From Mahard where Innovation, money and power Collie in Silicon Vallet NBN. This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde.
And Ed Ludlow.
I met Ludlow in San Francisco. Caroline Hyde is off today. This is Bloomberg Technology coming up. We have full market coverage ahead as investors scale back on geopolitical concerns, with stocks bouncing off their lows.
Plus Netflix shares.
Full after a disappointing revenue outlook and plans to stop reporting its subscriber numbers. Details to come, and financial services platform Ramp raises an additional one hundred and fifty million dollars to reach a seven point six billion dollar valuation with new backup coastal adventures. We sit down exclusively with CEO Eric Lyman later this hour.
Let's get to those markets. We know the themes.
Geopolitical concern kind of some caution, if not risk off mentality Israel with a muted retaliatory strike against Iran.
We will go to DC in just a moment and.
Discuss the politics of it and operationally what's happening nas that one hundred is down a full percentage point. Tech is actually where there is the most downward pressure right now.
There are other stories.
Within that, and on the board you'll see names like Tesla and Netflix. Tesla with a cybertruck recor I'll give you the details later in the program. Netflix had a mega start to the year, but the investor base is spooked by its outlook for the future and how it plans to communicate.
I'm also looking at crude.
We did see oil move higher based on what happened in the Middle East. That's not hugely a surprise. Let's get to the top story. Israel launched a retaliatory strike on Iran less than a week after Tehran's rocket and drone barrage. Iranian media appeared to downplay the incident in the hours that followed the initial reports. For more, let's get out to Washington, DC and Bloomberg Balance of Power host Kaylee Liones.
This is the framing.
It is a retaliation that muted and seems to be that Israel listened to the United States who were urging them to show restraint.
Yeah, not just the United States, but other allies and partners as well, including officials from the UK and Germany, which actually made a trip to Israel earlier this week. To encourage Prime Minister Netanyahu to have restraint here in the response to that unprecedented attack we saw Aron conducting over last weekend. More, of course, the more than three hundred missiles and drones sent Israel's way were largely intercepted by air defenses by not just Israel and other allies.
Now RNY and media have confirmed that there was a drone attack in in Safon, where there was a military operation. However, it did not actually hit any nuclear facilities, according to our understanding at the moment, and that perhaps could have been one of the most escalatory things of all. It does not seem that that happened. Instead that this was relatively a limited strike with very little damage that seems to have resulted from it. US officials have confirmed to
Bloomberg that Israel was behind this attack. Israel, as is typical in military operations relating to Iran, has not confirmed
or denied it, not commenting at all. In the US Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, also who was at a G seven meeting in Italy, didn't directly comment on this attack, but did go out of his way to say that the US has not been involved and any offensive operations and remains committed to de escalation between Israel and Iran, knowing of course that the US is primary objective throughout this entire saga that really has taken place, not just
in the most immediate past, but since October seventh, when Hama's first attacked Israel. Is to have this not spread into a wider conflict. Right now, the signal from both Israel and Iran does not seem to be that there is interested in escalating this further. The sign seems to be that Iran is not immediately in flying to launch another counter strike against Israel for this, as the Ranian media saying largely the strike was unsuccessful.
I'm just passing over the markets.
Later in the program, Paily, we're going to do a deep dive on bitcoin, and I thought that actually the reaction over is sort of twenty four hour time period was interesting, kind of came down. I think we're back up in the session that the Nasdaq one hundred. On the equity side, it is the kind of megacat tech names that are pushing lower and points basis they're.
A big drag on the index.
My point being markets are trying to work out how serious this is operationally. The only kind of update that I've seen is from Secretary Blincoln, who in summary, basically said, you know, the United States did not participate, but do we have any sense of strategy here on the US side, given how they've operated in a basically advisory capacity in this situation so far?
Well, the US has been quite clear that they will stand by their Iron Cloud commitment to Israel as an ally and a in Israel's defense, as we saw last weekend when it was US Air Defense that also contributed, alongside the UK and Jordan to making sure that the vast majority of those drones and missiles did not actually end up in Israeli airspace. But that is really where the US seems to have drawn the line. Yes, we will help defend you, However, we will not join you
and any offensive operations. It was widely reported that when President Biden spoke to Netanyahu after last weekend's attack, he suggested that he should take the win essentially not go any further in that the US would not be joining them if the Israelis decided to counter attack against Iran again.
