Hi there,

In 2014, CB Insights had < 30 employees. We’re about to cross 300 and have only raised $10M (from back in 2015 — and all of it is still in the bank). 

Last year, we averaged 10+ new hires a month. This year, we made Built In NYC’s 2020 Best Places to Work. 

We’ve come a long way since our early days, as you can see from our old logo. Surprise: that’s what the "CB" in CB Insights stands for. 

(By the way, if you’re hard working, helpful, humble, and have high standards — we’re still hiring.)

Retail-as-a-service 
 

Funding to companies driving physical retail productivity, improving supply chain efficiency, and personalizing the in-store experience increased in 2019.

Check out more trends in our state of retail tech report here. 

Let me be direct

In our 2020 Tech IPO Pipeline predictions, we said Asana would go public.

We were right.  

Its intention is to go public via direct listing, so we wanted to see if big bank chatter about direct listings has intensified on earnings calls. 

It has increased (albeit off a low base), with 17 mentions of direct listings in Q4'19.  

Of the banks, Goldman Sachs has been mentioning direct listings the most on earnings calls. To check out our earnings transcript search engine, log in or sign up for a free trial here.

Euro-corns
 

The top-funded startup in Europe is UK-based global communications co OneWeb. It’s raised nearly $3.5B to date. 

See the rest of the top-funded startups in Europe here.

Billions and billions

The Future of Fintech (June 14-16) will feature 125+ speakers, including 2 companies that were just acquired for jaw-dropping amounts:

• President of Honey (acquired by PayPal for $4B) 

• CEO & Co-founder of Plaid (acquired by Visa for $5.3B)

We look forward to learning more about their journeys. Register for FoF today and save with code billions.

All ticket prices go up on February 15, but don't worry — not by billions.

Bold and brash

Paypal isn't being shy about its M&A strategy. According to the CFO, it allocates ~$3B for acquisitions a year.  

Clients can read more here about how PayPal is using M&A to expand into e-commerce and loyalty. 

CNBC. Cory Stieg (@corystieg) reports on wellness trend predictions for 2020 and uses CB Insights data.

Fortune. Jeff Roberts (@jeffjohnroberts) covers Lightning Labs’ $10M series A and quotes CB Insights analyst Alex Kern (@AlexKernA). 

P.S. How does your VC or corp VC manage dealflow? In a spreadsheet? C’mon. Check this out.

Be my friend? 80%+ of Gen Z workers say they feel lonely at work. 

Wall Street Journal

Spirit Airlines it is. It’s getting more difficult to find a good travel deal online, thanks to ultra-fast pricing algorithms.

New York Times

A puzzling question. Instagram is making jigsaw puzzles cool again.

MIT Technology Review
 

Margins