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It’s a sweltering day here in New York City, and that means Wall Street is on fire, and so is Robinhood, apparently. The popular stock trading app officially filed its Form S-1 with the SEC a few hours ago to go public, where it will trade under the ticker “HOOD.”

The Equity crew has been yammering about Robinhood for years now, and we have been chomping at the bit to see those S-1 results for what feels like ages. Well, we finally got the numbers, we chomped that bit (or at least Alex and Danny did, since Natasha went on vacation about 15 minutes before the IPO hit the wires), and so here’s a special Equity Shot to talk about all the highlights.

We talked about so much in an itsy-bitsy 15-minute episode: crazy revenue growth, crazy revenue concentration from two major sources, regulatory hurdles that the company has been clearing up, better financials with a bit of nuance on the company’s Q1 finances, and the company’s special plan for its IPO.

Wowza.

Here’s what we got up to:

Historical growth and profitability.Revenue mix and revenue concentration, along with constituent concerns.The importance of options-related incomes for the company.Dogecoin.Why the company’s adjusted income may help it assuage investors who have their eyes pop out of their skulls when they see its GAAP Q1 2021 results.

And a lot more. Of course, if you hate Robinhood, we will be back with our normally scheduled Friday episode of Equity tomorrow.

Data breaches have become a part of life. They impact hospitals, universities, government agencies, charitable organizations and commercial enterprises. In healthcare alone, 2020 saw 640 breaches, exposing 30 million personal records, a 25% increase over 2019 that equates to roughly two breaches per day, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On a global basis, 2.3 billion records were breached in February 2021.

It’s painfully clear that existing data loss prevention (DLP) tools are struggling to deal with the data sprawl, ubiquitous cloud services, device diversity and human behaviors that constitute our virtual world.

Conventional DLP solutions are built on a castle-and-moat framework in which data centers and cloud platforms are the castles holding sensitive data. They’re surrounded by networks, endpoint devices and human beings that serve as moats, defining the defensive security perimeters of every organization. Conventional solutions assign sensitivity ratings to individual data assets and monitor these perimeters to detect the unauthorized movement of sensitive data.

Unfortunately, these historical security boundaries are becoming increasingly ambiguous and somewhat irrelevant as bots, APIs and collaboration tools become the primary conduits for sharing and exchanging data.

In reality, data loss is only half the problem confronting a modern enterprise. Corporations are routinely exposed to financial, legal and ethical risks associated with the mishandling or misuse of sensitive information within the corporation itself. The risks associated with the misuse of personally identifiable information have been widely publicized.

However, risks of similar or greater severity can result from the mishandling of intellectual property, material nonpublic information, or any type of data that was obtained through a formal agreement that placed explicit restrictions on its use.

Conventional DLP frameworks are incapable of addressing these challenges. We believe they need to be replaced by a new data misuse protection (DMP) framework that safeguards data from unauthorized or inappropriate use within a corporate environment in addition to its outright theft or inadvertent loss. DMP solutions will provide data assets with more sophisticated self-defense mechanisms instead of relying on the surveillance of traditional security perimeters.

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Shares of American cybersecurity unicorn SentinelOne began to trade yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. The former startup had raised nearly $700 million before its IPO. And it priced its public debut above a raised price interval. But even its higher-than-anticipated valuation didn’t stop shares of the company from closing around 20% higher.

The SentinelOne IPO is a single data point, but one that fits into a quarters-long trend of high-growth technology companies attracting strong — perhaps exuberant — valuations on American exchanges. The notion that America is a good place to go public is not news; even Chinese tech companies facing what could be called a valuation gap are still pursuing listings in the United States.

But not every technology startup grows up planning, or even dreaming of an American IPO. Many European companies will wind up listing on their native exchanges.

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

In the wake of the busy 2021 IPO cycle, The Exchange wanted to better understand why some tech companies choose to list in Europe over the United States.

The question is pertinent thanks to rising venture capital activity on the continent. The first quarter of 2021 saw record investment in the region, to the tune of $21.4 billion, according to Crunchbase News. Early data looking at European venture capital activity in the first half of 2021 is looking similarly bullish. More VC activity likely implies more breakout startups, which in turn should lead to more startup exits, some of which will be public offerings.

