Equity Monday: Cherre raises $16M, Lyft’s critical earnings, and WeWork’s profit hopes
Good morning friends, and welcome back to TechCrunch's Equity Monday, a short-form audio hit to kickstart your week. Regular Equity episodes still drop Friday morning, so if you've listened to the show over the years, don't worry - we're not changing it in the slightest. (Here's last week's episode, which included our first guest in a bit, NEA's Rick Yang.)
We kicked off this morning with the latest economic news relating to the coronavirus outbreak in China, namely that a host of Chinese firms are looking for loans. Inside the group of companies seeking capital that Reuters reported are names that we know, like Didi and Meituan Dianping. At first it appeared that the coronavirus' impact would be a bump in growth; now it appears to be a bit more serious.
It's not just big companies that are impacted, mind. Small and private firms with supply chains in China are impacted as well, not to mention the country's entire domestic startup scene.
Looking ahead, there are three key earnings reports on the horizon: Lyft, Alibaba and Shopify. Each matters for a different reason. Alibaba will provide a window into China, Shopify a look at how investors are valuing momentum plays, and Lyft a health report for the on-demand world.
After Uber's surprising results and ensuing adjusted profit promise (Q4 2020, not calendar 2021), Lyft is under fresh pressure to match the covenant. If it doesn't change its profit forecasts, it could be punished. And that could shift the waters for smaller, private on-demand companies like DoorDash and Postmates, along with other mobility firms like Lime and Bird. On-demand companies have raised billions, so Lyft has more than its own investors riding shotgun for its Q4 2019 report.
There are no impending IPOs this week, but there were two rounds that we found interesting:
Finally, WeWork wants you to know that it is turning around. If that is the case is not clear, but its folks are back on CNBC to both beat back an activist attempt to push for change and talk up its own book. How close you think WeWork will end 2020 in the black is probably the next question to ask.
That's it from us. Stay cool, and we will be back Friday morning with yet another guest from the venture capital world.
Equity drops every Monday and Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyand all the casts.