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Pure Play AI Startups are Good Candidates for ‘Acquihire,’ not Outsized Returns

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Matt Wichrowski on Medium:

[Hypothesis:] Pure play AI and Machine Learning startups make poor VC investments because they tend to exit early, before achieving outsized returns.

To test this I examined CB Insights data on the 221 VC-backed AI/ML companies since January 2010 in search of answers to the following:

  1. How many AI/ML companies received early stage VC investment? (Seed or Series A)
  2. Of the companies that secured early stage funding, how many went on to secure growth/late stage VC investment? (Series B+)
  3. Of the companies that secured early stage funding, how many of these companies achieved an exit?
  4. Of these exits, how many were acquihires? (For the purposes of this analysis, I’ve defined an acquihire as an exit prior to raising Series B)

I then compared the AI/ML companies to those in other industry verticals: Social, Mobile, eCommerce, Mobile Commerce, Marketplaces, Payments and Entertainment…

Of the 221 AI/ML startups that received early stage investment, 21 (11.8%) achieved an exit. This 11.8% ratio was the highest across the selected sectors. Of those 21 exits, 15 took place before a growth investment meaning an “early-exit” rate of 8.4%. This too was highest among the compared sectors.

Many factors could be driving this. It’s clear there is an enormous demand for machine learning capabilities to be brought in-house and it’s far easier to buy top talent than build it from scratch. Alternatively, many AI/ML startups struggle to overcome the cold-start wall, which is the obstacle of gathering sufficient training data to teach an algorithm. Companies facing this challenge might be lured early on to large tech companies like Google and Baidu because of their enormous oceans of data.

…early exits at “lower” prices do have implications for the economics of VC investment. In order to make the types of returns that have a meaningful impact on their fund, VCs need to achieve higher ownership stakes at lower valuations. Looking back as far as 2000 only one AI acquisition broke $200M within a five-year window from Seed/Series A to exit: Google’s purchase of Deepmind. The majority of AI/ML exits were $100M or less in value. The conventional wisdom is that VCs must engage in “elephant hunting” — seeking out investments that, on their own, have the potential to return the fund. If this holds, then investing in pure play AI/ML startups might only make sense for micro VCs or angels.


Startups Disrupting the Hotel Industry

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CB Insights:

We used CB Insights data to highlight 52 startups threatening to peel away different niches and services currently occupied by the traditional hotel industry.

  • Hotel Booking – Startups like Hotel Urbano and Splendia are making it easier to find, compare, and book hotel stays. Some companies like HotelTonight provide customers with last-minute deals for unoccupied hotel rooms, while ByHours.com allows you to rent hotel spaces for hourly amounts as opposed to full days.
  • Alternative Lodging – One of the newest growing industries is alternative staying, allowing people to book rooms in existing apartments, vacation homes, etc. AirBnB is the most well-funded in this space.
  • Concierge Services – These are startups attending to your requests, much like a hotel concierge does for guests. Startups like Magic and Operator use a text-based interface to handle your needs, while HeadOut gives you recommendations and deals for cities you’re travelling to.
  • Events/Meetings – Hotels are common places for events to be held, but startups likeeVenues are making it easy to price-compare event venues, while companies likeBreather provide pay-by-the-hour temporary office spaces and meeting rooms.
  • Weddings – Many weddings utilize hotel spaces/services for their special day. These are startups that are helping people choose their venues/vendors.
  • Budget Hotel Networks – Companies like OYO Rooms and Treebo Hotels aggregate small motels and hotels, certify them for quality and standards, and market the resulting network of rooms under their own brand.

The Next Billion-Dollar Startup: CB Insights’ Anand Sanwal at DEMO (Video)

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In a DEMO Traction presentation titled “It’s Definitely a Bubble. Maybe,” Anand Sanwal, founder and CEO of CB Insights (aspiring to be the “Bloomberg of private companies” in his words), talk about startup valuations, how fast the billion-dollar startup club is growing, and which startups might fill its ranks next. A the time of his presentation, there were 133 “Unicorns” (startups values at at least $1 billion) with a combined valuation of $492 billion, but Snawal notes that this represents less than 5% of the total worth of the shares listed on NASDAQ.
 

