Jetson is raising a convertible note at a $20 million valuation with a 20% discount. This price is far higher than reasonable given that the company is functionally pre-revenue and hasn’t yet demonstrated a viable business model. Yes, Jetson does own proprietary technology to layer commerce functionality over smart speakers’ natural language processing engines; without proof of concept in a paying market, though, that tech is not worth $20 million. Previous rounds of funding (the company has raised almost $3 million so far) have likely jacked up Jetson’s valuation without the proof of actual product-market fit. 

Since the advent of the internet, e-commerce has been growing steadily. In 2019, the global e-commerce market was valued at a staggering $9 trillion and is still growing rapidly at a projected CAGR of 14.7% over the next seven years. Consumers turn to smartphones and computers, rather than brick-and-mortar shops, to purchase an increasing number of products. The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend, with e-commerce jumping 20% last year alone. Of course, Jetson can only service those who own a smart speaker; that’s about 60 million people as of last year. 

Jetson’s actual market, though, is composed of the businesses that sell products on the Jetson marketplace. It’s difficult to estimate how many businesses might be present in that market, and how much revenue stands to be made; voice commerce is a very young field, and the vast majority of businesses likely aren’t aware that a service like Jetson exists. Many small businesses likely don’t have the technical comfort or fulfillment flexibility to add a new sales channel. All together, Jetson’s market seems decent-sized, but not gigantic; thus, the company’s market rating is middle-of-the-road. 

Jetson was founded by Peter Peng. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a Political Science degree, Peng led his own web design firm for two years. He later joined another marketing firm as a partner, and subsequently served as the COO for a marketing analytics company. After three years as the Head of Marketing & Design at a virtual keychain technology business, Peng founded Jetson in early 2017. 

While Peng has over a decade of marketing experience, and a few years of expertise at a combined software/hardware company, he doesn’t have a strong technical background or a domain specialty in e-commerce or AI. Because Peng is a solo founder without industry-specific experience, the company’s team score is relatively low. 

One of Jetson’s biggest advantages is its position as an early mover in the voice commerce industry; thus, the company is very well differentiated from what few competitors exist. Voice commerce is undoubtedly in our future; as natural language processing technology continues to evolve, privacy concerns are resolved, and smart speakers become more affordable, the majority of Americans will likely own a speaker from which to order goods, food, and more. Jetson does seem to be a leader in bringing about this future; as a result, its differentiation rating is its strongest.

Jetson has been in development for almost four years, and the company has made good progress in attracting businesses to its marketplace. As of late last year, the Jetson marketplace included over 13,000 merchants (most of whom joined in one year, between October 2019 and November 2020) selling almost 1.5 million products. 

However, this traction is countered by concerning financials. Jetson has raised almost $3 million, but generated less than $5,000 in revenue last year. The company posted a significant net loss of $832,160 last year. Perhaps more concerning: financials are barely discussed in Jetson’s fundraising pitch, 2020 financials are presented in a difficult-to-read format in the company’s Form C filing, and a prospective investor’s question on financials in the StartEngine discussion section received an unclear, slightly defensive response from Jetson’s founder. 

There are serious questions about Jetson’s financial performance. However, if the company’s marketplace traction figures are to be believed, Jetson is on the verge of generating meaningful revenue through these B2B subscriptions. Therefore, Jetson’s performance rating is strong. 

Jetson is functionally a pre-revenue company, and there are serious questions about how the company has thousands of business users with virtually no revenue. Jetson isn’t exactly transparent about these fundamental questions in the raise materials. The company also isn’t particularly clear about how it plans to onboard customers onto the marketplace. It would seem as though Jetson’s success is dependent on welcoming both brands and customers, but raise materials and Jetson’s website only concern the B2B side. Perhaps brands are responsible for bringing customers with them onto the platform, or Jetson seeks to partner with companies that have built-in user bases (Amazon, for instance), but there’s no thoughtful discussion about the pros and cons of those strategies for potential investors to review. 

There are also questions about whether the market is mature enough for voice commerce yet. Many consumers are frustrated by the existing functionality of speakers’ natural language processing systems; if Alexa can barely find the right music to play, are we ready to trust her with spending our money? Plus, businesses might not realize this sales channel is available, and customers also aren’t aware that they could order via voice. It seems that Jetson may be a bit ahead of its time, or is struggling to explain how it plans to push adoption in a two-sided marketplace.

A bullish take on Jetson requires giving the company the benefit of the doubt on questions about revenue traction, plans to acquire customers, and other key topics. But assuming that financials and go-to-market plans are sunnier than they seem, there is huge potential for Jetson to disrupt commerce as we know it. There’s little doubt that we’ll be ordering products, food, and more from smart speakers in the near future; it’s the natural extension of voice assistant technology, and could be a major time saver for customers and a revenue driver for businesses. At this stage, Jetson seems like a bit of a moonshot bet, but some moonshot bets pay off tremendously.

Jetson is a voice commerce company allowing brands to offer their products for sale via smart speakers. Businesses list products on the Jetson marketplace, and users purchase those products with voice commands via Alexa or Google Assistant devices. Jetson has purportedly onboarded over 13,000 merchants to its marketplace, and over 1.5 million products are for sale; the company is a leader in voice commerce, with few direct competitors of note. If Jetson can indeed dominate voice commerce technology, it has the potential to be an extremely successful tech giant. 

On the other hand, Jetson is raising at an extreme $20 million valuation given its lack of revenue over the last four years. It fundamentally doesn’t match up that Jetson has been so successful at welcoming brands onto the platform, yet made just $5,000 last year. Prospective investors should have many questions about Jetson’s performance, questions that aren’t answered clearly in Jetson’s raise materials. Therefore, Jetson has been rated a Neutral Deal. 

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