C2V July 2021 Notes from the Trenches
What a month! The Bucks win their first title in 50 years, Giannis Antetokounmpo completes another incredible American immigrant rags-to-riches story and after years of, um, foreplay, Jeff Bezos, er, penetrates the Kármán Line, besting the, uh, length of rival billionaire man-boy, Richard Branson by 10 miles after Branson’s voyage, um, prematurely climaxes at 55 miles above the earth, in a pair of flights that were definitely about pushing the boundaries of science and human exploration and not merely history’s most expensive, er, rocket-measuring contest…
… right?
Let’s just move on.
Follow Up on Beginning of Year Predictions
At the beginning of every year, we make predictions for what will happen in the Tech Industry throughout the year. Usually, we review these predictions at the end of the year, but this year we wanted to do a mid-year check in to see where we hit the nail on the head and where we missed. So…
Definite Hits
Mass consolidation of large media-tech companies, and those startups that could not get funding in 2020 or lacked product
Masterclass meets next-generation mentorship platforms to support a dispersed tech and founder community looking for guidance and answer
All aspects of insurance, home, life, and auto get challenged by new players.
Robotics companies will find more of the 3-D (“dirty, dull, dangerous”) jobs to replace.
AR, VR, and XR adoption for brands and advertisers continues to be slow
Consumers take back their privacy rights
In particular, we nailed the onslaught of new InsurTech, Robotics and Startup M&A (though we should have added “buying growth” to the list of M&A rationales).
Definite Miss
COVID-19 will force the increased use and acceptance of surveillance technologies
We can’t get people to take a free vaccine, even when it comes with a complimentary beer, so this is clearly a bridge too far.
Still in Play
5G will cause cord-cutting to accelerate, and cable companies will be in serious trouble.
Voice commerce will become more popular and widespread
We will see a mega bubble burst in 2021 including a bankruptcy from at least one late-stage, private “unicorn.”
We’re probably a year early on cord cutting acceleration and widespread voice commerce, though C2V portfolio company Blutag is making nice inroads with the latter, and the late-stage/public tech bubble continues to inflate but red flags are piling up, including falling bond yields, narrowing stock market breadth, a resurgence of Covid cases coupled with an alarmingly under-vaccinated US populace, and inflation/Fed rate hike fears.
Our Latest Investment
Our team is pleased to announce the very first investment from our second fund, C2 Ventures II, in OmniX Labs’ oversubscribed seed funding round.
OmniX Labs delivers analytics for businesses with vehicle interactions, B2B SaaS subscription service planning to expand into new markets and further develop technology platforms. To date, the company has focused on the car wash industry, with more than 1,200 locations across the U.S. subscribing to their service.
OmniX Labs’ platform synthesizes interactions at businesses with brick-and-mortar locations delivering analytics to better understand, target and upsell customers. In addition, the SaaS subscription service enables businesses to predict future sales and demand patterns, while reducing fraud and gaining operational efficiencies.
We are thrilled and honored to work and partner with co-founders Anoop Kanthan and Muthla Al-Sayer. Read more about it on Yahoo Finance and Alleywatch or listen to Anoop speak about it on Cheddar
Portfolio Companies in the News
Boostr joins forces with Switchboard
Business Insider names Blutag as one of the most intriguing media startups
Magellan AI covers the top 15 spenders in podcast advertising
Tarform releases a limited edition electric motorcycle with Uncrate
Koffie Labs partners with Sutton National and Boost to modernize fleet underwriting
Paladin’s Kristen Sonday is interviewed by Nasdaq
Portfolio Companies Hiring
Armilla AI is hiring their first core engineers: Lead Full Stack Developer, Senior Python Developer, and Senior Software Developer (Front End)
Paladin is hiring a Product Designer and Engineer
Magellan AI is hiring another SDR and an Account Executive who will be focused on direct sales to advertisers. They’re also hiring an entry-level Operations Analyst, who needs to be ready to learn more about spreadsheets and SQL than they ever wanted to know.
Other C2V News
Alex Cruz tells his story of how he rose to International DJ and Producer status with no formal music education on the latest episode of the Superpowers Podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe.
Want even more C2V? We thought so. Check us out on: