The Blue Apron for Flowers

July 20 2020

Event florists had to pivot at the beginning of the pandemic, once weddings and galas were canceled. Without big catering events, many florists started shipping flower boxes directly from Dutch suppliers to less gala-minded Americans. The packages of 50 to 100 loose stems—enough for several bouquets—include wholesale-only flowers such as garden roses. The twist: Though the blooms come un-arranged, purchasers get access to online videos in which the florists show you how to build them into bouquets.

Take Tin Can Studio for example: its Bloom Box comes monthly through a subscription. Each shipment is connected to a video tutorial, a painterly arrangement “recipe,” and social media hashtags to share the results of at-home DIY florists. The founder even includes contact information for “students” to receive feedback on their at-home creations.

Turning a tangible good into an experience has been the theme of the COVID pivot. Early in the pandemic, Airbnb started to offer online remote experience classes to its customers to engage and entertain without being physically together. Many restaurants also joined the bandwagon, offering meal kits for at-home chefs instead of takeout.

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Experience-Driven Companies:

Winc has evolved to embrace social media around drinking culture. Instagrammable scenes of poolside rosé are sprinkled throughout social media, touting offers of discovery, value, and customization in order to appeal to Millennial sensibilities. The company is currently offering a tasting kit complete with tutorials, notes, and beautifully curated glasses.

Uncommon Goods, LLC is a Brooklyn-based, privately held, American online and catalog retailer, founded in 1999. The Uncommon Goods website launched in July 2000. The company sells small production gifts for children, teens, and adults, including home accents, jewelry, accessories, kitchen and home entertaining items, art, games, books, food and drink, and DIY kits. The DIY kits offer a wide selection, ranging from mochi ice cream to gin.

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is an American retail company that sells kitchen-wares and home furnishings. It offers advanced gourmet DIY kits -- including a mozzarella kit and a wine fermentation kit -- for the person who has everything and is aspirational with respect to the culinary world.

Ebay nears $10B sale of classified ads unit.

Ebay has called for a board meeting to select a buyer for its classified ads business, in a deal potentially worth up to $10B.
[Read more].

Pandemic changes eating behavior, and Big Agriculture is in trouble.

Americans have rapidly changed the ways they buy, cook, and eat food in just four months, leaving everyone from farmers to restaurants unable to match their pivot. [Read more].

Since last week, PrivCo has added:
1422 Profiles Updates | 199 M&A Deals | 176 Funding Activities

Funding & Deal Highlights:

Carbonated raises $8.5M in seed funding. The game developer, started by ex-EA and ex-Zynga vets, is now working on mobile real-time PVP game Madworld.

New Fit Tech Co. nabs quick $1M round, backed by Natalia Vodianova.

HOMEE, the home repair on-demand app, raises $4.5M in its latest funding, according to an SEC filing. The funding was an insider strategic round, CEO Douglas Schaedler told Tampa Bay Inno. All the company’s strategic partners invested, including local firm Florida Funders. Activate Capital Partners, Forte Ventures, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Ferguson Ventures and The Hartford also participated in the round.

A Bloomington-based web design startup receives a $20,000 investment from Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures. Stagetime says it will use the funding from the organization’s Community Ideation Fund to further develop its online professional network for the performing arts. Stagetime says it is beta testing the network, with initial testing expected to end in August. When complete, the product will roll out to more than 750 users.

BlueVoyant, a global expert-driven cybersecurity services company, announces the close of a third round of funding. The $68M financing round was led by Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, and included participation from new and other existing investors. This funding brings total funding to $275M to date.

Ergatta raises $5M in a seed funding round to take advantage of the at-home fitness boom with a connected rower product that seems more like e-sports than fitness.

Uber is reaching more deeply into the public transport realm with the acquisition of Routematch, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that provides technology services to transit agencies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Humach, a leading agent and technology outsourcer, completes the acquisition of InfinitAI, a Colorado-based provider of purpose-built artificial intelligence (AI) technology and conversational design interface for contact center agent assistance. InfinitAI accelerates Humach's vision for intelligent contact centers that combine the strengths of both humans and machines to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

XDuce Inc., a global software development, system integration and staffing services provider, announces the acquisition of a majority stake in SANS Consulting. SANS is a New York-based IT staffing services specialist in Banking and Financial Services. The SANS acquisition will further strengthen XDuce’s footprint and ability to provide IT services to clients.

SCA Sweeping Corporation of America, the largest self-performing power sweeping company in the United States, has acquired Indianapolis, Indiana-based Envirosweep, LLC (“Envirosweep”). This transaction broadens SCA’s geography into Indiana.

Everlance, a leading provider of tools for mobile workers, announces it has acquired TrackMyDrive for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is part of Everlance's continued focus on empowering mobile workers with the best software to run their business. TrackMyDrive, along with their existing clients and service vendors, will be integrated into Everlance's existing platform.

Hopjump, a Kendall Square-based travel company, acquires SmarterTravel Media from Tripadvisor. SmarterTravel Media consists of eight travel-focused brands; the acquisition solidifies and secures Hopjump’s positioning in the travel industry.

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