It seems that Israel has decided to do so, but in a limited fashion, and it has done very clear messaging from the Secretary of State that the US was not involved in any particular offensive attack, including this one.
Ed.
There is a lot happening in DC at the moment, and in the coming week we're going to be talking a lot about TikTok. How much of the focus has been captured by the situation in the lease, both at the sort of federal level in the White House and through Congress as well well.
A great deal at especially considering that Congress as we speak is getting ready to advance supplemental aid for other allies too, including Ukraine and Taiwan, but billions of dollars in aid for Israel. It's working its way through the House. We expect a procedural vote will tappen on the House floor today to advance that for a full floor vote tomorrow, either in the late afternoon or evening, which would then go on to the Senate and presumably be signed by
President Biden in the not so distant future. So the US is actively thinking about the military support that it
is providing allies. This has been a bit of a difficult journey, especially because the Ukraine aid itself has been complicated but I would just note that there's other political factors specifically with the Middle East here, including very high domestic pressure on President Biden from within the progressives in his own party, who also are not very supportive of the Israeli operation that we have seen in Gaza, given the high death toll of Palestinians, which authorities in Gaza
say has now surpassed thirty four thousand. So at the same time that the US has been come to the defense of Israel in the case of Iran wants to make sure Israel is secure, it also has been putting a lot of pressure on the net Yahoo government to take higher account of the civilian toll of this war
to make more easier to get humanitarian aid. In has been encouraging them not to conduct an operation in the city of Ratha, where there are remaining Hamas battalions, until they can safely evacuate the more than a Thousandtinian civilians that are there. So it's been a very difficult dance for the US to still be supportive of Israel, stand behind it as an ally, but also try to exercise some leverage to change Israeli policy, perhaps in regard to its ongoing war with.
Hamas Bloombas k Lines in DC. Just terrific and deep reporting on what is a geopolitical situation, but just looking purely at the index level, and as that one hundred super tech heavy it's the megacat tech names that are dragging us down and they're really underperforming the benchmarkt S and P five hundred and the TAO is actually in positive territory. That's why we're focused there. The reaction in the markets is being felt in tech right now.
This remotely operated vehicle offers a glimpse into what lies of thousands of meters underwater. It's one of several deep sea vehicles on board this repurposed ship from Ray Dalio's philanthropic venture. The Ocean Explorer behind me that's currently dogged in Singapore, will set off on its mission very soon to explore the deep waters of Southeast Asia. There's lots of advanced tech at creatre like this remotely controlled underwater.
Vehicle that can go six thousand meters deep.
To collect data any summer siples that contee passengers as deep as one thousand meters underwater. The vessel was once used in the oil and gas sector, but the revamped diesel electric ship now travels around the world, collaborating with governments and working with local scientists. It's in Southeast Asia to study the region's marine environment in an attempt to protect the oceans from the effects of climate change.
Just such deep reporting on marine propulsion navigation. Bloomberg's Ainsley as a can with that report. Okay, let's get to talking tech and in the news, Apple is pulling metas WhatsApp from its app store in China amid orders from Beijing to close more loopholes in the country's long standing Internet firewall. The iPhone maker also removed the messaging services Telegram and Signal, according to consultants who are tracking that space. Plus sticking with Meta, the social giant has unveiled a
new version of its powerful Lama artificial intelligence model. LAMA three is an upgrade from an AI model that Meta released last summer, and it's the latest effort to keep pace with similar technologies from companies like Open Ai and Google. And finally, Apollo and Sony are considering a joint offer for Paramount Global. According to sources, the two firms have held discussions about teaming up on and offer, but have
not yet submitted an official proposal. Sony and Apollo's entry would complicate a deal that's already in the works for the studio, which is currently holding exclusive talks with Skuidance Media. Stick with Media digging into Netflix shares falling after earnings.
But need them and Co.
Actually upgrading Netflix today to buy from hold with an updated price target seven hundred US dollars. Laura Martin, senior entertainment and Internet analysts over at Needham and Co, is here with us live Bloomberg Technology. I really enjoyed your note. Hello, good morning, Happy Friday. Not so happy based on Netflix share response. The anxiety I think is the idea that they just won't report monthly subscriber gains or losses.
