Gm. Picture of me vs my 9-5.
Welcome to Issue 05 of The Quest Digest, where we break down Silicon Valley news for you every week, in 3 minutes.
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The startup with $600K revenue burning $10M per month
Fast launched in 2020 joining a collection of startups and big tech players offering one-click checkout, to allow shoppers to add their payment and shipping details once for future payments.
By the Numbers:
The company is valued at $584M after its Series B led by Stripe in Jan 2021
The startup grew to 500 employees from 100 in Feb 2021
Fast generated $600K in revenue in 2021
Fast has been burning $10M in cash each month
The company has since tried to raise another $100 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1B+ late last year but was unsuccessful.
Our Take
Based on these figures, we think it’s fair to say Fast was one of the companies that took advantage of the cash bonanza and hype valuations of 2020.
Twitter users joke the 600K revenue was made from selling Fast-branded hoodies via their merch store. All up, it’s looking like red flags 🚩🚩🚩
Instacart Slashes Valuation by Almost 40%
Instacart has cut its valuation by 40% to about $24B, down from $39B. The move is in response to decelerating company growth and selloffs in tech stocks with the NASDAQ being down 12% from its November high and numerous public tech companies down even more than that.
By lowering its valuation the company is also looking to attract talent by offering stock awards to new and current employees at a more attractive price.
Our Take
Instacart’s business outlook remains strong. The company has more than $1B in cash sitting in the bank and doesn’t need to raise more capital.
Last week the company also launched a data analytics platform to sell to supermarkets, in hopes of creating another revenue stream to add to the $1.8B they made in 2021.
Last year rumours were made in regards to a strong IPO in 2022. While these plans may be delayed in the short-run, the move shows signs of strong leadership towards building a company for the long-term.
Axie Infinity hacked out of $625M
One of the largest crypto games, Axie Infinity was hacked for 173,600Ξ or about $567M, and $26M worth of stablecoin USDC. It totals $625M, making it the largest decentralized finance hack to date.
The transfer was discovered on the 29th of March, nearly a week after the funds were stolen on the 23rd. Which isn’t a great look…
Our Take
The Ronin blockchain uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) system compared to a proof-of-work (PoW) system like Bitcoin. PoS requires a small number of validator nodes that authorize transactions on the platform and is less energy-intensive than its PoW counterparts.
The Ronin sidechain has 9 validators requiring 5 signatures for withdrawals which the hacker was able to find a backdoor to according to their community alert.
The hack shows despite PoS being faster and more efficient, it can create security risks if the majority of nodes are compromised – acting as a fair warning to similar blockchains.
🔥 Press Worthy
Visa launches NFT creator program
YouTube may be rolling out a dedicated podcasts page
Oura sells it’s millionth ring
Facebook funded anti-TikTok campaign through GOP firm
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The Quest Digest is written by Hannah Ahn and edited by Brent Liang, two dropouts who hate long tech newsletters. You can sign up to our next issue below.