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The Venmo killer
Hi there,
Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp.
Apple's acquisition of Beats.
Paypal's acquisition of Venmo.
These are some of the most impactful, game changing tech M&A transactions of the recent past.
But if we look back further, Microsoft's acquisition of Forethought, the makers of PowerPoint, for $14M in 1987 has to go down as one of the best M&A transactions of all time.
Check out The Blurb for a great article on the origins of PowerPoint.
Ingredients to success
We analyzed food and beverage startups that have raised investment since 2016 to surface 13 trending ingredients ― from probiotics to pea protein to seaweed, and more.
Probiotic beverage startup Revive Kombucha, which recently launched a kombucha/coffee crossover product, attracted $7.5M from Peet’s Coffee in August.
Big banks target Venmo
Venmo, now owned by PayPal and acquired for a reported $26.2M, is certainly one of the best tech M&A transactions ever.
And it has been on a tear. Just look at its transaction volume growth.
PayPal recently extended the "pay with Venmo" capability to 2 million online retailers with a focus on enabling e-commerce via mobile.
The company's torrid growth and new products are worth watching.
And the banks clearly are.
Zelle, started by a consortium of banks including Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Chase, and others, is aiming to be a Venmo killer.
We saw a similar effort by banks back in the day to replicate PayPal's initial P2P success.
Will they battle back Venmo this time or will PayPal, which is now worth more than American Express, continue its onslaught?
We'll be digging into Venmo's growth, new products, and the threat from Zelle at the A-Ha! Conference with the COO and head of Venmo's business, Michael Vaughan.
Vaughan has been with Venmo since pre-acquisition, so we'll also dig into how the product has continued to grow so fast even after the acquisition.
As most know, this type of success post-M&A is rare.
Typically, acquirers fiddle with things and mess them up, or layer on so much bureaucracy that all the early entrepreneurial employees like Michael leave.
We're excited to talk about Venmo and dominating P2P payments with Michael at the A-Ha! conference at SFJAZZ.
Use the code "VenmoMe" for $500 off through tomorrow (Nov 7th) by going here.
LeBron for fed chair?
Holy spurious correlations batman.
Here is a look at height of Fed chair vs interest rates.
The future of connected enterprise security
The emergence of edge-computing, the expansion of hybrid-cloud environments, and the proliferation of connected critical infrastructure are notable trends shaping the future of connected enterprise security.
We looked at startup investment activity, spotlight companies creating novel connected enterprise security solutions, and identify forward-looking trends, challenges, and opportunities.
The Industry Standard
CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.
Forbes. Niall McCarthy (@uisceglas) on startup failure with a reference to CB Insights research on the top 20 reasons why startups fail.
NY Times. Burt Helm (@burthelm) dives into Facebook as an advertising platform for startups and cites CB Insights investment data.
Entrepreneur. Peter Daisyme (@peterdaisyme) on the race for AI acquisitions with a reference to CB Insights research on the topic.
Bloomberg. Adam Satariano (@satariano) writes about the shutdown of a Zuckerberg-backed AltSchool location and refers to CB Insights edtech investment data.
Happy Monday.
I love you.
Anand
@asanwal
P.S. We'll be diving into agtech trends tomorrow. Sign up for the briefing.
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