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| | | Today’s digest includes a number of stories about Europe’s startup ecosystem: Hannah Seal, a principal at international VC firm Index Ventures, spoke to TechCrunch about her approach to femtech investments, which include Glossier, Peanut and Daye, a female intimate care startup. The eight startups in A/O PropTech’s portfolio span 14 countries and serve 200,000 units of real estate, creating a giant sandbox where founders can validate and refine their offerings. We spoke with CEO Gregory Dewerpe to learn about his investment thesis and the opportunities he perceives. Finally, we interviewed 11 European entrepreneurs to get their predictions and impressions for 2020. Also: a close look at Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem, some hard questions about Airbnb’s profitability and a look at what we’ve learned from the business side of running Extra Crunch over the last year. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: TefiM | | Products and services related to female health are marketed to women, but there’s been little innovation in the space. According to reporter Natasha Lomas, the missing link is “there are few people with a vagina in positions leading product strategy.” In an extended interview, she spoke to Hannah Seal, principal at Index Ventures, about the femtech space and her thoughts on female-focused startups. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Peter Cade | | In the latest edition of Growth Reports: tips for growing a podcast audience, identifying your best-performing display ads and enriching leads with more data to boost conversions. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Hiroshi Watanabe / Getty Images | | David Liu, founder and CEO of Dealpath, shares four factors his team considers before expanding overseas. “These considerations will help you avoid costly hurdles and allow you to achieve the best results possible without having to reinvent the wheel with every new launch,” he writes. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Ratnakorn Piyasirisorost / Getty Images | | European VC A/O PropTech has raised €250 million to back startups that disrupt the real estate industry. Reporter Steve O’Hear spoke with founder and CEO Gregory Dewerpe to learn more about his investment strategy and the companies in A/O PropTech’s portfolio that span 14 countries and serve 200,000 units of real estate. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Digital Zoo / Getty Images | | Alex Wilhelm parsed data from a Silicon Valley Bank markets report to get a sense of what’s happening in the early-stage funding market. “It appears that global early-stage deal counts could be slipping,” he writes. “But is this is a real early-stage slowdown? Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Lyft / Getty Images | | Shares in Lyft were off in after-hours trading yesterday after the ride-hailing company released its earnings results. Is the selloff is a sign that the market is raising expectations regarding profitability? Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch | | Now that end users can cherry-pick SaaS products without going through IT departments, “a well-executed idea can beat an incumbent with a similar product,” writes Ron Miller. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Malerapaso | | Cybersecurity investing boomed last year and could reach $250B by 2023; reporter Zack Whittaker looked at several companies that are in a position to follow Cloudflare and CrowdStrike into the public market. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: WangAnQi / Getty Images | | One of the reasons Israel produces so many cybersecurity startups: former members of the nation’s intelligence units have used their skills and experience to build a self-supporting ecosystem. Investment in Israeli cybersecurity startups reached $1.4B in 2019, and many “entrepreneurs are coming back for their second acts,” writes Frederic Lardinois. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Viaframe / Getty Images | | What impacts will Brexit have on European fintechs? Is the machine-learning bubble about to burst? Why is talent acquisition a bigger challenge in Europe than in the U.S.? In the first of a series of posts, Mike Butcher spoke to 11 European entrepreneurs to hear about what they learned last year and get their predictions for the year ahead. “We asked for blunt responses, and we weren't disappointed,” he writes. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Getty Images | | Through the first three quarters of 2019, Airbnb went from growing profitability to posting a nine-figure net loss. Even though the home-rental behemoth is now back in the black, growth has slowed. “If Airbnb goes public soon, as it has promised, its recent, trailing results will matter,” writes Alex Wilhelm, who takes a closer look at the company’s recent revenue and growth trends. Read more | | | |
| |  | | Beyond what you see on the consumer-facing side of Extra Crunch, there's a lot that happens behind the scenes. Since our product is focused on helping startups, we wanted to share some of what we’ve learned from the business side over the past year. Read more | | | |
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