Hi there,
 

Last week, we ran a poll asking who you would back if they were starting their next company. 

This is assuming no PR blowback — the goal is simply to make $$$.

You, our smart capitalist newsletter readers, went for Frank Slootman (Snowflake CEO). Kevin Systrom (Instagram founder) came in 3rd.  

Results below.

IMO Frank Slootman is the real down-low assassin, with 3 tech IPOs under his belt. 

Just check out his CBI profile page. And yup — we now have people profiles, so you can track who was where, when. Create a CBI account here to see them for yourself.

Rolling in the dough

Q1’21 was the largest funding quarter on record for fintech, with 57 mega-rounds (100M+ deals) driving the boom.

From banking to real estate, see a breakdown of global investment trends across key financial verticals here. 

And don’t miss our upcoming State Of Fintech Q1’21 webinar, where we will dive into the trends and funding data highlighted in the report.

Stop, shop, and roll

Delivering a seamless shopping experience across online and offline channels is more important than ever, as digital devices shape in-store sales and consumer attention is dispersed.

Here are the technologies — including virtual clienteling, end-to-end visibility platforms, and more — pushing omnichannel retail forward.

Taking the heat

AI startups have raised nearly 12K equity deals since 2015.

We visualize deals to AI startups across 19 industries and 13 cross-industry applications in one heatmap here.

Telling it like it is

It’s time to separate hype from reality in the AI space. 

Join us tomorrow (May 5) for a walkthrough of the AI trends taking off and the companies to watch and why. 

Even if you can't make it, sign up anyway and we’ll send you the slides and recording after the webinar.

Bringing home the bacon

Trucking is one of the largest but least efficient industries in the US, with fragmentation leading to wasted capacity and unpredictable prices for shippers.

Clients can see our analysis of digital freight marketplaces in this ESP Vendor Assessment Matrix.

TechCrunch. Alex Wilhelm (@alex) and Anna Heim (@abracarioca) dig into the CB Insights State Of Fintech Q1’21 report.

Wall Street Journal. Brian Gormley and Isaac Taylor (@isctatlor1091) quote CB Insights senior analyst Marissa Schlueter (@mschlueter13) and cite CBI data in covering psychedelic investment trends. 

Bloomberg. John Tozzi (@jtozz) reports on Collective Health’s latest funding round and references the CB Insights State Of Healthcare Q1’21 report. 
 

P.S. Know a front-end engineer? Send them our job posting.

The Blurb

Collectibles. Toy company Hasbro is considering NFT opportunities for its brands like Magic: The Gathering and D&D. 

Polygon 

Out with the old. The designer of Microsoft’s default font Calibri is relieved that the company will be moving on to a new typeface.

WIRED

Car trouble. Rental car companies are buying used cars to rebuild their fleets amid a global microchip shortage.

Bloomberg 

Balancing act. Some white-collar women have started working part-time to balance the demands of work and motherhood.

The Atlantic

Up and away. The British Royal Navy has tested using suits equipped with jet packs to board ships.

The Verge