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This afternoon Robinhood, the popular investing app for consumers filed to go public. The company intends to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol “HOOD.”

That Robinhood released an S-1 filing today is not a surprise. The company privately filed to go public back in March, leaving the startup-watching world waiting for the eventual filing drop. Robinhood’s public offering document includes a placeholder $100 million raise figure, though that will change the closer we get to its debut.

The company is pursuing a public listing after a period of rapid growth. Robinhood saw its revenues soar from $277.5 million in 2019 to $985.8 million in 2020.

The company’s first-quarter numbers are even more impressive. During the first three months of 2021, Robinhood generated revenues of $522.2 million, up around four times from its Q1 2020 result of $127.6 million. TechCrunch expected Robinhood to post a strong first quarter based on previous filings relating to its payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) business.

Notably, Robinhood was profitable in 2020, generating net income of around $7.4 million during the one-year period. However, the company’s most recent period includes an epic $1.49 billion cost relating to “change[s] in fair value of convertible notes and warrant liability,” leading the company to post an astronomical net loss of $1.44 billion in the first quarter of the year. That compares with a net loss of $107 million for 2019.

For the three-month period ended March 31, Robinhood posted $463.8 million in operating expenses, inclusive of “brokerage and transaction” costs. The company’s business then, apart from its fair-value changes, had a good start to the year in profitability terms.

That Robinhood closed the first quarter of 2021 on a more than $2 billion annual run rate is notable; the firm has quickly scaled to mammoth size on the back of rising consumer interest in investing in both stocks and cryptocurrencies.

Robinhood has proved to be a lightning rod for oversight, fines, mass usage and culture in the last year. And it raised billions this year after running into operational issues regarding trading of certain stocks that retail investors found particularly appealing.

Turning to investor results, DST Global, Index Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Ribbit capital are listed as shareholders with more than 5% of the company apiece, though certain information in the S-1 filing is yet to be included, including share counts for most of those groups. DST’s 58,102,765 Class A shares, however, are listed.

Robinhood has three classes of shares, including Class A shares with one vote, Class B shares with 10, and Class C shares with none.

TechCrunch is parsing the S-1 and will have more in a following piece. Update: Here!

 

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LA-based game studio Singularity 6 has banked more funding as it scales itself up and readies for the launch of its debut title.

The startup tells TechCrunch they’ve raised $30 million in a Series B bout of funding led by FunPlus Ventures with additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), LVP, Transcend, Anthos Capital and Mitch Lasky. The studio has now disclosed some $49 million in funding, a sizable sum, but one that showcases how much investors are looking to rally around gaming platform plays in the wake of Roblox’s monster IPO.

In 2019, Singularity 6 raised a $16.5 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. At the time, the studio was mum on details about its upcoming debut title, but we’ve learned more about it since.

The title, Palia, is a community simulation game that seems to be more focused on Animal Crossing-like community mechanics in an MMO environment, rather than endless battles. Last month, the studio showcased a launch trailer of the title which hinted at a good deal of the gameplay. Palia looks to be a medieval Zelda-like environment where users can move between towns in an open world environment while farming and collecting resources to build structures in a shared world.

The company has said in marketing materials that the title is “designed to create community, friendships and a real sense of belonging.” In a statement, a16z partner Jonathan Lai called the upcoming title, “warm and dynamic.”

There are still quite a bit of unanswered questions about the title, which is currently taking sign-ups on its website to be alerted to pre-alpha access. We do know that plenty of VCs are betting millions on the prospect that this multiplayer title could be big.

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When considering a move to the United States, Indian startup founders first need to make a mental pivot to face the market they want to sell into and ask themselves how much risk they are willing to own.

In the SaaS space, there are (broadly) two types of companies you can build. The first option is to create a better product than what is currently available on the market — like better accounting software or a CRM, or a better marketing automation tool, especially for the mid-market companies. This path is well-worn — Indian companies Zoho and Freshworks are leading examples.

The second — and riskier — option is to build something in an entirely new category, which is what we’re doing at Talview, where we’re building a video AI platform for digitized talent processes for companies making hiring decisions. Creating a new market is a high-risk scenario lined with pitfalls disguised as opportunities, but the rewards are potentially immense.

