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Employers today often use perks to attract new talent in the form of discounts and deals, commuter funds, gym memberships, childcare, free lunches and more. But the pandemic has impacted what sort of in-office or other in-person perks employees can access. That’s led to booming growth — and now, a fundraise — for a startup called Fringe, which offers companies a personalized marketplace of perks that people really want, like Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, Headspace, Talkspace and over 100 other apps.
The idea for Fringe came about from the co-founders’ work as financial advisors where they regularly found themselves consulting people who were weighing new job options and their associated benefits.
“Companies are spending a lot money on traditional benefits…$800, $1,000 a month per person. But the perceived value for most employees is relatively small, given the cost,” explains Fringe CEO Jordan Peace. “I started thinking about what could [companies] offer employees that would be a pretty low actual cost, but a really high perceived value?”
He landed on the idea of subscription services — things people use all the time in their daily lives, but sometimes feel just out of reach from a budgetary standpoint.
That’s where Fringe comes in.
Employers sign up for access to Fringe’s platform at a starting cost of $5 per employee per month. (The rate may decrease for larger organizations.) They then place the dollars they would normally spend on lifestyle benefits into the Fringe accounts of their employees, where they’re converted to “points” that can be spent on any of the apps and services.
Fringe Platform Walkthrough from Fringe on Vimeo.
Today, the marketplace offers a range of benefits, including streaming services like Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, and Audible, as well as virtual fitness, virtual coaching and wellness, online therapy like Talkspace, food and grocery delivery, like Grubhub, Uber Eats, Instacart, and Shipt, prepackaged meals, childcare like UrbanSitter, and more.
In the U.S., there are 135 services partners to choose from, with another couple hundred that are available overseas.
The startup’s business model involves negotiating a discount of anywhere from 10% to up to 60% off these services, which it passes along to the employees through its points back (rebate) system. Initially, it only allowed employees to spend their employer-provided lifestyle benefits dollars on Fringe. But due to user demand, it later opened up to allow employees to spend their own money, too — a feature they wanted specifically because of the points back.
Fringe first launched in 2019 — well ahead of the pandemic — and saw some slow but steady growth. It ended the year with 15 clients, representing a couple of hundred employees in total.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which sent a number of employees to work from home in a radical change to business culture that appears to have lasting impacts.
“After the dust settled from the first few months of COVID, we started getting 10…20 times more inbound interest,” Peace says, as companies realized Fringe could be a way to support their employees working from home.
“We were just in the right place at the right time to begin to profit from this changed workplace. And it’s not just a ‘pandemic perk.’ We’re going to get past COVID, and we’re still going to have two-thirds of people working from home. The workplace has changed,” he adds.
Image Credits: Fringe CEO Jordan Peace
By the end of 2020, Fringe had grown its client base to over 70 employers, representing now over 12,000 users on its platform. Today, its pipeline includes companies with between 200 and 2,000 employees — a sweet spot that allows them to move relatively quickly. This client base often includes tech companies, like car-sharing startup Turo or talent management system Cornerstone OnDemand, for example.
This year, Fringe expects to grow to well over 100,000 users on its platform, and increase its own team’s headcount, which is today around 20. It also plans to update its marketplace website to include things like automatic point gifting, charitable giving, new Slack integrations, improved navigation, and more.
As a result of the recent growth, Fringe has raised $2.2 million in new funding, in a round led by Sovereign’s Capital, with participation from Felton Group, Manchester Story, the Center for Innovative Technology, and angel investors, including Jaffray Woodriff. As part of this investment, the company also added longtime advisor William Boland, Senior Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Mission Lane, to its Board of Directors.
With the addition of the new funds, the startup’s total raise to date is $4 million.
Fringe believes the advantage of its marketplace is that it can be personalized to the user. Typically, employers determine what benefits to offer by running employee surveys, where the majority wins. That’s why many companies today provide perks like backup child care or discounted gym access. But this system discounts the minority’s needs — people who may not have kids or don’t want to work out. People who wish they could use their benefits dollars in a different way.
In addition to employee perks, Fringe believes that having so many subscriptions under one roof could present other opportunities further down the line.
Woodriff, for example, sees Fringe’s potential as a big data play, in terms of who is signing up for what subscriptions and why.
“But if you think about the fact that you’ve got a subscription service marketplace…there’s more applications to that than just employee benefits,” Peace explains. “I’d like our Series A to be to be predicated upon the much greater total addressable market. And so I think we’re going to spend the next year to 18 months laying down concrete plans and building the tech to be ready to roll out a couple of different use cases,” he says.
Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group has reached a tentative agreement with electric vehicle startup-turned-SPAC Fisker to develop and eventually manufacture an EV that will be sold in North America, Europe, China and India.
Fisker and Foxconn said Wednesday that a memorandum of understanding agreement has been signed. Discussions between the two companies will continue with the expectation that a formal partnership agreement will be reached during the second quarter of this year.
Under the agreement, Foxconn will begin production in the fourth quarter of 2023 with a projected annual volume of more than 250,000 vehicles. The electric vehicle will carry the Fisker brand.
Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Young-way Liu touted the company’s vertically integrated global supply chain and accumulated engineering capabilities, noting that it gives the company two major advantages in the development and manufacturing of the key elements of an EV, which includes the electric motor, electric control module and battery.
That supply chain and ability to scale engineering quickly will be critical for Foxconn if it hopes to meet its production target.
“The collaboration between our firms means that it will only take 24 months to produce the next Fisker vehicle — from research and development to production, reducing half of the traditional time required to bring a new vehicle to market,” Young-way Liu said in a statement.
Fisker said production of the Ocean SUV — its first EV and one that is supposed to be built by contract manufacturer Magna — will begin in the fourth quarter of 2022. The company said it plans to unveil a production-intent prototype of the Ocean later this year.
This is not Foxconn’s first foray into electric vehicle manufacturing.
Foxconn announced in January 2020 that it had formed a joint venture with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to build electric vehicles in China. Under that agreement, each party will own 50% of the venture to develop and manufacture electric vehicles and engage in an IOV, what Foxconn parent company Hon Hai calls the “internet of vehicles” business.
Last month, Foxconn and Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group agreed to form a joint venture focused on contract manufacturing for automakers, with a specific focus on electrification, connectivity and autonomous driving technology as well as vehicles designed for sharing.
The joint venture between Foxconn and Geely will provide consulting services on whole vehicles, parts, intelligent drive systems and other automotive ecosystem platforms to automakers as well as ridesharing companies. Geely said it will bring its experience in the automotive fields of design, engineering, R&D, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management and quality control while Foxconn will bring its manufacturing and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) know-how.
This morning MealMe.ai, a food search engine, announced that it has closed a $900,000 pre-seed round. Palm Drive Capital led the round, with participation from Slow Ventures and CP Ventures.
TechCrunch first became familiar with MealMe when it presented as part of the Techstars Atlanta demo day last October, mentioning it in a roundup of favorite startups from a group of the accelerator’s startup cohorts.
The company’s product allows users to search for food, or a restaurant. It then displays price points from various food-delivery apps for what the user wants to eat and have delivered. And, notably, MealMe allows for in-app checkout, regardless of the selected provider.
The service could boost pricing and delivery-speed transparency amongst the different apps that help folks eat, like DoorDash and Uber Eats. But Mealme didn’t start out looking to build a search engine. Instead it took a few changes in direction to get there.
From social network to search engine
MealMe is an example of a startup whose first idea proved only directionally correct. The company began life as a food-focused social network, co-founder Matthew Bouchner told TechCrunch. That iteration of the service allowed users to view posted food pictures, and then find ordering options for what they saw.
While still operating as a social network, MealMe applied to both Y Combinator and Techstars, but wasn’t accepted at either.
The startup discovered that some of its users were posting food pics simply to get the service to tell them which delivery services would be able to bring them what they wanted. From that learning the company focused on building a food search engine, allowing users to search for restaurants, and then vet various delivery options and prices. That iteration of the product got the company into Techstars Atlanta, eventually leading to the demo day that TechCrunch reviewed.
During its time in Techstars, the company adjusted its model to not merely link to DoorDash and others, but to handle checkout inside of its own application. This captures more gross merchandize value (GMV) inside of MealMe, Bouchner explained in an interview. The capability was rolled out in September of 2020.
Since then the company has seen rapid growth, which it measures at around 20% week-on-week. During TechCrunch’s interview with MealMe, the company said that it had reached a GMV run rate of more than $500,000, and was scaling toward the $1 million mark. In the intervening weeks the company passed the $1 million GMV run-rate threshold.
MealMe was slightly coy on its business model, but it appears to make margin between what it charges users for orders and the total revenue it passes along to food delivery apps.
TechCrunch was curious about platform risk at MealMe; could the company get away with offering price comparison and ordering across multiple third-party delivery services without raising the ire of the companies behind those apps? At the time of our interview, Bouchner said that his company had not seen pushback from the services it sends users to. His company’s goal is to grow quickly, become a useful revenue source for the DoorDashes of the world, and then reach out for some of formal agreement, he explained.
“We continue to be a powerful revenue generator and drive thousands of orders to food delivery services per week,” the co-founder said in a written statement. Certainly MealMe found investors more excited by its growth than concerned about Uber Eats or other apps cutting the startup off from their service.
What first caught my eye about MealMe was the realization of how much I would have used it in my early 20s. Perhaps the company can find enough users like my younger self to help it scale to sufficient size that it can go to the major food ordering companies and demand a cut, not merely avoid being cut off.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/24/mealme-raises-900000-for-its-food-search-engine/
We love nothing more than highlighting notable early-stage startups, and you’ll find plenty of them in the spotlight on March 3 at TC Sessions: Justice 2021, a virtual conference exploring diversity, inclusion and the human labor that powers tech. You do not want to miss meeting and learning more about these impressive early-stage founders — all participants in the TC Include Program.
