💰 Tiger Global’s record $6.7B VC fund

PLUS: Flying taxis are coming (?). April 12, 2021 [The Hustle] [The Hustle]( Over the weekend, the world lost hip-hop artist DMX and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. RIP. The big idea [tiger]( Tiger Global, the $65B fund on a wild tech spending spree Earlier this month, investment firm Tiger Global announced that it raised one of the largest pots of VC money ever: $6.7B. As detailed by [TechCrunch](, the news caps off an incredible streak for the firm’s tech ambitions: - Roblox: Tiger Global owned 10% of the sandbox gaming startup when it went public in March at a valuation of $38B+ - Stripe: Tiger Global saw the value of its stake in the fintech firm rise when Stripe announced a $600m raise at a $95B valuation - M&A wins: 3 of Tiger Global’s portfolio companies were acquired in billion-dollar deals in 2020 (i.e., Postmates, Kustomer, Credit Karma) Tiger Global was founded as a NY-based hedge fund… … in 2003 by Chase Coleman, who previously cut his teeth with investing legend Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. Over the years, the firm expanded its mandate to include private equity and venture investing; Tiger Global’s $6.7B fund is its 13th VC fund. Today, it manages $65B And the firm’s ~100 employees are its biggest shareholders. Per [The Information](, the secret ingredients behind Tiger Global’s recent tech success include: - Speed: It moves very fast on deals, closing some in just 3 days. - Huge war chest: Its massive pile of money is matched by few in venture capital, and the firm is willing to spend. - Resources: Tiger Global pays for portfolio companies to access high-priced consultants for advice (e.g., Bain). - Pre-emptive offers: Tiger Global approaches startups that aren’t even in fundraising mode and throws big offers. - Long-term holders: Since Tiger Global also operates public market hedge funds, it provides price stability for startups because -- unlike traditional VCs -- it doesn’t have to distribute funds after an IPO. Through Q1 2021, Tiger Global has already closed 60 tech deals (~4+ a week). Go to where the money is In 2020, US startups were involved in acquisitions or public listings that totalled a record $290B per The Information. Tiger Global’s increased deal activity coincides with this wild spending spree. And it might only get crazier in 2021: Tiger has bets on ByteDance, Discord, Hopin, and -- wowzers -- a ~10% stake in crypto exchange Coinbase with a potential value of $10B when it goes public this week. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=Tiger+Global%2C+the+%2465B+fund+on+a+wild+tech+spending+spree%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F04122021-Tiger-Global%3Futm_campaign%3DTiger%2BGlobal%26utm_content%3D04122021-Tiger-Global%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( Snippets - Amazon won its union vote after >1/2 of the 3k+ employees at an Alabama warehouse voted against the formation of a workers’ union. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which set up the vote, is challenging the [results](. - Do NOT collect $200: Following a monopoly probe by Chinese regulators, ecommerce giant Alibaba paid a [$2.8B]( fine. (More [here](on why Chinese authorities are clamping down on the country’s entrepreneurs.) - Jessica Alba’s Honest Company filed to go public. The celebrity’s consumer startup had a huge pandemic year selling baby products, lotions, and sanitizers, per [CNBC](. Revenue hit $300m in 2020 and it could IPO at $2B. - *DJ Khaled voice* another one: The latest data leak comes from social audio app Clubhouse ([1m+]( users have their personal information floating around the interwebs). - Text me: Salesforce invested $40m into a text platform called [Community](, which is used by celebs (e.g., Tom Brady, J-Lo) and brands (e.g., People magazine) to communicate with fans and consumers via SMS. - Micro$oft: The $1.9T Big Tech behemoth is in talks to acquire speech recognition firm Nuance for [$16B](.  