Why so, I think.
It's a great point.
I mean, first of all, they're not going to do it until the first quarter of twenty five, so all of this year are sort of safe. Second, I'm really skeptical they can do this because, other than Apple, which I do not think Netflix is Apple, every company that has a subscriber driven business reports subscribers because we calculate value on a per subscriber basis. So I don't know if they'll actually do away with it, even though they've
said they will. They're pretty good about listening to feedback, and Wall Street's feedback is pretty negative about this, like opaqueness that they're adding to the fundamentals. So but anyway, it's not an issue until the first quarter of twenty five at the earliest. I also think people are having issues with sort of below like a negative sub ad number compared to first quarter.
They don't like that.
And also the guidance for Q two is a little light compared to consensussessments. So I think people are worried about a slow down in revenue growth.
I like the phrasing opaque. I mean Netflix managements thing has always been like judge USh on these traditional financial metrics, you know, profit. Basically, what I found interesting if you look at the nine point three to three million customers added in the first quarter, that there's a story behind it, right, which is that the password crackdown seemed to bring to them people that were forced to sign up for their
own account and they were willing to do that. What was your interpretation of that number in the moment.
So I also think that what's happening is when someone calls to disconnect because they're angry that they're going to have to buy, you know, buy a whole another subscription, or that the price is going up with the ad driven tier. Instead of canceling your fifteen dollars subscription that's on its way to twenty dollars, you can go to a seven dollars per month heer.
You just have to take ads.
But right now they tell us it Netflix if they don't have that many ads, that they have way more supply of AD units available to sell than they do have demand for AD units, which means the AD loads here are very minimal, like one or two ads an hour. So that's a pretty good deal for consumers right now because you can pay seven dollars a month and get
almost no ads in what's called the AD tier. So three years from now there'll be five minutes of AD loads, but today there's like one minute of AD loads and
you're paying seven dollars. I think that is helping their reported sub number, although it's hurting the art what they call arm what the rest of the world caused arpoo because the average the subscriber that used to disconnect and go to zero is now going to seven dollars, So it's pulling down the average revenue per subscriber as people sign up for these ad driven tears.
Just a quick update for our Bloomberg Technology audience, laur I just wanted to talk about the shares really quickly. We're down more than eight percent off session lows that at one point that the stock was on track for its biggest drop since April of twenty twenty two. Let's see where we end up at the end of the day. I don't understand why we don't talk a little bit more about the strength of the content slate. I have just finished watching The Gentleman, for example, the TV or
series adaptation of the Guy Richie film. Thought it was good for what it's worth, content wise, continuity wise, Netflix seems to be okay.
Why are we not discussing that more.
I think because Wall Street sort of feels that's the that's their They make widgets, right, their widget happens to be content. We assume they're going to do a good job of that. With the seventeen billion dollars a year that public shareholders give them, we expect them to maximize the quality of that seventeen billion of content.
We sort of think that's their core business.
Like just because Apple makes great phones like that, you don't give them kudos for that, Like they better make great phones otherwise people aren't going to keep the service. So I think that's their core business. And I also think Wall Street is skeptical of hit driven businesses because you may love The Gentleman, which I also thought was excellent content, but somebody else wants to watch the Kardashians
on a different service. Like you know, what quality content is to different people is different, and so you know, what we care about on Wall Street is what is what's happening with the return on investment for the seventeen billion of content.
And I will tell you sports.
Is really important to Wall Street, and I think it's really important to these streaming services.
So they are doing more with sports.
As you saw on the car, there's a lot of talk about this big fight that's coming up. They've now signed up WWE to do live sports let's call it entertainment sports, yes.
Every week for next year. That's a big deal.
They are softening on sports, but they also said they are not going to spend any more money on sports. They're going to have to the sports fees will have to come out of the seventeen billion in total content cast.
That's really important. I think there need to be in news.
Also, Laura, we got to go with some breaking news, but we'll have you back to talk Jenai and the context of Netflix.
Thank you. This is the breaking news.
First of all, in the House, the Ukraine Aid and TikTok bills have cleared the procedural hurdle in.
The House that we were waiting for.
