NVTC Newsletter No. 5
Oct 4, 2022
Kaley Ubellacker
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
Happy Tech Tuesday, and welcome to the NVTC weekly newsletter! Here you’ll find recent updates from the tech world, insightful articles related to startups and highlights from NV portfolio companies.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES ⚡
💡Volunteer – Should we host an info session with Develop for Good? Click here to learn more.
💳 Nomba – Digital payments for underserved businesses.
⭐ The Reign of Robots – Tesla’s AI Day and Walgreen’s new drug-fillers.
⭐ Market Mayday – What’s happening to unicorns and op(Porsche)tunities.
⭐ A Wild Yeast – Genetically modified … yeast? A potential player for cancer drugs.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
Develop for Good links professionals with opportunities to mentor students working on technical projects at nonprofits. This is an incredible way to stay involved with the tech community and contribute to impactful projects.
As we mentioned last week, we’re considering hosting an information session with Develop for Good. We received great responses from our last poll, so we wanted to reach out one more time in case you missed it. Stay tuned for an email regarding scheduling!
NV PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHT 🎢
Let’s reflect on an experience many of us take for granted: a morning trip to your local coffee shop. You wake up too late. You rush to get ready before placing an online order for a latte and breakfast sandwich. It’s ready just in time. You make it to work ahead of schedule.
But what if you couldn’t order online? What if digital payments didn’t exist and you were doomed to wait in line for 20 minutes just to get a cup of joe? In Nigeria, small businesses are responsible for 86% of the workforce, but only 60% of those businesses accept any form of digital payment. Those who do lack a unified platform.
Nomba is the first FinTech startup of its kind based in Nigeria. Nomba offers a comprehensive range of tools for businesses to accept, process and manage payments online and offline. Businesses can self-onboard in five minutes and order a full-service integrated dashboard to manage all their payment needs.
As of April this year, Nomba handled payments for over 150,000 companies on its platform, and it onboards 15,000 new companies monthly. People are taking notice of Nomba's fast growth – it was listed as a YCombinator Top Company for 2022. Check out this site if you want to explore where your skills might help with Nomba’s mission.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
NEWS & ARTICLES 📖
A new source of a key cancer drug in low supply: genetically modified yeast
Salesforce’s Carbon Market Meets Companies Where They Are
The unicorn funding slump is worse than you thought
For the less rushed reader …
Tesla’s robot is a real robot now, not just a guy in a suit
At Tesla’s AI day last Friday, Elon Musk unveiled a slightly wobbly, cable-wrapped robot. This robot was an immense upgrade from the previous year’s demonstration by a dude in a suit. Eventually, the robot will be able to carry a 20-pound bag, use tools, and have precision grip – as well as walk efficiently. It’s all part of Musk’s vision to create “a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible.”
Walgreens turns to prescription-filling robots to free up pharmacists
Grappling with a nationwide shortage of pharmacists, Walgreens has started setting up robotic drug-filling centers. Robotic arms will sort and bottle prescriptions to free up capacity for skilled professionals. Walgreens claims it cuts workloads by at least 25%. That’s not such a hard pill to swallow!
Can Porsche cure an ailing IPO market?
Amidst warnings of global recession and rampant inflation, Porsche somehow made one of the biggest market debuts in European history. Though the IPO-market has become increasingly stagnant, Porsche’s public offering lended a much-needed boost. The company opened at €84, up 2% from its IPO price, and ended with a market price of over €75 billion.
Fire Up the Pre-Seeds🔥
Highlights from this week’s pre-seed raises:
REDDIT HIGHLIGHT 📈
Reddit is particularly excited about Tesla’s Optimus robot. Here’s what r/wallstreetbets has to say about it:
This is a comment to give you a bright new perspective on the bot:
Outro🚪
Have any questions, feedback, or comments? Just reply here. We iterate and curate the newsletter according to your interests!
Some last matters of business:
If you’re a technologist (engineer or product manager / designer with a technical background) join us on the NVTC LinkedIn group if you haven’t. We’d love to have you!
Sign up here if you’re interested in co-investing with Necessary.
If you’re a startup founder, we’d love to help where we can! Brex provides full-stack finance solutions for startups. Sign up via Necessary and get bonus points.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
