Y Combinator

MAY 6, 2020

When Pinduoduo launched in 2015, there was little room for a new commerce platform in China. This was strategic for two reasons: 1) incumbents were focused on non-perishable items, so competition was limited and 2) fruits and vegetables are lower order value, high frequency goods, which means users had a reason to use Pinduoduo regularly.

accelerator 140

accelerator networking enablement opportunity 140

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In November of 2015, I posted a tweet that declared Benchmark was interested in discovering Internet healthcare investments. Over the next two years, I looked at many healthcare IT investment opportunities – I went “all in.” We also discovered what we believe is a large and investible trend/theme.

health 43

health VC hospitality disruption 43

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

When I began investing a little over five years ago, it felt like the conventional wisdom was that one had to invest in the Bay Area to harvest venture-like returns. So, about two years ago, as a Bay Area resident, living right off Sand Hill Road, started intentionally investing outside the Bay Area.

investing 116

investing investment venture capital peer-to-peer 116

TechCrunch

JANUARY 14, 2021

Sennder competes with large incumbents like Wincanton and CH Robinson, as well as other startups such as OnTrac and Instafreight. Sennder’s new investment will mean it can expand in European markets. In June 2020 it merged with French competitor Everoad, and acquired Uber Freight’s European business last September.

incumbents 118

incumbents transportation sustainability financing 118

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

we take for granted the ability to invest and trade in the stock market. For Mexico City-born Sergio Jiménez Amozurrutia, the fact that in his country of more than 120 million people, only a tiny fraction of the population have the ability to invest in the capital markets just didn’t seem right. Here in the U.S.,

investing 91

investing investment education incumbents 91

Y Combinator

DECEMBER 8, 2021

When Monzo launched in 2015, the big six banks in the UK had more than 85% market share. 2 Incumbent banks miss the mark in two crucial areas: The banking experience has not evolved to match modern consumer. Outperforming incumbents with modern experience and digital infrastructure. expectations. Their profit models.

peer-to-peer 102

peer-to-peer incumbents financing finance 102

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

It has raised nearly $1 billion since its 2015 inception and was valued at $2.5 For me, there was a huge opportunity in a space that the incumbents were not able to capture because a lot of it is the economics of their model and misaligned incentives.The world continues to unfortunately be made up of haves and have nots….There

incumbents 123

incumbents sustainability capital health 123

TechCrunch

JUNE 30, 2021

And it’s because the incumbents have no reason to fundamentally change.”. billion in 2015. “We In fact, the investment represents NFX’s largest initial investment to date. In fact, the investment represents NFX’s largest initial investment to date. No doubt it has plenty of competition.

real estate 98

real estate incumbents strategy financing 98

TechCrunch

MARCH 18, 2022

faster than those incumbents, and continue to expand it to more services in its home market, as well as take them abroad. The growth of e-commerce and other services on digital platforms has further spurred that trend. ClearBank describes itself as the first clearing bank to have launched in the U.K.

incumbents 79

incumbents enablement disruption innovation 79

Y Combinator

DECEMBER 8, 2021

When Monzo launched in 2015, the big six banks in the UK had more than 85% market share. 2 Incumbent banks miss the mark in two crucial areas: The banking experience has not evolved to match modern consumer expectations. In comparison, most incumbents were pushing updates on a quarterly or annual basis.

peer-to-peer 40

peer-to-peer incumbents financing finance 40

WSJ - The Accelerators

JULY 2, 2015

For instance, in first quarter 2015, 55% of all American venture rounds were either seed or Series A, split almost evenly, while 19% of all rounds were Series B (the third round of financing), according to data from CB Insights. See page 287 of Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar’s International Differences in Entrepreneurship ).

ventures 28

ventures incumbents venture capital financing 28

abovethecrowd.com

DECEMBER 18, 2017

In 2015, 46 percent of workers were enrolled in a plan with an annual deductible of $1,000 or more, up from 38 percent in 2013 and 22 percent in 2009. CVS Care Clinic Price Schedule: Benchmark Healthcare Investments. Our venture capital firm, Benchmark, has made four investments consistent with the “customer-first” theme.