Separately, on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is speaking and saying that lawmakers should plan to work this weekend to take up the Ukraine Aid bill quickly, and we'll keep an eye on TikTok. Those are stories we're tracking here on Bloomberg Technology. We'll be right back. This is Bloomberg takelogy.
Let's go back to.
Those breaking news headlines out of Washington, d C. In the House, the Ukraine Aid and TikTok bills have cleared a key procedural hurdle.
Separately out of the.
Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking saying that lawmakers should plan to work this weekend in the context of the TikTok bill, the divest or ban bill. That's one that we've been tracking on this program because we're trying to understand the cadence of how quickly that could be ratified, if at all. I think my colleague and friend Bluembos Kylee Lines hosts a balance of power.
Is good and joins us from Washington, d C.
I was trying to pass two things happening in parallel, Kayley, from the House and the Senate.
What are you seeing?
Yeah, well, a this was a massive vip artis and majority that this procedural vote advanced under. It was more than three hundred members of the House to be exact, three hundred and sixteen who voted for passage of the rule, which will clear the way tomorrow for them to pass one by one this series of bills. It will likely
happen over the course of Saturday afternoon to evening. One bill that will have more than sixty billion dollars in military aid for Ukraine billions more, and a separate bill for Israel, and then a separate one for the Indo Pacific.
And that will be a fourth bill as well, which we are calling the sidecar here in Washington, that includes a variety of other measures including that divestiture bill relating to TikTok At, as well as others like the Repo Act, which will allow for the seizure of frozen frozen Russian assets that could be used to pay for Ukraine's war effort. So, once all of this passes the House, presumably there's going
to be two quick key questions. One is how quickly can it be repackaged together to be sent to the Senate for passage to get to the desk of President Biden for a signature, and also what will happen to the House Speaker Mike Johnson. As a result of this, he has been under tremendous pressure from a few members of his republic conference who do not want to see Ukraine Aid go to the floor of the.
House for a vote.
One of the most outspoken has been Congressman Marjorie Taylor Green, who has filed a motion to vacate, which is what Oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy just months ago. Has not yet acted on it, but has long signals she could if indeed he put Ukraine Aid on the floor. So we're going to wait to see for action on that. Other members, including Republican Congressman Tom Massey have suggested they will join her in that effort, however, ed and this is where
it gets really interesting. It took Democrats to get this rule pass, to get it over the finish line now, and it does seem that Democrats may step in to help save the gavel of Speaker Johnson if it proves necessary. There's been a lot of talk here in Washington this morning about this kind of being like a coalition government because Mike Johnson is relying on the other party to basically get everything over the line, and potentially might be relying on them to help him keep his job.
That's kind of focused on the House level. Let's take a moment here. There's a lot happening, and there are a lot of headlines in parallel. Chuck Schumer in the Senate is saying that lawmakers should plan to work this weekend is needed. You know, there will be audience members around the world, but particularly around the country in the United States, saying why are they working through the weekend on this Why is it so important?
Well, because this aid is desperately needed. If you listen to US intelligence officials that I was speaking with the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Mike Turner just last night, who was suggesting that it needed to pass this week based on the intel they are getting on the ground in Ukraine. Just procedurally because of the way the House works and the requirement that members have to
have seventy two hours to read the bill. Because of when the text is released, they can't actually have the vote until Saturday night. Now, the Senate is going to very want to quickly take this up, which could mean that they take it right as soon as the House passage passes it and begin to do the procedural work in the Senate to get this over the finish line, which maybe why they end up staying the weekend. I would also point out that the Senate tonight is facing
a midnight dadlight of the expiration of FISA. The Foreign Surveillance Act, which of course has been passed in the House, has been running into some her in the Senate as well, and that could potentially lapse for a bit at midnight if they can't figure out a way to get the unanimous consent needed to advance that. So it could be a working weekend for everyone, which is probably not going over well for some considering they were supposed to leave
on recess beginning today. There were a number of members who were scheduled to be on congressional delegations to a number of different localities, and instead they may stay here to get this work done.
Ed Okay, So it sounds like we're in for a busy weekend, probably you more so than I out here in San Francisco. Is there anything we should be watching for this Friday afternoon?
