Latest news with #familytech
News.com.au
18-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Hot Money Monday: Life360 rockets 25pc in a week, but is the market dreaming too big?
Life360 pops 25% on record results Ad biz gets love, but maybe too much Morningstar analyst says hype might be running too hot It's been a bonza week for Life360 (ASX:360) investors. The San Francisco-based family safety tech company shot up more than 25% last week, riding a wave of bullish sentiment after posting record-breaking March quarter results. For a business once known as a simple family locator app born out of the post-Hurricane Katrina chaos, this is quite the victory lap. The company, now trading on both the NASDAQ and ASX and capped at $4.5bn, has morphed into a global digital concierge for family life. It does location tracking, crash alerts, pet monitoring, teen driver stats, and more. In the last quarter just reported, it added 4.1 million new users, bringing total monthly active users to a whopping 83.7 million across 170 countries. Not bad for a business that started with the humble goal of helping families stay connected during emergencies. Quarterly revenue surged 32% to US$103.6 million, with subscription income up 37%. But what really turned heads was the near doubling of 'Other Revenue,' which includes its budding advertising business. It came in at $12.8 million for the quarter, up from $6.5 million in the same period a year ago. That's what really sparked the rally, but not everyone's convinced it will last. Getting carried away? Morningstar analyst Roy Van Keulen, who's been keeping a close eye on Life360's numbers, welcomed the strong start but poured a bit of cold water on the hype. That ad growth is exciting, sure, but Van Keulen sees warning lights flickering beneath the surface. His team had already penciled in a long-term drop in App Store commission fees after recent US rulings against Apple's stranglehold on payment systems. And that's a big win for app developers like Life360, whose Apple-related fees have been a major cost line. Still, Van Keulen thinks the Street's getting a little carried away. "Life360 screens as materially overvalued now, as the market appears to be overestimating the advertising growth opportunity," he said. Put simply, the ad dream might not match reality. Ads not quite hitting the mark Yes, Life360's pitch is that it can serve up super-relevant, location-based ads. Imagine landing at LAX airport and instantly seeing a pop-up offer for an Uber ride. That's useful. But how often does that happen? 'We believe the market is overly excited by advertising revenue growth,' Van Keulen said. 'The company's pitch to investors and advertisers is it is uniquely capable of providing contextually relevant advertising inventory in its app, especially for location-relevant ads. "However, we see few relevant use cases for this type of data.' Van Keulen reckons that while some travel-related ads might stick, most of the time, they'll just be white noise. A café promo popping up on your kid's safety app? Not exactly a sure-fire conversion. More critically, he adds, 'We are yet to see growth from targeted ads show up in revenue." "While year-on-year 'other revenue' grew impressively, there was a sequential decline, despite targeted ads being ramped up.' So why the investor euphoria? Part of it comes down to confidence from the top. CEO Chris Hulls is talking up Life360 as an everyday essential in uncertain times. 'In a more cautious consumer spending environment, our performance reflects both the resilience of our business model and the growing demand for our services that keep families safe, connected, and provide peace of mind,' Hulls said in the company's earnings release. Still, Van Keulen has his feet planted on the ground. Even with upgraded forecasts, Morningstar doesn't see Life360's advertising business becoming a reliable money spinner anytime soon. 'Our forecasts assume Life360's average advertising revenue per monthly active user, or MAU, will remain near the bottom end of the range compared with a peer group of consumer apps.' What's the takeaway? Life360's core business – subscriptions that help keep families connected and safe – is in top shape. It's proving resilient, sticky, and nicely profitable. But don't get too starry-eyed about the advertising side just yet. "These use cases are niche and not everyday use cases where targeted ads can deliver a lot of revenue," Van Keulen said. The stock may have sprinted ahead of itself, he added.
Forbes
07-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Exclusive: Ginko Raises $1.5M To Launch The First Doctor-Backed Digital Wellness App For Families
Cofounders of Ginko, Dr. Raghu Appasani and Larissa "Larz" May, Photo Credit: KTSura Photo Credit: KTSura When Larissa May (known to most as Larz) was a college student navigating anxiety and depression, she remembers sitting in a doctor's office and feeling something was missing. The diagnosis was clear. The support? Not so much. No one asked her about her screen time. No one asked about Instagram. 'It was like the elephant in the room,' she says now. That moment planted the seed for what would eventually become Ginko : a digital tool she wishes had existed back then, built now to support families before endless scrolling becomes the symptom. Today, May is no longer just telling her full story — she's building the solution she once needed. Alongside psychiatrist and mental health expert Dr. Raghu Appasani, May cofounded Ginko, a doctor-backed digital wellness app for families. It's designed to guide parents through the tech milestones and screen stage — from the first time a child gets an iPad through college life on an iPhone. The goal? To unlock family trust and digital freedom as parents and kids show progress. It's a tool to help families navigate the ups and downs of the digital world, built with teens, approved by parents, and backed by doctors. Together, the founder duo isn't just creating a product. They're creating a movement — one that reframes digital parenting from panic and surveillance to prevention and connection. 'I feel like the Alex Cooper of digital wellness, without the swear words,' May says with a smirk. 