Thursday Sep.16, 2021

🖼 Canva's big $40B

_The world is your canvas [Westend61 via GettyImages]_
_The world is your canvas [Westend61 via GettyImages]_

Hey Snackers,

Lots of startup ideas sound like: "The Uber for..." "The Facebook of..." This one has no parallel: Colossal raised $15M to bring the woolly mammoth back to life from extinction.

Stocks rebounded yesterday with their best daily gain in two weeks, as oil and the energy sector rallied.

BTW: We know some of you aren't snacking today. Happy New Year and an easy fast to Snackers observing Yom Kippur!

Tap

Design startup Canva notches a massive $40B valuation in the era of "tap-onomics"

Presentation deck looking like a Picasso... Sydney-based startup Canva wants to make graphic design accessible to non-design pros. You might've used it to create snazzy flyers, Insta carousels, and that presentation you forgot was due yesterday. Those DIY design templates just helped Canva raise $200M at a whopping $40B valuation, up from $15B barely five months ago.

  • The big $40B: With its new valuation, Canva is now the world’s most valuable female-founded and female-led startup — and the world's fifth-most valuable private startup.

Like a blank Bob Ross canvas... Canva went 0 to 60 real quick. CEO Melanie Perkins and her team launched Canva as a free product in 2013, and eventually introduced "freemium" and enterprise layers. Canva now has:

  • 60M monthly users across 190 countries, double what it had just over a year ago. And it's not just individuals looking for design help...
  • 500K+ teams pay for Canva, including corporate giants like Salesforce, Marriott, PayPal, and American. In 2019, Canva said 85% of Fortune 500 companies use it.
  • $1B: Canva has been doubling its revenue each year, and is expected to exceed $1B in annualized revenue by the end of 2021.

Canva is fuel for the era of “Tap-anomics”... We've gone from in-store shopping, to Instagram shopping. During the pandemic, corporate America realized the importance of tap-ability: the number of "taps" companies receive is closely related to their posts' aesthetic. Companies don't need to hire a million pro designers — they just need professional-looking designs that are easy for employees to collab on. That simplicity helped Canva notch its eye-watering valuation.

R1T

Rivian is the first to bring an e-pickup to market — but the truck wars are just beginning

Sorry, Elon… Earlier this week, Rivian produced the first electric truck that will actually end up in customers’ driveways — competitors like Tesla, Ford, and GM merely unveiled prototypes. The e-truck startup has raised $10.5B+ from investors including Amazon and Ford, and is seeking to go public at an $80B valuation. The deets on its R1T pickup:

  • Fully charged: The R1T has a range of 314 miles per charge and starts at $68K — a longer range, but higher price tag than most upcoming e-trucks.
  • Fully stocked: R1Ts come with off road-ready air compressors, built-in drink coolers, 11K pound towing capacity, and tailgates that can be lifted via app — bound to impress at any MIT tailgate.
  • Ready to roll: R1Ts trucks are now certified for sale in all 50 states. Rivian expects deliveries to start this month.

A truckload of competition… Some analysts expect the e-truck industry will more than double between 2020 and 2026. Large automakers like Ford, GM, and Tesla have spent years developing smaller EVs. But by staying laser-focused on trucks, Rivian crossed the e-truck finish line first. Others are expected to follow:

  • Tesla expects to start production of its $40K Cybertruck in 2022.
  • Lordstown plans for limited production of its $55K Endurance this month.
  • GM says production of its $113K Hummer EV will begin later this fall.
  • Ford hopes to start producing its $40K all-electric F-150 Lightning in 2022. The non-electric version has been America’s top-selling vehicle for 39 years straight.

Trucks could be the real EV ambassadors… America may be the home of the brave, but it’s also the land of the F-150. Pickup trucks accounted for half of the US auto industry’s top 10 best-selling vehicles last year, and the three best-sellers were all pickups. The best bet for automakers to pull Americans into an EV future could be towing them there... with e-pickups. If the US builds as many EV charging stations as Biden hopes, the success of e-truck makers may come down to pricing, timing, and range.

What else we’re Snackin’

  • Vax: President Biden met with the CEOs of giants like Disney, Microsoft, and Walgreens to drum up support for employee vax mandates.
  • Macro: Microsoft will buy back $60B of its own stock in its largest-ever repurchase program.
  • Jibbitz: Crocs shares soared to a record after the ugly-chic icon said it expects sales to surge over $5B by 2026.
  • Robo: Ford, Walmart and self-driving startup Argo AI are teaming up to launch an autonomous vehicle delivery service.
  • UniTube: Spanish language TV giant Univision just made three of its networks available for streaming on YouTube TV.
  • Ace: Roger Federer-backed shoe company On is now valued at over $6B before it steps into its IPO.

Thursday

  • Jobless claims
  • National Guacamole Day

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Tesla, Ford, Disney, Walmart, Microsoft, and GM

ID: 1839045

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In its third and fourth quarter earnings report, Tesla said that its current Cybertruck production capacity was greater than 125,000 a year. Musk had previously said he expected to produce 250,000 Cybertrucks a year by 2025.

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This is the long-awaited Cybertruck’s second recall since it came out five months ago.

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