Discover the latest trends in global monthly funding data, with a unique focus on companies’ domain name choices, in our monthly funding reports.

Overview

The global inflation rate is expected to decline over the year, going from 8.8% in 2022 to 6.6% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2024. Despite this decrease, the inflation rate will still be higher than the pre-pandemic levels of around 3.5% from 2017 to 2019. This year, the main concern is expected to shift from high inflation to fears of a slowing economy.

The projected global growth rate is anticipated to decline from 3.4% in 2022 to 2.9% in 2023 and then increase to 3.1% in 2024. 

The ongoing economic challenges, coupled with the tightening of VC funds, rising costs, and a sense of pessimism, have led many startups to adopt a cautious and risk-averse over the past year.

According to our research, global venture funding reached over $26 billion in January 2023 through more than 500 transactions. This marks a significant drop compared to the previous year, when global funding for private companies was recorded at $61 billion.

Several sectors, including Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Cloud Cyber Security, HealthTech, ConsumerTech, and FinTech, have caught the attention of investors and garnered attention with large funding rounds.

Here are some of the names that have piqued our attention, listed in no particular order.

Namepicks

Enpal

Berlin-based Enpal (founded in 2017) raised €215 million to provide solar power systems for homeowners. The round was led by: Activate Capital Partners, The Westly Group and TPG.  Enpal is a photovoltaics leasing firm that provides solar power systems and is Germany’s first green unicorn. The company’s journey begging with renting photovoltaic systems, then it added batteries and, soon after, its own green electricity plan. Along the way, Enpal developed its own smart home ecosystem to connect all of its devices. In the near future, the goal is to launch a wallbox and expand the portfolio even more.

Dare to dream big.

Mario Kohle, Founder of Enpal

The name “Enpal” is derived from “energy” and “pal,” reflecting the company’s vision of being a trusted friend in switching to green energy. Blending words as brand names is a common practice among businesses, as seen in well-known examples such as Pinterest (combination of Pin and interest) and Microsoft (Microcomputer and software).

Blended words are similar to compound words in that you create a new word from component parts, but the end result is quite different. The final name appears to be less familiar and stands out from the start.

The company owns both the country extension Enpal.de and the exact brand match premium Enpal.com domain names. Owning multiple domain names can enhance a company’s online presence by improving search engine optimisation and directing traffic to the primary domain, reducing the risk of losing potential customers to competitors and preventing email leaks.

OpenAI

OpenAI is a research laboratory specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) and comprises a non-profit entity, OpenAI Inc., and a for-profit subsidiary, OpenAI LP. Its goal is to advance AI in a way that benefits humanity. Established in San Francisco in 2015 by a group of individuals, including Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, and Peter Thiel, OpenAI received a collective pledge of $1 billion. Although Elon Musk stepped down from the board in 2018, he remains a donor. Microsoft has made two significant investments in OpenAI LP: a $1 billion investment in 2019 and a reported $10 billion multi-year investment in 2023.

No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don’t have a sufficiently good product.

Sam Altman ,CEO of OpenAI

The origin of the name “OpenAI” is unknown to the public. It’s possible that the name was chosen to reflect the organisation’s open and collaborative approach to AI research and development. The “Open” part of the name may also refer to the company’s research findings, which are frequently made public to the scientific community.

Given the calibre of serial entrepreneurs involved, it’s no surprise that OpenAI chose to use an exact brand match domain name, OpenAI.com. One of the key advantages of using an exact match domain is improved memorability, mainly when the name is short and straightforward. Additionally, using common words reduces the likelihood of misspellings.

Recently, OpenAI’s product ChatGPT has generated a lot of excitement. It is a language model that uses deep learning techniques to produce text that resembles human writing. With the ability to generate not only text but also stories, poems, and code, ChatGPT has proven to be a versatile tool.

We’ve put ChatGPT to the test in the area of domain names, and here’s what it had to say on the subject:

• Discussing Domain Names as Brand Assets with ChatGPT
• ChatGPT by OpenAI Answering Domain Name Questions
• We Asked ChatGPT to Write a Fairytale and a Poem About Domains

Xpansiv

Xpansiv runs a marketplace for carbon and environmental commodities. With over 300 employees and locations in Sydney, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Vancouver, London, Milan, and Bendigo, the company was formed in 2019 by the merger of CBL (founded in 2009) and Xpansiv (founded in 2016). Recently, the green technology firm disclosed a funding round of $125 million and the acquisition of Evolution Markets, a brokerage services provider. The funding was headed by Blackstone Energy Partners and will assist Xpansiv in expanding its services and enhancing its product development abilities.

Our platform simply uses data science and technology to help the market better understand itself. We’re a bridge between commodity production systems and global markets, harnessing the information that matters to create Intelligent Commodities.