'I'm here to make the hard conversations easier. To talk about the things most parents are too scared or ashamed to say out loud.' After nearly a decade spent working directly with families — one through the lens of digital wellness advocacy as the founder of the movement, #HalfTheStory, the other as a Harvard-trained clinical psychiatrist — May and Dr. Appasani found themselves fielding the same urgent question: How does one parent through this era of screens? The answer became Ginko. Launching publicly this June, Ginko is the first doctor-backed digital parenting app or copilot, designed to help families navigate tech, with empathy, science, and lived experience at its core. At a time when 48% of parents say they feel completely overwhelmed by stress ( U.S. Surgeon General ), and 55% report being extremely concerned about teen mental health ( Pew Research 2025 ), Ginko offers something long overdue: a proactive, preventative solution built with both care and clinical rigor. The company just closed a $1.5M pre-seed round, led by Aliavia Ventures, with participation from Andas, Exceptional Ventures, Swizzle Ventures, Kodori, and Luminary Impact Fund. Angel investors include Evan Sharp (Founder of Pinterest), Lidiane Jones (Former CEO of Slack and Bumble), Lori Evans Bernstein (Caraway Health), Babba Rivera (Ceremonia), and Zem Joaquin (Near Future). Ginko also boasts a clinical advisory board anchored by Dr. Carlene MacMillan, Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Consumer Issues Committee. Unlike conventional parental control tools that create conflict, secrecy and fear, Ginko replaces surveillance with support. The app uses developmentally appropriate guidance, AI-powered insights, and trust-building tools rooted in attachment science and behavioral health. One study found that 77% of parents say their pediatrician has never discussed their child's social media use with them: Ginko makes that conversation both possible and accessible, so that children can 'chase dreams, not screens.' 'You wouldn't hand a kid car keys without teaching them to drive," Dr. Appasani says. "So why are we handing them smartphones without a roadmap?' Ginko's spark moment officially occurred when the cofounders were scouted at Wall Street Journal Tech by their first investor. They began interviewing doctors, parents and kids — and quickly realized there wasn't a comprehensive tool that could grow with families at every screen stage. "We wanted to build a triage center where we could help parents on the darkest nights and reward teens for their progress in the digital world," says May. "That's where Ginko was born. The digital world is like a playground. Sometimes you fall — and you need support when the scrolling gets tough." "This isn't just a parenting tool — it's a new framework for digital preventative care," Dr. Appasani says. "Something healthcare hasn't caught up to yet.' By meeting families where they are and designing tools that evolve with their digital lives, Dr. Appasani and May are reshaping what it means to raise resilient, connected, emotionally healthy kids in a tech-saturated world. It's not about screen time — it's about screen trust. 'You can't stalk your way to healthy screen time,' May adds. 'A lot of these tools are built on fear, but when you apply that kind of monitoring, it backfires. It's the same with tech. Ginko is about trust, not control.' May recounts how they landed on the name: "We were sitting in our backyard and Christian (May's husband) said, 'Ginkgo.' That was it — the most resilient tree that grows all over the world. Digital wellness is just like a tree. It grows with you over time." Let's get real: screens aren't going anywhere. And not all screen time is created equal. Ginko offers a place where kids and parents can come together to negotiate screen use, especially for essential things like school or studying. It's about being realistic about tech, and teaching kids early on how to use it as a tool that supports their growth. As progress builds, kids earn 'Ginkos': gamified rewards that can be redeemed in the real world. And each week, Ginko visualizes what the child did online, how it made them feel, and how the family is tracking toward shared wellness goals. 'Ginko isn't about surveillance," May asserts. "It's not here to stalk your kids — it's a copilot. It helps parents navigate digital milestones, from the first iPad to the first social account, with tools that are age-appropriate and actually rooted in science.' Dr. Appasani adds: 'We combine developmental psychology, AI, and clinical insight to guide families through different stages. For a toddler, that might mean building healthy habits around play and attention. For teens, it's more about emotional regulation and identity online.' Another point to get real about: parents aren't the best role models when it comes to using their devices in front of their children. 'The truth? Parents are the worst at modeling behavior,' May states. "They're on their phones, they're on their laptops. They're doing work — and kids are just trying to get their attention. We want to help change that and suggest unstructured play — not to punish, but to rebuild trust and connection, based on attachment science.' As a soft launch ahead of its June debut, Ginko hosted an IRL activation at Shopify's SoHo space in New York City this past weekend. The pop-up transformed part of the venue into a vibrant, screen-free zone where toddlers through tweens engaged in creative play alongside their parents. The experience brought Ginko's mission to life: showing what digital wellness can look like in the real world. A number of notable mom influencers and parenting community leaders attended, helping spark conversation around tech, trust, and what it means to raise kids with empathy in a screen-saturated world. 'I want to break the clinic walls wide open and meet people where they are,' Dr. Appasani adds. 'That's why we integrate IRL connection too — like our pop-ups where toddlers and tweens connect with their parents, no screens involved.' 'This is just the beginning,' May says. 'Yes, we're a tool. But Ginko could become an umbrella for the whole digital wellness ecosystem. We're imagining future clinics, family retreat centers, maybe even schools. The world is our oyster.' As for the legacy they want to leave? 'I've always looked up to Gloria Steinem. I want to be in the history books as the woman who helped shift our world from digital sickness to digital wellness. And I want to do it with care and clinical grounding,' May shares. 'My dream is for Ginko to be the vehicle that finally brings this into healthcare.' 'I don't need to be remembered by name,' Dr. Appasani says. 'But I want people to feel the impact of what I helped create. Whether as a clinician or a founder, I care about bringing real human connection back. I almost left med school once because I was so disillusioned with the system. I'm glad I stayed. Because now, with Ginko, I can build the healthcare tools I always wished existed.' May adds: 'We need women breaking ceilings and showing that care can scale. We need more women building technology that actually supports families. Period.'
