming paying customers, it’s amazing how many startups overlook the importance of product analytics. Mapping the customer journey from a landing page to the “buy now” button — or funnel abandonment — allows product teams to stop relying on intuition. It’s critical to measure engagement after conversion, compare new customer behavior against older ones, and most of all — never stop iterating. After all, “the work doesn't stop simply because a customer moves from free to paid.” Read more

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