Hi Shopifreaks
I'm excited & proud today to bring you my 200th Edition of Shopifreaks! 🎉🥳
I launched Shopifreaks in January 2021 and have since published 200 consecutive weekly editions — never missing a single week including holidays, travel, COVID, electricity blackouts, and even the birth of my daughter (who luckily wasn't born on a Monday, LOL)!
Shopifreaks is a labor of love. As you can imagine, a LOT of time and energy goes into producing each weekly edition. However it's been my pleasure during the past almost four years to bring you the industry's most important news each week and help you keep up with industry trends.
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Thank you to my readers and sponsors for helping me reach 200 editions. I look forward to continuing to serve you with e-commerce news and insights for the next 200 editions as well!
Two quick reminders this week:
1) Submit Your 2025 Predictions – Simply hit reply to this e-mail and share your predictions for our third annual 2025 E-commerce Predictions report. All predictions are welcome! If you've published your predictions elsewhere (like on LinkedIn or a blog post), you can just send me the link. Check out our 2024 Predictions from last year if you'd like to see previous examples. Thank you to those of you who have already submitted your predictions.
2) Enter Our iPhone & MacBook Pro Giveaway – All you have to do for a chance to win is mention/tag Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter and/or Paul Drecksler on LinkedIn (bonus entries for both) between now and Dec 20, 2024. You can post about the newsletter once a week for additional chances to win. As for the post itself, you can either share stories from this week's edition, talk about the newsletter, or repost my weekly recaps — all count as entries.
And now let's dive into this week's top stories!
In this week's edition I cover:
- Unbanked US households
- Amazon launches Haul, its Temu competitor
- OpenAI will soon buy things online for you
- YouTube adds TikTok-esque gifting
- Facebook switches to Views
- Amazon questioned over TikTok deal
- Perplexity AI brings ads to search results
- Amazon shutters Freevee
- Amazon beats Walmart & Target again on price
- Temu adds minimum and maximum order values
- TikTok says it's worth $300B
- Klarna files for its IPO
All this and more in this week's 200th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!
PS: I recently recorded a podcast with Anton Zelenin, senior marketing manager at Tapfiliate, about how companies can make the most out of their affiliate programs. I talk about top mistakes I've seen affiliate managers make when developing affiliate programs, and strategies for structuring your program and working with creators. You can give it a listen here.
Stat of the Week
Only 4.2% of US households, or 5.6M, are unbanked, according to the FDIC's biennial National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households. The percentage of unbanked households declined to a record low in 2023, down from 8.2% in 2011.
The FDIC also found that:
- 14.2% of US households, or 19.0M, were underbanked in 2021, meaning they had a bank or credit union account but primarily used nonbank products and services.
- 48.3% of banked households used mobile banking as their primary way to access their accounts.
- 76.4% of all households had a credit card.
- 3.9% of all households used BNPL in the past 12 months.
- 4.8% of households owned or used crypto or digital assets in the previous 12 months.
1. Amazon launches “Haul” – its low-cost Temu competitor
Amazon officially launched Amazon Haul, its low-cost marketplace that ships items directly from China, to compete with Shein, Temu, and other direct-from-China marketplaces that cater to US customers.
The marketplace features items with a maximum price of $20 and shipping times of up to two weeks, which is contrary to Amazon's typical commitment of ultra-fast fulfillment times. Essentially the market decided that not all products need to be delivered same-day or next-day, and that customers are willing to wait a couple weeks to save money on non-essential items.
Dharmesh Mehta, VP of Worldwide Selling Partner Services at Amazon said:
“Amazon Haul aims to help make shopping for fashion, home, lifestyle, electronics and other products even more fun, easy and affordable, all backed by Amazon’s A-to-z product guarantee so customers can shop with confidence that the products they’re purchasing are safe, authentic and in the condition expected. It’s early days for this experience, and we’ll continue to listen to customers as we refine and expand it in the weeks and months to come.”
Amazon Haul has its own search, cart, and checkout experience separate from Amazon's primary marketplace. The majority of products are priced at $10 or less, with some as low as $1.
