Toast
A cloud-based restaurant management software provider is planning an IPO that could value it at ~$20B; in Feb. 2020 it was valued at $4.9B on.wsj.com/2NLDJZm
German startups
15 German startups benefitting from the shift to electric cars, according to VCs European VCs nominate the startups they’re excited by in 2021, and why. https://bit.ly/2MbPyaL
Forecast
Health Care In 2021 Will Focus On ‘Digitization Of The Patient Experience’ Investors in the space poured record investment dollars into digital health startups in 2020: $14.2 billion globally and $9.2 billion domestically, according to Crunchbase data. Investments in 2021 could rival 2020 as investors expect innovation to come from areas such as data interoperability, mental health, and personalized care. https://bit.ly/3ukgDdd
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is developing a new service called Marketplaces to let its 740 million users find and book freelancers, pitting it against publicly traded firms such as Upwork and Fiverr, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The career-focused networking site owned by Microsoft wants to tap into a small but growing market for websites that connect primarily white-collar professionals, such as app developers and accountants, with businesses or individuals who want their services. Freelancer work got a boost from the Covid-19 pandemic as people sought new ways to make money without leaving home. The service, which is slated to launch as soon as September, could help LinkedIn attract new users and generate more revenue from existing users of its professional networking site, which Microsoft acquired in 2016. LinkedIn generated an estimated $30 of revenue per monthly active user last year. That’s on par with Facebook’s revenue per monthly active user. https://bit.ly/3qJ21BU
Big Data Trends
The 4 Biggest Trends In Big Data And Analytics Right For 2021 The 4 Biggest Trends In Big Data and Analytics Right For 2021