The first type of company never has to leave India. You can start your company there, hire local talent and begin selling your high-quality remote services to midmarket businesses across the globe. The second option works best if you’re willing to target more advanced SaaS software markets in the U.S.

No game plan, just a product

The U.S. is the largest software market and where customers are more likely to try something new. However, the first mistake Indian entrepreneurs make when coming to America is to assume that a large market and a customer base open to novel products means your first step should be buying a plane ticket.

First: Which city will you choose? When entering a new market, founders are also the salesperson, so you need to be prepared to meet customers or investors and get that early traction before you decide to move your operations to the U.S. full time.

Nowports, an automated digital freight forwarder in Latin America, has raised $16 million in Series A funding.

Mouro Capital — a venture capital fund focused on fintechs and adjacent businesses that is backed by Banco Santander — led the round for the Monterrey, Mexico-based startup. Foundation Capital also participated in the financing, which included participation from existing backers Broadhaven Ventures, InvestoVC, Monashees, Base10 Partners and Y Combinator.

A number of angels also put money in the round, including Justo.mx founder Ricardo Weder, Luuna’s Carlos Salinas and Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen. The investment brings Nowports’ total raised since its 2018 inception to over $24 million.

Nowports raised its initial seed round in 2019 after graduating from Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch with a mission to innovate the freight forwarding industry by helping companies — with an emphasis on SMEs — improve the import process. Its software and services track freight shipments from ports to destinations across Latin America. Over time, it has expanded its offerings and now also automates insurance policies for, and provides financing, to its clients. 

“In this way, we allow our clients to import and export more, which helps them grow their businesses and improves the foreign trade conditions of the region,” said Nowports CEO and co-founder Alfonso de los Rios.

2020 was a good year for Nowports, which saw its revenue climb by 605% compared to 2019.

“Our 2021 goal is 400% to 600%,” de los Rios told TechCrunch.

The company currently has offices in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay. Nowports plans to use its new capital in part to expand its 160-person team to China, according to de los Rios. It also plans to expand its logistics and financial services and to “solidify its most important routes.”

“With platforms, algorithms with AI and integrations, our platform allows companies to take control of their shipments and plan and predict the best timing to move the freight based on the needs of their own company,” he said at the time of the company’s seed raise. “Our goal with the series A is to position ourselves as the biggest digital freight forwarder in the region and expand our venture financing solution.”

Tens of millions of containers are imported and exported from Latin America each year, and nearly half of them are either delayed or lost due to mismanagement. And, an estimated 50% of shipping containers suffer delays due to disorganized processes or errors during transport, which ends up costing companies billions per year. It’s a big opportunity. And, Nowports pledges to shippers that its digital management software will keep track of each container. 

“Slow, inefficient and manual processes in international logistics are disassociated from today’s technological world,” said Nowports co-founder and COO Maximiliano Casal. “Customers are looking for solutions that can improve their logistics processes adapted to current challenges of international trade.”

The two co-founders of Nowports met at a program at Stanford University, with de los Rios hailing from a family with deep ties to the shipping industry. He and Casal linked up and the two began plotting a way to make the deeply inefficient industry more modern and transparent. To familiarize himself with the market for which he’d be developing a technology, Casal worked with a freight forwarder in Kansas City that had been operating for more than 30 years.

Michael Sidgmore, co-founder and partner of seed round lead investor Broadhaven Ventures, described the team as “visionaries in the freight forwarding industry who see the ability to build the operating system for the shipping industry, much like Carta has done for equity ownership.”

The need to track and digitize the supply chain process was never more apparent than with the recent blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given, which became a meme that represented the impacts of inefficiencies in the supply chain, Sidgmore said. 

“Nowports has created industry-leading technology to help its customers know when to turn starboard or port side,” he added.

Chris Gottschalk, senior adviser of Mouro Capital, said the Nowports platform brings both “transparency and technology” to a global client base.

Jeff Bussgang, a co-founder and general partner at Flybridge Capital, recently wrote an Extra Crunch guest post that argued it is time for a refresh when it comes to the technology adoption life cycle and the chasm. His argument went as follows:

VCs in recent years have drastically underestimated the size of SAMs (serviceable addressable markets) for their startup investments because they were “trained to think only a portion of the SAM is obtainable within any reasonable window of time because of the chasm.”The chasm is no longer the barrier it once was because businesses have finally understood that software is eating the world.As a result, the early majority has joined up with the innovators and early adopters to create an expanded early market. Effectively, they have defected from the mainstream market to cross the chasm in the other direction, leaving only the late majority and the laggards on the other side.That is why we now are seeing multiple instances of very large high-growth markets that appear to have no limit to their upside. There is no chasm to cross until much later in the life cycle, and it isn’t worth much effort to cross it then.

Now, I agree with Jeff that we are seeing remarkable growth in technology adoption at levels that would have astonished investors from prior decades. In particular, I agree with him when he says:

The pandemic helped accelerate a global appreciation that digital innovation was no longer a luxury but a necessity. As such, companies could no longer wait around for new innovations to cross the chasm. Instead, everyone had to embrace change or be exposed to an existential competitive disadvantage.

But this is crossing the chasm! Pragmatic customers are being forced to adopt because they are under duress. It is not that they buy into the vision of software eating the world. It is because their very own lunches are being eaten. The pandemic created a flotilla of chasm-crossings because it unleashed a very real set of existential threats.

The key here is to understand the difference between two buying decision processes, one governed by visionaries and technology enthusiasts (the early adopters and innovators), the other by pragmatists (the early majority). The early group makes their decisions based on their own analyses. They do not look to others for corroborative support. Pragmatists do. Indeed, word-of-mouth endorsements are by far the most impactful input not only about what to buy and when but also from whom.

Peanut, the maker of a social networking app for women, is entering into the investing space with today’s launch of a microfund called StartHER. As the name implies, the new fund will focus on investing in women, as well as other historically excluded founders “of all ages, life stages, ethnicities and sexual orientations,” the company says. In particular, StartHER aims to tackle the difficulties specific groups have in raising their first capital — something typically referred to as the “friends and family round.”

Peanut argues there’s inherent bias in assuming that every startup founder has access to what are, essentially, wealthy friends or family who can spare a little startup capital. These rounds often range in size from $10,000 to as large as $150,000 or more, and can make a difference when it comes to getting a new company off the ground.

“The assumption that founders should have networks able to invest in their businesses creates an unfair starting line for most groups. If we don’t remove barriers to that initial funding by providing access to capital, how can we ever hope to see a changing founder profile further through the fundraising funnel?” says Peanut CEO Michelle Kennedy, in a statement about the fund’s launch. “Peanut’s StartHER fund opens the door to founders looking for that early funding. It’s our opportunity to finally level the playing field. We want to be the family these founders can turn to, opening the door to our professional networks too.”

The lack of access to funds for female founders may have gotten worse during the pandemic. Crunchbase data indicates female-founded startups globally saw a 27% decrease in funding in 2020 as compared to 2019. The pandemic shut down access to in-person networking opportunities and disproportionately impacted the family caretakers who tend to be women, as schools, daycares and other childcare assistance businesses closed their doors. These changes may have contributed to the decline, though it’s hard to pinpoint.

But even outside the pandemic’s impacts, women are underrepresented in venture investing — including on the firm’s side. Only 13% of decision-makers at VC firms are women, which can influence what startups receive funding.

“It’s no secret that the venture capital industry is dominated by those with privilege and lucrative connections. As a member of the Female Founders Fund, I’m excited to be a part of StartHER’s investment committee to help these entrepreneurs, who have not been adequately recognized, grow their networks in the venture capital community,” said Anu Duggal, Founding Partner of Female Founders Fund, who joined SheHER’s investment committee.

StartHER says it’s looking to step in to fill that gap by offering small investments to early-stage, pre-seed businesses focused on making a positive impact on society, healthcare, or the environment. According to its online application, StartHER will write checks of between $25,000 and $50,000 — likely one of the first checks a new startup may receive. The overall fund is $300,000 in size, and will make 3-4 investments in 2021. Peanut will not take an equity stake in the companies it invests in.

