B2B Tech Tuesday is our weekly check-in here at Spreckley, where we share all the most interesting and useful B2B and enterprise technology news, innovations and trends.
This week, UK tech unicorns are hitting the headlines again, as recipe-box provider Gousto becomes the latest UK tech success to achieve the ‘tech unicorn’ status, hitting a valuation of over $1 billion. We also ponder the slightly depressing fact that only one in five CEOs of tech unicorns are currently female.
Finally, we take a quick look over the latest earnings figures for the four big tech giants – Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook – to see how the big four have fared through the COVID-19 crisis.
Gousto achieves UK tech unicorn status
UK recipe box provider Gousto becomes the UK’s latest tech unicorn this month, the fourth UK company in 2020 to hit a valuation in excess of $1 billion.
Only eight years since it was launched, Gousto, reports The Times this week, follows the lead of Synk, Gymshark and Cazoo, joining the elite group of UK tech unicorns.
“Gousto raised £25 million of new equity from existing investors Perwyn and BGF at a valuation in excess of $1 billion,” reports Private Equity Wire. “The latest fund raising is in-line with Gousto’s stated strategy, of at least tripling capacity by 2022, with the opening of three new customer fulfilment centres and the creation of 1,000 new jobs over the period. The Company’s second fulfilment centre in Lincolnshire is scheduled to go live before the end of 2020 and the development of centres three and four are being brought forward to meet the strong ongoing customer demand.”
Andrew Wynn, Founder and Managing Partner at Perwyn, said of the latest Gousto funding round: “We continue to be excited about the sheer size of the market opportunity and impressed by the management team’s ability to deliver on its plans and navigate the complex challenges of 2020. Gousto’s superior technology and scale underpin its winning customer proposition and support its continued leadership of this fast growing and profitable sector.”
Only 21% of tech unicorn leaders are female
Next up, it is slightly depressing to report that only just over one in five (21%) of tech unicorns are led by women, according to the latest report on Sifted.eu.
“Just one in five leaders of tech unicorns are female, a new report shows, and those who do make it to the top tend to stay for significantly less time than their male counterparts.
“The report by Notion Capital shows that just 21% of B2B unicorn tech companies across Europe and the US are led by women — meaning having women in any ‘chief’ roles, as founders or as VPs. Overall, women make up 34% of all staff in the companies.”
Maddy Cross from Notion Capital, the author of the report said: “There needs to be a discussion at leadership levels across global B2B tech Unicorns about how to include women, and why it’s important to include women, and part of this includes bringing in extended maternity leave policies.”
Latest quarterly earnings for Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook
Information Age reports this week on the latest earnings figures for the big four tech giants – a good indication of how Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and Facebook have fared throughout the coronavirus crisis.
“Alphabet, the parent organisation of Google, surpassed market expectations on revenue in Q3 2020, with a 14% year-on-year jump to $38.01 billion.” Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet and Google said: “We had a strong quarter, consistent with the broader online environment…. It’s also a testament to the deep investments we’ve made in AI and other technologies, to deliver services that people turn to for help, in moments big and small.”
Unsurprisingly, Amazon’s earnings have rocketed throughout the lockdown and curfew period, with the online retail giant reporting an astounding revenue of $96.15 billion, a 37% increase year-on-year. Following the record earnings, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos noted: “Two years ago, we increased Amazon’s minimum wage to $15 for all full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees across the U.S., and challenged other large employers to do the same. Best Buy and Target have stepped up, and we hope other large employers will also make the jump to $15.
Apple’s overall revenue of $64.7 billion revealed a decline of 21%, as iPhone sales saw a dip of over 20% year-on-year, with Apple CEO Tim Cook commenting: “Despite the ongoing impacts of Covid-19, Apple is in the midst of our most prolific product introduction period ever, and the early response to all our new products, led by our first 5G-enabled iPhone lineup, has been tremendously positive.”
Finally, Facebook revealed revenue of $21.47 billion, an increase of 22%, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg commenting: “We had a strong quarter as people and businesses continue to rely on our services to stay connected and create economic opportunity during these tough times. We continue to make significant investments in our products and hiring in order to deliver new and meaningful experiences for our community around the world.”