Customers that create larger “hauls” get additional discounts:
- 5% off orders of $50 or more
- 10% off orders of $75 and up
- Plus free returns on all purchases over $3 within 15 days of delivery at one of Amazon's more than 8,000 drop-off locations
- Orders over $25 qualify for free shipping
- Smaller orders incur a $3.99 fee
Amazon claims that all Haul items are screened for safety, authenticity, and compliance with regulations, and all purchases are backed by Amazon's A-to-Z Guarantee, which offers protection for customers by covering damaged, defective, or misrepresented items.
Amazon Haul is currently exclusive to US shoppers on mobile, where Amazon said most bargain hunters tend to shop. Customers can find Amazon Haul in the Shopping app by searching “Haul” in the search bar, navigating to Amazon Haul from the main menu icon, or by going to www.amazon.com/haul on their mobile device.
The company says it plains to “refine and expand” Haul based on user feedback, but it hasn't yet shared any future expansion plans to other markets.
Have you shopped on Haul yet? If so, what do you think about the product selection and pricing? Hit reply and let me know.
2. OpenAI to release “Operator” to complete online transactions
OpenAI is preparing to launch a new AI agent — codenamed “Operator” — that can take actions on a person's behalf such as writing code, making online purchases, or booking travel and restaurant reservations, according to Bloomberg sources.
The company's leadership team announced plans in a staff meeting to release the tool in January as a research preview through its API for developers.
OpenAI executives hinted at projects like Operator in a recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit. (See story #6 in Edition 198 for the highlights.)
Srinivas Narayanan, VP of Engineering, said about his future hopes for ChatGPT, “I'd love for it to understand my personal information better and take actions on my behalf.
OpenAI is not the only company working on AI-powered autonomous agents:
- Anthropic unveiled a tool in October that can understand what's happening on a user's computer screen and complete a range of online tasks for them.
- Microsoft also launched a set of AI tools last month that can send e-mails, manage records, and take other actions on behalf of business workers.
- It was “accidentally leaked” last month that Google is developing an AI tool that takes over a web browser to complete tasks such as research and shopping.
What does this mean for e-commerce?
If autonomous agents are about to take over our online shopping for us, how will that change the face of e-commerce? Will merchants begin structuring their product listings to cater to the agents instead of humans, similar to how bloggers had to adapt their writing styles to satisfy Google's ranking algorithm?
Which merchants and retailers will receive priority from the agents? How will price, fulfillment speed, reviews, website authority, social media mentions, and other user generated content impact an agent's selection? Will retailers be able to purchase “preference” from the AI agents to shop with them over competitors?
Who's responsible when an agent makes a mistake and purchases the wrong item? Will retailers adapt their returns / exchange policies in response to a potentially higher frequency of purchase mistakes made by agents? Will some retailers (like Amazon) block 3rd party AI agents and/or incentivize customers to use their own proprietary shopping agents?
Exciting times ahead!
3. YouTube introduces a gifting feature, powered by Jewels
YouTube is launching a gifting feature for its vertical livestreams that allows users to purchase digital “Jewels” for streamers to show their support and make connections. The gifts will appear as an overlay on livestream videos, “enhancing the live experience and creating a new way for you and your viewers to interact and have fun,” according to Google.
Jewels can be purchased in bundles that can then be dished out to eligible creators during their vertical live streams. Creators, in turn, receive Rubies for each gift, which are worth 1 cent each. YouTube will be rolling out the Jewels feature to eligible creators in the US over the next few weeks. Currently only US creators and users are eligible to purchase and receive Jewels.
To help launch Jewels & gifts, YouTube is offering limited-time 50% bonus to creators on gift earnings (up to $1,000 per month).
Does this all sound familiar?
TikTok's LIVE Gifts feature, which launched alongside the platforms' livestreaming capabilities in 2019, operates similarly, letting users purchase “coins” that can be used to buy virtual gifts of monetary value for livestreaming creators. Creators on TikTok who receive the gifts can also earn “diamonds,” which the company rewards based on the popularity of the livestream. Creators can redeem these diamonds for money or virtual items.
It appears that YouTube is trying to make an easy transition for TikTok Creators to jump ship to its platform in the event of a TikTok ban next year.
4. Facebook switches to Views as its primary metric
Facebook is switching to “Views” as its primary metric, following Instagram's move in August to do the same. On reels and videos, Plays will now be called Views, and Facebook is removing the separate Replays metric. For Stories, photo or text posts, Views will replace Impressions.
Views will also include repeat views. So for example, if the girl you met once at an airport who became obsessed with you on Facebook views your photo fifteen separate times in the same day, that would count as fifteen Views for that photo instead of one Impression. So maybe she's not so annoying after all.
In addition to the new Views metric, Facebook is updating its video metrics. Minutes Viewed and Average Minutes Viewed will replace Watch Time and Average Watch Time. Other metrics like Reach, 3-second views, 1-minute views, Reactions, Comments, and Shares will remain unchanged.
Meta wrote:
“Creators will now have a single distribution metric for all content types that’s calculated the same way across Facebook and Instagram. The new metric – called Views – tells you the number of times a reel or video was played or the number of times photo or text posts were on screen, and aligns with Instagram’s recently updated metrics.
Views streamlines the various unique content distribution metrics into one, helping you understand how well your content is resonating regardless of format or Meta platform. Views also capture when people look at your content multiple times, telling you more about how interesting or entertaining it is.”
Makes sense!
5. Amazon questioned by Congress over its TikTok deal
Amazon was questioned by US Congress over its e-commerce deal with TikTok that enables users to directly buy Amazon goods through the app. Users can make Amazon purchases right from the ads they see in their TikTok feeds, and link their Amazon and TikTok accounts to expedite the process, which remain synced for future purchases.
The House Select Committee on China, which seeks to address threats posed by China's government, was concerned that a leading American retailer central to the economy had partnered with a Chinese-owned company on the verge of being banned over national security concerns, and that the partnership would make it more difficult to ban the app.
A spokesperson for the Select Committee on China told Bloomberg:
“The Select Committee conveyed to Amazon that it is dangerous and unwise for Amazon to partner with TikTok given the grave national security threat the app poses.”
Amazon responded via e-mail:
“Like many other US companies, we maintain open lines of communication with officials across all levels of government to discuss issues that are of interest to policymakers, our employees, and our customers.”
TikTok did not respond to comment.
Amazon has similar integrations with other social media companies, including Meta and Pinterest, but Congress isn't too concerned with those.
TikTok also partners with other major American institutions:
- The NFL signed a multi-year extension of its TikTok video partnership in September.
- Monumental Sports & Entertainment signed a branding deal with TikTok to put the app's logo on jersey's for the NHL's Washington Capitals.
- UnitedMasters entered into a direct partnership with TikTok to provide the platform with its full catalog of music and provide additional commercial opportunities to artists.
- Influencer shopping network LTK inked a deal with TikTok enabling creators to include LTK links in their videos last week.
- TikTok also partnered with Getty Images last week to let advertisers pull in content when using the platform's AI ad creation tool.
And that's just naming a few! TikTok has also previously entered into various partnerships with Disney, Walmart, Oracle, Universal Music Group, IPG Mediabrands, Publicis Groupe, Zefr, Pearpop, and Girls Who Code.
Effectively these partnerships are TikTok's way of saying: “We're not going anywhere.”
6. Perplexity brings ads to its AI search platform
Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine backed by Jeff Bezos, Tobi Lütke, and other notable investors, says it will begin experimenting with ads on its platform this week, starting with the US.
The ads will be formatted as “sponsored follow-up questions” such as “How can I use LinkedIn to enhance my job search?”
Brands participating in the ad program initially include Indeed, Whole Foods, Universal McCann, and PMG.
Perplexity wrote in a blog post:
“Advertising material will be clearly noted as ‘sponsored,' and answers to Sponsored Questions will still be generated by our technology, and not written or edited by the brands sponsoring the questions. We intentionally chose these formats because it integrates advertising in a way that still protects the utility, accuracy, and objectivity of answers.
