Hi there, 

The fintech industry is down, but not out. Deals hit another low, but funding is up compared to last quarter. There’s also been a flurry of IPO filings, including Lemonade, nCino, and SelectQuote.

One particular trend we've spotted is the growth of embedded fintech, i.e. the integration of financial products by non-financial companies, across countries and applications. 

Some of the biggest examples include e-commerce platform Shopify, which is growing out its merchant payments processing biz; Zillow, which is integrating fintech offerings like home loans and closing services into real estate; and SMB HR platform Gusto, which provides payday advances through its Cashout feature.

An 'unhackable' internet?

The US Department of Energy recently announced plans for building a national quantum internet. 

Read more about quantum tech in our quantum computing explainer. 

The power of good branding
 

Agree with these results?

All grown up

As fintech seed/angel rounds plunged to their lowest level since Q2'19, fintech mega-rounds hit a quarterly record of 28 in Q2'20. 

See which companies raised $100M+ rounds amid the pandemic and why in our latest State Of Fintech report.

Goodbye, office

In a step toward making remote work a permanent future, Google told its employees that they can work from home until July 2021.

From project management to productivity tools, we mapped out 65+ startups enabling the future of remote work here.

Beyond the hype

Skepticism around autonomous vehicles has been building as robotaxi services have failed to meet commercialization expectations.

Clients can read more here about how autonomous driving developers are taking different approaches to self-driving tech.

TechCrunch. Alex Wilhelm (@alex) uses the CB Insights State Of Fintech Q2’20 report to look at fintech startup funding trends. 

New York Times. The DealBook newsletter covers global venture capital deal activity and cites the PwC and CB Insights Q2 2020 MoneyTree report.  

Financial Times. Hannah Kuchler (@hannahkuchler) looks at healthcare startup funding amid the pandemic and mentions CB Insights data.

P.S. We’re looking for a customer-obsessed product manager. Check out the job specs here.
 

P.P.S. 86% of registered attendees for our upcoming fully virtual Future of Health conference are decision makers for their organizations. Save $300 on your ticket with code DM.

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Zoomed out. Some executives tired of Zoom (and looking for a creativity boost) are conducting business meetings in video games.

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Troubled waters. In 30 years, flooding caused by rising ocean levels could endanger 200M people. 

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Hotter wheels. Some people who grew up with Hot Wheels continue to build their collections, spending thousands on their favorite models.

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