Delivery services in need: Instacart postpones IPO

The British Deliveroo also expects lower sales growth. Also, Snap’s stock continues to plummet and Apple is losing its top designer.

Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.

The top topics:

Instacart will postpone its IPO plans in 2022 as increased volatility in capital markets has unsettled investors. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The US’s largest online grocery delivery company previously lowered its rating several times. The company was recently valued at around $13 billion.

Also at Deliveroo Things aren’t going quite as expected: The takeaway delivery specialist has warned that sales growth will be on the lower end of previously communicated targets. The latter is because UK households are tightening their belts. [Mehr bei Reuters und Reuters]

on Founder scene: Not so much the energy crisis makes the German car industry to create current, but its extreme dependence on China. The China-Taiwan conflict is fueling the state. If business with China were to collapse, things would look bad for German manufacturers. Our torque columnist Don Dahlmann predicts that this cannot go well in the long term. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:

Snaps shares fell again on Friday after the unsatisfactory quarterly results on Thursday. They were down another 28 percent at the end of the week. Shares are now trading at levels not seen since February 2019. The social media company is particularly suffering from the ailing online advertising market. Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform Friday morning and lowered its price target to $9 from $15. Year-to-date, Snap’s shares are down about 77 percent. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal und CNBC]

Apple loses its top designer: Evans Hankey leaves the iPhone manufacturer. Hankey took over the post three years ago from former Apple design chief Jony Ive, who was then starting his own independent company. Hankey was responsible for much of Apple’s industrial design work, from the appearance of the hardware to the methods by which products are mass produced. Hankey didn’t achieve the same level of publicity as Ive, who is credited with being one of the key minds behind the introduction of the iMac, iPod and iPhone, but she was always a sought-after media interviewee. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Also Zalando loses an important manager: With the head of sustainability Kate Heiny, another manager is leaving the online fashion retailer, as reported by the “Handelsblatt”. The Berlin-based company, which was a pioneer in e-commerce in Europe, is also struggling in other areas. In the digital sector, the competition is threatening to pull away, and on the stock exchange there is a risk of relegation from the Dax. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]

Google is said to be interested in investing at least $200 million in Cohere to invest in an artificial intelligence (AI) startup. Cohere is also in talks with the chip manufacturer Nvidia, the report goes on to say. The Toronto-based Canadian company makes software that developers can use for a variety of AI applications, such as moderating content or writing marketing copy. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

Reliance spins off its financial services and intends to list them on the stock exchange. The latter allows the Indian conglomerate to enter the consumer and commercial lending business and expand. According to a media report, the aim is to set up a fintech for “all Indians”. Reliance Industries, which is owned by billionaire investor Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement that it was also naming joint ventures into the new entity Jio Financial Services and thus want to expand the offer to include insurance, assets and other things. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: The Berlin mobile home portal Paulcamper was sold to Australia for 31 million euros. New owner is a listed competitor. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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Have a good start into the week!

Your Gründerszene editors