While brands are keen on understanding how their companies appear in AI answer engines like ours, we will avoid duplicating the SEO industry where people are implementing arbitrary tactics to improve their rankings at the expense of user utility. We would rather give brands a transparent way to advertise through Perplexity that — rather than attempting to manipulate answers — encourages users to express their curiosity about a brand.”
Perplexity says that it needs to invest in building not just a “beloved product,” but a “robust and self-sustaining business” — which perhaps means that its Pro Subscription hasn't taken off as well as the company had hoped. Maybe users aren't quite ready to pay for web search yet?
The company actually addressed this in their blog post:
“Ad programs like this help us generate revenue to share with our publisher partners. Experience has taught us that subscriptions alone do not generate enough revenue to create a sustainable revenue-sharing program. Especially given how rapidly our publisher program is growing, advertising is the best way to ensure a steady and scalable revenue stream.”
Perplexity also noted that the ads will not change its commitment to maintaining a trusted service that provides direct, unbiased answers to questions, and that it'll never share its users personal information with advertisers.
I tried Perplexity a few months ago, and frankly I wasn't impressed, but that's not to say that I won't be in the future. The world needs competition in the online search space, which has become enshittified by Google, and I support the mission of Perplexity, OpenAI's web search project, You.com, and other search competitors. It'll just take a tremendous product to get people to overcome their two-decades-long habit of searching Google and switch over to a competing platform (myself included).
There is no “online search” without “AI” anymore. You won't see any non-AI search engine startups, and that's okay. Google is also moving towards AI generated results. It's where the industry is headed.
Now I'm just waiting for OpenAI to make a mobile operating system so we can have some real competition in the space! As long as Android sustains a +70% global mobile operating system market share, it'll be difficult to knock it off its search pedestal.
In other ads news… Meta will be launching ads on its Threads app as early as January 2025, according to a report by The Information, which is contrary to what Meta had previously announced. Threads hit 200M users this past August, which I would imagine means that the company has been itching to drive some ad revenue through it.
7. Amazon shutters its free streaming service Freevee
Amazon is shutting down Freevee, its free streaming service that it launched in January 2019 under the name IMDb Freedive and then later rebranded twice to IMDb TV and Amazon Freevee, as part of a broader effort to trim costs and streamline its video division.
Freevee was Amazon’s take on what the industry calls a FAST service — free, ad-supported streaming TV — and included shows such as Judy Justice, Neighbours, Tribunal Justice, America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation and Bosch: Legacy, as well as older originals, including Jury Duty, High School, Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis and Primo.
Amazon is moving much of Freevee's ad-supported, free streaming content to Prime Video, keeping many of the shows accessible for non-Prime members through the app.
With the consolidation, Amazon is leaning into Prime Video serving as a hybrid destination for both Prime members and non-members, offering a mix of new and old movies to rent, buy, or watch for free — with various levels of “free” depending on your subscription level.
It's a pretty brilliant move that goes against the standard for the rest of the industry.
Streaming competitors such as Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Max, Peacock, and Paramount+ offer either ad-supported tiers or ad-free tiers with no option to rent or buy movies. Subscription choices for consumers are very binary — Ads or No Ads — however either tier requires a subscription, with no additional forms of monetization for the companies once a viewer subscribes.
Whereas Amazon is more going with a variation of the Google TV and Apple TV route, which offer a combination of free streaming, paid streaming, alongside the ability to rent or buy premium content. Effectively Amazon is turning Prime Video into a freemium model with various tiers of monetization that include ads, subscriptions, and one-time purchases.
The golden era of video streaming has officially come to an end.
Remember when you'd have one subscription that all your friends and family used that enabled you to watch a broad catalog of TV shows and movies? Now it's obvious that streaming is headed in the direction of in-app purchases on top of your subscription.
What's next? Gifting actors coins and Jewels?
8. Amazon still has the lowest prices over e-commerce rivals
For the eighth consecutive year, Amazon had the lowest online prices across 15 categories against 22 leading US retailers, according to an annual Price Wars study by Profitero.
