Digital Experiences
Issue #37
Hi, I hope this note finds you healthy and safe.
Today my kids began the new school year, which will be a 100% online. Classes will take place via the Google classroom using Google docs; Apple is no where to be seen. Learning outcomes will be buttressed by the Khan Academy and kids will break into study groups and have one on ones with their teachers via Zoom.
Pre-covid it would have taken a decade to get to where we are today on trusting employees and students to work from home and to know that they will get the job done. The tools have been available for a while, but employers and administrators remained uncertain about potential outcomes. That is no longer the case. I expect many employees will continue to work from home post-covid and online learning will continue to thrive as a legitimate learning alternative.
AutoFi:
Several years ago I invested in the seed round of a company called AutoFi. Ford led their Series A and BMW iVentures recently led their Series B.
AutoFi is an e-commerce software platform that allows car buyers to purchase and finance a car entirely online. The platform connects an auto dealer’s customers to a network of lenders, providing a fast, mobile-first checkout experience.
I recently recieved an investor update from Kevin Singerman the CEO of AutoFi. Kevin said that “the headline for AutoFi and generally the Automotive industry is that Covid has pulled forward the adoption of digital by dealers materially. We estimate that beginning of year 10-15% of dealers had a solution and we could end the year at 80%+ industry adoption. What could have taken several more years is happening en masse in 2020”.
I think we will here this story from CEOs accross industries as the economy is digitized and consumers move increasingly online.
TeleMedicine:
Needless to say there are a lot of changes occuring with activities and businesses moving online and increasing their digital presence. There are many companies that are benfitting from our new online reality. The digitization of healthcare could be another Mega Trend much like the the digitization of finance.
Yesterday Forbes reported on a $38 billion merger of two of the largest publicly traded virtual care companies, Teladoc (NYSE: TDOC) and Livongo (NDAQ: LVGO).
The combination will create the market’s first full-stack virtual healthcare company. The combined entity will offer chatbots to answer patient questions, virtual visits with a Doctor, remote patient monitoring and data analytics to improve patient outcomes. All at a significant savings to visiting a Doctor in a hospital.
PODCAST:
Venture Stories: If you are interested in learning more about where innovation in healthcare is going check out this podcast with Niko Skievaski (@niko_ski), founder and president of Redox, and Nikita Singareddy (@singareddynm), investor at RRE Ventures. They discuss how regulation has changed the landscape in healthcare and how to figure out what the the next wave in healthcare will be. I thought it was pretty interesting.
I hope you enjoyed the letter and as always feel free to share it with friends and colleagues. If you are interested in startups you can join over 750 other backers that follow my syndicate here.
Be well and stay safe. - Sean Bill / MacroCrunch