The Rush to Deliver Meals to Our Homes

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CB Insights:

Food delivery is starting to get a little crowded. One-third of the companies in the food-delivery industry received their first round of funding in just the last year. Traditional VCs, celebrity chefs, and high-profile angel investors have all invested in these startups focused on making at-home dining as convenient as possible.

Successes like Blue Apron ($2B valuation), DoorDash ($600M), Postmates ($400M), and Munchery ($300M), have quickly reached big valuations, encouraging even more new competitors.

To date, 25 US-based companies are following the same two basic business models: delivering either prepared meals or “cooking boxes,” with ingredients and instructions. We plotted each of these companies’ first funding round on a timeline, starting with Postmates and Gobble, which each raised in May 2011, and ending with Green Chef, which raised a $15.5M round of financing in April from New Enterprise Associates and others.

Bubblelicious: Venture Capital Deals Surge to $37B in Q3 2015, 23 New Unicorns

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Venture capital-backed companies raised more than $37B in Q3 2015 across 1,799 deals globally.

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Q3’15 saw 23 new billion-dollar private companies compared to just 12 in the same quarter a year earlier. North America led all continents with 17 new unicorns created in Q3’15.

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After a high of $56.5B in 2014, the first three quarters of 2015 already saw $57.9B invested into US startups. While more dollars are being deployed in the US, deal activity looks to come in closer to 2013 levels at the current run rate.

Source: KPMG CB Insights Global Venture Capital Report Q3 2015

Listen to the Planet Money podcast about three bubbly barometers that some say signal a coming bust.

http://www.npr.org/player/embed/447249562/447299265
A herd of unicorns — startups valued at over $1 billion — are gathering in the Bay Area. Uber, Airbnb, Palantir… It’s not often in human history that so much wealth has grown so quickly in one place.

There is a boom on. But economists say you can’t call it a bubble till… well, until it goes POP.

Source: Planet Money

The Startup Unicorn Explosion (Infographic)

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CB Insights:

We looked at all still-private unicorns since 2011 and charted them based on when they first joined the unicorn club. While initially the chart shows unicorns being created at a relatively calm pace, the rhythm accelerates noticeably in late 2013 (right around the time Aileen Lee wrote her famous post coining the term unicorn in November 2013). Since then, there has been an explosion in unicorn creation, with over 60 new unicorns in 2015 alone.

See also The Unicorn List (updated in real-time)

41 Tech Startups Disrupting The Car Industry

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CB Insights:

Connected Car

One of the more popular categories for consumer-focused auto tech startups is the connected car, in which companies exploit car data and cloud software to allow drivers and third-party services insights into driving habits, car usage, and maintenance metrics. Companies like Zubie and Automatic market devices that capture data and allow drivers to track and improve driving habits, paired with an API for third-party services built on top of the device and software. Metromile is using data from your car to create a new type of “per-mile” usage-based auto insurance.

Fleet Telematics

Fleet telematics caught on relatively early as a hot category for auto tech startups. Companies like Telogis (first funded in 2009), Greenroad (which received a Series B in 2005), and Vnomics use installed hardware — and more recently, sometimes, smartphones — to capture data about the driving habits and fuel efficiency of truck drivers. Since trucks typically transport asset-intensive goods, businesses are highly incentivized to use products like these to improve savings and manage their inventory. Most of these installed systems transmit and organize data about fleets, provide in-vehicle coaching, and notes to drivers, and also handle billing for transport as part of a suite of offerings.

Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication allows cars to make decisions based on their surroundings and context, including distance, speed, and directional movement of other vehicles, underpinning self-driving and safety applications but also traffic management and driving efficiency use cases. Autotalks and Cohda Wireless market suites of hardware and software solutions for vehicle-to-vehicle communication (as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure communication). And Peloton deploys this technology primarily in trucks, which would theoretically allow self-driving trucks to travel in close “platoons,” and reduce the need for constant driver control.

Vehicle Cybersecurity

Vehicle cybersecurity is a small but emerging field. As more cars become connected to the cloud and infrastructure and other vehicles, more possible entry points exist that need to be protected against hackers’ exploits. Argus, which has raised $30M, is a cybersecurity company specifically focused on automobiles. Towersec aims to protect not just the vehicle itself, but also any telematics and any in-vehicle infotainment as well.

Driver-Safety Tools

Driver safety and collision-prevention are among the most important immediate applications auto tech is attacking. Insurance companies are particularly interested in this category. Various approaches exist: Navdy is using heads-up projections to display relevant information so that drivers don’t look at their smartphones while driving; Cambridge Mobile Telematics analyzes your driving habits using your smartphone, and provides coaching/analytics on how to improve; and Lytx uses dashcam technology to provide feedback based on visual cues, combined with driving habits.

Driver Assistance/Automated Car

These companies are using networks of sensors and powerful software to provide driver-assistance features. While companies like Cruise are retrofitting older cars, Robot of Everything has an entire lab dedicated to improving the different facets of automated driving in their “robocars.” It’s not just cars, RoboCV is working to automate warehouse vehicles, which navigate in smaller, more constrained spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

Financial Services Firms are Rushing to Invest in Bitcoin and Blockchain Startups

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CB Insights:

A relatively small number of startups have captured the large majority of financial services investments in the bitcoin and blockchain space. For example, four firms – Coinbase, Chain, Digital Currency Group, and Ripple – count 14 first investments by financial services firms in the space.

Wall Street Journal:

Banks feel the heat on their necks as fintech companies and nontraditional competitors angle to get into the financial services business. Discussion about blockchain technology and virtually unregulated emerging companies permeated The Clearing House annual conference Tuesday. The three-day event gathers bankers, lawyers and other financial services professionals to contemplate, and rub worry beads over, issues of the day.

Blockchain continues to throw bankers for a loop. Everyone’s experimenting – even the Bank of England has indicated an interest in digital currency based on the technology — and no one appears sure where it may lead. In the last year, venture capitalists have funneled more than $1 billion into companies working on blockchain projects, said Bart Cant, a principal at Capgemini Financial Services NA.

“Organizations from small startups to larger companies to governments – it’s clear blockchain is posing serious disruption to current business models,” Mr. Cant said.

Blockchain buzz is growing. The momentum is there, said Cheryl Gurz, managing director of emerging technologies at Bank of New York Mellon Corp, speaking on a panel. “New vendors and fintech companies are coming at us all the time. Why blockchain? I can’t answer it yet.”

One use with potentially big payoff would be for banks to gradually adopt blockchain ledgers gradually, as replacements for internal software that comes due for upgrades, said Blythe Masters, fellow panelist and CEO of Digital Asset Holdings LLC, which makes settlement and recording technology. Ms. Masters, in the late 1990s, helped develop the credit-default swap while at JPMorgan Chase.

Ms. Gurz wanted to hear more about that. “You’re saying IT guys should be giving us an option to pick blockchain” when upgrading or changing systems, she asked Ms. Masters, who confirmed that’s indeed what she meant.

John Collins, head of policy at Coinbase, a bitcoin-related startup, laid it plain: “Technology has disrupted all the unregulated industries and now it’s moving on to the regulated ones.”

Regulation dominated conference talk. Charles Horn, a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP who specializes in technology legal issues, noted that banks are well-versed in compliance and have clear rules to follow at the federal level. But emerging financial companies don’t. The lack of coherent regulation presents challenges in consumer privacy and protection, he said.

