🗂Flexing The Wallet, Trolls, and Big Telecom.
It is Friday PEOPLE! Catch me laying out in the sun and listening to the new Kanye album this weekend. Let’s get into it.
The Real Tiger King
Welcome to the land of Patagonia vests and gaslighting. That’s right… we are talking Venture Capital! Not just any VC either. The one, the only, Tiger Global.
Tiger Global Management, a 20-year-old New York-based investing firm has not only quietly become the most prolific investor in billion-dollar startups, it is also significantly picking up the pace at which it deploys capital in 2021, according to Crunchbase. If you’re a startup walking past Tiger Global on the street, chances are they are going to throw some cash at you. So, why and how do they do it?
Even before this year Tiger Global was one of the most active lead investors in startup funding deals. They have picked up the pace significantly, investing in 118 companies this year so far, up an astonishing 10x compared to its investing pace in the first five months of 2020. And Tiger isn’t just doing more deals — it’s also throwing more money at them. A TON more. By dollar amount, its investments are also up 10x compared to the first five months of 2020.
So far in 2021, it has led or co-led deals totaling $10.5 billion and participated in rounds which totaled a further $11.5 billion, Crunchbase data shows. That compares with all of last year, when the firm led or co-led deals valued at $5 billion and participated in a further $7.8 billion in funding where other firms led.
Tiger’s pursuit of startups has turned it into the biggest investor in unicorn startups (private companies valued over $1B), with 126 private companies currently in its portfolio.
Tiger Global’s investment in Peloton illustrates its strategy of moving fast and early. The firm was the sole lead for Peloton’s Series B in 2014 and co-led its Series C in 2015 alongside True Ventures. By the time of Peloton’s IPO in 2019, Tiger had amassed a 20 percent stake — more than any other institutional investor. If the firm had exited at the time of Peloton’s public debut, it would have netted around $2 billion.
The King of the Jungle is shaping up for another huge year, with four portfolio companies acquired and eight portfolio companies that have gone public, less than half-way into the year. It looks like the firm’s pace is not slowing down any time soon and, because of that, there will be a lot of new cubs following in the Tiger’s strategy: “More Deals, Quicker, with More Money”.
p.s. - That is not their official slogan please don’t sue me.
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Internet Trolls Beware
Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed the company is testing a new feature called “Limits,” which would give users the ability to temporary lock down their accounts when they’re being targeted by a flood of harassment.
The announcement of the new feature was made today during a video where Mosseri condemned the recent racism that took place on Instagram’s platform following the Euro 2020 final. The company had previously commented on and condemned the racist abuse, which had seen England soccer players Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho harassed by angry fans making racist comments after the team’s loss earlier this month.
In the images above, users with the feature would find a new section called Limits in Instagram’s privacy controls that explained that they could temporarily limit comments and messages from specific groups of followers. Users could then toggle on or off groups to limit, including recent followers and accounts that are not following you, as these could include accounts that were spam or those created just to harass you. As is often the case, when there’s a flood of incoming abuse, it will not come from an account’s longtime followers, but rather from newcomers who have sought out the account just to harass them.
Good on Instagram. Up until this point, social media seemingly provided uninterrupted access to a person’s screen, regardless of where they are in the world. The connectivity that the internet gives us can so easily become a fire hose of abuse. Hoping that this feature never has to be used, but glad it is available.
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“Sorry... My Signal Is Spotty”
A new study argues crappy U.S. broadband is an active policy choice and a direct result of weak U.S. lobbying and corporate finance laws. A new joint study by Common Cause and the Communications Workers of America union found that the telecom industry spent $234 million on lobbying during the 116th Congress alone, or nearly $320,000 a day. Comcast was the biggest spender at more than $43 million, with AT&T not far behind at $36 million.
Holy guacamole. No wonder I have to stand on my bed to talk to my parents, I’m fighting against corporations with billions of dollars to throw at lawmakers.
The result of this influence, the study found, is U.S. broadband that’s slower, more expensive, and generally worse than the global average. Telecom lobbyists also fought against the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, which includes money to help fund local community broadband.
“For years, Congressional efforts to pass legislation needed to address the nation’s long-standing disparities in connectivity have been stopped dead in their tracks in part because of aggressive industry lobbying and the oversized political influence of the largest ISPs,” Common Cause Media and Democracy Program Director Yosef Getachew said of the study.
An estimated 83 million Americans live under a broadband monopoly, usually a regional cable giant like Comcast or Charter. Millions more live under a duopoly consisting of either a poor phone company or their local cable provider. The end result is obvious: spotty access, slow speeds, high prices, and generally terrible customer service.
I mean we all knew that lobbyists are (for the most part) working against public interest and seeking to increase corporate margins. This is egregious though. Seriously… spending $320,000 a day just to win over a few people in Congress.
Seems a little desperate to me.
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ICYMI
Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene for Posting Coronavirus Misinformation.
A 22-year-old was arrested in hacks of Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat.