News|E Vol.18
In this week's News|E we congratulate Didi Chuxing, Grab, Airbnb, Peloton, Xiaohongshu, Phononic, SoFi, Affirm, Opendoor, Synack and Houzz on being recognized as a CNBC Disruptor 50 company!
Meet the GGV Capital portfolio companies that are 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 companies:
Didi Chuxing
Didi Chuxing keeps marching ahead, moving up two spots to No. 2 on the 2019 Disruptors list. The Beijing, China-based company bills itself as the world's leading mobile transportation platform, with 550 million users and more than 31 million drivers. In 2018, Didi focused on improve passenger and driver safety, accelerated electric vehicle operations and started food-delivery in Wuxi, a city in Jiangsu Province.
Grab
Ride-hailing is just one part of Grab, the Singapore-based company that is growing rapidly across Southeast Asia. It has transformed into a leading super app offering everything from transportation and financial services to on-demand grocery. In March 2018 it acquired Uber's business in South East Asia. The deal integrated Uber's ride-sharing and food-delivery business in Southeast Asia onto Grab's platform, which includes operations in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, among others.
Airbnb
As it manages through its second decade in business, Airbnb continues to expand the rest of its offerings such as premium homes and experiences. It boasts 6 million listings (castles and treehouses among them) in 81,000 cities across 191 countries. In March the company acquired the hotel booking site HotelTonight (a GGV portfolio company) to get access to its roster of boutique hotels around the country.
Peloton
Peloton claims to have sold more than 450,000 pieces of fitness equipment so far, and revenue is estimated to hit $700 million this year. That number is likely to accelerate as it recently began shipping bikes to the U.K. and Canada. Later in 2019, Peloton will open its first London-based studio.
Xiaohongshu
Xiaohongshu is a source of advice and recommendations for its community of fashion and beauty lovers, who post pictures of their favorite products and provide information about where to buy them. The strategy has made it the world's largest lifestyle platform that integrates community and content with e-commerce, and it has built up a following among some of China's most popular influencers.
Phononic
Phononic is a semiconductor manufacturer that has developed new solid-state cooling and refrigeration technology that displaces compressors, heat sinks and fans. Last year the company partnered with Thermo Fisher Scientific as the exclusive supplier for its life sciences and health-care solid-state refrigeration and freezer products. It also has become the refrigeration supplier to Pepsi Bottling, who is using Phononic refrigerators throughout the country.
SoFi
SoFi (short for social finance) started with focus on refinancing student loans, then it added personal and mortgage loans, mortgage refinances and wealth management services. It now also offers a complete suite of financial products — Sofi Money, Sofi Invest and Sofi Insurance — aimed at the general public. The company claims to have 600,000 members and has made $30 billion in loans to date.
Affirm
Affirm uses proprietary algorithms at the point of sale to determine a person's creditworthiness. For consumers who don't have an extensive credit history yet this especially useful. If approved, borrowers can select a three-, six- or 12-month repayment period, with the monthly interest expressed in dollars, not as an interest rate. There is no compounding interest or late fees.
Opendoor
This San Francisco-based start-up helps homeowners sell their house more quickly by offering to buy it from them. Sellers pay an average fee of 7.7% of the selling price to Opendoor and can schedule a closing in as little as ten days, compared with 50 days for a traditional home sale closing. There are no showings, and any repair work can be addressed by Opendoor and the costs deducted from the proceeds. Today the company operates in 23 cities across the U.S.
Synack
This cybersecurity company, started by two former National Security Agency agents, uses software security tools along with a network of highly skilled ethical hackers — so-called white-hat hackers — to help keep its clients' systems secure. Synack offers government agencies and companies penetration testing that enables them to find vulnerabilities in their networks that hackers can exploit.
Houzz
Houzz, based in Palo Alto, California offers a home remodeling and design platform that has 18 million photos of remodeling and renovation projects on its site, giving help and inspiration to anyone trying to renovate a kitchen or redo a bathroom. Houzz says since the launch of the latest iteration of its 3-D tool's introduction in April, more than 2 million people have used it. These folks are 11 times more likely to make a purchase and spent nearly triple the amount of time in the app.