✍️ Heartcore Consumer Insights

Nov 3, 2022

Hi there,

Welcome to the 97th edition of Heartcore Consumer Insights. Curated with 🖤 every two weeks by the Heartcore Team.

If you missed the past newsletters, you can catch up here. Now, let’s dive in!

Your activation rate is the percentage of your new users who hit your activation milestone. Concretely: activation rate = [users who hit your activation milestone] / [users who completed your signup flow].
Your activation milestone is the earliest point in your onboarding flow that, by showing your product’s value, is predictive of long-term retention.
Variance in activation rate is high across business models. Marketplaces and e-commerce companies typically have the lowest activation rates because they generally define their activation milestone as the first transaction (i.e. spending money). B2C freemium products have the highest activation rate because their typical activation milestone is low-friction (e.g. starting a meditation session, logging a meal, listening to a music track).
Benchmark:

Most common mistakes people make when setting their activation milestone:
1. Often companies define activation as simply completing the sign-up flow, which alone is unlikely to show a user the value of your product, and thus is unlikely to be predictive of long-term retention.
2. Marketplaces and e-commerce startups often mistakenly consider “activated” to be when users make multiple purchases. Your activation milestone should be a leading indicator of having built a habit, not having proven the habit.
3. Selecting an activation metric that’s not easily actionable, measurable, or hard to experiment with.

Sidekick, a UK-based digital active investment manager, raises $4M with Octopus/Seedcamp/Semantic - link
Neat, a France-based provider of an embedded insurance solution, raises $10M with Octopus/Founders Future - link
Neoplants, a France-based startup building the first generation of bioengineered plants made to purify the air, raises $20M with Heartcore 🖤/Collaborative Fund /EF/True Ventures - link
Hoxton Farms, a UK-based startup making plant-based fat, raises $22M with Collaborative Fund/Fine Structure Venture - link

UpSmith, a US-based company giving people access to training in practical skills , raises $3.3M with a16z/Asymmetric - link
Kudos, a US-based smart wallet that maximizes consumer rewards and benefits while shopping online, raises $7M with Patron/SV Angel - link
Rewind.ai, a US-based search engine app enabling users to find anything they’ve digitally seen, said, or heard, raises $10M with a16z - link
Joro, a US-based personal carbon-cutting app, raises $10M with Sequoia/Amasia - link
Givingli, a US-based digital card, and gifting platform, raises $10M with Seven Seven Six - link
Landis, a US-based proptech helping renters transition to homeownership, raises $40M with GV/Sequoia - link

GoHenry, a UK-based developer of a kids’ money management application, raises $55M with Edison/Revaia - link
BeReal, a France-based photo-sharing social app, raises $60M with undisclosed investors - link
Crisp, a Netherlands-based app-only supermarket focused on ultra-fresh food, raises $73M with Target/Keen - link
Holidu, a Germany-based travel startup making the search and booking of vacation rentals easy, raises $102M with 83North/Northzone/HV/EQT - link
Bilt Rewards, a US-based proptech offering a rewards program allowing renters to earn points on rent, raises $150M with Left Lane/Fifth Wall - link
Uniswap Labs, a US-based decentralized exchange platform, raises $165M with Polychain/SV/a16z/Paradigm - link

Google acquires Alter for $100M. Alter is a Czech Republic-based AI avatar startup - link
Goat acquires Grailed for an undisclosed amount. Grailed is a US-based leader in the men's fashion resale market - link

Heartcore Consumer Insights is a weekly newsletter covering notable consumer rounds and exits and top content in the B2C space.

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