Well, I would watch what happens in the Senate related to Faiza, in particular whether they can reach some kind of agreement on amendment votes or things of that nature to make sure that this can indeed get over the finish line by the deadline. But really watch what happens in the House now that this rule has advanced, to see if we actually see any action for Marjorie Taylor Green, for example, to launch the process to vacate the speaker,
and what could unfold from there. Also, given that there are so many things attached to this that including the TikTok bill, which did pass, why bipartisan majority in the House originally now has a revision that would allow byte dance longer than six months to divest it potentially up to a full year, which may make it easier to digest in the Senate, where many had issue with the
original bill. But just look to see now that the TikTok measure does appear to be on track for a passage in the House, whether there or anyone is vocal in the Senate suggesting that they don't like the fact that this is attached to the package. So it'll kind of be just digging into the nuances of who may be upset here, even as vast bipartisan majorities seem to be liking what they're seeing and looking.
To advance this.
At Bloomberg's Kadi Alliance, thank you, aid and TikTok bills, will keep a close eye on. Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology, im Ed Ludlow in San Francisco. We should talk about bitcoin, and it's interesting because bitcoin has its own story in the markets, which is the harving, and we will have
a deep disc about that in just a moment. But if you look at the trading of bitcoin, which trades twenty four to seven over the last twenty four hours, it tells you an interesting story about that asset in the context of geopolitics and volatility in markets. So when the headlines first started to come out Thursday evening US time about a Israel retaliation in Iran, there was this clear downward move on Bitcoin. Actually in the session we're now up higher and on a two day basis up
six percent. All told, Bitcoin just south of sixty five thousand US dollars per token. Then there's the other big story, the hotly anticipated bitcoin harving is approaching. Here's what our Bloomberg guests have had to say about the event.
Every time we'd come up to one of these having events. It really does come back to the fundamentals of supply and near the.
Cripple industry gust cycle is to be expected. That's going to be market volatility. It doesn't only impact the set Frank, I mean, given jee political tension, given the interest rate environment that you're seeing, the inflation are environment.
Obviously Bitcoin and crypto in general is out of the global financial system, so we are not completely disconnected from what's happening in equities, for example, and what's happening with monetary policy, or with what's happening in the geo political environment.
We've been preparing for many years.
You know, our business is one that requires long term planning, and these havings are known events, and so the evolution of mining has really changed since previous havings where we had a really fragmented market.
I think a lot of investors are eagerly anticipating to see what the market reaction will be.
Joining us now is Cavita Gupta Delta Blockchain Fund general partner, just deep expertise in the underlying technology that supports digital assets, also some pretty strong awareness of what's happening in markets.
Covi, just forgive me. I'm going to go back to basics here.
I've said the word harving, some people call it a halve then many times, and I'm going to cheat. I'm just going to read the Bloomberg definition of what it is, and then you can tell me whether it's important or not. A harving, sometimes referred to as a harvening, is a planned reduction in the rewards miners receive. Halving's happen once every four years, or every two hundred and ten thousand blocks. Just for awareness out there, are you really excited about this, Kavita?
I think excitement may not be the word I would be using. What does bitcoin happening really means? It just means that it makes it more difficult for the miners to have the rewards associated with mining, and also definitely that results in having mining difficulties. Basically you have to put more energy, more complicated theorems out there, and it basically ultimately increase the cost of mining. That's what we are looking at. It is important because it makes sure
that it is much more secure. Mining is secure.
All the bitcoin layer is secure.
Now this definitely gets it's a lot of attention because of the price movement, the expected especially now with the expected the DF which has already happened. Now for the first time, we're going to expect a new price curve because the supply and the demand curve for bitcoin has been very unique this time. The supply has been huge.
Usually what we see that before bitcoin having and around bitcoin having a lot of people start putting bitcoins out, So the supply has been there, but the demand has been so high that we see volatility instead of the straight curves down or up. So it is exciting in that way.
You make a really interesting point, which is basically one of liquidity. It's quite a liquid market and the counter argument is that there will always be a finite supply of bitcoin a definitive number, and that is largely what those that build a thesis of bitcoin reaching a much higher number in the long term rely on. Are those people in that camp, correct.
I absolutely believe that at the end of the day, bitcoin has a lot of value and even though it is more difficult to not produce and the supply is going to be more and more limited. But that's what we see with most of the commodities, whether it's cold, whether it's platinum, silicon, anything which has limited supply, but a lot of value long run, especially storage value like bitcoin has been considered. Now it's just going to increase
the price. You will see volatility, which you still see in gold today, but the value is just in finite and for a very long period of time.
