Hi there,

If there were a technology company hall of fame, who are the first 5 founders that should be inducted?

And you can't say Gates, Jobs, Bezos, Page, or Musk.

Who is on your list? 

United States of Weed

Pot brownies have a hotter, younger sibling: edibles that take after popular candy brands.

And big candy is not happy. 

Wrigley Company (owned by Mars Inc.) has filed lawsuits against companies offering products that look like Starburst, Life Savers, and Skittles, claiming IP rights — and that the copycats could lead people (especially children) to ingest drugs by accident.

Hershey Company and Mondelez International have settled similar lawsuits. 

Gotta say, the naming is pretty creative: Stoner Patch Dummies, Worlds Dankest Gushers, Trips Ahoy, etc.

And while we’re on the topic, you can check out the most well-funded cannabis startups by state here that we issued last year.

Coming in hot

Robinhood’s 2 mega-rounds totaling $3.4B drove wealth tech funding to a record $5.6B in Q1’21. 

From the retail investing boom to the rise of wealth management software, we dig into global wealth tech trends in our latest State Of Wealth Tech report.

Get movin’ 

We’re digging into all things transportation and mobility in our live webinar on June 9 at 2pm. Led by CB Insights lead analyst Rachel Binder, it’ll also cover the mobility SPAC boom.

Even if you can’t make it, sign up anyway and we’ll send you the good stuff afterward.

Heads up

In January 2021, nearly 40% of US adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, up from about 10% two years ago. 

From teletherapy platforms to meditation apps, we highlight 100+ mental health and wellness tech cos gaining traction in this market map. 

Connecting the dots

As more ad dollars shift to digital channels, marketing teams have been left to collect and connect data from a growing number of sources. 

Marketing attribution tech is helping companies navigate this complexity. Clients can check out our analysis of the leading vendors in the space in this report.

Launching point

Over 70 years after it came up with the term “skunk works,” Lockheed Martin has continued to drive rapid innovation through a combination of technology and customer focus. 

Read more about how Lockheed Martin is building the future of aerospace & defense here.

Wall Street Journal. Melanie Evans (@_melaevans) covers Google’s latest hospital partnership and quotes CB Insights principal analyst Jeffrey Becker (@BeckerJMB).

Business Insider. Alex Bitter (@abitterjourno) reports on Oatly’s IPO and references CB Insights research.

Bloomberg. Bloomberg News looks at chipmaker SigmaStar’s potential IPO and cites CB Insights data. 
 

I love you.
 

P.S. We’re hiring a senior analyst who is passionate about emerging trends in everything from D2C to digital marketing to smart home and fitness tech. Apply here.

Dancing to the beat. Rockstar Games, the creator of Grand Theft Auto, is launching a record label for dance music. 

Engadget 

The name is Bond. Amazon is buying MGM Studios — which has a library of over 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows — for $8.45B.

Protocol

Farm country. Warehouses are popping up across Pennsylvania, a trend driven by the e-commerce boom and the area’s proximity to NYC. 

NYT

Masterpieces. To reduce its almost $11B inheritance tax bill, the family behind Samsung is donating 23,000 works of art.

WSJ  

Missing dollars. Startups developing assistive tech for people with disabilities have seen growing adoption but have found it difficult to raise funding.

Rest of World