The battle for Gen Z’s wallet: who’s winning?

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Six bullets of updates

1. 🏛️ President-elect Donald Trump appoints Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency.

2. 💸 AI hiring tools can miss top talent, costing startups up to $840K in bad hires over 2 years.

3. 🤖 AI hits 80-90% accuracy in detecting fake news using LLMs and neuroscience insights.

4. 💻 Red Hat acquires Neural Magic to optimize AI on commodity hardware; Neural Magic raised $50M in VC funding.

5. 📉 Meta shifts to "less personalized ads" in the EU, cuts ad-free subscriptions by 40% amid regulatory pressure.

6. 🎥 Odyssey raises $18M to train AI for creating cinematic worlds using 25-pound camera backpacks—pushing new boundaries!

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The battle for Gen Z’s wallet

The battle for Gen Z’s fintech loyalty is fierce, but monetization remains a stumbling block. Fintech startups like Quirk, Twig, and Owwn have struggled to make profits while catering to a young demographic with limited financial loyalty and a value-driven mindset. Despite gaining users, Quirk had to shut down due to lack of revenue-generating features, and other startups targeting Gen Z also folded without the necessary funding.

Successful players like Revolut, Cleo, and Birdwingo have cracked part of the code by building monetization strategies early, often through subscriptions or leveraging larger profitable ecosystems. For example, Revolut uses its “Revolut <18” product to onboard young users into its brand without immediate monetization pressure. Cleo incorporates cultural trends into its budgeting tools, engaging users with relevant, trend-savvy content, while Birdwingo focuses on morally-conscious investing for teens.

Although Gen Z’s income is still relatively low, they are expected to be wealthier than previous generations by 2030 due to a significant wealth transfer. Fintechs that can build loyalty and stay relevant to Gen Z’s values stand a chance to capture this lucrative demographic as they mature into more profitable customers.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Today! From Pitch Deck to Funding | November 14 | Webinar

2. Today! NYC B2B: Pre-Seed + Seed Founders & Investors Meetup | November 14 | In-person meetup

3. Techstars Columbus | November 20 | Columbus

4. Techstars New York City Accelerator | November 20 | New York City

5. Techstars Anywhere Accelerator | November 20 | Remote

6. Techstars San Francisco | November 20 | San Francisco

7. Crash Course in Financial Modeling | November 21 | Webinar

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These companies just raised money

1. 🛠️ LocalStack secures $25M to let developers emulate cloud applications locally, with 900+ users including Apple.

2. 💸 Fleek lands $20.4M to grow its global marketplace for secondhand clothing, now serving over 10,000 retailers.

3. 💻 PointFive raises $20M to refine cloud cost tracking across platforms, reaching a $100M valuation.

4. 📦 Bounce grabs $19M in Series B funding to scale its luggage storage network, targeting 30,000 locations by 2026.

5. 🚀 Brazilian ESM startup Cervello secures $2.2M to expand in LATAM with affordable, low-code solutions.

6. 🌍 Blockchain startup Multiledgers raises $1M to bolster its sustainability management platform.

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The future 40 startups you’ll be talking about tomorrow

Station F, Paris’s iconic startup campus, has unveiled its annual “Future 40”, showcasing the most promising new startups across sectors from AI to green tech. This year’s list is dominated by AI innovations, with startups leveraging advanced technology to address diverse challenges.

Key trends:

• AI Everywhere: 34 of the 40 startups harness AI, signaling that AI has become the essential toolkit for modern startups.

• Energy & Sustainability: Several startups are advancing eco-friendly solutions, like Optimmo and Orus Energy for home energy efficiency, and CarbonFarm which uses satellite data to create carbon credits for sustainable farming.

For a full list of this year’s Future 40 startups, check out the Station F announcement to explore the next wave of tech innovation!

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Why software patents are useless

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