Mr. Horn advised consumers and companies alike to get real about privacy in the online age. That is, practice doubt. “Even for apps that say they don’t collect data, they can’t avoid it.” To avoid compliance and security trouble, he said, the tack all companies should take, whether heavily regulated or not, is to treat all data as sensitive and manage it closely.

See also The Landscape of Blockchain Companies in Financial Services


Data Is the New…?

Domo is the Most Undervalued Unicorn, Crowd Says

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The readers of CB Insights answered the question Who is the Most Undervalued Unicorn, choosing Domo over Airbnb in the final round.

 

Who’s Investing in the Internet of Things (IoT)?

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CB Insights:

Many corporate investors and smart money VCs have placed significant bets on the Internet of Things industry, which is expected to see nearly $2B in funding through the end of 2015… Intel Capital tops the list as the most active investor in IoT startups, followed by Qualcomm Ventures. Both small-chip companies’ venture arms have been active investors in wearables startups and sensor companies… The third-most active investor was Foundry Group, the Boulder, Colorado-based early-stage venture fund. Foundry Group has made multiple bets on IoT-related hardware investments: Fitbit, LittleBits, and MakerBot.

The IoT Startup Landscape (Infographic)

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CB Insights:

Wearables

A category of wrist, body, and head-mounted devices that we have previously looked into. Most of the companies in this subset of IoT are makers of consumer fitness bands and smart watches. Other products in this area include more specialized infant wearables (Owlet and Sproutling), smart apparel made by Lumo and OMsignal, as well as advanced biometric sensors like Thync‘s mood-elevating head-mounted wearable.

Connected Home

The connected home category encompasses everyday devices such as August and Lockitron‘s connected door locks, and Ring‘s doorbell system.

Infrastructure and Sensors

Companies here are are building out the networks and developing physical sensors that will undergird the Internet of Things. mCube and Valencell are sensor developers, and Ineda Systems makes SoCs (systems-on-a-chip) for IoT and wearable applications. Jasper and Arrayent provide cloud-based platforms for storing and harnessing the data from connected networks.

Healthcare

IoT startups in the healthcare space range from consumer-friendly tech like Kinsa‘s smart thermometer, all the way to clinical-grade sensors such as Quanttus‘ wearable patient monitor.

Smart Utilities & Energy

Startups in this map area develop tech that enables more efficient use of water and electricity. Rachio and Banyan Water, for instance, make systems for water and irrigation usage. Companies like Enlighted use connected hardware for optimizing electricity and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) usage.

Industrial IoT (IIoT)

A fast-growing subspace of the IoT, the industrial IoT aims to create networks that are tailored to asset-heavy industries such as manufacturing, logistics, mining, and agriculture. Tachyus and GroundMetrics, for example, make sensor systems for the oil and gas industry. Similarly, Worldsensing and Eigen Innovations offer data solutions tailored to heavy industry.

UAV / Drone

As they grow increasingly autonomous, drones will provide new and complementary sources of data to IoT-powered systems. Skycatch, for example, employs UAVs to capture data for the rendering of construction sites in 3D. Consumer drones like those manufactured by DJI Innovations3D Robotics, and Yuneec were also well-represented.

Connected Car

The connected car category is a large space in its own right that we’ve detailed in greater depth, but notable startups like Metromile are using the IoT to transform car insurance by creating a new type of “per-mile” usage-based insurance premium. Other companies like Zubie and Automatic market devices that capture data and allow drivers to track and improve driving habits along with APIs for third-party services built on top of the device and software.

Retail Tech

Startups here are using connected devices to improve the retail experience. Estimote and Cloudtags use connected sensors and mobile apps for a more interactive shopping experience. Theatro makes an enterprise wearable for retail and hospitality workers. And Momentum Machines is developing robots to automate food production.