The study revealed that Amazon had an average price advantage of 14% over its rivals, but that competitors closed the gap compared to last year when Amazon had a 16% price advantage.
Walmart continues as Amazon's closest price competitor with only a 5% price difference on identical items, which is slightly less competitive than last year's 4% price gap.
Other key insights from the report include:
- Target showed YoY improvement, with online prices only 13% higher than Amazon's prices, compared to 16% last year.
- Best Buy rose to second place in video games, with prices 9% higher than Amazon, edging out Walmart.
- Chewy remained competitive in pet supplies, with prices just 1% above Amazon.
- Nordstrom tied Walmart at 5% higher than Amazon in fashion.
- Target and Walmart tied in the toys category with a 2% price difference from Amazon.
It feels like the rest of online retailers have adopted the famous Avis Car Rental slogan — “We're Number Two. We Try Harder.”
9. Other e-commerce news of interest
Temu started requiring a minimum and maximum purchase amount between VND887,000 and VND1 million (US$35-40) in Vietnam, informing customers that went under to add more to their cart, and customers that went over to remove items. Temu said the minimum allows it to “continue offering more and lower-priced items,” while the cap is likely because there is no tax charged on e-commerce purchases in the country under this price. An estimated 4-5M items are shipped from China to Vietnam every day, and the government is considering scrapping the tax waiver.
TikTok filed US trademarks for “TikTok Go,” which will promote “restaurants, retail businesses, the travel industry, and other online and offline businesses,” and “TikTok PayLater,” which is designed to allow customers using TikTok Shop to “split their payments into monthly installments.” Both trademark filings describe TikTok Go and TikTok PayLater as mobile apps separate from the main TikTok social app.
Some TikTok creators are now able to add affiliate links to their uploads, which then appear at the top of the comment stream. When the links are tapped, they take users directly to those product pages within the app. Currently only links from select partners can be included.
Chinese immigrants in America are running “family warehouses” from their apartments, serving cross-border sellers on Temu, TikTok, and Amazon. The mini-fulfillment centers help deliver orders, examine returns, and sell excess inventory to local stores. The business model has been around since the early 2000s, when e-commerce entrepreneurs sold made-in-China goods directly to Americans by having them stored in the homes of Chinese students studying in the US, but now it's growing in popularity as the demand for warehouses soars.
Apple is developing a wall-mounted home “command center” that will be able to control appliances, talk to Siri, access Apple Intelligence, and carry out video calls, according to Bloomberg sources who chose to remain anonymous. The product, internally known as J490, is set to be announced in March and will compete in the smart home market against Google Next and Amazon Echo.
TikTok's parent company ByteDance is valuing itself around $300B, one of the highest valuations ever for a Chinese tech company, according to the Wall Street Journal. In comparison, Meta's market cap sits around $1.4 trillion, Amazon at $2.13 trillion, Microsoft at $3.09 trillion, and Elon Musk's X likely somewhere around $9.4 billion. The valuation came in a recent buyback offer by ByteDance, just a couple months before TikTok could be banned in the US unless it sells the app to an American owner.
Meta quietly rolled out “Meta Credits” for Horizon Worlds users in the US, UK, and Canada, which allow them to buy in-world digital goods from creators like avatar outfits or access keys to premium worlds. Horizon Worlds is a VR platform developed by Meta that allows users to socialize, create, and explore virtual environments using Meta's Oculus VR headsets.
Amazon's capex jumped 81% in Q3 from a year earlier, but CEO Andy Jassy reassured shareholders that the company expects to make money on the investments, which are primarily tied to generative AI. Amazon spent $22.6 billion on property and equipment during the quarter and plans to spend $75 billion in total this year, and even more in 2025. The company is rushing to invest in data centers, networking gear, and hardware to meet the demand for AI technology.
TikTok is ramping up its livestream efforts this season with celebrity-led shopping experiences, as well as exclusive sales and discounts from major brands, as it tries to grow its US Shop business to $17.5 billion by the end of the year. Something's got to justify that $300B valuation! Additionally, to help persuade customers who are new to live shopping, TikTok will be extending its return window for purchases made during its Brand Palooza event, which will run from Nov 13 to 28 and feature brands like Phillips, Maybelline NY, HeyDude, and more.
