Hi there, 

Akon (yes, as in “Locked Up” and “Smack That”) is now the proud owner of a city in Senegal. 

It’s called — wait for it — Akon City.

Akon intends to make Akon City a sustainable tourist destination that will run on his own cryptocurrency, called Akoin.

Curious about what else is going on in Africa’s fintech scene? We look at  30+ startups serving the continent’s underbanked population here.

Gettin' up close and personal

L'Oreal debuted Perso, an AI-powered at-home beauty device that promises custom formulas, at CES this year.

We predicted the rise of evidence-based skin analysis (and more) in our Beauty Trends report. Check it out here.

Get in my belly

In the past week, CB Insights’ Instagram featured wisdom from several VCs including:

• Sequoia Capital’s Andrew Reed 

• Firstmark’s Matt Turck

• Saastr Fund’s Jason Lemkin

It also featured this image and an associated question, which generated lots of debate. Follow us on IG for more VC wisdom and beautiful photography.

It’s a hard knock life
 

Approximately 70% of tech startups fail, on average 20 months after first raising financing. RIP.

From drug flops to failed acquisitions, take a look at the latest startup failure post-mortems here.

Calling all Antarcticans 
 

Future of Fintech (June 14-16, SF) will have attendees from all of the continents in the world...except Antarctica, of course.

We’re super excited about the global audience and speakers, and you can meet with all of them using our 1:1 networking app. Last year 87% of attendees participated in networking and our top attendee had 54 (!) meetings.

Book your ticket now.

Chiming in the new year
 

Chime's $500M round set the record for the largest single equity investment in a challenger bank. 

We dig into its business model, customer acquisition strategy, and competition here.

Bloomberg. Tim Culpan (@tculpan) argues that Masayoshi Son should become an angel investor and references PwC and CB Insights’ Q4’19 MoneyTree report.

Forbes. Tom Groenfeldt (@Tomgroenfeldt) writes about the expansion of fintech services and cites CB Insights and Mastercard Start Path’s Fintech in 2020 report.

Business of Fashion. Chavie Lieber (@ChavieLieber) covers beauty brands' moves into at-home gadgets and quotes CB Insights intelligence analyst Kenya Watson.

P.S. Tomorrow, we'll be discussing how CVCs establish staying power. Register for the webinar here.

P.P.S. We're hiring a director of product. See the role here.

Mapping the human screenome. Just measuring screen time isn't enough to understand the impact of smartphones, researchers say.

Nature

We’ve come full cubicle. From robot-delivered lunches to instant walls, what could the office of tomorrow look like?

Wall Street Journal

Automating the recruiter. AI is being used to score video interviews. 

CNN

Our future is Black Mirror. A Chinese mother revived her dead daughter by turning her into an AI bot. 

ChinAI

Double tap. Here's how Instagram consumes its users. 

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