Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Monday, April 1, 2019

Zerodha's Varsity launches a mobile app

Starting with two modules under Varsity, Bengaluru-based Zerodha aims to expand the education ecosystem around stock trading and investments. https://ift.tt/2CO3JuH https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Swan lands in Scottish Highlands

https://ift.tt/2FGeDVa https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

What are the options for regulating internet companies?

https://ift.tt/2JIOaKR https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

IBPS 2019 – PO/ MT-VIII Mains & Interview Result Released

IBPS released Mains & Interview Result for the post of PO/ MT - VIII.

IBPS 2019 – Specialist Officer VIII Mains & Interview Released

Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) released Mains & Interview Result for the Post of Specialist Officer.

IBPS 2019 – Specialist Officer VIII Mains & Interview Result Released

IBPS Released Mains & Interview Result for the post of Specialist Officer VIII.

Indian Army 2019 – 96 Jr Commissioned Officer Exam Result Released

Indian Army for the post of 96 Jr Commissioned Officer Exam Result Released.

IBPS 2019 – SO, PO/ MT & Clerk Provisional Result Released

Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) for the post of SO, PO/ MT & Clerk Provisional Result Released.

Neanderthal cannibalism is less surprising than you think

Judge says Trump can’t re-open Arctic waters that Obama closed to drilling

The Analogue Mega Sg answers why anyone would pay $190 for a new Sega Genesis

Senate re-introduces bill to help advanced nuclear technology

The true dollar cost of the anti-vaccine movement

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Ride-hailing, bike and scooter companies probably raised less money than you thought

Jason Rowley Contributor

Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News.

More posts by this contributor

After years of fierce competition as private companies, Uber and Lyft are going public on U.S. markets. Scooter service providers, the transportation trend du jour, raised hundreds of millions of dollars to scatter scooters on city sidewalks (to the chagrin of residents and regulators alike) throughout 2017 and 2018. On the other side of the Pacific, Grab and Go-Jek are raising gobs of cash as they continue to scale upward and outward.

Of all the seed, early and late-stage venture funding raised over the past couple of years, how much of the total went to companies in the ride-hailing, food delivery and last-mile transportation categories (which encompasses bikes and scooters)? Probably not as much as you’d think.

Taken together, companies in these sectors raised less than 10 percent of the total venture dollar volume reported for each of the past five full calendar years.

We’ve charted it out based on yearly totals. Take a peek:

To be sure, we’re still talking about a lot of money here. Companies in these three categories raised more than $22 billion in venture funding rounds (not including private equity) in 2017 and more than $18 billion in 2018.

Ventures in the transportation space loom large in the media, and how could they not? It’s a forbiddingly capital-intensive market to play in, requiring companies to raise massive sums, which make for good headlines.

In its early years, competition between on-demand, point-to-point transportation marketplace companies rewarded brashness and speed with early scale and the long-term structural advantages conferred to first the firms which grew the fastest.

But those advantages may not have been as stiff as first expected. Lyft beat Uber to the public markets, raised its valuation during its IPO roadshow, priced at the top of its extended range and then popped 21 percent when it started trading.

That success means that the red chunks of our above chart weren’t all fool’s bets. Instead, a good chunk of the equity represented is now liquid. Of course, there’s a lot more work to do for literally every other ride-hailing, ridesharing, scooter-renting and other wheels-providing unicorns in the world: They still have to go public.