Amazon introduced a low, upfront pricing model for a clinical visit, treatment plan, and fast, free medication delivery for Prime members for a range of common health and beauty problems such as anti-aging skincare treatment, men's hair loss, eyelash growth and more. Prime members can now see the total monthly cost or per use cost for the virtual visits and medications associated with the treatment prior to beginning care.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein confirmed on the company's latest earnings call that Shopify has no plans to expand into the CRM market, following an analysts comments about how Shopify had an opportunity to compete with Salesforce in this space. The comments come less than two weeks after Shopify bragged about taking “hundreds” of commerce customers from Salesforce.
About 55,000 Canada Post workers went on strike for the second time in six years on Friday after their union said it had failed to reach a pay deal with the postal service. The union is demanding wage increases in line with inflation, cost of living adjustment payments to be rolled into the basic wage rate, and safe working conditions. Honestly, they shouldn't even have to go on strike for that bare minimum level of working conditions and pay increases! What are you doing Canada Post? Folks have Christmas gifts to deliver.
Qoo10, the Singapore-based e-commerce platform that faced significant financial challenges in recent months that led to its insolvency, was ordered by the Singapore High Court to be wound up, with liquidators appointed for the company. Merchants and other creditors must file a proof of debt with the liquidator to see how much they can recover, but many merchants aren't hopeful that'll they will see much in compensation.
Amazon told employees with disabilities that it was implementing a more rigorous vetting process for new requests to work from home and applications to extend existing arrangements, requiring some affected workers to return to office for monthlong trials to determine if accommodations meet their needs. Some workers fear that the process was designed to make requests less likely to be approved, while others accused CEO Andy Jassy of hypocrisy for introducing a new bureaucratic process — something that he's publicly said he wants to end because it's slowing Amazon down. Amazon denied having an ulterior motive and said that the new disability policy reflects its broader return-to-office philosophy.
China's President Xi Jinping unveiled a new mega port in Peru located on the edge of the country's coastal dessert within a remote fishing town where a third of residents don't have running water. The location was transformed into a huge deep-water port to help China cash in on resource-rich South America. The $1.3B project that's majority owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco is supposed to bring “considerable income and enormous job opportunities” to Peru, but locals claim that it's depriving them of fishing waters and bringing no economic benefit to them.
Meta was hit with a €797.72M ($841M) fine over breaches of antitrust rules related to the linking of Facebook Marketplace to Facebook, and the market advantage that it provides the company. The EU Commission determined that Facebook breached local antitrust regulations by “distorting competition in markets for online classified ads” and abusing its dominant position, using the scale of its social network to give Facebook Marketplace an unfair advantage over other online classifieds providers, because Facebook users were being given access to Marketplace whether they wanted it or not. So does that mean Facebook Dating (Tinder and Bumble competitor), Facebook Groups (competitor of Nextdoor, Reddit, online forums), and Facebook Video (TikTok and YouTube competitor) have an unfair advantage as well? Where is the line drawn between having an unfair advantage and offering new features to your existing users?
Meta was also hit with a $25.4M fine by India's competition watchdog for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp's controversial 2021 privacy policy. The Competition Commission of India found that WhatsApp's “take-it-or-leave-it” privacy update constituted an abuse of Meta's dominant position by forcing users to accept expanded data collection without an opt-out option. In addition to the monetary policy, the CCI mandated significant changes to WhatsApp's data practices in the country.
Amazon is ending its Fresh grocery delivery service in Germany, its second biggest market, in the latest example of the company pulling back on its own grocery delivery services and relying more heavily on partnerships with other grocers. Amazon launched Fresh in Germany in 2017 in the country's three largest cities, but now the company will only offer deliveries from a local grocer, Tegut, and from a VC-backed startup called Rohlik Group. Amazon made similar moves in the UK in June.
