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Kagi raises $670k

blog.kagi.com

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Re: Kagi raises $670k

#331

Post by LanternLight83 »

darknavi wrote: post #294
mkeedlinger wrote: post #277

I don't think I've seen this sentiment shared by anyone else, so I'll go ahead and share it: I need a way to pay anonymously. For me, this usually means via Monero. Searches are simply too personal and too habitually unrestrained for me to trust to anyone who can de-anonymize them. Honestly, in retrospect I'll acknowledge that my intense quest for privacy is more ideological than practical, and it wouldn't likely be…

Maybe they could pull a Mullvad and accept cash via mail.

Mullvad also notably accepts Monero, and if/when emulated, we should encourage and celebrate their comprehensive scope as much as any individual method

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#332

Post by dotcoma »

somewhat_drunk wrote: post #325
dotcoma wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you not a fan of SAFEs ? Thanks.

To be clear, I don't like them from the perspective of equity crowdfunding, which has an alarmingly high percentage of low-information, follow-the-crowd, "dumb money" retail investors. SAFEs muddy the waters. It's just another thing that already overwhelmed retail investors need to take into account when considering whether to invest. https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/safe-securities

Thanks.

Agree, but are SAFEs any worse than a normal convertible?

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#333

Post by JumpCrisscross »

yieldcrv wrote: post #299
weikju wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and it seems like many actual users of Kagi (and Orion?) have contributed, so this isn't a (completely) a "big VC firm will enshitify this". This gives me hope. I wish I would qualify to invest in things like this...

You can lie. That’s what “self-certify” means. If you have the money to participate and lie about having/earning more money then you qualify. There is no constitutional way to prevent you from investing based on net worth, so the law places consequences on the companies offering investments. And the only time this affects the company is if they were relying on a regulatory exemption that also allows unaccredited inve…

> no constitutional way to prevent you from investing based on net worth

What? Of course there is. Low net worth isn’t a protected class. We don’t do it that way because the purpose of the law is to protect small investors.

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#334

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jefftk wrote: post #265
berkle4455 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their revenue in September was $318k/yr, what is it today? Let’s say it’s $600k? $1M? $40M is a really high valuation for that revenue, I’d not have invested either. It’s not 2021 anymore.

$40M is the valuation cap, not the valuation. When you raise money with an SAFE, you are postponing the negotiation about how much your company is worth. It could easily convert at well under $40M depending on how well they are doing when they next raise.

$40mm cap when you’re going out to retail investors is a bit of a joke. Something is rotten here.

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#335

Post by [deleted] »

yieldcrv wrote: post #214
xcavier wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that headline as precisely the opposite: oh, bugger, they are not doing well and that money won’t help

> “This was made possible with the participation of 42 accredited investors” Same impression here

[deleted]

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#337

Post by freediver »

philwelch wrote: post #313
karaterobot wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they can, but until new information comes to light, I'm trusting that their business model makes it against their interests to do that.

I would be more inclined to trust them if they had a warrant canary. I can’t seem to find one.

There is one here:

https://kagi.com/privacy#warrant-canary

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#338

Post by freediver »

NikxDa wrote: post #230

Looks like they significantly missed their goal. From Kagi's investment round invitation email: - SAFE note round with a valuation cap of $40MM (pre-money) - 249 investors maximum - We are looking to raise around $2MM from our users in this way ($5MM max) - Minimum investment amount per investor is $5,000, and maximum is $500,000. So the $670k they now raised are only about a third of what they were aiming for.

Just to clarify how this works. We didn't 'aim' for any number. The investment vehicle we used for this round (Angel List RUV, very good and easy to use product btw) requires to specify a goal amount and we estimated it the best we could based on the number of people who reached out over the time expressing the interest to invest in Kagi (around 260 people). However when the rounded eventually opened most were not able to participate this time because of the accredited investor status requirement for this type of the investment vehicle. We would be happy with any amount and $670K is more than enough for the next phase of the company.

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#339

Post by freediver »

ziftface wrote: post #114
tokamak-teapot wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have a Safari extension on iOS, which directs searches to kagi.com

I love kagi but I hate this. It's not their fault, it's just a limitation of the os but it's such a hassle when you have to solve a Google captcha to get kagi results. I'm considering just removing that from my phone and switching back to Google there.

Consider using Orion for macOS/iOS with Kagi search built in.

https://browser.kagi.com

Re: Kagi raises $670k

#340

Post by freediver »

sofixa wrote: post #195
andsoitis wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think a small operation is exactly the sort of outfit to do it. Makes you focus on what is important. They're focusing on 2 things: a search engine AND a Mac-only web browser.

> Mac-only web browser Such a waste. MacOS users might be open to paying (for Kagi in general) because they're used to paying for a bunch of things other OSes get included or as freeware, but still, the market share is small (depending on the source, 10-30%). And even if many of those would enjoy a Mac-native app, there are at least some, like myself, that refuse to use single platform tools. I have a bunch of device…

> Such a waste.

You always need to start somewhere, Kagi is now (just) a 15 person team. There are enough Macs (200M+) and iPhones (1B+) in use to justify selecting this as the first ecosystem to target for the browser. Really it comes down to resource management and allocation in the early stages.

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