Important Innovations

Solar Electric Car Company Goes Public & Hits Near $40 per Share                                                                                Sono Motors Sion Hot New Solar Electric Automotive Technology Germany's Sono Group, parent of Sono Motors - the solar electric car company - went public on the Nasdaq on November 17, 2021 for an initial price of $15 per share, soared to $38.74 and closed on Friday at $31.73 per share.  The company has a hot electric car - the Sion - and hot solar body panel technology.  Sono has 16,000 pre-orders of the Sion, which is the company's first solar electric vehicle.  The down-payments were $3,000 each.  The car is priced at $28,700 and will be delivered to consumers in the first half of 2023.  90% of the orders were placed in Germany or German speaking nations.  The company is also licensing its solar technology to other companies.  The first buyer is electric autonomous shuttle company EasyMile. Entreneurial Success Story of Breakthroug

Solar Electric Car Company Goes Public & Hits Near $40 per Share  Ends Week Near $32 per Share                                                                                Sono Motors Sion Hot New Solar Electric Automotive Technology Germany's Sono Group, parent of Sono Motors - the solar electric car company - went public on the Nasdaq on November 17, 2021 for an initial price of $15 per share, soared to $38.74 and closed on Friday at $31.73 per share.  The company has a hot electric car - the Sion - and hot solar body panel technology.  Sono has 16,000 pre-orders of the Sion, which is the company's first solar electric vehicle.  The down-payments were $3,000 each.  The car is priced at $28,700 and will be delivered to consumers in the first half of 2023.  90% of the orders were placed in Germany or German speaking nations.  The company is also licensing its solar technology to other companies.  The first buyer is electric autonomous shuttle company EasyMile. Entreneuria

  EV Rivian To IPO On Nasdaq                                                  Source:  Rivian Multi Billion IPO on Nasdaq Irvine, California based electric vehicle maker Rivian is considered by many to be the leader of EV startups.  The company is expected to go public this week.  It is looking for a valuation of $65 billion which would put in the major leagues alongside of Ford, which is valued at $77 billion, and GM, which is valued at $85 billion.  Many stock market analysts and automotive experts are asking is Rivian the next Tesla?  It certainly does have big backers. Amazon With a 20% Stake The company is backed by Ford and Amazon, which has a 20% stake. Rivian plans to list on the Nasdaq with the symbol "RIVN".  Despite the fact that it is a startup, the company has a revenue stream. It has put its electric pickup truck R1T into production and plans to deliver 1,000 pickups to customers by the end of 2021.  It also has a big contract with Amazon to deliver 100,000 &quo

  EV Rivian To Go Public on Nasdaq                                                  Source:  Rivian Multi Billion IPO on Nasdaq Irvine, California based electric vehicle maker Rivian is considered by many to be the leader of EV startups.  The company is expected to go public this week.  It is looking for a valuation of $70 billion which would put in the major leagues alongside of Ford, which is valued at $77 billion, and GM, which is valued at $85 billion.  Many stock market analysts and automotive experts are asking is Rivian the next Tesla?  It certainly does have big backers. Amazon With a 20% Stake The company is backed by Ford and Amazon, which has a 20% stake. Rivian plans to list on the Nasdaq with the symbol "RIVN".  Despite the fact that it is a startup, the company has a revenue stream. It has put its electric pickup truck R1T into production and plans to deliver 1,000 pickups to customers by the end of 2021.  It also has a big contract with Amazon to deliver 100,00

  Germany's Lilium Flying Taxis Is Going Public                                                  Source:  Lilium New 7-Seater Startup IPO Expected Valuation on Nasdaq at $3.3 Billion Germany's flying taxi startup Lilium just announced that it's going public on the Nasdaq in a deal that values Lilium at $3.3 billion. The deal is expected to close this quarter. It will enable Lilium to start commercial operations of its 7 seat passenger flying taxis, flown by pilots, in 2024.  The money will be used to finish the certification process, start production and start commercial operations.  As part of the announcement, Lilium unveiled an image of its larger -  7 seat - flying taxi for fast, aerial, intercity commutes.  Previous models have had only 5 passenger seats. e-VTOLS Munich-based Lilium is doing an IPO merger with special purchase acquisition company (SPAC) Qell Acquisition Corporation.  San-Francisco based Qell is led by the former President of General Motors North Americ

