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The wait was long but this week the time was right: Airbnb finally filed its S-1 and so did Affirm, C3.ai, Roblox, and Wish. We are likely to see these five price on public markets before the end of an already superlative year for tech IPOs. The ongoing pandemic and political turmoil were not scary enough, apparently.
This coming decade, you have to think that we’ll see a more even spread of tech companies going public. Many of the companies above have been bottled up for years behind privately funded growth strategies. Today, however, the industry has a better grasp of SPACs and direct listings, and various funding routes. Companies have more options from their founding for how they might grow and exit one day. Public investors in 2020 also seem to have a deeper appreciation for the current revenue numbers and future growth opportunities for tech companies. Why, I can still remember all the geniuses who bragged about shorting the Facebook IPO not so long ago.
Will we see a more even spread of where IPOs come from? While all of this week’s filers are headquartered in San Francisco or environs, that now feels almost like a coincidental reference to the years when these companies were founded. More states have been minting their own unicorns, with Ohio-based Root Insurance recently going public and Utah-based Qualtrics heading (back) that way. Tech startups are now global, meanwhile, and plenty of countries are working to keep their unicorns closer to home than New York.
On to the headlines from TechCrunch and Extra Crunch:
If you didn’t make $1B this week, you are not doing VC right (EC)
Inside Affirm’s IPO filing: A look at its economics, profits and revenue concentration (EC)
5 questions from Airbnb’s IPO filing (EC)
The VC and founder winners in Airbnb’s IPO (EC)
Wish files to go public with 100M monthly actives, $1.75B in 2020 revenue thus far
Unpacking the C3.ai IPO filing (EC)
With a 2021 IPO in the cards, what do we know about Robinhood’s Q3 performance? (EC)
What does a Biden administration mean for tech?
What does Joe Biden intend as president around technology policy? On the one hand, tech companies might not be returning to the White House too fast. “All told, we’re seeing some familiar names in the mix, but 2020 isn’t 2008,” Taylor Hatmaker explains about potential presidential appointments from the industry. “Tech companies that emerged as golden children over the last 10 years are radioactive now. Regulation looms on the horizon in every direction. Whatever policy priorities emerge out of the Biden administration, Obama’s technocratic gilded age is over and we’re in for something new.”
However, tech industries and companies focused on shared goals might find support. In a review of Biden’s climate-change policies, Jon Shieber looks at major green infrastructure plans that could be on the way.
Any policies that a Biden administration enacts would have to focus on economic opportunity broadly, and much of the proposed plan from the campaign fulfills that need. One of its key propositions was that it would be “creating good, union, middle-class jobs in communities left behind, righting wrongs in communities that bear the brunt of pollution, and lifting up the best ideas from across our great nation — rural, urban and tribal,” according to the transition website. An early emphasis on grid and utility infrastructure could create significant opportunities for job creation across America — and be a boost for technology companies. “Our electric power infrastructure is old, aging and not secure,” said Abe Yokell, co-founder of the energy and climate-focused venture capital firm Congruent Ventures. “From an infrastructure standpoint, transmission distribution really should be upgraded and has been underinvested over the years. And it is in direct alignment with providing renewable energy deployment across the U.S. and the electrification of everything.”
The future of construction tech
A skilled labor shortage is piling on top of the construction industry’s traditional challenges this year. The result is that tech adoption is getting a big push into the real world, Allison Xu of Bain Capital Ventures writes in a guest column for Extra Crunch this week. She maps out six main construction categories where tech startups are emerging, including project conception, design and engineering, pre-construction, construction execution, post construction and construction management. Here’s an excerpt from the article about that last item:
- How it works today: Construction management and operations teams manage the end-to-end project, with functions such as document management, data and insights, accounting, financing, HR/payroll, etc.
- Key challenges: The complexity of the job site translates to highly complex and burdensome paperwork associated with each project. Managing the process requires communication and alignment across many stakeholders.
- How technology can address challenges: The nuances of the multistakeholder construction process merit value in a verticalized approach to managing the project. Construction management tools like Procore, Hyphen Solutions and IngeniousIO have created ways for contractors to coordinate and track the end-to-end process more seamlessly. Other players like Levelset have taken a construction-specific approach to functions like invoice management and payments.
Virtual HQs after the pandemic?
Pandemic-era work solutions like online team meeting spaces are heading towards a less certain, vaccine-based reality. Have we all gone remote-first enough that they will have a real market, still? Natasha Mascarenhas checks in with some of the top companies to see how it’s looking, here’s more:
With the goal of making remote work more spontaneous, there are dozens of new startups working to create virtual HQs for distributed teams. The three that have risen to the top include Branch, built by Gen Z gamers; Gather, created by engineers building a gamified Zoom; and Huddle, which is still in stealth.
The platforms are all racing to prove that the world is ready to be a part of virtual workspaces. By drawing on multiplayer gaming culture, the startups are using spatial technology, animations and productivity tools to create a metaverse dedicated to work.
The biggest challenge ahead? The startups need to convince venture capitalists and users alike that they’re more than Sims for Enterprise or an always-on Zoom call. The potential success could signal how the future of work will blend gaming and socialization for distributed teams.
Around TechCrunch
Head of the US Space Force, Gen. John W. ‘Jay’ Raymond, joins us at TechCrunch Sessions: Space
Amazon’s Project Kuiper chief David Limp is coming to TC Sessions: Space
Across the week
TechCrunch
Against all odds: The sheer force of immigrant startup founders
S16 Angel Fund launches a community of founders to invest in other founders
Why are telehealth companies treating healthcare like the gig economy?
A court decision in favor of startup UpCodes may help shape open access to the law
Extra Crunch
Will Zoom Apps be the next hot startup platform?
Is the internet advertising economy about to implode?
Surging homegrown talent and VC spark Italy’s tech renaissance
Why some VCs prefer to work with first-time founders
3 growth tactics that helped us surpass Noom and Weight Watchers
A report card for the SEC’s new equity crowdfunding rules
#EquityPod
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
This week wound up being incredibly busy. What else, with a week that included both the Airbnb and Affirm IPO filings, a host of mega-rounds for new unicorns, some fascinating smaller funding events and some new funds?
So we had a lot to get through, but with Chris and Danny and Natasha and your humble servant, we dove in headfirst:
- Affirm has filed to go public! The fintech unicorn is big, growing and losing less money over time. We were pretty impressed in our first look. Then, with a bit more time, we dug deeper and found a weakness or two. Still, Affirm is heading public and not in poor shape.
- Airbnb filed, and we jumped into an Equity Shot as fast as we could on Tuesday to get our minds around the news. Since then, Danny dug through the venture capital winners circle — a surprisingly small subset of firms! — and we also got into some questions that I had about the company’s finances.
- Robinhood is said to have an IPO in the books, so we talked a bit about what we know concerning its Q3 growth.
- And then there was edtech, as always. This week we talked about Tencent backing Udemy, Duolingo raising again and Transfr picking up a Series A that we thought was super interesting.
- Danny wanted to talk about the Trust & Will Series A. We tried to not make that many jokes.
- ZenBusiness raised $55 million as well, in an outsized Series B.
- Financial Venture Studio put together a new fund to cut small checks into seed-stage fintech startups. We think that’s great. Especially given what we know about what is going on in the fintech venture world.
- And Natasha walked us through her latest deep-dive, a look into the world of virtual headquarters. This led to the worst joke of the show.
What a week! Three episodes, some new records, and a very tired us after all the action. More on Monday!
Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PDT and Thursday afternoon as fast as we can get it out, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.
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