 |
It’s officially the season of year-end wrap ups! Spotify may reign supreme with Wrapped (especially since YouTube cancelled Rewind this year), but Apple also does a fun recap of the year’s most downloaded apps. We summarized the top ten above, as well as how each app’s ranking changed compared to last year!
Zoom went from being unranked in 2019 to holding the #1 spot this year - Google Meet also entered the rankings at #20
TikTok overtook YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat to take the top spot for social media and #2 overall
Cash App (unranked last year) was #10, while Venmo fell out of the top 20
On the gaming side, Among Us! took the crown, but no gaming app reached the top 20 overall (for free apps!)
news 📣
📈 Salesforce makes it official. Salesforce officially announced its acquisition of Slack on Tuesday! The price tag ($27.7B) represents Salesforce’s largest-ever deal, and it’s a 55% premium to Slack’s stock price before the acquisition news leaked. Slack remains unprofitable and faced increasing pressure from Microsoft’s Teams product this year, which more than doubled its DAU count to 115 million. The acquisition will hopefully unlock a new growth channel for Salesforce, which is projected to record a 21% revenue increase for 2020 (the company’s slowest growth rate since 2010).
💰 DoorDash and Airbnb adjust IPO ranges. After releasing their S-1s in November, DoorDash and Airbnb are two of the last unicorns set to go public in 2020. Both companies increased their valuation expectations this week - Airbnb is reportedly targeting the $30-33B range, while DoorDash is looking for a valuation of nearly $30B. Each company has been significantly impacted by COVID, but in opposite directions! DoorDash’s revenue is up more than 3X YoY and the company was profitable in Q2 2020, while Airbnb’s gross bookings have fallen 40% YoY.
🗣️ Facebook buys Kustomer for $1B. If you couldn’t tell by Instagram’s redesign (🙄), Facebook is leaning in on social commerce. The company took another step towards serving businesses by acquiring customer management platform Kustomer for ~$1B. Kustomer helps businesses triage support requests across all mediums, including Facebook’s suite of products. The FTC is reportedly preparing antitrust lawsuits against Facebook for its purchases of companies like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Giphy - this deal may intensify the regulatory spotlight.
🧪 Everlywell raises $175M for at-home testing. 2020 has been a banner year for digital health, and it’s not over yet! Austin-based Everlywell, which makes at-home test kits for a variety of health conditions, announced $175M in new funding this week. Everlywell had the first FDA-approved at-home COVID test kit, which has driven significant growth this year. However, the company has also benefitted from explosive growth of other test kits, as well as retail distribution in 10,000+ stores.
Special congrats to our BFF Kai, who is a special assistant to the President of Everlywell!
 |
After soaring more than 600% this year, Zoom’s stock may finally be coming down to earth. The company reported Q3 earnings this week, with revenue and EPS beating analysts’ expectations yet again. However, the stock fell 14%. Why?
Zoom’s gross margin fell slightly (to 66%) as more free users came on to the platform with the start of a new school year.
The company’s projected Q4 revenue would represent a growth slowdown, and Zoom’s CFO warned investors that churn may be higher than expected.
Investors may also be starting to get skittish around Zoom’s prospects post-quarantine, especially after more positive vaccine news this week.
what we’re following 👀
How Hype Simulator skyrocketed by giving users a taste of digital fame.
Amazon is reportedly leading the race to acquire podcasting startup Wondery (remember Dirty John?) for upwards of $300M.
All Raise, a non-profit focused on diversity in tech and VC, raised $11M.
Nine-year-old Youtuber Ryan Kaji debuted in float form at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year - and is now getting his own virtual world on Roblox!
 |
🚨 We need your help! We’d love to learn more about how our readers are using peer-to-peer payment apps (e.g. Cash App, Venmo, Zelle). We’ve put together a quick survey that should take less than two minutes to complete - we’d love your thoughts here.
All responses are anonymous, and we will share some of the aggregated results in a future version of Accelerated.
jobs 🎓
Ladder - Founding Software Engineer (Remote, SF)
Caesar Sustainability - Founding CTO (Remote, Boston)
Village Global - VC Associate/Principal (Remote)
Envision - Chief of Staff, Associate (Remote)
a16z - Firm Operations Analyst (Menlo Park)
Writer - Growth Marketing (SF)
Atomic - Product & Money Ops (SF)
Divvy Homes - Growth Marketing Associate, Data Analyst (SF)
Bessemer Venture Partners - Senior Associate (SF)
AI Fund - Associate (Palo Alto)
B37 Ventures - Fundraising Analyst (San Jose)
Clutter - Growth Marketing Associate (LA)
Techstars - Lead Ops Associate (Austin)
Tusk Venture Partners - Investor (NYC)
internships 📝
Acadia - Full Time Technical Intern (Remote)
AmFam Insurance - VC Intern (Remote)
Clare - Strategy & Ops MBA Intern (Remote)
Workato - Growth Intern (Remote)
Laika - Product Management, Customer Experience Interns (NYC)
Zendesk - Editorial Intern (SF)
Epic Games - Houseparty Marketing Intern (SF)
LinkedIn - Product Design Intern (Sunnyvale)
Supernode Ventures - MBA Intern (NYC)
Saturn - Growth Ops Intern (NYC)
Oscar Health - Technical PM Intern (NYC)
BCG Digital Ventures - MBA Venture Architect Intern (NYC)
puppy of the week 🐶
 |
Meet Maggie, a three-month-old English Setter who lives in Minnesota.
Maggie is preparing for her first holiday season with her human siblings - she’s still working on not eating all the ornaments off the tree. She also enjoys playing in the snow, napping, and avoiding the bath.
You can follow her on Instagram @maggienosegoes!
Hi! 👋 We’re Justine and Olivia Moore, identical twins and venture investors at CRV. Thanks for reading Accelerated. We’d love your feedback - feel free to tweet us @venturetwins or email us at twins@crv.com.