Not familiar with TC Include? TechCrunch partners with various founder organizations who act as advisors and nominate promising early-stage founders to participate in the program. In a collective collaboration with VC organizations like Kleiner Perkins, Salesforce Ventures and Initialized Capital and the founder organizations, TC Include provides educational resources and mentorship over the course of the year to help program participants develop and succeed.
You’ll have plenty of opportunity to meet and network with TC Include founders, and you won’t want to miss their live pitch feedback session. Each TC Include founder gets a 60-second pitch to a TechCrunch staffer. It’s a great opportunity to learn how to structure your pitch and pick up a few tips and strategies. Who knows? The pitch you improve could be your own.
We’ve already announced the TC Include startups affiliated with partner organizations Black Female Founders (here) and the Female Founder Alliance (here). Today, we’re thrilled to share with you just some of the early-stage founders affiliated with StartOut and the LatinX Startup Alliance.
StartOut
Endo Industries: Endo Industries sells cannabis plants and, through collaboration with farmers, is building a platform that helps operators scale brands grounded in equity, diversity and wellness. Founded by Nancy Do.
Kyndoo: Kyndoo is a data platform for solving social media’s biggest problems — fraud, attribution and content safety. It helps brands avoid working with #FakeFamous and helps them find companies that share their mission and values. Founded by Kelly McDonald.
Thimble: Thimble is a monthly subscription service that teaches kids robotics and coding skills through a curated STEM curriculum, robotics and coding kits and live, build-along classes. Founded by Oscar Pedroso.
LatinX Startup Alliance
Hoy Health: Hoy Health, a digital health company with a bilingual platform, provides access to primary care products and services, at low cost, to underserved communities. Founded by Mario Anglada.
Caribu: Caribu helps kids have virtual playdates with family and friends by playing games, reading and coloring together in an interactive video-call. Founded by Max Tuchman.
Pandocap.co: Pandocap is a financial media company built around the capital markets. Bilingual content focuses on easy-to-understand information and highlights diverse voices through different strategies. Founded by Laura Moreno.
TC Sessions: Justice 2021 takes place on March 3. Check out the event agenda, buy your pass today, and discover the opportunities that come from building a more diverse, inclusive and just industry.
Virtual events platform Hopin is hopin’ for a mega valuation.
According to multiple sources who spoke with TechCrunch, the company, which was founded in mid-2019, is running around the fundraise circuit and perhaps nearing the end of a fundraise in which it is looking to raise roughly $400 million at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion for its Series C. Two sources implied that the valuation could reach as high as $6 billion, but with greater dilution based on some offered terms the company has received. The deal is in flux, and both the round size and valuation are subject to change.
One source told TechCrunch that the company’s ARR has grown to $60 million, implying a valuation multiple of 80-100x if the valuation we’re hearing pans out. That sort of multiple wouldn’t be out of line with other major fundraises for star companies with SaaS-based business models.
Hopin has been on a fundraise tear in recent months. The company raised $125 million at a $2.125 billion valuation late last year for its Series B, which came just a few months after it raised a Series A of $40 million over the summer and a $6.5 million seed round last winter. All told, the roughly 20-month-old company has raised a known $171.4 million in VC according to Crunchbase.
When we last reported on the company, Hopin’s ARR had gone from $0 to $20 million, while its overall userbase had grown from essentially zero to 3.5 million users in November. The company reported then that it had 50,000 groups using its platform.
Hopin’s platform is designed to translate the in-person events experience into a virtual one, providing tools to recreate the experience of walking exhibition floors, networking one-on-one and spontaneously joining fireside chats and panels. It’s become a darling in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen most business and educational conferences canceled in the midst of mass restrictions on domestic and international travel worldwide.
It’s probably also useful to note that our business team uses Hopin to run all of TechCrunch’s editorial events, including Disrupt, Early Stage, Extra Crunch Live and next week’s TechCrunch Sessions: Justice 2021 event (these software selections and their costs are — thankfully — outside the purview of our editorial team).
Hopin may be the mega-leader of the virtual events space right now, but it isn’t the only startup trying to take on this suddenly vital industry. Run The World raised capital last year, Welcome wants to be the ‘Ritz-Carlton for event platforms,’ Spotify is getting into the business, Clubhouse is arguably a contender here, InEvent raised a seed earlier this month and Hubilo is another entrant which nabbed a check from Lightspeed a few months ago. Plus, quite literally dozens of other startups have either started in the space or are pivoting toward it.
We have reached out to Hopin for comment.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/24/vcs-are-chasing-hopin-upwards-of-5-6b-valuation/
