Hi there, 

Here is this week in charts.

Do you still believe in magic? Amid the fintech venture funding decline, new fintech unicorn births fell throughout 2022 to hit 5 in Q4’22 — down 87% from Q4’21. This brought annual births to 69 in 2022, marking a 58% drop from 2021. Despite the drop, this still stands as the sector’s second-highest annual birth count on record. Dive deeper into the downturn and related funding trends in our State of Fintech 2022 Report.

Ready to go. Take-out ordering jumped during the first year of the pandemic. Ninety percent of fast food orders were taken to go in 2020, up from 77% the previous year. This increase was even more pronounced among full-service restaurants, which saw take-out order share rise from 19% to 47%. While take-out demand has fallen since the first year of the pandemic, it remains markedly elevated. Food and beverage chains like McDonald’s and Chipotle are already updating restaurants and drive-throughs as well as exploring entirely new formats to take advantage of the heightened demand.

Early birds. With investors gravitating toward smaller deals, early-stage deals saw increased attention from corporate VC investors last year. Early-stage CVC deal share increased 7 percentage points year-over-year to reach a record high in 2022. This occurred in the face of increased capital costs and a drop in exit activity from 2021’s levels. Dive deeper into CVC activity in our State of CVC 2022 Report.

Midlife crisis. Midlife individuals in the US experience lower life satisfaction than their younger and retirement-age counterparts, regardless of marital status. It is unclear whether this lower level of satisfaction is unique to the present midlife cohort and will carry with them as they age — or if this lower level of satisfaction will remain associated with those entering and living through their mid-forties.

Anarchy. Fun fact: 30% > 37%. 

I love you. 

Anand

@asanwal

P.S. Did you get a chance to dive into our top retail tech predictions for 2023? If not, request the webinar recording today.

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