Uber announced its Q2 earnings on Tuesday, reporting its first-ever cash flow positive quarter – $382M. The ride-sharing company earned $8.1B in revenue, up 105% YoY. Gross Bookings grew 33% YoY to $29.1B, of which Mobility brought in $13.4B, up 57% YoY, and Delivery generated $13.9B, up 12% YoY. Uber reported a net loss of $2.6B, of which $1.7B was attributed to investments and a revaluation of stakes in Aurora, Grab, and Zomato. More: - Uber's freight unit generated $1.8B in revenue, up from $348M reported last year.
- North America continues to be Uber's largest market, bringing in nearly $5B in revenue, a 149% increase YoY.
- Latin America's revenue rose 57% YoY to $481M.
- EMEA doubled its revenue to $1.8B, and Asia Pacific saw a 14% increase to $810M.
- Uber said despite the increase in fuel prices, it has more drivers and couriers on its platform than before the pandemic.
- The company said it saw an acceleration in active and new driver growth.
- Last week, Uber announced some new features on its platform aimed at enhancing drivers' experiences, including the ability to choose trips they want and seeing how much they'll earn before they accept a trip.
- Uber shares closed at $29.25 on Tuesday, up ~19% for the day.
- The company is down ~33% YTD.
NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Uber.
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Hackers drained almost $200M in cryptocurrency from Nomad, a token bridge that allows users to transfer tokens from one blockchain to another. Nomad acknowledged the attack in a tweet late Monday evening, adding it is currently investigating it and would provide updates later. The company did not share if it plans to reimburse users who lost tokens in the attack. Nomad markets itself as a secure cross-chain message service. More: - The attack is believed to have started with an upgrade to Nomad’s code, which allowed hackers to withdraw more assets than were deposited into the platform.
- According to Blockchain security experts, what followed was a “free-for-all” where other attackers, taking advantage of the flaw, deployed armies of bots to withdraw tokens from Nomad.
- Any user could copy the original attackers’ transaction call data and substitute the address with theirs to exploit the protocol.
- According to crypto compliance firm Elliptic, more than $1B in crypto assets have been stolen through bridge exploits so far this year.
- Hackers stole about $600M in crypto assets in April from Ronin, another blockchain bridge.
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Robinhood announced it is laying off 23% of its staff, or about 900 workers. The layoffs will be primarily in operations, marketing, and program management. CEO Vlad Tenev pointed to the deterioration of the macro environment, inflation at a 40-year high, and the decline in the crypto market. The company also announced it is reorganizing into a General Manager structure. In April, the company laid off about 9% of its workforce. More: - Tenev added that departing Robinhood employees would be offered the opportunity to remain employed with the company through Oct. 1, 2022, and receive pay and benefits, including equity vesting.
- Earlier today, it was reported that Robinhood’s crypto division was fined $30M by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for “significant failures” in areas of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations.
- It is the first crypto-sector enforcement by the NYFDS.
- NYFDS claimed Robinhood Crypto’s anti-money laundering and cybersecurity program was inadequately staffed and did not have sufficient resources to address risks.
- The fine is the latest in recent years imposed against the retail trading platform.
- Last year FINRA fined Robinhood $70M for outages and misleading customers.
- In 2020, the firm paid $65M to settle an SEC investigation over misleading customers.
NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Robinhood.
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British oil and gas company BP posted an $8.5B net profit during its Q2 earnings announcement, the highest reported by the company in 14 years. Reported earnings far surpassed analysts’ expectations of $6.3B profit and are almost three times the $2.8B profit reported in Q2 of 2021. More: - BP has benefited from strong margins at its oil refineries and oil trading, as well as a surge in energy prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- The energy company reported $6.2B in profit in the first quarter of this year.
- The oil company announced a 10% increase to its quarterly dividend to 6.006 cents per ordinary share.
- BP has announced a 10% increase in its quarterly dividend to 6.006 cents per ordinary share, higher than its initial commitment to raise dividends by 4% annually through 2025.
- The London-headquartered company announced share buybacks totaling $3.5B.
- In the previous quarter, BP completed buybacks worth $3.8B.
- Shares of BP were up 4.3% at noon, bringing the YTD gain to 23%.
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Volkswagen has awarded a $4B contract to Israeli lidar maker Innoviz under which the latter will provide lidar units and related software for autonomous driving. Over the course of the eight-year contract, Innoviz expects to provide lidar units for 5 million to 8 million vehicles manufactured by the Volkswagen Group. More: - VW’s automotive software subsidiary, Cariad SE, will integrate Innoviz’s technology directly into upcoming models.
- The first VW manufactured vehicle equipped with Innoviz’s lidar technology is expected to roll out in 2025.
- VW conducted its due diligence and testing over a two-year period before finalizing the deal.
- Innoviz went public after its SPAC merger at a $1.4B valuation in Dec. 2020.
- The company’s total order book value now amounts to $6.6B.
- The firm also supplies lidar units to BMW via the company’s manufacturing partner Magna International.
- In 2023, BMW will use Innoviz lidar units in its upcoming i7 electric vehicle.
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NFL team the Las Vegas Raiders is considering a minority stake sale that would give it a $6.5B valuation, almost double its value. According to Forbes, the Raiders were the 16th most valuable team in the NFL in 2021 at $3.415B. Majority owner Mark Davis received an offer for a limited-partner stake. Davis currently owns a 51% stake in Raiders, while First Football owns 23%. More: - Details of the size of the stake, as well as who is interested in buying in, have not yet been made public.
- The Raiders have $1.3B in debt from the $1.9B financing of its Allegiant Stadium, which opened in 2020.
- They have paid off the $325M relocation fee from when they left Oakland in 2020.
- The team raked in $119M from ticketing revenue in 2021.
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- Household debt in the U.S. surpassed $16T for the first time, fueled by higher inflation and interest rates. Mortgage balances rose 1.9% in Q2, or $207B, to a total of $11.4T. Credit card balances jumped 13% YoY, its largest increase in more than 20 years.
- U.S. game developer Unity Software is in talks to spin off its China unit to help it expand in the region. Unity is best known for making software used to design video games. China is the world’s largest games market.
- Twitter has subpoenaed associates of Elon Musk as the social media company preps for its lawsuit against the Tesla CEO. Some of the individuals Twitter sent legal requests to include Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, Steve Jurvetson, Marc Andreessen, Jason Calacanis, Keith Rabois, and Joe Lonsdale.
- Instagram head Adam Mosseri will relocate to London later this year to help build out the social media’s presence in the U.K. The move signals a strategic shift for Instagram as it battles video platform TikTok to attract and retain younger audiences.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or through email at vanessa@inside.com |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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