Extra Crunch Tuesday: The StockX EC-1

Extra Crunch Newsletter

Tuesday, April 06, 2021 • By Walter Thompson and Annie Siebert

Welcome to Extra Crunch Tuesday Image Credits: Nigel Sussman Have you ever bought a pig in a poke? It’s a saying from medieval times: A farmer traveling on an unfamiliar road agrees to buy a baby pig squirming in a bag from a passing stranger. Unfortunately, when the farmer gets back to their hut and opens the sack, there’s a kitten inside. Online marketplace StockX has addressed the inherent risk involved in buying online with a rigorous product verification and authentication process. To date, its users have conducted more than 10 million transactions for sneakers, handbags, streetwear, watches and other high-end items that are often produced in limited quantities. StockX’s prices are regulated and all transactional data is transparent, factors that have combined to help the platform reach a $2.8 billion valuation. In a four-part series that dropped yesterday, Extra Crunch analyzes this “foundational new category of market” that began as a hobbyist’s sneaker price chart. Part 1: How StockX became the stock market of hype Part 2: Authentication and StockX's global arms race against fraudsters Part 3: Where StockX fits in the business of sneakers Part 4: The consequences of scaling up sneaker culture Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch this week! Walter Thompson Senior Editor, TechCrunch @yourprotagonist Read More

Will Topps' SPAC-led debut expand the bustling NFT market? Image Credits: Nigel Sussman Yes, the baseball card company is going public in a debut that could easily be read as a way to put money into the NFT craze without actually having to buy cryptocurrencies. Read More

Extra Crunch members: get unlimited access to 12M stock images for $99 per year! Sponsored by TechCrunch Free your startup from costly stock image assets, confusing plans and complicated licensing. Read More

Digging into the Alkami Technology IPO Image Credits: Nigel Sussman It appears that the slowdown in tech debuts is not a complete freeze; despite concerning news regarding the IPO pipeline, some deals are chugging ahead. Alkami Technology joins a list that includes Coinbase's impending direct listing and Robinhood's expected IPO. Texas-based Alkami Technology is a software company that delivers its product to banks via the cloud, so it's not a legacy player scraping together an IPO during boom times. Let’s dig into the latest SEC filing from the software unicorn. Read More

Chinese startups rush to bring alternative protein to people's plates Image Credits: TechCrunch Last year could well have been the dawn of alternative protein in China. More than 10 startups raised capital to make plant-based protein for a country with increasing meat demand. Of these, Starfield, Hey Maet, Vesta and Haofood have been around for about a year; ZhenMeat was founded three years ago; and Green Monday is a 9-year-old Hong Kong firm pushing into mainland China. The competition intensified further last year when American incumbents Beyond Meat and Eat Just entered China. Although some investors worry the sudden boom of meat-substitute startups could turn into a bubble, others believe the market is far from saturated. Read More

LG's exit from the smartphone market comes as no surprise Image Credits: NurPhoto / Getty Images For those who follow the space, LG will be remembered fondly as a smartphone trailblazer. For well over a decade, the company was a major player in the Android category and a driving force behind a number of innovations that have since become standard. LG continued pushing envelopes — albeit to mixed effect. But in the end, the company just couldn't keep up. This week, the South Korean electronics giant announced it will be getting out of the "incredibly competitive" category, choosing instead to focus on its myriad other departments. Read More

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2021 Verizon Media. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103