This is The ProWellTech Exchange, a newsletter that comes out on Saturdays, based on the column of the same name. You can sign up for the email here. Are you tired? I'm. What a week. But if you kept your eyes off American politics and focused on the stock market instead, this hasn't been a stressful week at all. It was a party.
Yes, the election seems to affect equities, with investors happy about what a divided government could be. Their bet is that with different parties in control of different parts of the government, nothing will happen and therefore taxes and regulation will not change. You can obstruct it as you wish.
Regardless, this week's stock market boom was a multifaceted affair. Shares of software surged as summer-era trading seemed to be making a comeback, where investors pour capital into SaaS and cloud companies in hopes of parking their wealth into something with growth potential. Earnings from the software also look pretty good so far (we chatted with JFrog and Ping Identity and BigCommerce), improving their initial performance.
Uber and Lyft led their own rally as California voters decided their long-standing union arbitration would be valid. And then Uber failed to puke on itself during its earnings report. Not bad.
Major technological stocks have also increased. All this to say that after a bit of a scare in the market a week ago, things are heating up again for tech companies. And it is, as expected, sweeping away the next wave of IPOs.
Airbnb should deposit publicly early next week (we have four questions we can't wait to get answered) and Upstart unveiled this week, which you probably missed because you were looking at something else. No problem. We are here for you.
Another notable possible includes DoorDash, now dissolved from its costly regulatory battle in California. How many debuts will we see? Hopefully many.
Market Notes
Upstart's IPO unveiling brings a fintech IPO to the fore and overall, its numbers are pretty good if you ignore concerns about its customers' concentration. Its debut could bode well for fintech as a whole, a segment of the startup population that, when viewed through PayPal's revenue lens, is having a hell of a year.
Fintech VCs are also active, dividing over $ 10 billion in startups that focus on financial technology products and services in the third quarter. Payments, insurtech, wealth management, and banking startups have caught our eye as sectors to watch in that niche.
It hasn't been a perfect week for fintech, however, as the U.S. government decided the Visa-Plaid deal shouldn't have happened. Damn. As discussed on Equity, this deal could limit M&A interest in large-player fintech startups. Does this mean that fintech IPOs, then, must bring the liquidity bucket for the industry?
Could be! And if so, Upstart's upcoming float seems to take on extra importance. We will keep you updated.
- Moving forward, the Chinese government's termination of Ant Group's IPO was arguably the biggest tech story of the week, although as the company is worth a few hundred billion, it's not really a startup event. For China, it's a bad day, as it undermines its goal of becoming a global financial center. For Ant, it's a huge setback. For Jack Ma, it's a warning, if not more.
- The nine-figure neobank hits? Not done yet.
- This week's epic Pony hike proves self-driving tech isn't dead. In fact, the great race to drive computers continues. Only slower than everyone had hoped for.
- Udacity highlighted the edtech boom by raising $ 75 million in debt and reported that "third quarter bookings increased 120% year-on-year and average operating rates increased 260% in the first half of 2020". Our own Natasha Mascaren also reported on edtech's boom in M&A volume, stressing once again that edtech went from zero to hero in 2020, at least from a VC perspective.
- $ 30 million for the Hustle Fund and $ 66.5 million for All Iron Ventures, among other VC increases this week.
- Is ByteDance looking for $ 2 billion with a $ 180 billion valuation? Also, what happened to the whole TikTok fiasco?
- And TikTok's rival IPO presentation really shows how difficult it is to build such a network. It is also very expensive.
Various and various
Staying under our target word count for the first time in so long that I've almost forgotten what it is, here are some jot and crumbs for your weekend:
Have a good weekend. Stay safe. Fight COVID-19. And listen to this.