 

News Readers Startups: Funding, Acquisitions, Shutdowns

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CB Insights:

Promising to package and deliver news in fundamentally different ways than traditional print media, news reader apps quickly captured the imagination and dollars of venture capital investors — to the tune of more than $300M.

Now, many of those venture-backed news readers have either been acquired, shuttered, or both. With that in mind, we decided to visualize the rise and fall of venture-backed news reader apps.

Specifically, we looked at the wave of venture financing deals into the news reader space since January 2010 – and the subsequent rash of acquisitions or shutdowns that began in 2013.

[2015] alone saw a flurry of news reader app acquisitions or closures including Circa, Reverb, Zite, and Prismatic. Flipboard, the most well-capitalized of the bunch with a valuation of $800M in its 2013 fundraise, disclosed a new $50M round from JPMorgan in July. Flipboard has been the subject of acquisition rumors which have stalled and has also seen executive departures (as reported by Adam Satariano of Bloomberg).

On the flipside, Nuzzel which has been suggested by Lowercase Capital’s Chris Sacca as a good acquisition target for Twitter has seen recent momentum.  It was highlighted by CB Insights last spring after analysis of Twitter highlighted the apps momentum.

Also of note in the space is Feedly which is self-funded and which is reported to have 12 million+ users (as of May 2013).

90 Startups Changing How We Travel

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CB Insights:

Travel tech startups have been seeing considerable momentum, raising $5.2B in funding through 12/21/15. Startups in the travel tech space are making it easier to fly, tour, find lodging, and much more.

The breakdown is as follows:

  • Booking/Search: This was the largest category in our market map and includes startups like Momondo Group and Brazil-based HotelUrbano, which are making it easier to find, compare, and book hotels and flights. 
  • Alternative Lodging: Startups in this category include the high-flying $25.5B unicorn AirBnB, among others. Companies in this part of the map are allowing people to book rooms in privately owned apartments and vacation homes.
  • Budget Hotel Networks: Companies like OYO Rooms and Treebo Hotels aggregate small motels and hotels, certify them for quality and standards, and market the resulting network of rooms under their own brand.
  • Customized Holidays: Companies in this category includes TravelBird, which offers vacation packages at convenient prices.
  • Travel Tech Software: Included are software companies like Switchflythat offer customer engagement tools catering specifically to companies in the travel industry.
  • Activities, Events, & Touring: Zerve and other startups focus on tours and activities that consumers pay for while on vacation.
  • Private Jet Booking: Companies like Victor and BlackJet are making it easy for everyday consumers to book seats on private jets.

56 Startups Disrupting the Industrial IoT

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CB Insights:

We mapped the startup landscape into 9 major categories:

Manufacturing & Supply Chain

These companies are using connected objects to enhance data collection in manufacturing and in the supply chain. These companies include CargoSense‘s connected black boxes for detecting the movement of containers as they are shipped. Also included here are manufacturing robots like Momentum Machines and Rethink Robotics, along with warehouse robots like RoboCV.

Extraction & Heavy Industry

This section encompasses sensor platforms designed for use in hard-hat environments like the oil and gas, mining, and construction industries. Some startups are focused on specific verticals. Groundsensing (locating wells), Tachyus (extracting oil and gas), and Aptomar (spill safety) make sensor networks for oil and gas production. And Skycatch employs UAVs to capture data for the rendering of construction sites in 3D.

Network Infrastructure & Sensor Developers

Companies here are are building out the networks and developing the physical sensors that will undergird the IIoT as a whole. Samsara and DorsaVi develop industrial-grade sensors for a variety of applications including fleet management, machines, energy, and industrial wearables. Others like SigFox have built out the wireless networking for the IIoT.

Utilities & Smart Grid

Startups in this area develop tech that enables more efficient distribution of electricity, gas and water, and often market to utility companies. Trilliant,Tendril, and BluePillar are smart-meter enabled solutions for utilities and large enterprises to manage usage and reporting.