Joe Madden, CEO of Xpansiv for Asia Pacific Ventures

Businesses aim to establish a distinctive identity for their brand, and this begins with the name. To make their brand names memorable, some companies opt for creative misspellings. Misspelt names of common words like “Xpansiv” instead of “Expansive” tend to stick in our minds longer and form a memorable image of the brand. This helps the brand grab people’s attention from the outset. Incorrect spellings can also make it easier for companies to secure domain names.

Xpansiv successfully obtained the exact match domain name, Xpansiv.com, which maximises the effectiveness of its marketing across all channels.

Tranch

Tranch is a B2B “buy now pay later” platform that allows SaaS and services providers to receive an upfront payment and provide their clients with flexible payment options for up to a year. By offering a “Pay with Tranch” payment option at checkout, providers such as law firms and marketing agencies can provide an alternative method for clients to pay for contracts up to $500,000.

Founded in 2021 and with offices in New York and London, Tranch has the support of investors, including Global Founders Capital, Y Combinator, Soma Capital, and FoundersX. Last month, the company raised $100 million in seed equity and debt funding to bring payment flexibility to a larger group of B2B customers.

Against this challenging macroeconomic backdrop, buyers and suppliers have to ensure they can optimise their working capital cycle, and B2B BNPL is a commonsense way to achieve that. With our new investors and substantial credit facility in place, we’re in a great position to continue our growth in the US market out of our New York office.

Philip Kelvin, Co-founder and CEO of Tranch

The brand name Tranch cleverly brings together multiple elements. It originates from the word “Tranche,” which has two meanings: a portion of money and a slice of meat. Tranch leverages this dual meaning in its branding, with the image of a knife prominently featured in the logo. Recently, the company underwent a visual rebrand featuring a distinctive colour scheme, appealing icons, and the use of the knife theme.

Tranch has implemented a strong and consistent brand strategy. To enhance this, they acquired the exact match domain name Tranch.com, which provides an additional boost to their marketing initiatives and strengthens their online presence. Exact brand match domain names are also the preferred choice among the BNPL companies listed in our article Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Startups and Their Domain Name Choices.

DailyPay

DailyPay provides a payment solution for businesses in the financial sector. Dollar Tree, Berkshire Hathaway, and Adecco are among the best-in-class employers DailyPay has partnered with.

Last month, the company secured $260 million of capital to fuel growth domestically, expand internationally, and further invest in product innovation. The funding is divided between revolving credit facility capacity provided by Barclays and Angelo Gordon, new term loan funding from SVB Capital, and a fund managed by Neuberger Berman.

On-demand pay has proven to be a transformational financial wellness benefit for employers and their employees, and DailyPay is the proven market leader. Now, our opportunity lies in capturing more of the market, which is overwhelmingly vast green space.

Kevin Coop, CEO of DailyPay

The company name, DailyPay, accurately reflects its mission as the pioneer of daily pay benefits, enabling employees to access their earned wages in real time. The combination of strong keywords in two-word business names creates a memorable impression. The name DailyPay conveys the image of a financial service that offers daily payments or a payment solution that operates daily, emphasising convenience, frequent access, and prompt payment.

DailyPay.com is the domain name this startup has chosen to operate on. An exact match domain name defines the entire industry and positions its owner as a leader in the market.

Highlights

.com extension is the preferred choice among the companies on our list, with 373 out of 525 securing a .com domain name for their online presence. Customers worldwide naturally tend to trust .com as it has been dominating the internet for decades.

36 companies have chosen the .io extension, followed by the .ai extension with 19 users. Both extensions are often associated with technology and innovation, which can benefit companies in the tech industry or those who want to position themselves as cutting-edge or forward-thinking. On the other hand, .io and .ai are not as widely recognized as some other domain extensions, such as .com; they may be less familiar to potential customers and may not convey the same level of credibility. This can make it more difficult for people to find and remember the company’s website, which can negatively impact traffic and revenue. Both are also country domain extensions which can come with significant risks for a business.

13 companies on the list use the .co domain extension. This extension is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Colombia, but it is also commonly used by companies and individuals as an alternative to the more well-known .com extension.

272 companies operate on exact brand match domains. An exact brand match domain name can protect the brand from trademark infringement and other abuses, as it can help to prevent competitors from “squatting” on the brand’s domain name. It also reduces the risk of customers being confused and inadvertently landing on a competitor’s website.

19 companies have chosen to include a dash in their domain name. Dashes in domain names can make them difficult to remember and can be a source of confusion. They can also make it difficult for users to type the domain name correctly in their address bar.

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

• The Benefits of Premium Domain Names for SMEs
• Maximizing SEO Potential with a Memorable and Unique Domain Name
• Why Your Domain Name Matters: 4 Reasons Why .Com Domain Names Are The Best For Your Brand
• The Before, Now and After of Domain Names

Whether you’re a small business owner or a large corporation, a premium domain name can help boost your brand and increase your online presence. If you’re ready to take the next step, contact us to learn more about our premium domain name options and how they can benefit your business.

2023 branding business domain domain name domain names domains funding January Monthly Monthly Funding Report naming startup