Enterprise software company Xensam has raised $40 million from Expedition Growth Capital after bootstrapping for eight years.
In 2022 Xensam had ca 16 MSEK in revenue (according to annual report), and it said ARR grew 126 % in 2023. Which seems to put 2023 revenue in the 30-40 MSEK range. As the founders retain majority ownership, valuation is at least in $85-90 million range (25-35x price/revenue).
Impressive work by the founders and team!
There is a large value in a geographically dense startup ecosystem, like Silicon Valley or at a smaller scale Stockholm (or Nordics in a geographically less dense way). Clustering of talent and capital makes it easier to build startups into sustainable companies.
How this can play out in fundraising and how it makes Silicon Valley strong is well described by Andrew Chen. The odds to quickly get a term sheet is higher when there are many more investors.
Pew Research has done some interesting research on Americans social media use.
Obviously “ever use” is not “use multiple times per day”, but it is clear that it takes time until older (a.k.a. 30+) users find a new social media platform.
The data also clearly shows that platforms age, with Facebook as the prime example. Facebook clearly more “ever used” across the population, but in the 18-29 demographic Instagram is more popular and TikTok and Snapchat are roughly as popular.
Spotify has released its Q4’23 results. To me the most noteworthy datapoint is that Spotify now has more than 600 million monthly active users, with Latin America and Rest of World (non-Europe and non-North America) being the driving forces for user growth.
Revenue is growing about 20 % year-over-year (when adjusting for headwinds from currency exchange rates) and closing in on €4 billion per quarter and the net result was weighted down by the layoffs in Q4’23, even if underlying result seems to have improved year-over-year.
Phishing and deepfakes will obviously become an even larger problem. Case in point, a $25 million transfer after everyone, including the CFO, on the confirmation call was a deepfake.
This should lead to a lot of work going into digital banking and payments security. Otherwise both companies and individuals will end being defrauded of a lot of their money.
Review of Apple Vision Pro and ten different use cases. Technology seems impressive for version 1 and acceptable social behavior is not defined. A combination of Apple Vision Pro technology and something like the Meta Ray Ban form factor would be fantastic.
Andrew Chen, of A16Z and author of Cold Start Problem, writes about the value of pitching like a “dinner party asshole”. Be explicit about you and the team’s experience and credentials, and pitch it clearly. Which is not natural to many Nordic founders. Still it is better than not doing it.
Meta’s “turnaround” since the fall of 2022 has been extremely interesting to follow. Significant layoffs combined with improvements in core products including ad sales lead to higher profits, while keeping large investments in AI and the metaverse. The shares are up more than 400% and are now paying a dividend. As a whole Meta has reached $1 trillion in valuation for the first time.
Gothenburg-based Heart Aerospace, maker of hybrid-electric airplanes, has raised $107 million from new and old investors in a Series B. It’s an example of that the most exciting companies in climate/energy can raise significant amounts of capital in a fundraising market that outside of climate and AI is still quite cautious.