Disrupting Hedge Funds - CBInsights
Anand Sanwal
Founder of CB Insights | I owe people money. Please buy a subscription to CB Insights
Quant jock
Hi there,
Yesterday, we released a monster 92 page report — The State of Artificial Intelligence.
You should get it.
While there is undoubtedly a lot of very interesting things going on in AI, there is also an absurd level of hype with every startup trying to brand itself with AI. Got a website? Got a database? Yup — you are now AI.
The term overtook big data in the battle of the buzzwords last year as the graph from CB Insights Trends reveals.
So last week, we asked you, our very smart readers, to fill in the blank of the following sentence
"AI is the new _______"
1/3 of you think AI is the new bacon and 1/3 had no idea what I was talking about. This reaffirmed my faith in the CBI readership (Candidly, it was waning after you disrespected the selfie-stick).
Healthy Planet
We looked at funding and deal flow to digital health startups operating in the US and internationally, as well as some of the most well-funded non-US startups in the space. China-based Guahao Technology Co. raised the most in total disclosed funding at $536M.
The quant hedge fund is here
Quantopian, which Steve Cohen's Point 72 Asset Management invested in, has started doling out investment capital to 15 amateur quants (see The Blurb for the article).
Right now, Quantopian has more than $10M at work which Bloomberg calls "one of the bigger tests for a theory of money management predicated on mining talent from groups of would-be investment stars."
The membership in Quantopian — the crowdsourced quant hedge fund — has grown significantly as you can see below.
We'll be digging into the results and the future of the algorithmic hedge fund with Jonathan Larkin, the Chief Investment Officer at Quantopian, at The Future of Fintech in June.
In addition to Jonathan, Andy Weissman, partner at Union Square Ventures (investors in Numerai) and Christina Qi, partner at Domeyard, a hedge fund focused on high-frequency trading (subject of recent HBS case study), will also be there to dig into the future of the hedge fund.
Use the code FoFQuantopian to get $1000 off a ticket through tomorrow (April 7th).
Ch...ch...changes
5 weeks ago, we launched a client-only newsletter (for paid clients only).
As a consequence of that, some of our research & data will start to become available only to paid clients. (For those curious, minimum for clients is $42,600 per annum)
The two most immediate changes you may notice will be the removal of Friday's Mosaic alerts of high-momentum startups and Tuesday's large deal roundup.
Those will no longer be in the daily newsletter and will be client-only going forward.
Over time, expect more of our research will be going client-only. We'll have more news on this in the coming months along with a pricing update (will go higher).
Food fundings
We created a timeline of first fundings to US food delivery startups between 2011 and 2017 year-to-date. 2016 and 2017 have only seen a combined 7 new entrants, compared to 8 in 2014, and 12 in 2013.
You are the one
Yesterday, we had a donut chart in the newsletter, and we got some flack for that given our consistent hatred of pie charts.
While I do think the donut chart was warranted in this case (although we prob shouldn't have had a legend), today we'll take a break from bad pie charts and share this illuminating map of Europe which plots population per capita.
Want to go to Amsterdam?
We're giving away a free trip to Amsterdam for the Next Web's European Tech Event (May 18-19).
We teamed up with Esquire, Quartz, Product Hunt, TNW, and The Hustle to give one lucky person airfare, accommodations, and some walking-around dinero. Enter here.
Interesting
Entrepreneurship thrives in non-urban areas.
Drone data
We updated our breakdown of six early-stage startups developing last mile delivery robots. Ranging from work on aerial to ground-based solutions, the companies included in our analysis are Flirtey, Matternet, Starship, Dispatch, Robby, and Marble.
High marks
We look at investment trends in the ed tech space since 2012. Q1’17 is the first time since Q3’15 that deals to ed tech startups broke 130, with the top deal going to Chinese company Xuebajun.
The Industry Standard
CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.
Business Insider UK. A report on AI's potential in the enterprise with a reference to CB Insights investment data.
New York Times. Nathaniel Popper (@nathanielpopper) writes about former chief exec at Lending Club Renaud Laplanche and his new online lending company that he claims will rival his former company from which he was ousted, with a mention of CB Insights funding and valuation data.
Bloomberg Quint. Tink Labs is in the process of raising ~$40M and aiming for a valuation of more than $1B, according to this report which references CB Insights research on unicorns.
I love you.
Anand
P.S. Don't forget to participate in our bracket to determine the most innovative consumer product since the iPhone. Round 2 polls close this Sunday. Vote here.Mapping digital health startups across the globe
While the US accounts for 75% of global digital health deal share, deal flow to international startups continues to climb. See the map.
New entrants in the food delivery space decline as existing startups struggle
Munchery's recapitalization and plummeting valuation highlight challenges in food delivery, with fewer fundings, increased M&A activity, and some companies shutting down. See the timeline.
Startups chasing robot delivery by land and air
Startups working on both aerial and ground-based delivery drones take further steps towards commercialization. See the companies.
Ed tech deals tick up in Q1’17
Despite the fall-off in ed tech investment activity in 2016, two ed tech unicorns were minted last year. See the data.
The Blurb
A curated mix of articles on private companies, venture capital, emerging industries, and innovation.
Quantopian's amateur coders. Dani Burger (@daniburgr) dives into Quantopian's investment in 15 amateur quants. Bloomberg
Do I want to invest my money in this company? Patricio Cano (@suprnova32) shares his experience working at GitLab and why he will not exercise his stock options. Hackernoon
Why Uber won't fire its CEO. Jessi Hempel (@jessiwrites) says the rise of super-voting shares in Silicon Valley has given founders the ultimate job security. BackChannel
Those are vanity metrics. LLoyd Tabb (@lloydtabb) shares how to abide by metrics that generate direction and dives into contrasting vanity and clarity metrics across a handful of companies. First Round Review
Luck and my practice of VC. Phil Barnes (@phineasb) defines success in venture capital as good practice applied to luck that cannot be controlled for. SneakerheadVC
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