health 59

health hospitality networking mix-use 59

TechCrunch

JANUARY 15, 2023

On Friday, January 13, investment giant BlackRock announced it was acquiring a minority stake in SMB 401(k) provider startup Human Interest. For one, as one source told me, BlackRock’s investment is a show of faith in the SMB 401(k) market — one where the firm hasn’t historically played. Consolidation everywhere.

incumbents 117

incumbents energy investing investment 117

TechCrunch

APRIL 8, 2021

million as its first tranche of Series A investment. Other investors include Egyptian investment fund A15 and Dutch development bank FMO. Paymob was founded in 2015 by Alain El Hajj, Islam Shawky, and Mostafa El Menessy. This growth allowed the fintech company to raise the second tranche of investment after closing just $3.5

incumbents 98

incumbents startup ecosystem financing finance 98

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 13, 2019

Using the proliferation of newly GPS-enabled mobile devices to enable taxi hailing and beat out stagnant incumbent providers was always going to be a big win for consumers. Does any fund that invested in Uber fear not being able to raise their next fund because their underlying companies might not perform well around these other criteria?

culture 343

culture incumbents enablement sustainability 343

propel(x)

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

It is important to consider doing something similar if you are thinking about investing in a startup. Before committing to an investment, it is important to understand what you are buying and what you are getting into. On the angel investing platform, this component is called Broker Review. What is due diligence?

investing 91

investing investment angel investing startup 91

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

Founded initially back in 2015, Santa Barbara, California-based Bitwarden operates in a space that includes well-known incumbents such as 1Password, which recently hit a $6.8 Moreover, people can contribute back to the codebase and expedite development of new features. Password hygiene.

incumbents 99

incumbents VC investing investment 99

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 7, 2021

First the company, formerly known as Clara Foods, secured a deal in April with BioBrew , an investment of AB InBev’s investment arm, ZX Ventures, to brew its animal-free protein at scale. The investment was co-led by new investor, McWin, and existing investor, Rage Capital. We profiled the company back in 2015 when it raised $1.7

incumbents 99

incumbents enablement technology capital 99

Haystack

MAY 4, 2019

As an investor in startups, there is considerable conventional wisdom around the idea of investing only in the Bay Area. For me, as a seed investor, I started to feel this struggle back in 2015. Until then, the overwhelming majority of Haystack investments were in the Bay Area. “Get a plane!

incumbents 87

incumbents culture transportation investing 87

TechCrunch

AUGUST 29, 2022

In 2015, the emergence of fintechs such as Flutterwave and Paystack changed the game for online businesses in Africa by making it easier to integrate payments into customer interfaces without building those features from the ground up or merging with tacky foreign software.

startup 93

startup incumbents financing finance 93

TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2023

Snafus can happen even when incumbents and fintechs partner. The relationship between incumbents and upstarts has long been a complicated one. When we started out in 2015, we were primarily providing back office payment infrastructure for banks and needed an apt team, hence the name TeamApt.

incumbents 105

incumbents media ventures financing 105

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

million since its 2015 inception. The big incumbents haven’t figured out how to make plans affordable and accessible for smaller companies,” Schneble said. “We With this latest extension, Human Interest has now raised a total of $136.7 Human Interest’s growth has been impressive. The 401(k) space is indeed a growing one.

financing 88

financing finance incumbents capital 88

Tomasz Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2016

In 2014, that figure fell to 1186 and in 2015, we count 481. This is counterintuitive considering the broader venture capital backdrop of near record venture investment in software. Subverting those incumbents is going to require a meaningfully better product or substantially more effective customer acquisition channel.

SaaS 40

SaaS incumbents venture capital ventures 40

Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 14, 2016

2015 is the end of an era, the era of startup growth at any cost. Inexpensive equity dollars enable capital-intensive companies to amass the warchest necessary to dethrone incumbents. Combined, those non-traditional VCs account for about 25% of venture dollars invested last year, sapping the strength from the startup bull-market.

real estate 40

real estate startup incumbents sustainability 40

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

-based last-mile delivery provider, has raised £4 million in funding, as it looks to invest in its product off the back of 300% revenue growth during the last 12 months. The company had previously raised £1 million in two rounds, including £500,000 from publicly-listed Auctus Alternative Investments. I don’t see how the incumbent U.K.

incumbents 89

incumbents VC enablement sustainability 89