Visa's Flexible Credential Card, which allows users to pay from different account funding sources, is now available in the US and UAE. In the US, the card will roll out in partnership with Affirm to tap into their BNPL payment options, and in the UAE, the card will launch in partnership with digital banking platform Liv, which will enable cardholders to access multiple currency accounts from a single card.
Meta is reducing the price of its Subscription ad-free experience in the EU from €9.99 to €5.99/month on the web, or from €12.99 to €7.99/month on iOS and Android, as well as introducing users in the region an additional new choice to use Facebook and Instagram for free with less personalized ads, in response to the demands from EU regulators. In the less personalized option, the company says it will use “significantly less data to show ads,” which means that the ads may be less relevant to a person's interest.
Amazon discontinued its secretive “Encore” project to develop an at-home fertility tracker, resulting in layoffs of around 100 employees. The project was part of Amazon's Grand Challenge division, which aimed to launch a device and app that would predict fertility through saliva testing, but it was ultimately terminated to control costs. The project was born out of the company's 2020 acquisition of blueDiagnostics, which had developed a thermometer-like device called FertilityFinder to help women track their fertility from home by testing their saliva and measuring two key hormones, estradiol and progesterone.
A mechanic at an Amazon distribution center in Florida named Andrew Tabannah died last week after a van he was working on fell on him when the jack stand propping it up failed. Tabannah's coworkers placed additional jacks under the van and were able to pull him out to attempt life saving measures until the ambulance arrived, but ultimately he did not survive the accident.
The FTC is taking action against Dave, an online cash app and neobank, for using “misleading marketing to deceive consumers,” particularly for marketing $500 cash advances to consumer that it rarely offered, and its charge of an “Express Fee” for customers who wanted their money immediately. The FTC claims that Dave's marketing implied that its cash advances would be “instant” without disclosing the fees involved until after the consumer gave the platform access to their bank account.
Amazon Web Services is offering researchers who want to use its custom AI chip, Trainium, a competitor to Nvidia chips that is used for training AI models, free credits to use its cloud data centers as part of its Build on Trainium program. Amazon is making up to 40,000 first-generation Trainium chips available for the program, which is focused on university-led research in generative AI. The company is planning to publish Trainium's instruction set architecture to customers can program the chips directly, instead of with software, which is what Nvidia's chips need.
10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions
Klarna, the Sweden-based BNPL provider, filed draft registration documents for its highly anticipated IPO in the US. The company expects its IPO to take place once the SEC has completed its review, while the timing, number of shares offered, and price range would be subject to market conditions. At one point Klarna was Europe's most valuable startup at a $45.6B valuation, but later saw its valuation fall to $6.7B. Bloomberg reports that the company would go public somewhere around the $20B mark.
Wonder Group, a New York-based company founded by Marc Lore that operates delivery-first restaurants featuring renowned chefs, is acquiring Grubhub, a Chicago-based online restaurant ordering and delivery platform, from Just Eat Takeaway for $650M, including $500M in senior notes and $150M in cash. Last year Wonder Group acquired meal kit retailer Blue Apron for $103M, and in March 2024 the company raised $700M and revealed plans for operating 90 food hall locations. The company says that the acquisition of Grubhub will complement its mission to make great food more accessible and create remarkable dining experiences.
Nuvei, a Canadian fintech that provides payment processing, card issuing, and risk management solutions to businesses, received regulatory approval to be acquired by Advent International, a Boston-based private equity firm that specializes in buyouts, growth, and strategic restructuring, for $6.3B. Since the deal was first announced in April, Nuvei has added new products, such as a split payments feature, and inked new partnerships, like its recent collaboration with BigCommerce. Philip Fayer, CEO and founder of Nuvei, will continue to serve as the company's chair and CEO, with Nuvei's current leadership team continuing in their roles.
BiteSpeed, an India-based AI customer operating system for e-commerce brands that enables businesses to enhance customer engagement with WhatsApp marketing, chatbots, and omnichannel support, raised $3.5M in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners' accelerator program, Surge. The company plans to use the funds for hiring across marketing, sales, and technical departments to support its global expansion.
