Essential City + Tech Stories 6.23.22
Essential City + Tech Stories 6.23.22
UrbanTech is Back, 7 Stories to Know
Hi Everyone! 🏙
John, here. Know it’s been a while since we sent out a free edition. After working on growing UrbanTech as a paid community, we’ve decided to pivot back to a free model.
We are doing this for several reasons, but mainly because I want UT to live on and didn’t have the time with a day job to dedicate to a paid model — yet.
Also, building an online community is really hard. I will be writing about the community experience and my struggles with it in an upcoming edition and share learnings from my time trying to launch the community for UT.
But, here’s what you can expect from UT moving forward:
One curation newsletter a week (like today’s edition) and;
Occasional company deep dives and interviews with executives, leaders, and investors in the space. As we have time, we will provide you with these special editions. The first one will be published next week.
A quick reminder of the company that you’re in as a UT reader:
One thing we are keeping from the community is our slack group which is continuing to grow.
If you’re interested in networking with other urban tech professionals, staying up to date on jobs, and sharing insights outside the newsletter, please join using this link.
See below for the types of people in the group that you can network with. They are rockstars.
And If you’re interested in being featured in UrbanTech, or chatting with me for an upcoming newsletter, send me an email at John@urbantechnews.net.
Now onto today’s edition.
UrbanTech Archives
Essential City + Tech Stories: 6.23.22
💰TechCrunch: Amid real estate tech industry layoffs, HomeLight raises $60M and acquires lending startup Accept.inc
🚗 The Washington Post: Teslas running Autopilot involved in 273 crashes reported since last year
🏠 The New York Times: How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own
🍔 Bloomberg: Fast-Delivery Startup Jokr Cuts Back US Operations to Focus on Latin America
💵 The Wall Street Journal: Marc Lore’s Food-Delivery Startup Wonder Is Valued at $3.5 Billion After Capital Raise
🛠 LinkedIn: Construction workers in short supply
Essential City + Tech Stories: 6.23.22
🏡Fortune: The housing market 'correction' intensifies as layoffs hit Redfin and Compass. This interactive map explains why
Real estate startups have been hit hard as the market has cooled off. From Fortune:
“On Tuesday, layoffs hit two of the biggest names in real estate. First, Redfin announced it’s laying off 8% of its staff. Then Compass, one of the nation’s largest residential brokerages, announced it’s cutting 10% of its workforce.”
These companies were highly focused on growth, and as the residential market cools down and with higher interest rates, it makes sense they are consolidating their employee base.
Keep in mind: They aren’t the only tech firms to be experiencing layoffs; Coinbase recently announced layoffs of up to 18% of its staff.
💰TechCrunch: Amid real estate tech industry layoffs, HomeLight raises $60M and acquires lending startup Accept.inc
Despite what is mentioned above, there is still some excitement in the space, from Mary Ann Azevedo at TechCrunch:
“HomeLight’s latest $60 million equity raise is an extension of the company’s $100 million Series D that was announced last September. At that time, HomeLight was valued at $1.6 billion. With the extension, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company has raised a total of $645 million since its 2012 inception and is valued at $1.7 billion. Notably, existing investor Oren Zeev contributed the whole $60 million.
“This fundraise and acquisition allow us to play both offense and defense — expanding our business while also positioning the company to weather uncertainty this year and into next year,” Drew Uher, HomeLight’s founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.”
FYI: HomeLight taps into a network of pre-approved cash buyers who compete to buy your home.
Companies like HomeLight showcase that there is still a hunger to bring more innovation into residential real estate.
🚗The Washington Post: Teslas running Autopilot involved in 273 crashes reported since last year
Some not so great news, but a win for transparency in the sector, about the current state of autopilots by The Washington Post:
According to regulators, Tesla vehicles running its Autopilot software have been involved in 273 reported crashes over roughly the past year, far more than previously known and providing concrete evidence regarding the real-world performance of its futuristic features.
🏠The New York Times: How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own
Homelessness and housing insecurity remain major issues in urban areas around the country. This piece from Michael Kimmelman and Lucy Tompkins at The New York Times shares what my hometown Houston has done to impact the trends in its city.
“During the last decade, Houston, the nation’s fourth most populous city, has moved more than 25,000 homeless people directly into apartments and houses. The overwhelming majority of them have remained housed after two years. The number of people deemed homeless in the Houston region has been cut by 63 percent since 2011, according to the latest numbers from local officials. Even judging by the more modest metrics registered in a 2020 federal report,Houston did more than twice as well as the rest of the country at reducing homelessness over the previous decade”
🍔Bloomberg: Fast-Delivery Startup Jokr Cuts Back US Operations to Focus on Latin America
Rapid fast delivery continues to see consolidation and companies beginning to run out of money. From Bloomberg on Jokr cutting back its operations in the U.S.:
“Rapid delivery startup Jokr is pulling back from its US operations to focus on its core Latin America business, joining a growing number of similar companies that are paring down and prioritizing profitability amid fading investor enthusiasm.”
The U.S. and its urban areas are a massive market to service making it difficult for companies to compete in this expensive land grab for space.
💵 The Wall Street Journal: Marc Lore's Food-Delivery Startup Wonder Is Valued at $3.5 Billion After Capital Raise
While Jokr is pairing back, Jet.com’s Marc Lore is investing new capital into the space:
“Wonder Group, a food-delivery startup led by Jet.com founder Marc Lore, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the business at a time when the venture-capital market is cooling.
New York-based Wonder closed a $350 million funding round last month, according to company officials, bringing the total amount raised in debt and equity to $900 million.
The latest funding values the company at roughly $3.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Previously it was valued at $1.4 billion, the people said.”
Moving forward, it will take a lot of capital to expand in these delivery spaces. A quick reminder Marc Lore is also the billionaire that pitched the idea of Telosa, a utopian city in the desert.
🛠 LinkedIn: Construction workers in short supply
Keep in mind as we enter into a recession the state of construction labor in the U.S.:
“A shortage of workers in the construction industry is forcing companies to turn to "creative" incentives to lure contractors, says The Wall Street Journal. While some companies use their states' warmer climates, others are dangling all sorts of bonuses to attract contractors. Some are even offering accommodation allowances. The lowest unemployment rate in decades, combined with a post-pandemic rebound, has worsened labor shortages across most industries, just as $1 trillion in federal infrastructure money comes into effect.”
Several Interesting Tweets
That’s all for today! Please share UT with your networks.
Talk soon,
JT