  Austin Russell's Luminar Technologies                                                Source:  Austin Russell Autonomous Driving Tech with Lasers Leading the Way This morning, 25 year old entrepreneur Austin Russell woke up a billionaire.  His company Luminar Technologies of Florida went public yesterday on the Nasdaq.  By the end of day, it hit $22.98 a share with a market value of $7.8 billion.  Russell founded the company at the age of 17.  He owns more than 100 million shares and his net worth overnight skyrocketed to $2.4 billion. He has created lidar sensor technology that uses lasers to power autonomous vehicles.  His technology is considered breakthrough.  Forbes is calling Russell the world's youngest, self-made billionaire. Lidar & Laser Tech with Big Investors Backing It Luminar Technologies' (LAZR) lidar tech utilizes lasers to bounce off the car's surroundings and lets it see where it is going.  It provides 360 degree surroundings' intelligence to

  Airbnb With a Possible $35 billion Valuation                                                       Source: Airbnb Fast, Dramatic Turnaround from COVID-19 Business Hit Airbnb, the San Francisco based home rental company, will debut on the Nasdaq on December 10, aiming for a valuation of $35 billion.  It along with DoorDash (my blog 10/30) are expected to be blockbuster U.S. IPO's to close out the year.  Airbnb was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  As travel came to a halt, Airbnb had to layoff 25% of its workforce and get $2 billion in emergency funding from investors.  As people started traveling again in Q3 2020, the company's business turned around and it scored a surprise profit for Q3.  Two new trends moved the company forward.  People opted to book homes rather than hotels.  And, they preferred to book a home away from major cities. Entrepreneurial Success Story Airbnb was founded as a website in 2008 by two entrepreneurs:  Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia. They started t

  December IPO To Raise $2.8 Billion                                             Source:  DoorDash Hot Food Delivery US Startup San Francisco based startup DoorDash is expected to raise nearly $3 billion in a December IPO on the NYSE.  That would double the value of the food delivery startup.  DoorDash is expected to be one of the biggest IPO's of 2020. COVID-19 Driving Restaurant Meal Take-Outs COVID-19 has greatly accelerated demand for meal delivery services as people try to avoid going into restaurants and stores.  That has driven up business for Door Dash, which is the biggest, 3rd party delivery service for restaurants in the US. Millions of IPO Shares DoorDash is pricing 33 million shares at between $75 and $85.  At $85 per share that would give DoorDash a market cap of $27 billion.  In June during a private fundraising round, the company was valued at $16 billion.  DoorDash's backers include VC firm Sequoia Capital, Japan's Softbank and the Government of Singapore&#

  Going for Global Investor Gold Source:  Ant Group $34.4 Billion IPO  Chinese financial technology giant Ant Financial Services Group is launching a dual listed IPO on the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.  The IPO is aiming to raise nearly $35 billion. That would be the world's largest share price offering in history. Investors are racing for a piece of the fast growing company.  Ant is Alibaba's financial affiliate. Alibaba is a giant China-based technology and e-commerce multinational company. Ant offers a suite of financial services, including the widely popular Alipay digital payment system, known as China's wallet. The IPO deal would value Ant at more than $313 billion.  That is more than the world's biggest bank by assets, The Industrial and  Commercial Bank of China. Regulatory and Trade Concerns Overshadowing the market debut is a threat by the US State Department to add the company to its trade blacklist.  There is also some concern over growing regulat

Online Pet Retailer Chewys' Initial Public Offering Source:  AKA Source:  Chewys Combining Pet Products and Online Innovation Chewys, which is PetSmart's online retailer, just launched an Initial Public Offering that has resulted in a market cap of $14 billion.  Out of the box the share price was targeted at $22.00 but it soared 59% to $35.00  It's one of the top IPO's of 2019 on the NYSE Going to the Dogs and Cats and Loving It The online pet retail company is based in Dania Beach, FL.  It is the latest unprofitable technology company to enjoy an IPO surge this year.  Investors are clearly banking on Americans' increased spending on their pets - $73 billion last year - and the migration to doing the spending online.  The company says it is considering expanding overseas and also expanding inhouse brands including its pet pharmacy online.  In this case, you might say "going to the dogs" is a good place to be.