Cloud Platforms

Cloud vendors here commonly market themselves as platforms-as-a-service (PaaS) companies that allow other IoT and IIoT companies to manage and maintain their device networks. Meshify and TempoIQ are examples here.

Big Data Analytics & Machine Learning SaaS

Big data software-as-a-service companies, or machine learning technology, allows companies to find insights and derive predictive analytics such as when machines will need maintenance.

Transportation & Fleet

Startups in this category are changing the landscape for connected vehicle fleets. Telogis and Greenroad, for example, develop fleet-tracking platforms using telematics data from large trucks. Others like Metromile are changing fleet insurance by using connected hardware to prorate insurance by mileage, a technology that is already being deployed to insure Uber drivers.

IIoT Cybersecurity

This category includes startups that are focusing on the large task of securing connected industrial IoT applications from cyberattack. The IIoT has already suffered serious hacks; a German steel mill suffered “massive damages” after hackers accessed a blast furnace that workers could not properly shut down.Bastille is one of several startups in the space.

 

 

 


102 Startups Digitally Disrupting Banking

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CB Insights:

Digital banking startups have secured more than $10.3B in funding since 2010, as they disrupt the banking value chain, providing consumers with new alternatives for services traditionally dominated by consumer banks, including lending, bill pay, personal finance, and investment management.

The breakdown of the categories is as follows:

  • Marketplace Lending: Tech startups primarily providing platforms for consumer borrowers to connect with willing lenders. These are often referred to as peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders, though institutions also provide capital on many of these marketplaces.
  • Direct Lending & Underwriting: Companies primarily lending directly online and/or facilitating consumer access to credit scoring, often using machine learning technologies and other nontraditional methods to assess creditworthiness.
  • Online/Mobile Banking: Startups providing digital-native banking deposit and account solutions, either online or through various mobile platforms.
  • Personal Finance: Tech startups offering tools and advice to manage personal accounts, expenses, budgeting, and personal financial planning.
  • Bill Pay / Money Transfer: Startups enabling individuals to transfer money to peers and pay bills, often across international borders.
  • Investment Management: A broad category encompassing companies serving retail investors with automated, social, or other novel investment vehicles and advice. These startups may also offer retail investors alternative ways to access securities beyond large traditional brokerages. Some, like Personal Capital, pair algorithmically-driven advice and portfolio management with human advice.
  • Robo-advisor: Investment management startups that focus exclusively on providing fully automated, algorithm-driven investments.

Virtual/Augmented Reality: Commercial and industrial applications account for most deals

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CB Insights:

The number of VR/AR startups is increasing as venture capital dollars continue to flood in, with investment reaching an all time high in 2015 of $658M in equity funding across 126 deals, according to CB Insights data. Even as VR/AR startups launch, larger corporates are developing VR/AR-related businesses, products, and investing in the space…

VR/AR categories

Commercial and industrial applications

The companies in this category will advance productivity in an enterprise setting through enhanced visualization. Commercial and Industrial applications of VR/AR include marketing technology, sports training, labor training, retail, interior design, real estate, transactions, aerospace/defense, security, quality testing, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and data analytics.

Content 

Pure content studios and agencies that create VR/AR content such as bonus movie or TV show content and journalistic content. This category also includes gaming and education. There are a number of companies that resemble production houses, advertising agencies or VR “work-for-hire” shops that produce VR/AR experiences for their clients. Some of these companies have started off as pure content creators and have later also become distributors.

  • Education 

These companies provide learning and education for people whether it is for the classroom, corporate learning management, or certifications. The education software market will see innovation through immersive learning enabled by VR/AR.

  • Gaming

Gaming is of the more obvious and near-term use cases for VR/AR. Popular first person shooters such as Wolfenstein 3D, Halo, and massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) such as Everquest and World of Warcraft were popular video games that immersed gamers in alternate visually appealing environments (for their time) and enabled interaction with bots and other players. New VR games coming out will advance that immersive experience, once confined by a screen.

