Daily Consumer #20 - Planning for 2022
Plus TikTok is entering the "cloud kitchens" space with their food brands launching in 300 locations nationwide.
My Work
Planning for 2022
I started Daily Consumer in July 2021. This is edition #20. My core KPIs continue to be 1) total subscribers and 2) open rate.
My goals for 2022 are to:
Hit 3K subscribers.
Maintain an open rate >50%.
Spend more time writing the ‘My Work’ section and less time on aggregating funding news. I’ve learned that writing good ‘My Work’ posts is most impactful at driving new subscribers.
I appreciate your support this year and wish you a great holiday season + end to 2021!
Community
A huge thank you to Lucas Dickey, a founder and subscriber to this newsletter. Lucas introduced me to a software company a few weeks ago in the ecommerce world, which I’m now leading an investment in. It’s probably the best example of this side project benefiting me in my day job and has me very motivated to continue writing.
News
BNPL.
Collaborations.
Beauty brands and sneaker brands are partnering on limited edition collabs.
Levi’s partners with Jaden Smith on a new clothing collection.
Ecommerce Platform. Fabric launches a B2B ecommerce platform serving distributors, manufacturers and wholesalers. “Buyers want to shop online, however, too many B2B companies still rely on manual, in-person sales operations, and lack modern commerce technology.”
Food and Beverage. A powerful opinion piece in the New York Times about why we should transition society to a plant-based diet.
Giving. Patagonia launched a fundraiser on BFCM where every dollar of revenue generated would go towards environmental conservation. Drove $10M in sales, 5x their expectations! “We felt that these were issues that united us and I think this is a demonstration that people agree. Our customers agree.”
Grocery. Shipt partners with Wynshop, a software company enabling grocers to have consumer apps, to facilitate delivery for online orders.
Influencer Marketing. Nike signs its first college athlete, UCLA sophomore soccer player Reilyn Turner, to a sponsorship deal under NIL.
Live Shopping. Walmart partners with TalkShopLive to create and embed shoppable video across Walmart and social media platforms.
Logistics. Uber will test autonomous deliveries in 2022 in partnership with Motional.
NFTs. I still don’t understand this, but L’Oreal launched a new lipstick art as an NFT. “Each NFT will start at a floor price of $1.5K. 50% of up to one year of the secondary market sales will be donated to support Women of Worth.”
QR Codes. Morning Brew looks into the benefits of putting QR codes on packaging.
Personalization. Levi’s claims that AI is making a big positive impact on their business, especially around pricing, shipping, and merchandising.
Restaurants.
Lyft partners with Olo to make their drivers available in Olo’s Dispatch network. Lyft likely wants to help their drivers make more money to compete with Uber.
TikTok is partnering with Virtual Dining Concepts to launch delivery-only TikTok Kitchen locations across the country. This is the company behind Mr. Beast’s cloud kitchen brand as well. “300 TikTok restaurants are planned across the country for the launch, with more than 1K expected by the end of 2022.”
Chipotle is opening it’s first drive-thru + digital order only restaurant location. The restaurant industry is having its ecommerce moment.
Retail Media. eMarketer highlights the rise of retail media as a theme to watch for 2022. “US digital retail media advertising will reach $41.37B in 2022, growing nearly $10B from this year.” All retailers want ad revenue now that Amazon has it.
Same-Day Delivery. Careem, the Uber of the Middle East, launches a rapid grocery delivery service in Dubai.
SMS Marketing. Attentive shares a year in review. Claims to have powered $10B of transaction volume and now works with 4K brands.
Social Media. Instagram passes 2B MAU.
Funding and Exits
Brands
Deodorant. Harry’s Labs acquires Lume, a D2C brand that offers odor control products. “The idea about M&A for Harry’s is we want to be a multi-category CPG company and build a family of CPG brands. We want to create more and better things for consumers, and we are looking for brands aligned with that mission, are positioned in a way we can be helpful and are brands serving unmet needs.”
Eyewear. Pair Eyewear raises $60M from NEA, Christian McCaffrey, Olivia Culpo, Sterling K. Brown and Ninja for its eyewear brand serving kids and now adults. “Between 2020 and 2021, Pair grew its revenue 10x YoY. The company also secured licensing deals with brands like Marvel, Major League Baseball and Harry Potter.”