Calvi to good to Delta Blockchain Fund general partner someone investing at the technology level. But I just really appreciate your market insights.
Thank you.
There's another big story out there today in the world of ev and I want to talk about Tesla. The TV maker recalled over thirty eight hundred cyber trucks to rework or replace accelerator pedals that can dislodge and cause the vehicle to unintentionally accelerate, which increases the risk of a Tesla received notice of two customer claims related to that issue, and that's all. According to a recall report submitted to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NITZER.
The company said that when high force is applied to the cyber trucks accelerator, the pedal may dislodge and become trapped by the interior trim. Tesla is going to fix the acce rat of pedals free of charge for me.
The other big thing.
About this story is we now know how many cyber trucks are out there in the wild and how many have been delivered to customers, which is quite interesting. Tesla shares basically flat, all right. Coming up on Bloomberg Technology, we're going to be joined by RAMP CEO Eric Glyman to discuss their new fundraise.
There are some big numbers.
And there's an interesting conversation ahead. This is Bloomberg Technology, Okay, a lot of people talking about this one financial services platform. RAMP just raise an additional one hundred and fifty million dollars for its Series D Round Part two at evaluation of around seven point six billion dollars with a new backup. Coast of Adventures delighted to bring in RAMP CEO Eric Lyman out in New York, and this is a really
interesting round. The venture firm leading it was Coast of Adventures, but Keith Raboy, who recently rejoined Coastler on the East Coast, kind of spearheaded this. Just explain the rationale behind doing the round.
I mean, there's a couple of things that and by the way, thank you so much for having me first. The rationale is the company is growing and we aim to accelerate it. Not only is Ramp one of the fastest growing businesses in US history, but investors were deeply exciting Keith the most who's one of our board members, who saw the business at its large scale accelerating and growth. So typically they tend to slow down as they grow. The rationale is to increase the pace of customers that
we serve. We power over approximately one percent of all corporate card transactions in America. We want to serve the next ninety nine percent. But more than that, it's a high conviction bet both by investors in by Ramp to transform the way finance is done from highly manual, very tedious to increasingly automated and leveraging the potential of AI to bring it to the average business.
Eric, you previously came on the show when you guys had done a down round and you were really honest about the willingness to do a down round. This is an up round, and I just wondered, how you think about the dynamic this time around.
I mean for sure, I mean, look, I think that for all companies, being valued mark to market is a very good thing. Over the last summer, part of what we recognized is that it was really the fastest interest rate rise in really a forty year period. And so even though RAMP had at that time grown by leaps and downs brounds, I think between rounds that had grown by seven times over a year and a half period,
we wanted to be valued fairly. Fast forward to now, just months later, Ramp's business has grown dramatically, an investor conviction has increased, and so we're thrilled that some of the best investors in the world, from public markets investors to extraordinary privates like Coastala Ventures founder's fund, Sequoya Graylock and others joining for the first time.
They're thrilled for.
RAMP is but I think to invest at this valuation for the first time, at this juncture, there is a high conviction belief that there is not just a fifteen percent plus growth per year ahead of RAMP, but there's ten x plus more ahead. And so we're thrilled.
Eric to the Bloomberg Technology audience member, that's less financially inclined marked market, meaning the method of getting fair value by benchmarking contemporaneously against similar companies. So I noticed on social media a lot of people were talking about your round, and so I went on social media and said you were coming on the show, and our audience something about
technology actually had some pretty good and straightforward questions. One of them was, Eric, can you just simply explain what rampays and what it does? Which I thought was a pretty good starting point.
Of course, so the way to think about it, we built a command and control system for companies finances. What this means is from a single place company finance teams, business owners can issue cards, make payments of all kinds, manage approvals, and even automate accounting to close their books. And so this means that some of the tedious aspects, things like collecting receipts, tagging transactions properly is done automatically
for you. We surface up data in ways for companies to spend less, and the upshot is that the average company using RAMP is able to reduce their expenses by five percent per year, whether that's a publicly traded scale like a Shopify to earlier stage to even nonprofits like the Boys and Girls CBS of America. And I think really what's different and interesting about RAMP is it's not only the tools and bones to make payments, but it is focused on how can you make people more productive
with their time. Instead of having expense reports take you an hour at the end of the month, have it be done for you and get your time back to focus on your core business.