To your credit [Instacart card]( Credit cards are cool, but lanyards are better (Source: Smith Collection / Getty Images) Why Instacart and DoorDash are launching credit cards There’s an extremely high possibility that you’ve used one of these 2 apps in the past year: DoorDash (food delivery), Instacart (grocery delivery). Both services became essential for many during the pandemic and their respective valuations prove this out: - DoorDash went public in [December]( and is now worth $45B - Instacart raised a new round of funding at $39B Now, both companies plan on launching their own credit cards Why? As noted by [The Wall Street Journal](, branded credit cards are typically launched to help retain users and reward loyal customers. Instacart is partnering with JPMorgan on a card to be released next year that may include 5% cash back. Meanwhile, DoorDash is deciding among 10+ banks to partner with on its own card. Banks typically partner with hotel and travel companies… … but those 2 industries have been hurting for obvious reasons. Per the Journal, JPMorgan is “choosy” about its credit card partners. Among non-travel industries, the bank has only linked up with the biggest names (e.g., Amazon, Starbucks). With Instacart and DoorDash convincing banks to give them the goods, the sentiment seems to be that we’ll continue to use the services long after the pandemic is over. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=Why+Instacart+and+DoorDash+are+launching+credit+cards%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F04122021-Instacart-credit-cards%3Futm_campaign%3DTiger%2BGlobal%26utm_content%3D04122021-Instacart-credit-cards%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( SPONSORED You’ve got a great idea! So does the person behind you waiting for coffee. Get in line. Tough talk: Ideas are only as good as the action that follows. So what can you do? You’re reading The Hustle, so that’s a start. Even better, we’re about to help you turn that idea into action. May we introduce: [your business plan]( We’re talking about a template for research, a place to outline your (soon-to-be) company mission statement, product offerings, and so much more. It’s a business plan template compiled from the best templates used by startups, founders, and investors -- yours, for free, thanks to HubSpot. So here’s your action plan: - Book 45 minutes this afternoon to review the template - Download the template here - Stop ideating and start building [Make it real →]( Fly Fly Fly [flying car]( Coming to a neighbourhood near you (Source: Hulton Archive / Getty Images) Flying cars are coming...maybe Peter Thiel famously quipped: “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” The early Facebook investor and Palantir co-founder was bemoaning how the tech industry was busy churning out consumer apps instead of the true innovations we were promised from yesteryears. Turns out 2021 is a rebuttal to Thiel’s quote As reported by [The Economist](, as many as 300 companies are working on “short-range battery-powered craft that take off and land vertically.” Translation: flying cars. Morgan Stanley forecasts the industry could be worth $674B by 2040. More recently, a number of flying taxi startups, dubbed eVTOL (electric vertical take off and landing), have reached public markets via special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs): - Lilium: A 7-seater electric jet valued at [~$3B]( - Archer Aviation: Currently valued at [$3.8B]( with plans -- per The Economist -- for a fully autonomous version - Joby Aviation: A 4-seater backed by Uber (and using some of its tech) is valued at [~$7B]( There are still a number of issues… … for cost, regulation, and hardware to be solved before we’ll see eVTOLs buzzing around. Here’s how the startups are differentiating themselves from: - Cabs: They can travel 4-5x faster than car transportation (read: no traffic) - Helicopters: The electric motors are quieter than choppers, and they only need a small patch of grass to land on The Economist writes that the Federal Aviation Administration is working with a number of the companies to get them certified to fly, while Archer has already secured a $1B deal with United Airlines to ferry passengers. Take that, Peter Thiel. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=Flying+cars+are+coming...maybe%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F04122021-Flying-cars%3Futm_campaign%3DTiger%2BGlobal%26utm_content%3D04122021-Flying-cars%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( Tweet of the day [tweet]( Reid got jokes (Source: Twitter / [@reidhoffman]() LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is an investor in flying taxi startup Joby Aviation. As a sign of how memes have completely infiltrated all parts of society, Hoffman tweeted out his interpretation of the “how it started vs. how it’s going” meme. Not to ruin a joke by explaining it, but Hoffman is saying that manned flight began with Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches from 1488, and now… we’ll have flying cars. 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