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Why Om Malik thinks ‘the VC subsidized life is over’
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
This week we had the full Equity staff on hand to dig through the week’s news, helmed by Kate Clark and Connie Loizos, with Alex Wilhelm in the studio too. Plus, Om Malik, a former scribbler and current venture capitalist, joined us to riff on the latest.
Before we dig into what we covered, a small note from the team: As this episode is going out before Uber will trade, we’ll have another episode coming to you tomorrow after the madness. Stay tuned.
Uber priced its IPO at $45 per share right before we hit record, so we first touched on the final pricing of what should be the year’s largest tech IPO. Pricing toward the lower-end of its range, Uber could be setting itself up for a strong first day. Or, demand was lower than expected following Lyft’s slide. Either way, Uber will trade tomorrow as a public company at last. Om predicts Uber and Lyft rides will get a whole lot more expensive in the next eighteen months, so hold onto your hats, the future for riders and drivers alike is… unclear.
Next, we debated Harry’s exit to Edgewell Personal Care. The direct-to-consumer razor supplier sold this week for more than $1 billion in a deal reminiscent of the Dollar Shave Club’s sale to Unilever. From there, we spoke about the latest from the Luckin Coffee IPO. The news, in brief, is that its IPO is moving forward. Next up is pricing; we’ll be sure to discuss any updates on the podcast.
In big deal news, Carta closed a $300 million round. Connie has learned a lot about the business in recent weeks and it turns out, Om wishes he was an investor!
Finally, Cruise’s latest new round, and the capital needs of autonomous driving. As we all quickly agree, it’s an expensive business and not one that will get cheaper. But, given that so many companies are working on the tech, we hope it works out. Especially Om, who doesn’t have a driver’s license, it turns out.
All that and we had fun! Chat tomorrow!
Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast and all the casts.
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Mode raises $3M Series A to put sensor data in the cloud
True Ventures has led the $3 million round for Mode, a real-time database that gives companies instant access to sensor data. GigaOm founder and True Ventures partner Om Malik has joined the startup’s board of directors as part of the deal.
Sensor data is collected from vehicles, cell phones, appliances, medical equipment and other machines. Businesses deploying these sensors, however, often don’t have back-end databases or tools to understand what that data means for the real world.
San Mateo-based Mode wants to help them make sense of it by moving the hoards of sensor data to the cloud, where they can better understand their devices and derive actionable insights. For now, Mode is targeting the solar, medical and manufacturing industries.
“We focus on data collection because we want to address common infrastructure challenges and let customers spend their time utilizing data for their businesses,” said Gaku Ueda, Mode co-founder and Twitter’s former director of engineering.
Ueda and co-founder Ethan Kan, who was previously the director of engineering at gaming startup 50Cubes, have a long history of friendship. True Ventures’ Malik says that’s part of what attracted him to the company.
“Companies are not a straight line,” Malik told TechCrunch. “You go through ups and downs. If you have a good co-founder, you have someone to get you through it.”
The round brings Mode’s total funding to $5 million. The company, which is also backed by Kleiner Perkins, Compound.vc and Fujitsu, will use the Series A financing to connect additional sensors to the cloud and expand its team.
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