So that's how we think about it.
Eric.
The other audience question I got for you was about you. You are generally regarded as a very nice person. I hear that a lot in my circles, at least out West as well. But the question from the audience was are you needing to be a bit more roothless at this stage of the company's growth as a founder CEO that's now playing at a pretty high level valuation wise and scale wise.
It you know, for us.
Look, the broader backdrop is I actually think the US business environment has gotten much more mean and nasty for the average business owner. Most companies are reducing their investment in their products. They're hiking the prices, the value they're offering in the service level is going down. We want to lean in and doing the right thing. Having more capital allows us to not just be nice, but frankly
offer better service. In the last time Ed we were on the show, we were saving the average company on the order to three to four percent per year. We want to extend that idea of maybe, as you put it, being nice, we want the average company to save five percent to be more productive. And we think over time, doing right by customers is what creates long lasting and enduring businesses. And so it's not just a personality. We think it's a good way of doing business.
Well.
You also now have a couple more investors that you'll have to account to along the way as well. RAMP CEO Eric Glyman, it's great to catch up and have you back on the program.
Thank you.
Let's stick with the world of venture in startups may have in Venture, as a seed stage venture firm investing in consumer tech companies, announced sixty million dollars in new capital for its latest fun It brings the firm's total assets to two hundred million dollars. Let's bring in Sarah Dishpande, general partner at may Have in Ventures, in today's VC Spotlight. This was interesting, a sizable seed fund coming together. Was it a smooth process?
Sarah, First of all, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here today. You know, we're really excited to bring this new seed fund to the world. MAB Inventors is best known for investing in tech companies that are addressing emerging consumer trends, and consumer trends never go away, so that's an area that we've continued to be excited about. And you know, I won't lie. This has been the hardest funding market for startups and vnor
capital firms alike. So to be able to close a sixty million dollar vehicle if our fourth and latest fund, we think is really a testament to our strategy to the market opportunity. And we're grateful to our founders and LPs for continuing to have their trust in us.
Sarah.
It's so hard because if you just split technology into hardware and software, you know, the companies that are working on consumer facing application in both domains are giant. You're trying to get the disruption at the earliest possible stage.
How do you make it worthwhile?
We really look at emerging consumer trends and technology companies that are fueled by those big consumer trends, and so that's what we're looking for, especially in today's universe where you see the bloom of AI technology. There have been so many companies invested in in B to B and infrastructure, in foundational models of AI that we think now is the time for those consumer opportunities to bloom. We also take a really wide lens of what means consumer to us.
You know, we were known for our early investment in Zoom and no company was a more consumer company than Zoom in the year of twenty twenty. So for us, we're looking at what are these new points of technology, what are these new emerging trends, and can we find and partner with visionary bold founders that we think we can help to unlock their potential to bring these iconic companies to the world so that consumer lens is actually for us quite broad.
Sarah, what is the number one emerging consumer trend?
The number one consumer trend right now is consumer applications of AI. Where do we think AI can actually deliver on the grand dream of doing something for a consumer of you know, making something of value for consumers that actually bring something positive to their lives. So that's the biggest area we're looking at. But it applies across so
many sectors. It can apply across, you know, technology for families, can apply across you know, search, it can apply across anything that might plan or book something on your behalf. So there's a pretty wide range of sectors that consumer AI touches, and that's where we're spending our time right now.
I think that you saying AI was not a huge surprise to many people, Sarah Deshfondi General partner.
It may even bene his great to have you on the show. Thank you.
It's not the legislation that we would write if Republicans were in charge of both the House and send it in the White House. This is the best possible product that we can get the circumstances to take care of these really important.
Obligations US House Speaker Johnson has just been talking about votes some foreign aid bills. Bloomberg's Katie Lines is back in DC, and I think it is around US Speaker Johnson that the latest headlines involve.
Yeah.