Vinted, Europe's largest online marketplace for second-hand clothes, ruled out the idea of going public, dispelling rumors about a pending IPO. CEO Thomas Plantenga said that the company is expanding into new countries and new product categories, and that it wants to “play these bets out” without having to appease a large shareholder base. The company is valued at $5.29B after completing a secondary share sale last month led by private equity firm TPG.
Odyssey, a generative AI startup focused on creating high-quality video content for professional filmmakers and animators, raised $18M in a Series A round led by EQT Ventures, bringing its total amount raised to $27M. The company will use the fund to build digital replicas of our physical world, which could be used for creating films and games by combining real-world data collection with AI technology.
Kody, a UK-based platform that modernizes in-person commerce for brick-and-mortar retailers with software that integrates systems, provides spending insights, tracks customer data, and offers a retention and loyalty program, raised $20M in a Series A round, bringing its total amount raised to $30M. The company plans to use the funds to invest in talent acquisition across the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore as part of a broader strategy to enhance the platform's capabilities and build strategic partnerships.
SmartBank, a Tokyo-based fintech that offers an app and services that makes switching to cashless payments easier for Japanese users, raised $26M, with $7.2M coming from debt financing and $18.8M from equity provided by its current investor, Global Brain. Japanese consumers still use cash for 39.3% of spending in the country. The company will use the funds to double its headcount from 49 to around 100 by 2025, mostly within its engineering team.
Trolley, a Toronto-based fintech that provides a global payouts platform for businesses to automate and management payments to creators and freelancers, raised $23M in a Series B round led by Wavecrest Growth Partners. The company will use the funds to accelerate product development, broaden its market presence, and enhance its platform to better serve businesses with its compliance solutions.
Ennoventure, an AI-driven platform that helps businesses with brand protection through its invisible signature technology, raised $8.9M in a Series A round led by Tanglin Venture Partners. The company will use the funds to expand its global footprint across the USA, UAE, India, and other key markets.
Salesfire, a UK platform that helps e-commerce stores increase sales by creating a comprehensive profile of every visitor and using behavioral cues to understand their interest and personalize their shopping experience, raised £2.75M from Mercia Equity Finance. The company will use the funds to develop its new AI technology that will give deeper insights into customer behavior, such as recognizing anonymous individuals with different user accounts, which will be valuable if cookies are ever actually phased out.
Unicommerce, an India-based e-commerce enablement platform that offers an order, inventory, and warehouse management system designed to streamline operations for brands, is acquiring Shipway, a platform that provides e-commerce businesses with shipping automation solutions including multi-carrier integration, real-time tracking, notifications, and return management. In the first phase, Unicommerce will acquire 42.76% of the company for Rs 68.4 crore ($8.1M), with plans to secure the remaining stake within a year through either a merger of stock swap.
Influur, a Miami-based influencer platform that connects brands with over 30,000 verified influencers globally and helps streamline influencer marketing campaigns, raised $10M in a Series A round from Point72 Ventures and HTwenty Capital, bringing its total amount raised to over $15M. The company will use the funds to add insights and financial tools for influencer campaigns, as well as build a prediction engine that companies can use to predict how a campaign might perform with a particular creator.
Bluecore, a New York-based marketing technology company that integrates shopper identify, behavior, and product catalog data to deliver personalized shopping experiences across e-mail, website, and paid media channels, acquired alby, an AI shopping assistant that automatically anticipates and answers questions that drive shoppers to buy, for an undisclosed amount. The merged companies will introduce a conversational shopping experience to compete with Amazon and other retailers that enables retailers to anticipate and answer questions via their websites, e-mail campaigns, SMS, and mobile apps.
Fleek, a London-based online marketplace that connects secondhand clothing wholesalers with companies that sell it at retail, raised $20.4M between a Series A led by HV Capital, and a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Since its launch in 2021, the company has worked with over 10,000 resellers and retailers from 70 countries, moving 2.5M items of secondhand clothes from 1,000 wholesale suppliers.
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Paul E. Drecksler
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PS: Why did the banana go to the doctor? It wasn't peeling very well…