Discovery & Distribution

These companies provide a destination to search and discover VR/AR content and apps. Some of them have created their own content to seed their platforms while some of the content companies have added discovery and distribution as part of their offering, as noted above.

Social

Companies in this category allow for social, collaboration and communication within the medium. I’ve seen companies here provide virtual meeting environments and chat rooms where the user is represented in a virtual environment with an avatar.

Hardware

Hardware includes head mounted displays (HMDs), mobile HMDs, other mixed reality displays, cameras and capture technology, accessories and input devices, and specialty lenses. After Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus, it is interesting to see other companies’ involvement with HMDs: Google’s investment in Magic Leap, HTC’s Vive,  Samsung’s collaboration with Oculus on the GearVR, Sony’s PlayStation VR, and Fox’s recent investment in Osterhout Design Group.

Infrastructure & Tools

This category captures a lot of different types of companies, but in essence these companies (aside from the headsets and mobile devices) provide the backbone, piping, delivery, building blocks, or creation software for VR/AR. I consider this category to encompass creation tools, dev tools, gaming engines, SDKs, gesture & motion tracking, haptic feedback technology, WebVR, encoding, and live-streaming tools. Companies in this space are solving the technology limitations for great VR/AR experiences (such as high quality delivery, VR/AR asset transfer, and the challenges of “presence”).

Funding Data

The top funded categories were hardware, followed by infrastructure and tools, commercial/industrial applications, and content. The least funded category is discovery and distribution.

 

 

63 Fintech Startups Targeting Millennials

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CB Insights:

Fintech startups prominent in the millennial demographic range include “robo-advisors” offering low-cost alternatives to brokerages, to lending firms innovating in credit risk, and stock-picking and automated savings apps.

Many of the fintech startups are leveraging existing technologies already popular among young adults such as social networks and mobile messaging. Project crowdfunding sites GoFundMe and Andreessen Horowitz-backed Tilt, for example, mirror or take advantage of social networks and are largely popular among college audiences. Google Ventures and General Catalyst-backed HelloDigit transfers money directly via text message.

32 Artificial Intelligence Startups In Healthcare

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CB Insights:

We identified 32 companies that are already applying machine learning techniques and predictive analytics to reduce drug discovery times, provide virtual assistance to patients, and diagnose ailments by processing medical images, among other things.

The 32 startups on the list have raised more than $530M in aggregate funding.

This year, New York-based AiCure raised $12.3M in Series A funding and National Science Foundation-grantee Cloud Pharmaceuticals raised a $350K round from undisclosed investors. London-based health services startup, Babylon Health, raised a $25M Series A round from investors including Google-owned DeepMind Technologies and Hoxton Ventures. The company will reportedly roll out a Siri-like voice recognition interface this year.

Smart money investor Khosla Ventures has backed 5 of the companies on the list: California-based Ginger.io, which focuses on patients with depression and anxiety; healthcare analytics platform Lumiata; California-based MetaMind and Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision, both of which apply AI to medical imaging; as well as drug discovery startup Atomwise.

The most well-funded startup on the list, Colorado-based health optimization platform WellTok, has collaborated with IBM’s Watson to provide personalized healthcare guidance to consumers.

Patient-monitoring startup, California-based Sense.ly, developed a virtual nursing assistant, Molly, to follow up with patients post-discharge. The company claims Molly gives clinicians “20% of their day back.” In drug discovery, startups like Atomwise, Numerate, and twoXAR are using machine learning to reduce the amount of time and capital involved in uncovering new therapies.

 

 

The Tech Landscape in India

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CB Insights:

To visualize the depth and breadth of India’s tech scene, we used CB Insights data and analytics to create a periodic table of tech in India, focused on startups and VC. The table above covers venture capital investors, accelerators, and angel investors. It also lists funded private companies in select industry categories that are particularly prominent in India, along with notable exits of India-based private companies.

 

 

 

 

 

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