“Moving forward, we’ll be considering other factors such as deal flow to help inform how we invest and the companies we choose to invest in,” explains Kennedy. We’re heavily focused on making the right investments that will have the most impact versus simply making returns. For StartHER, our goal is not to make X number of investments for X returns, but to diversify the VC funnel by serving as an entry point to capital for underrepresented founders,” she says.

Along with Duggal and Kennedy, the investment committee for the fund includes journalist and angel investor Bérénice Magistretti; Chief Business Officer at Conde Nast Britain, Vanessa Kingori MBE; Founder of Shiffon Co. and Startup Girl Foundation, Shilpa Yarlagadda; and author, columnist and Brand Strategist, Elizabeth Uviebinene.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and the committee meets every six months to consider the fund’s applications. Beyond the investment, startups who receive SheHER funds will also be given access and office hours to the networks of the committee members, the website says.

 

We’ve spent millions of dollars running ads for brands like Outschool, Imperfect Produce and Microsoft. At Demand Curve, we’ve worked with over 500 startups, meticulously documenting growth tactics for all growth channels. This post also incorporates what we’ve learned from our agency, Bell Curve.

Here are seven ad types that have proven to increase click-through rates (CTR), with examples of each. Clone them to test in your own social ad campaigns.

Customer reactions

If you’re selling a consumer product, it’s likely that some of your customers have posted product reviews, unboxings or recommendation videos on their social media accounts. You can use your customers’ user-generated videos in your social ads — with permission.

Search through Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for posts that mention your product. Reach out to the customer and ask them if you can use their content in an ad campaign, and subsequently, compile the most positive reactions into a video ad.

This works well because dramatic faces are attention magnets. Make sure the thumbnail photo shows a strong emotional image. People will click because they can’t help but want to see what provoked the emotion. User-generated reaction videos also highlight your products’ “Moment of Wow.” If users care enough about your product to make a positive reaction video, their energy is contagious. Your ad audience will connect your product with a strong positive emotion.

You versus the competition

Comparison ads anchor your product against something your audience already knows. This works well for both ads and the landing page your ad will lead to when clicked on. Try positioning your strongest value proposition — the most valuable promise you’re making to your customer — against your generic competitors.

In the white-hot creator economy space, startups are increasingly looking to build paint-by-numbers platforms to help budding creators more easily execute on what were once seemingly insurmountable business challenges.

The ex-Uber team at Pietra is cashing in on this vision with a plan to build a backend for launching and scaling creator product lines.

The startup, which previously acted as a marketplace for jewelry sellers, has changed a bit since they announced a seed round from Andreessen Horowitz in early 2019. Now, the company has pivoted from hocking diamonds to building a broad platform for creators that are looking to scale sales of physical goods, from interfacing with suppliers, handling orders and fulfillment and setting up online storefronts.

Pietra tells TechCrunch they’ve just raised a $15 million Series A led by Founders Fund with additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz, TQ Ventures and Abstract Ventures. The deal was led by Founders Fund’s Keith Rabois.

“We were initially focused on jewelry and luxury and the rise of creators in this luxury segment,” CEO Ronak Trivedi tells TechCrunch. “When we launched our beta last fall we had this platform that had evolved from a marketplace to a creator hub where any size creator could come in, use the platform, marketplace and tools to effectively launch a digital-first consumer business in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible.”

Pietra allows customers to shop around with a network of suppliers, find which one is best for them and move through the process from crafting samples through order fulfillment with a tech platform to guide them through the process. Trivedi says the ultimate goal is to “find the best suppliers in the world and try and bring them on the platform at the lowest minimum orders, so that it allows the most people to try to start a business.”

The startup is trying to help small creators scale their product distribution, but also handle all of the bits that can determine success when it comes to launching a brand in the first place, including building a pre-sale website and building up some attractive marketing images of products.

Early on, Pietra has a pretty distinct list of product verticals that they’re specializing in, including swimwear, makeup, apparel, fragrances and jewelry, among a few others. Overall, their platform seems pretty centered on the types of products that have been broadly successful with influencers who are looking to build out their first brands.