NFTs. Nike acquires RTFKT, a creator of virtual sneakers and collectibles, aka NFTs. “This acquisition is another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation and allows us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture. We’re acquiring a very talented team of creators with an authentic and connected brand. Our plan is to invest in the RTFKT brand, serve and grow their innovative and creative community and extend Nike’s digital footprint and capabilities.”
Petcare. Mammaly raises $3.3M from Five Seasons Ventures for its health-focused pet snacks.
Snacks. The Good Crisp Co raises $10M from Lotus Bakeries Group for its health-focused potato chips and cheese balls products.
Marketplaces
B2B Commerce.
EzCater, a marketplace for lunch catering to offices, raises $100M from Softbank at a $1.6B valuation. Operates in 32 states.
Full Harvest raises $23M from Telus Ventures for its B2B marketplace connecting produce buyers with suppliers who have surplus or imperfect inventory. Has facilitated the sale of 50M pounds of produce.
Narvar acquires Lumi, a marketplace serving over 700 brands with packaging suppliers.
Grocery Delivery.
GoPuff is rumored to be raising $1.5B from Guggenheim Partners at a $40B valuation. Operates a 15-minute delivery service in hundreds of cities. Also announced that Selena Gomez is personally investing in the company.
Flink raises $750M from Doordash at a $2.85B valuation for its instant grocery delivery service operating in 60 cities across 4 European countries and serving 10M consumers.
La Belle Vie raises $28M from Left Lane and Quadrille Capital for its online grocery delivery service in France that offers 17K products and delivers in <3 hours. Processes 15K orders per week.
Voly raises $18M from Sequoia Capital India for its Australia-focused 15-minute grocery delivery service, initially serving Sydney. Is started by a friend of mine, Mark Heath, from my Goldman days. Go Mark and team!
Krave Mart raises $6M from MSA Capital for its Pakistan-focused rapid delivery service.
FastAF raises capital from Luxor Capital at a $200M valuation for its same-day delivery service offering food products as well as cosmetics and exercise equipment.
Luxury Resale. Rebag raises $33M from Novator for its marketplace for resale handbags, jewelry, and watches.
Restaurants. HungryPanda raises $130M from Perwyn for its Asian cuisine focused marketplace delivering meals from restaurants in 60 cities across 10 countries.
Social Media.
Software
Influencer Marketing. Mavrck raises $120M from Summit Partners for its platform that helps brands and media companies to source and engage with influencers for marketing campaigns. “Has millions of contactable macro- and micro- influencers around the globe and across all major social platforms. Some 500 brands and 5K marketers are using Mavrck.”
Marketplace Integration. Olist raises $186M from Wellington Management at a $1.5B valuation to allow merchants to sell across ecommerce marketplaces. Works with 45K merchants.
Personalization. Rokt raises $325M from Tiger Global at a $1.95B valuation for its marketing technology that is used by 3K brands and merchants to personalize commerce offers to end customers. “Expects to finish the year with $230M in revenue, up from $100M last year. Businesses like ours that help first-party data companies like Ticketmaster use their own data in a smarter way, have really flourished.”
SMS Commerce. Whym raises $4.3M from Deciens Capital for its software platform enabling merchants to sell products via SMS.
Tax Compliance. Taxdoo raises $64M from Tiger Global at a $350M for its API-based tools to help e-commerce companies with tax compliance and other accounting needs. “Works with over 1.7K marketplaces, online merchants, and enterprises.”
Fintech
B2B BNPL. Topi raises $4.5M from us at Index Ventures and Creandum for its B2B-focused BNPL service. “Topi wants to reach the ideal Venn diagram of B2B payments — a payment solution that doesn’t require any paperwork, but a payment method with some financing offers.”
Offline Point of Sale. MercadoLibre, the Amazon of Latam, acquires Redelcom, a POS provider in Chile.
Logistics
Warehouse Automation. Symbotic files to go public via SPAC at a $5.5B valuation. Offers autonomous robotic systems to retailers to automate warehouse operations. Is now present in 25 regional Walmart distribution centers.
Product of the Week
I’m a DAU of my Nespresso machine but recently tried Cometeer and was super impressed by the quality of the coffee. They get you on a subscription and send you coffee from a curated network of roasters. Buy it here.