How Start-up Zola is Redefining the Wedding Experience
This time of year is filled with holiday shopping, family, and engagements! In fact, 45% of the couples who use Zola being planning their wedding between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. Zola, the wedding registry start-up, is looking to shake up the entire wedding experience.
Zola now has a tool to build your own wedding website, a unique registry, and more. Zola has now helped 500,000 couples, and has raised over $40 million from VC firms.
Shan-Lyn Ma, CEO and co-founder of Zola joins Cheddar to explain how they have built their business and brand. When asked what are the weirdest things couples have registered for, she said that many couples love the game, "Cards Against Humanity," and one couple once registered for a lifetime supply of avocados.
The largest car search platform in India, Cardekho, recently raised $250 million in what the company calls a pre-IPO round led by leapfrog investments. The funding bumps CarDekho above unicorn status with a $1.2 billion valuation. The company currently has a catalogue of more than 3,000 pre-owned cars for online purchases and hopes to expand with the new funding. Partner and co-head of South Asian investment for LeapFrog Stewart Langdon joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
E-scooter company Bird made its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. CFO Yibo Ling joined Cheddar to discuss what made the company launch a SPAC IPO now. Ling noted one of the deciding factors was the need to scale the business to help take "gas-guzzling cars off the road" by growing into more locations. "A large portion of our proceeds will go to fund expansion into these new geographies," he said.
Thuc Vu, CEO and co-founder of Ohmnilabs, joins 'Cheddar Innovates' to discuss how robots are playing a role in the return to the office, and what's in store for the future of the robotics industry.
Joan E. Solsman, a senior reporter at CNET, joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to talk about Netflix moving to offer mobile video games for Android users as part of their subscription. She said this is likely one "baby step" for the streaming giant as it moves into the space. "You can see what Netflix wants to do eventually down the line is have these great ambitions to make their service be more than just passive TV, movies," she said. "They're moving more into merchandising, that they're moving more into in-person experiences. They're trying to broaden a way, which is a great thing to do when everyone keeps talking about metaverses."
Tuna Amobi, Director and Senior Equity Analyst at CFRA Research, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the big takeaways from Roku's Q3 earnings report, as the company warns of further supply chain issues in the coming months.