Pietra’s pricing depends on how many of their services you’re using and what the scale of your operation is, but most services are charged on a per-unit basis, with the startup also taking a percentage fee on goods sold through their marketplace. The startup is also working on a Pro offering with differentiated pricing designed for slightly more established brands that are doing multiple production runs per year.

 

Australian rocket launch startup Gilmour Space Technologies is betting that bigger isn’t always better. The company has developed a small launch vehicle it calls Eris, a 25-meter (82 foot) rocket that can deliver a payload of up to 215 kilograms (474 pounds) to sun synchronous orbit. Now, it’s raised a $61 million AUD ($46 million USD) Series C round to take Eris to space next year.

Eris is much smaller than other launch companies’ rockets. Relativity Space’s Terran One has a max payload capacity to LEO of around 1,250 kg (2,756 lbs); even SpaceX’s Falcon 1, its first and smallest orbital rocket, could deliver 450 kg (990 pounds). Gilmour Space is wagering that the lighter payload will result in lower costs for a burgeoning suite of customers looking to send spacecraft to orbit.

The funds will also go toward nearly doubling the company’s workforce, from 70 to 120 employees, and developing a new commercial spaceport at Abbot Point, Queensland. Australian legislators approved construction of the launch site in May. Gilmour Space is also examining a proposed launch site in South Australia to facilitate polar orbit launches.

Gilmour Space has already signed agreements with prospective customers for future Eris launches. This includes contracts with two Australian space startups: Space Machines Company, to launch a 35 kg spacecraft on Eris’s inaugural flight, and Fleet Space Technologies, to carry six nanosatellites in 2023. Gilmour Space has also signed an agreement with U.S.-based Momentus to use its orbital transfer services.

The round was led by Fine Structure Ventures and included contributions from Australian VCs Blackbird and Main Sequence, and Australian pension funds HESTA, Hostplus and NGS Super. Blackbird and Main Sequence are returning investors after leading Gilmour’s Series A and Series B, respectively. This is the largest amount of private equity funding ever raised by a space company in Australia, and brings the company’s total amount raised to $87 million AUD ($66 million USD).

Over the past year, there has been a surge of newly formed digital banks aimed at specific demographics. The banks in nearly all cases are trying to meet the needs of certain populations that they believe are feeling left out or underserved by traditional financial institutions.

The latest such neobank to emerge is New York-based Daylight, which describes itself as the first LGBTQ+ digital banking platform in the United States. (There is a digital bank in Brazil with a similar mission called Pride Bank).

Founded by LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs Rob Curtis (CEO), Billie Simmons, a trans woman (COO) and Paul Barnes Hoggett (CTO), Daylight is announcing today that it has secured $5 million in a seed funding round. Kapor Capital and Precursor Capital co-led the round, which included participation from Anthemis Group, Clocktower, Financial Venture Studio and Citi.

Daylight says its mission is to “build a more equitable financial life for LGBTQ+ folks and their chosen families.” The company’s services are targeted toward LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies — or as Daylight describes it, “values-based consumers who want to support the queer community.”

The startup, which was founded in 2020, plans to use its new capital mostly to expand its flagship product and lifestyle services, which are designed to improve financial equality and inclusion for the estimated 30-million-plus Americans who identify as LGBTQ+. It also plans to build out a LGBTQ+ business marketplace and a platform that offers discounts and rewards when members shop at merchants whose actions support the queer community.

In an interview with TechCrunch Curtis explained why he believes Daylight is uniquely positioned to help the population deal with challenges such as higher debt accumulation to factors such as pre-existing conditions, lower insurance levels, HIV management needs and [gender] transition costs. At the same time, many members of the community also have lower income levels due to “continued workplace discrimination.”

“LGBT people engage with money really differently and there’s a multitude of reasons for that,” Curtis said. “We spend about the same proportion of our income on discretionary spend, but we’re about 20% less likely to have a savings account, 20% less likely to own investments like stocks, or a quarter less likely to own a mutual fund. And we estimate that only about 30% of our community has any estate planning in place.”

Also, life in general tends to be more costly for LGBTQ+ persons, Curtis believes.