Of course, what we saw happen on the House floor today, ed was a procedural vote advancing that will pave the way for funding for US allies to pass the House later Saturday. These are four separate bills, one for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo Pacific, and a so called sidecar which is attaching other measures, including the TikTok divestiture Bill, all of the same to getting more than ninety five billion dollars
in aid two US allies. However, it does seem that the House Speaker could face a threat to his job as a result. This has long been threatened by Congressman Marjorie Taylor Green, who had suggested if Johnson were to put Ukraine eight on the floor for a vote, she would act on her motion to vacate, essentially trying to
kick him out of the job. Already, one other member, Republican Congressman Tom Massey, had joined her in that effort, and now, according to a statement from Congressman Paul Gosar Arizona, he too has added his name in support of the motion to bay Kate. So now that's three members of the Republican Conference. We're working to identify that Ghostsar statement or verify it independently, as this has been reported by
other outlets. But of course this suggests because of the way the math works in the House at and how tight the margin is, that it will require Democrats to show up and support the speaker so that he is able to keep hold of the gavel. Whether or not that's just not showing up to a new speak an ouster vote, whether that is actually outright voting for him.
Will see what form it takes, but it will require help from Democrats to save his job, just as it took massive Democratic support to get this procedural vote over the line.
Today, there is math on the votes and the bills, and then there's procedure, which you explained really well. Earlier in the show, we were talking about how Majority Leader Schumer in the Senate had put lawmakers on notice to be working this weekend. Just explain why the press to work through the weekend on these bills.
Well, the Senate won't have a chance to act on these bills until the House passes all of them, repackages them together, and sends them to the Senate for a vote. And the way the rules in the House are structured, and what was agreed to when Kevin McCarthy was Speaker all those months ago, was that members had to have seventy two hours to read the text of a bill before a vote, And because the text of this bill was released less than seventy two hours ago, it cannot
be voted on until Saturday. So even though that we've seen the rule vote today, which essentially just sets the procedure for how this ultimately will pass when it comes to final package, the House isn't going to be able to clear all of this until Saturday afternoon, perhaps evening, and then the Senate would be able to act after the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said they will do so quickly, which is why they may be staying
in town. This maybe a Sunday vote or later. And of course, keep in mind ed that in the US Senate, where it is required to do anything quickly is unanimous consent. Any One Senator, should they so choose, has the ability to slow down the process. One like Senator Ran Paul, for example, if he takes issue with this bill, could refuse to accelerate the process until he has an a
vote on an amendment or something like that. So it'll be a matter of how quickly the Senate can get this done after the House completes its work this weekend.
Okayley, just very quickly.
The situation in the Middle East is that impacting the passage of any of these bills.
It is when you first saw the Iranian attack against Israel, the more than three hundred missiles and drones that were sent toward Israel last weekend, you heard an outcry that this underscored the need to get aid for Israel out the door quickly. Of course, that has been attached in large part to aid for other allies, including Ukraine, which
has been a much more difficult endeavor. But there also had been growing calls to make sure that you aid for Ukraine comes so quickly as intelligence was suggesting that it was desperately needed in immediate fashion. So certainly the hot wars we are seeing not just in the Middle East but also on the continent of Europe have really
provided a lot of impotence to get this done. The House Speaker himself said, the intelligence he had seen recently really underscored to him that this was the right thing to do, that this aid did indeed need to be passed. And of course it's a decision that Johnson had to make. Decide to do the right thing, even if you potentially might lose your job as a result. That, of course, ed will remain to be.
Seen Bloombo's Katie Lines and tune into Balance Power later in the day for more updates.
Thank you.
Okay, Now, you'll never believe who is going viral. That's right, it's Taylor Swift. Swifties worldwide are gushing about the singer's new album, The Tortured Poets Department. The sixteen song record dropped at midnight Eastern Time on Friday. The singer then announced a surprise two hours later at two am. She'd actually written a double album titled The Tortured Poets Department The Anthology, with fifteen additional songs. So there I am in my vehicle on my way to do Bloomberg Technology,
and I got through the first ten. I'm not going to give my favorites just now, but check out social There are some interesting titles in there.
Let's keep talking about it.
That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. A lot of headlines out of Washington, d C.
The Middle East.
We are paying attention to the passage of the TikTok divestor Band bill as well.
Recap on the pod.
Listen is what Kaylie had to say about the process in the coming forty eight hours in Washington, d C. Check out the pod on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, and of course we published all the Bloomberg platforms. It's been a week in the world of technology. Thanks for watching. This is Bloomberg Technology.