Overview

The global funding reached $120 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Crunchbase data reveals that the amount was the lowest for a single quarter since the beginning of 2021.

The financing in the second quarter decreased by 26% from $162 billion in the first quarter and by 27% from $165 billion in the second quarter of 2021.

The funding for late-stage companies fell to $66.7 billion from $108.4 billion in the second quarter of 2021 as investors shifted their focus to earlier-stage investments.

Seed investment remained robust in the most recent quarter, increasing by 9% YoY yet falling by 18% compared to Q1 2022. Crunchbase analysis suggests that this may be because startups at this stage are less likely to be affected by the current economic climate as funding is not dependent on revenue.

In the second quarter of 2022, 103 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board, adding $167 billion in value and $27.6 billion in equity funding raised.

Namepicks

Knock

Knock is a tech-enabled real estate company founded in 2015. Initially, it started as a real estate brokerage but later moved and focused on lending as a prime activity. Last month, the company raised $220 million, making it in the top 10 June funding rounds. 

Knock launched on Knockaway.com before switching to Knock and the Knock.co domain, which was later upgraded to Knock.com. Rebranding to a shorter and stronger brand name and investing in the matching .com domain has allowed the company to grow and expand, establishing itself as a market leader in the lending space.

Courier

Courier was established in 2019 to provide an API to manage app notifications and send those notifications to services like Slack, Twilio, and SendGrid.

While Courier is a name that perfectly describes the goods the firm sells, Courier.com was out of reach when the company first started. Instead, Courier acquired TryCourier.com. Incorporating action-oriented verbs like “get” and “try” into their brand name is a commonly used strategy if the desired exact brand match domain name is already taken or is too expensive for the startup to purchase. As the company grows and expands its services, those domain names often prove limiting. After the upgrade to Courier.com, the company has steadily expanded its offerings and raised an additional $35 million, bringing its total capital to $47.5 million.

Adwisely (ex-RetargetApp)

Founded by a team of Ukrainians, Adwisely is an ad automation platform for e-commerce DTC brands. Adwisely recently announced that it had raised a $1.5 million Seed Round led by TMT Investments Plc with participation from Gaingels, Mana Ventures, CABRA VC, ICU Ventures, and a group of angel investors, including Wrike’s Andrew F. Filev. The investment brings the company’s total funding to $3.9 million.

The company has announced that it has outgrown its name and will be changing it to Adwisely due to its rapid expansion and the introduction of new offerings. Adwisely has invested in the exact brand match domain name Adwisely.com to be maximized its brand recognition with a short and easy-to-remember .com domain name.

Fountain

Fountain is a hiring platform that makes the recruiting process easier, faster, and more efficient. Last month the company closed an astonishing $115 million round, backed by DataStax.

The company was once known as OnboardIQ and ran on OnboardIQ.com. Fountain used the name for a few years before outgrowing it as its goals evolved. 

Over the years, however, we began to realize the shortcomings of our original name. OnboardIQ was no longer meant for just onboarding, as our customers began to use our platform across the hiring stack, from sourcing candidates to screening, to continuous workforce management.

Jeremy Cai, Co-Founder of Fountain 

As part of the rebrand Fountain invested in the exact brand match Fountain.com. 

Wonder

Wonder, a mobile food delivery service based in New York and run by Marc Lore, has secured $350 million in Series B funding. The company is now worth about $3.5 billion. The new funding will be used to continue to expand in New Jersey’s tri-state region. Wonder plans to open 11 additional restaurants, bringing the total number of the business’s locations to 30.

Wonder choose to step on a solid foundation and position itself for success, investing in the exact brand match one-world domain name Wonder.com. Operating on an exact brand match domain ensures the company’s brand is well protected online and avoids traffic, email leaks, and confusion amongst its customers and business partners.

It is common with experienced entrepreneurs like Mike Lore to launch their ventures on premium names. Mike is well aware of the power of domain names – Diapers.com, Mojo.com, Jet.com to name just a few of his previous companies.

Highlights

Most companies on the list operate on EBM domain names (435 out of 788). An Exact Brand Match (EBM) domain name is the most intuitive choice for your existing and future customers, business partners, and investors when they look for your brand online.

555 entries have invested in the .com extension domain names.

.io is the preferred choice of 47 companies, while .ai is used by 22. Both domain extensions are popular among tech startups as they are associated with popular technology terms.

21 companies use .in extension. .in is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for India and, as of 2005, is available to anyone and used by companies, individuals, and organizations in India.

Dash is included in the domain name of 15 entries. Dashes are frequently used with two-word brand names or added words when a company must settle on their domain name because the exact brand match name is already taken or out of their reach.

While we make every effort to ensure the data on our site is accurate, complete, and up-to-date, we cannot guarantee its reliability. Our data is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, financial, or other advice. We strongly recommend that you independently verify any information before relying on it.

Other resources

• Top 100 Most Inspiring Brands 2022 by Wunderman Thompson and Their Domain Name Choices
• Preparing for an Uncertain Future: Domain Name Strategies for Business Owners
• Maximising Your Domain Name Strategy: The Benefits of Premium Domain Names for SMEs
• I don’t need to invest in a domain name, everyone finds me on Google anyway…or do they?

How does your brand name match your company vision? What new horizons can a better name open? Get in touch if you feel your brand deserves a better name, we are always happy to help.

branding business choices domain domain name domain names domains funded funding June naming startup