“It is expensive to be a queer person,” he said. “Not only do we find that when we come out to our parents, 40% of us no longer have financial support for things like college and those transitions from childhood into adulthood. We end up with 50% more college debt. We also have increased sexual health costs and some have gender affirming surgery that they need to pay for.”

“By the time we get to our 30s, we will be told ‘you can have one of the following three things: gender affirming surgery, a home deposit or a child,’ ” Curtis added. And, on top of that, having a child is generally more expensive for this population because people either have to adopt or hire a surrogate.

Kapor Capital Partner Brian Dixon believes that the fact that Daylight’s founders have personally experienced problems within the traditional banking industry gives them the necessary insight to help others in the LGBTQ+ community.

One of those problems include friction associated with names on issued cards, which leads to customers being outed as trans. The population also faces a lack of adequate financing products, Dixon believes, for things such as surrogacy, IVF, adoption, transition support and mental health.

“Many neobanks do not provide a truly unique banking experience that will result in a mass exodus from traditional banks,” Dixon said. “Daylight has an opportunity to be the outlier, especially given their focus on community. Daylight’s unique features include a seamless card issuance process that allows trans and non-binary customers to order a card in their preferred name, book sessions with expert LGBTQ+ financial coaches, get peer-to-peer advice from their digital community and earn rewards that are meaningful to the LGBT+ community.”

Daylight will offer features such as a checking account, the ability for members to get paid two days early, free ATMs and “no hidden fees,” according to Curtis.

“I think that payday early is really important because we know that there are high rates of credit card declines for folks who are buying hormones,” he said.

Another feature the Daylight platform offers is personalized recommendations to members which alert them when they’re spending money with merchants that support anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and initiatives, a practice known as “rainbow washing.” It will also offer alternative merchants that it says are “more aligned with the community’s values.”

“LGBTQ+ consumers, and those that support them, are very intentional about where they spend, but it’s difficult for an individual to know whether they’re spending in line with their values, or inadvertently shopping with brands that engages in rainbow washing while funding politicians and projects that work against our interests,” Curtis said.

Daylight is currently in beta but already has “thousands and thousands” of customers on its wait list, said Curtis, who estimates that it will have 10,000 customers by the time it launches in October.

Other digital banks targeting specific demographics that have raised funding over the past year include Fair, a multilingual digital bank and financial services platform that recently launched to the public after raising $20 million in 40 days earlier this year. Others that have emerged include Greenwood, First Boulevard and Cheese.

 

Mandolin just marked its first birthday earlier this month, and yet the Indianapolis-based startup is already announcing a $12 million Series A. That’s a quick follow up to the $5 million seed it raised in early October of last year. Turns out the global pandemic is a pretty fortuitious time to launch and grow a concert streaming platform.

The oversubscribed round was co-led by 645 Ventures and Foundry Group and featured additional funding from existing investors like High Alpha and TIME Ventures (Marc Benioff).

The big question, of course, is what happens to a company like Mandolin when the world starts opening back up? Sure concert livestreams got a massive boost as fans and artists alike were seeking an outlet as touring ground to a halt. But what now that venues are starting to reopen.

“As artists return to performing in sold out venues, Live+ will undoubtedly become a can’t-live-without digital complement that amplifies live shows,” CEO Mary Kay Huse said in a release. “Our new round of financing will support us in driving innovation of our core solution, delivering new digital offerings, and reinforcing our routes to market, so that every show is Live+.”

Granted, that’s…pretty abstract. But the simple answer is the company has been looking toward enhancing the in-person event as well, ahead of an inevitable reopening. Essentially the company wants to build a companion app for shows.

Here’s what Huse told Variety last week, “I would love it if we could see upwards of 50% of in-person attendees experiencing something digitally while in the venue, as early as before the end of the year. It’s just creating a compelling content that makes them want to do it.”

The company will also continue to focus on streaming, which may see a hit, but certainly isn’t going away, post-pandemic. The news also sees 645 Managing Partner Nnamdi Okike joining the company’s board.

“During COVID-19, livestreaming has been a game-changer for fans who want to experience their favorite artists, and for artists and venues who want to bring exciting live events for their fans,” Okike said. “Mandolin provides the best technology platform to enable these experiences, and they’re also scaling a company to meet the needs of this fast-growing category.”