🚗 Who Wants To Be A Tree-llionaire?
Musk tops Bezos. Plus: climate tech is trending, Big Tech pushes against U.S. Capitol, electric vehicle wars & more FTC crackdown.
Wrapped Up Newsletter #8
Today’s Menu
Quick Bits: The Year of Electric Vehicles (EV)
Done Deals: SPACs, fintech boom + new unicorns
Deep Dive: Tesla Hits Milestone(d)
Tweet of the Week
What Else We're Following: 6 articles, from Eurasia Group's top risks for 2021 to the art of creating a pitch deck
Jobs - Internships/Full-Time: 13 full-time jobs and internship postings
Quick Bits 🌎
Recap in the West: Rev Up The Electric Engines
Apple car eyes Hyundai. EV startup Rivian wants billions to rival Tesla. Facebook and Twitter lock Trump accounts amid U.S. Capitol riot. Apple and AWS give Parler the boot. Google workers unionize. Healthcare band Haven isn't gettin' the band back together. R.I.P. Amazon's Prime Pantry. Quibi lives via Roku. Robinhood may sell its own shares to users in IPO. NYSE has commitment issues with Chinese telecoms. Trump has trust issues with Chinese apps and tech giants Alibaba and Tencent. Amazon gets into the airplane business. Dark times ahead for SoulCycle. Bitcoin surpasses $40,000. P&G faces FTC over DTC; so does Harry's. European Commission invests into startups. It pays to be famous, as Cameo looks to expand.
Recap in the East: EV Ain’t EZ
Baidu gets smart and builds EV at Geely. Warren Buffett-backed Chinese automaker BYD outsells local rivals. EV startup Byton talks with iPhone assembler Foxconn. Nio wants to be the Tesla of China. Jack Ma stays under the radar. SEA VC shares views on 2021. Zomato's financials deliver untasteful results. Masa's Vision Fund sees a silver lining in 2021. Workplace culture in China sees another fatality. Singaporean fintech firm GoBear says goodbye. Alibaba's music streaming services faces the music. SEA's largest car marketplace Carro finds path to profitability. LG sees EV in SEA. Grab holds on to revenue at pre-COVID levels. Alchemy Foodtech gets alchemic with carbs. Jury's still out on SPAC.
Done Deals ✍🏼
US healthcare startup Color raises a $167m Series D at $1.5bn valuation
Lidar startup Aeva gets another $200m investment before going public via SPAC
Bangalore-based fintech CRED closed a $81m Series C
Indian electronics startup boAt raises $100m from Warburg Pincus
US corporate spend management startup Divvy bags $165m at $700m valuation
Twitter acqui-hires creative agency Ueno and buys social podcasting app Breaker
Online-gaming platform Roblox takes on another $520m before direct listing
Senti Biosciences raises $105m Series B led by Bayer
SoFi will go public via Chamath Palihapitiya’s SPAC at $8.65bn valuation
US local news app News Break bags $115m
Grab's fintech unit grabs $300m led by South Korea's Hanwha Group
Madrid-based Jobandtalent adds another $108m to its $204m Series C
San Francisco–based Hinge Health raises a Series D at $3bn valuation
US legaltech Disco closes $100m funding round
German fintech Mambu raises $135m and becomes a unicorn
Data startup Starburst raises $100m Series C at $1.2bn valuation
Deep Dive 🤿
(2 min read)
This is the face of the richest man on Earth.
With a market cap of $834bn (that exceeds Facebook, Tencent and Alibaba), Tesla ranks itself against the likes of its FAANG peers and becomes the world's most valuable energy-tech-automobile player, once again proving the doubters and short sellers that they shouldn't bet against the future.
2020 was a not-so-humble year for Tesla (and for meme god Elon Musk)
Elon Musk came a long way from his attempts to secure funding to go private back in 2018. Through his unfiltered Twitter threads and (literally) blazing interviews, Musk stays true to himself and is persistent on execution. To debrief Tesla's 2020, the company delivered on cars and expectations, set revenue record, found its way into the S&P 500, teamed with China and is on the verge of turning its first annual profit
And it doesn't stop there. Musk isn't satisfied with just staying above water level; he's setting his ambitions beyond Earth's hemisphere and below the world's surface. Although his mind operates like a black box, he's transparent on solving the world's most dire crisis of our time: climate change.
VC returns and climate tech aren't mutually exclusive.
Social Capital co-founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya proclaimed in 2017 that Elon Musk is the 'most important entrepreneur of our generation'. He restated this 3 days ago as he believes the world's first trillionaire, if not Musk, will be somebody who's fighting climate change. Prominent investors like Jeff Bezos and Palihapitiya himself are following his lead by raising grants and funds to find the next big thing in climate tech.
The traction doesn't stop there. The sector has blossomed over the years, with $60bn invested into the space from 2013-2019 ($16bn in 2019 alone). According to PWC's The State of Climate Tech 2020 report, this investment is ~5x the average growth in VC. From agriculture to manufacturing, verticals in climate tech are attracting top dollars from investors, ranging from impact (Obvious) to generalist VCs (USV, Sequoia).
And the cherry on top? These investors all enter with the shared belief that $$ into climate tech is not only quintessential to our planetary survival but it can actually generate a return. And a hefty one too.
In the case of Tesla's products (EV, solar panels, power walls), Musk has capitalized on a lucrative, yet complex business of distributed energy that has enabled consumers to be more productive while energy efficient. He's a case study in point of how investors should bet on those who can think big and deliver on social or environmental impact, not just post a short-term profit. It's only a matter of time when we'll see another Musk come up with the next billion dollar idea.
Tweet of the Week 🐣
What Else We're Following 👀
"What they lack in experience, they make up in hunger": a look into why CEOs with no prior experience outperform
Political illegitimacy. COVID. Geopolitics. Eurasia Group publishes top risks for 2021
"Tell your pitch deck like it's a story": how to make a compelling presentation
There's a way to regulate innovation, and there's a way not to, told by crypto fanatic Fred Wilson
Think before you hire a Chief of Staff for your startup
Interesting thoughts on tech monopolies, Silicon Valley vs. China, and value-based allegiances, by Can Duruk
Jobs - Internships/Full-Time 👩🏽💼
Entry Level (0-2 Years)
DN Capital - VC Internship - Multiple Locations
Counterfactual Ventures - Chief of Staff - London
Techmind - VC Internship - Paris
Proptech1 - VC Internship - Berlin
Investiere - Investment Analyst/Associate - Berlin
Entrepreneur First - Talent Acquisition & Partnerships Intern - Paris
Bolt - Operations Intern - Nairobi
At One Ventures - Associate - San Francisco
Experienced (2+ Years)
Stryber - VC Partner - Munich
ZX Ventures - Investment Partner - London
PropTech1 - VC Partner - Berlin
Bitkraft - VC Associate - Remote
Y Combinator - VC Associate - San Francisco
Last Week’s Issue(s)
January 6: Water Cooler Chat with Angela Toy, Director @ Golden Gate Ventures
January 3: (Anti-) Trust Issues
Feedback
Hey there! We are Jeff, Dom and Vas, coming to you live from INSEAD. Thanks for reading Wrapped Up. We'd love to get your feedback - feel free to email us at jeffrey.dong@insead.edu! It will help us to improve the newsletter and deliver the content you want right into your inbox. Thanks!