The Newest Unicorn - CBInsights

Storm the Castle

Hi there,

Quora is the newest technology company to join the Unicorn club (unicorns are private investor-backed companies worth $1B+). Unlike others who got there quickly, Quora took their time which is refreshing to see since so many startup and startup founders seem to be in a hurry to exit the business they are supposedly passionate about.

Anyways, Quora always provides some great questions and answers so I'm going share a few favorites below interspersed with our own industry and market analyses.

But first, here's Quora highlight #1.

A wealth tech world

We mapped the global distribution of robo-advisors and identified geographic trends. US-based robo-advisors have received 57% of the global deal share since 2012, with Germany taking second place at 9%.

Don't beat yourself up. Happens to everyone.

Quora has answers to some of those persistent, thorny relationship questions.

Extreme makeover

We looked at investment into beauty & grooming startups since 2012. Compared to the previous quarter, deals to beauty and grooming startups spiked in Q1’17, but funding slipped by 24%.

You can take my life, but you will never...what the heck

Quora has great questions about sophisticated military operations.

Om nom nom

We mapped out food & beverage corporations' investments and acquisitions since 2013. General Mills' 301 Inc. has backed seven startups through the beginning of April, while Kellogg's Eighteen94 Capital has only invested in one.

Quora's competition

Some articles highlighted Quora's competition being Yahoo Answers. First, when Yahoo is your main competitor in anything, you've done well.

And in this particular case, it is no different.

Here's what Yahoo Answers folks are talking about.

Artificial general intelligence

We looked at funding and patent activity of startups working on artificial general intelligence, which involves an AI system with human-like cognitive abilities that can be used to solve new problems, rather than being trained for specific tasks.

The Industry Standard

CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.

TechCrunch. Scott Lenet (@scottlenet) on corporate innovation with a reference to CB Insights investment data.

Zee Business. A report on on-demand startups with a mention of CB Insights funding and deals data.

Bloomberg Quint. Shelly Banjo (@sbanjo) & Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) write about retail bankruptcies and cite CB Insights funding data.

Happy Monday.

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal

P.S. We'll be looking into the beauty tech revolution on April 25th. Sign up for the briefing.

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Mapping robo-advisors around the globe

Robo-advisors have raised $1.32B in funding globally since 2012. The US leads with 57% of deals followed by Germany, the UK, and China. See the map.

 Beauty deals off to a strong start in 2017

L'Oreal, L'Occitane, and Sequoia Capital have all made investments in the space in 2017. See the data.

 Leading food corporates amp up startup bets

General Mills has focused its VC investments on new product lines, while Campbell's investment arm has focused more on tech. See the breakdown.

What Vicarious, Kindred, and Numenta are working on

Whether general AI is possible at all, and if so, how soon we'll get there, is a topic of ongoing debate in the tech community. Check it out.

The Blurb

A curated mix of articles on private companies, venture capital, emerging industries, and innovation.

VC is like the cement industry. Albert Wenger (@albertwenger) says venture capital is a capacity industry with boom and bust cycles. Continuations

Strategies. Christoph Auer-Welsbach (@awchristoph) on strategies for developing CVCs that yield long-term results. Medium

Limited partners, not limited opportunities. Peter Teneriello (@_petert_) says venture capital is an odd duck in the portfolios of limited partners. Medium

Boards. A podcast discussing the habits of successful and unsuccessful boards of directors.Venture Evolved

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