Humaans, Looped, Stockal, Stoovo, Airbyte— March 8th, 2021
We see about 5,000 startups each week, and I want to give you a glimpse into how we at e.ventures think about trending tech companies and tracking new investment opportunities. In this post, I’m highlighting top tech companies that have announced or raised a seed round within the past week.
To start, some top news out of the e.ventures and tech landscape from last week:
Direct to consumer used-car platform GettaCar raises a $25M venture round led by 3L Capital and Torch. The company has now taken on close to $50M to date with e.ventures leading their first venture round in December 2018.
Okta acquires the leading authorization infrastructure platform Auth0 in a $6.5B all-stock deal. Auth0 raised $332M in venture funding to date with Bessemer leading their Seed round in April 2014.
Now to my top seed investments to track from the past week:
Humaans
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Employee management software designed to automate the full employee lifecycle
Lead Investors:
Frontline Ventures
Total Raised:
$5M
Comparables:
Gusto
My Thoughts:
Start-ups and growth companies across the US have highly benefited from the interconnectivity and flexibility of Gusto. It is about time that the European eco-system starts getting access to these efficiencies from an HR platform as well!
Looped
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Interactive live streaming platform to connect creators with their followers
Lead Investors:
Will Ventures
Total Raised:
$7.7M
Comparables:
Youtube live, Instagram Live
My Thoughts:
Existing lifestream platforms are limited by one-way communication, while Looped takes a more two-way communication approach to the space, which is what modern consumers truly desire. Also showing early signs of exponential growth, driven by some A-list talent such as Dua Lipa, Shawn Mendes, and Ilza Schlesinger.
Stockal
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Cross-border brokerage that enables foreigners to invest in the stock markets of the westerns world
Lead Investors:
Scale Partners
Total Raised:
$3M
Comparables:
Groww, Vested
My Thoughts:
Most developing nations live in highly inflationary or uncertain fiscal environments which makes investments in foregoing equities incredibly attractive. This is therefore more than just a Robinhood for the developing world.
Stoovo
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Consumer app for freelancers to help fill their calendar with consistent work across all the gig-work platforms and put the corresponding finances on autopilot
Lead Investors:
Watertower Ventures
Total Raised:
Undisclosed
Comparables:
N/A
My Thoughts:
I believe we are only in the early days of the gig-economy and no one has truly found a way to own the 1099 workers' finances as the category has historically been too small to focus on.
Airbyte
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Open-Source data integration platform
Lead Investors:
Accel
Total Raised:
$5.2M
Comparables:
Fivetran, Airflow
My Thoughts:
I am a huge believer in low-code software as it frees up time for the tech-worlds most limited resource (developers), while still enabling flexibility which traditional automation software does not have. Airbyte plays within this for the most mundane task of them all, data-integration, so there should be no shortage of demand here.
Hi, I am Nicolas von Blottnitz, an Associate at e.ventures’ SF office focusing on Consumer, Fintech, and SaaS business. Since joining the firm in 2018, I have led our investments in Codota, Polygon, Flockjay, Wise, and Grin.
What is the EVA Growth Index?
The EVA Growth index is a composite of third-party data sources around a company’s website traffic. The vertical green lines in the charts represent a point in time where the company raised outside capital.
