?? Slack is a waste of time — CBInsights

Killing the stock exchange

Hi there,

Folks really liked the startup jargon filter we implemented and had lots of questions & ideas.

Right now, there are no plans to open source it, but we might integrate into our Chrome Plugin so you can pull up a company's funding, investors, and also get a sense for how full their website is of marketing gibberish. Stay tuned.

Call for startups: Indian fintech companies

We are working on a market map of Indian fintech companies. If this is you, submit your company here to get in front of our research analysts.

Fame, fortune, and fintech glory awaits you.

It's all bad. Really really bad.

Tonight is El Presidente Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress. Here's a heatmap that shows Americans are pretty much dissatisfied with everything.

Renewable planet

We analyzed equity deals since 2015 to renewable energy companies outside the US. India has emerged as the leading country for renewable deals outside the US, accounting for nearly 8% of global deal share.

Get the CB Insights newsletter delivered to your inbox to see what’s next in technology, VC and startups. 235,000+ smart executives get it. You should too.

The end of Nasdaq and NYSE?

I'm excited to announce that Brad Katsuyama, the hero of Michael Lewis' bestseller, Flash Boys, and CEO of IEX will be joining us at The Future of Fintech Conference.

IEX won stock exchange status from the SEC last June and as the Forbes article in the blurb highlights, Katsuyama is one of Wall Street's biggest contrarians.

IEX has received more than $100 million of investment from the likes of Steve Wynn (of Wynn Resorts), Bill Ackman, David Einhorn, and Spark Capital. Interestingly, Wynn has actually said he will move Wynn Resorts over to IEX (currently on Nasdaq).

This is a reminder that prices go up by $1000 tomorrow (on March 1st). Use the discount code NLFintech17 here to get $1000 off today.

Slack-a-mole

Michael Muse, director of operations at ManagedbyQ, penned an interesting essay (check out The Blurb) looking at the true cost of Slack and how it disrupts productivity due to the listening cost it puts on users.

He attempts to quantify this impact (we like data-driven) and calculates that it costs people over 1 hour of productivity per day. It's an interesting view on the negative ROI of Slack.

Big tech's big bets

We analyzed the private market activity of the five largest US tech companies by revenue — Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and IBM — and their associated venture arms. From 2012-2016, the top five US tech companies invested in 420 private companies, led by Google (Alphabet), which backed 333 startups through its various venture arms.

Breaking: Diligent, thoughtful company grows methodically

Last week, when it became apparent that Uber's culture was a turd wrapped in poo, a bunch of folks reached out to us asking why Silicon Valley doesn't care about HR or something of that ilk.

It's difficult/incorrect to paint all of Silicon Valley with a broad brush and bucket them with Uber or Zenefits before them. The reality is that companies with healthy cultures that build good products and make customers happy are boring AF. As my mom would say, there is no masala there.

When trying to figure out where culture issues are likely to crop up, I do think famous startup philosopher Startup L. Jackson may provide a good indicator of where to look.

Mobile World Congress 2017

With Mobile World Congress (MWC) going on this week in Barcelona, we analyzed which of the thousands of exhibitors at the annual event have the most momentum going into the show. Check out the ten companies you should be talking to at the conference.

For a full list of companies that will be present, check out the CB Insights MWC 2017 collection on our platform.

Enterprise knowledge management done right

We've launched a way for clients to collaborate within their teams as well as with their business units, startup founders, and other partners right on CB Insights.

Whether it is creating and discussing a market map or creating a workspace for diligence on a startup, Collections aka our CRM for Innovation is a game changer. You can learn more about how it gets you out of the email, PPT, and Excel collaboration nightmare here.

AI and the future of cybersecurity

We profiled the three AI cybersecurity companies that have all been acquired by big tech companies in the first two months of 2017. Invincea (featured below), provider of malware threat detection, was acquired by Sophos for $100M.

The Industry Standard

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

Bloomberg. Sarah McBride (@mcbridesg) on the state of the tech startup market with a reference to CB Insights investment data.

Forbes. Mike Montgomery (@mikemontgomery) writes about investor interest in agriculture technology and references CB Insights research on startups in the space.

San Francisco Chronicle. Thomas Lee (@bytomlee) reports on special charters for fintech firms that would allow the firms to be recognized as special-purpose banks and cites CB Insights investment data.

Livemint. Sayan Chakraborty writes about online freight aggregator Blackbuck's new round of financing and cites CB Insights data on investment to Indian startups.

Hope you had a terrific Tuesday.

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal

P.S. Last week, we released our 2016 Global CVC report. Next Thursday, we'll be diving deeper into the trends within the space during our Corporate Venture Capital briefing. Sign up here.

The Most Data

We tracked over 405 global financings this past week. Here are 5 of the most notable deals. Run this search to see them all. 

• Social Finance (SoFi), an online personal finance company, raised $500M in Series F financing. Investors in the round included GPI Capital, Silver Lake, and SoftBank Group.
• Ride hailing company Ola raised a $330M Series G. SoftBank Group was an investor in this round.
• CloudMinds, an AI and cloud computing company, raised a $100M Series A.
• BlackBuck, a freight operations company, raised a $30M Series C. Investors in the round included Accel Partners India, Sands Capital, and Flipkart.
• Peloton Technology, a connected and automated vehicle tech company, raised a $29.7M Series B from B37 Ventures and Intel Capital.

Renewable energy deals outside the United States

India has emerged as the leading country for renewable deals outside the United States since 2015. See the data.

 Big 5 tech companies' private market bets

While Google leads the US tech giants in equity investments, Microsoft and Amazon have increased their investment activity since 2015. Read about it.

 The companies to look out for at Mobile World Congress 2017

We used the CB Insights database to help you determine the companies to check out at Mobile World Congress. See the list.

 Three cybersecurity AI startups acquired by tech giants in 2017

Amazon and Hewlett Packard were among the acquirers. Read about it.

The Blurb

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

The future of IEX. Steven Bertoni (@stevenbertoni) writes about trading platform IEX Group and how it won stock exchange status from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Forbes

Don't play Slack-a-mole. Michael Muse (@michaelmuse) takes a quantified look at instant messaging and its productivity costs.

Medium

The era of mass customization. Reed Hastings (@reedhastings), CEO and co-founder of Netflix, shares details on how Netflix successfully disrupted itself.

a16z

There's no magic in venture-backed home care. Kyle Hill (@kaleazy) writes about the recent decision to halt all operations at his senior home care company, HomeHero.

Medium

The 5 jobs robots will take first. From jobs in middle management to journalism, Shelly Palmer (@shellypalmer) dives into the jobs that are threatened by robots.

Shelly Palmer

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