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Rent Revolution, Browser Collaboration Made Easy, Streamlining Market Research

June 13, 2023

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What People Are Building! 🚀

Founded: 2019 in US

Founders: Matt See - ex-Research Associate @ Dodge & Cox; Alan Chang - ex-Head of Host Operations (Open Homes) @ Airbnb

Product: Lighthouse is a platform that revolutionizes the renting process by providing people with a place to live and offering a cashback reward. To enhance the user experience, Lighthouse employs realtors, whom they refer to as Lightkeepers, to streamline the moving process. By optimizing the renting journey, Lighthouse not only helps individuals find a home but also returns a portion of the money paid to realtors back to the users.

Quick Take: According to a report from Moody's Analytics, the median renter in the U.S. would need to allocate 29.6% of their monthly income towards rent in the first quarter of 2023. This figure, although slightly lower than the previous year, still represents an uncomfortably high ratio. Rents surged in the pandemic for a variety of reasons, and they remain high now partly as a side effect of surging mortgage rates. Those rates are keeping would-be first-time homebuyers on the sidelines — and that's pushing up demand for rentals. Housing should be an affordable commodity that plays a pivotal role in the personal development and prosperity of individuals, particularly the middle class.

Unlike other apartment searching sites, Lighthouse goes beyond simply helping renters find a place to live. By offering cash back on rent, we empower renters to move forward in life. For some, the cashback reward provides extra spending money, allowing them to enjoy some additional financial flexibility. For others, it serves as a means to pay down debt, contributing to their long-term financial stability. Regardless of the specific circumstances, receiving cash back represents a step in the right direction—an opportunity for progress that we fully embrace at Lighthouse.

Total Funding (public source): $5,000,000+

Founded: 2022 in US

Founders: Divyagnan K., CEO - ex-Senior Software Engineer @ Stripe, Uber; TJ Kandala, CTO - ex-Software Engineer @ Sourcegraph

Product: LinkGrep is an AI browser copilot designed to enhance team collaboration in the browser.

While browsers serve as the primary workspace for many teams, they were not originally designed with team collaboration in mind. Consequently, teams often encounter a range of issues, such as misplaced links, difficulty finding essential documentation, isolated information silos, and suboptimal collaboration workflows.

Value proposition:

  • Simplifies link and document management by automatically tracking and organizing resources.

  • Offers intelligent information retrieval by suggesting relevant information from integrated tools.

  • Facilitates seamless collaboration through notes and comments directly on web pages.

  • Automates team actions like opening links before meetings for improved efficiency.

Total Funding (public source): $500,000

Investors: Y Combinator

Founded: 2021 in Finland

Founders: Martin Kangasniemi - ex-Deals @ PwC; Niko Nalli, CEO - ex-Manager (Corporate Finance) @ PwC; Markus Vesala - ex-Assistant Manager (Corporate Finance) @ KPMG; Muhammad Ammad-ud-din, CTO - ex-Senior Data Scientist @ Huawei Technologies Research & Development (FIN) Ltd

Product: Comparables.ai is an AI-powered platform that simplifies finding comparable companies for businesses. It provides insights on financial performance, growth rates, and valuation multiples, making it a game-changer for finance professionals and consultants who spend significant time researching new markets and identifying key players within those markets.

Quick Take: Finance professionals have long grappled with the challenge of manually researching new markets. This task often involves delving into the intricacies of market dynamics, identifying key players like competitors, potential acquisition targets, buyers, customers, suppliers, distributors, and more. Unfortunately, this manual research process is not only time-consuming but also subjective. Nevertheless, it plays a vital role in successfully entering new markets and avoiding costly mistakes. Recognizing this need, Comparables.ai strives to deliver a cutting-edge company search and recommendation technology, aiming to eliminate the inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and high costs commonly associated with research in the finance and consulting industries.

Total Funding (public source): $1,400,000

Investors: Nidoco AB, Peter Seligson, Kari Stadigh, Tomas von Rettig, Hannu Kytölä, Business Finland

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Fresh Powder 💸

  • Lens Protocol, a decentralized social networking ecosystem, secured $15 million in funding. The protocol is developed by Aave, a web3 technology firm known for its crypto lending and borrowing services (having raised $49 million to date). The funding round was led by IDEO CoLab Ventures and saw participation from notable firms such as General Catalyst, Variant, Blockchain Capital, as well as DAOs like Flamingo DAO, DAOJones, Punk DAO, DAO5, and Global Coin Research.

  • Uncommon, a UK-based cultivated meat startup formerly known as Higher Steaks, raised an impressive $30 million in Series A funding, one of the largest rounds in the European cell-based sector. The company employs RNA technology to produce cultivated bacon and pork belly and plans to utilize the funds to scale up production at its pilot manufacturing facility. The funding round was led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital, with participation from prominent institutional and angel investors, including Sam Altman and Max Altman from OpenAI, Redalpine, East Alpha, Miray Zaki, and Sebastiano Castiglioni.

Treasure Trove 💎

  • The 3 Phases of Product-Led Growth: The Triple Whale Method: Successful companies thrive by earning favor from the market, regardless of the economic conditions. Truly product-led organizations exhibit a countercyclical nature.

  • Mason: Level up your in-store customer marketing with Mason's AI Shopping Engine, powering real-time & 1-on-1 shopping experiences that drive more sales. Discovery, shop, repeat—online sales, now made simple. Join the Mason fam today.

  • Reddit experienced a crash concurrently with multiple subreddits going dark in protest of the site's new API pricing terms.

  • Saudi Arabia has invested nearly $8 billion in gaming companies globally in the last 18 months, with the goal of becoming a major player in the industry. Savvy Games Group, owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, has led the investments by acquiring stakes in esports agency VSPO and Embracer Group. They are also planning to acquire mobile games studio Scopely.

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