Hi there, 

Here is this week’s hot or not.

Hot: Super apps

Twitter is now “X Corp,” according to a court filing from early April.  

In October 2022, Elon Musk tweeted that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

He seems to think it will rival PayPal in some way (lol).

Musk is part of a diverse array of players signaling intentions to build an “all-in-one” super app.

Companies like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Apple are looking to super apps (such as WeChat in China) as models to extend their reach with consumers. 

But to date, the super app hasn’t become a thing outside of Asia.

We dig into super apps and other major 2023 technology trends in our 11 Tech Trends Report.

Not: Global fintech funding
 

Global fintech funding broke its freefall in Q1’23.

After dropping for 4 straight quarters, fintech funding jumped up 55% to reach $15B in Q1’23.

How is this a "not," you ask?

Well, global fintech funding would have actually declined QoQ without Stripe’s $6.5B mega-round.

Yep, Stripe’s Series I round accounted for more than 40% of total fintech funding.

If you remove it from the mix, funding dropped 12% QoQ, indicating that the fintech slowdown is still underway.

CB Insights customers can dive deeper into the odd quarter
in our Q1’23 State of Fintech Report.

Hot: Free software
 

Dear CISOs,

For sale: brand new cloud security software.

Comes with lots of incentives and might even be free!

Yup — Palo Alto Networks and its Prisma Cloud product are facing a ton of competitive pressure from startups like:

• Netskope

• Aqua Security

• Lacework

• Wiz

• Sysdig

And the incentives are flying as they all try to vie for market share.

This is good news for pricing and terms if you're in information security/IT.

We interviewed a bunch of buyers of these software solutions to see what they like and don't like and what pricing looks like. Competitive intensity is ramping up, which means good things for buyers.

The one risk CISOs and their teams should look out for is which of these players is likely to stay an independent entity vs. getting acquired by PE or other larger players.

In messy markets like this, assessing this type of vendor risk is very important as product roadmaps and innovation will usually change dramatically post-acquisition.

Not: D2C acquisitions

Walmart acquired Bonobos for $310M in 2017. It’s now selling the menswear brand at a steep discount of $75M.

This comes in a string of D2C acquisitions Walmart has offloaded over the years — like ModCloth and Bare Necessities, which Walmart acquired and sold within 2 years.

Interestingly, in the decision to build, buy, or partner, Walmart has done a remarkable job of partnering. In fact, its business relationships, i.e., partnerships, often signal future products, as we covered here.

We mined its relationship data to determine what products Walmart is likely to launch next.

Generative AI applications could allow brands and retailers to automate and scale critical processes.

Startups are already using GenAI to enable brands like Nike and Adidas to create 3D models of physical goods, which
can be used to build 3D product catalogs.

Meanwhile, companies like Coca-Cola are tapping into GenAI to generate personalized ad copy and images at scale.

There are a number of others ways brands and retailers can leverage GenAI.

From virtual photoshoots to virtual fashion design, discover 6 key use cases in this research brief.

Not: Metaverse bets

Oh metaverse.

We will miss you.

Last month, Disney laid off the division creating its metaverse strategy. Earlier this year, Microsoft shut down AltspaceVR, the social VR platform it had acquired in 2017.

Even Mark Zuckerberg in his “Year of Efficiency” memo, which had few mentions about the metaverse, highlighted his shift to AI.

The metaverse is  no longer the cool tech term execs mention on earnings calls, as can be seen below.

The envisioned multi-billion dollar opportunity that the metaverse represented also created a large and messy metaverse company landscape, which will now be under pressure.

WDYT? Is the metaverse another ZIRP phenomenon that is gone or is this a temporary downward blip in its progress?

I love you. 

Anand 

@asanwal 

P.S. Do you know one of the most promising private insurtech companies in the world? Apply for the Insurtech 50 and tell us all about it.