Hi there, 

There are now 600+ unicorns valued at a collective $2+ trillion.  

Rejoice!

Keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming market map of every unicorn, from Stripe to SpaceX to Instacart.

Leaving the forest

Robinhood has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO.

We dig deep into the trading app’s business model in our report on How Robinhood Makes Money. Check it out here.

Up for the challenge

Funding to Latin American challenger banks reached a record $1.2B in 2020, a 55% increase from 2019. 

Here are the top-line bullets clients need to know about how the digital banking landscape in the region is evolving.

A closer look

We're excited to announce the 4 demo companies in Geospatial Analytics at CB Insights Tech Market: Digitizing P&C Insurance (May 13-14). This category will showcase tech using geospatial and satellite images to improve loss avoidance, mitigation, and settlement.
 

The 4 presenting companies are:

Prior to the company demos, Mike Fitzgerald, principal insurance analyst at CB Insights, will provide an overview on the field. After the demos, you’ll have a chance to join all 4 of the presenting co-founder/CEOs for a small group Q&A.
 

In the coming weeks we’ll share all 25 presenting companies across our 6 main topics. 
 

Don’t miss out. Save $50 with code GeospatialA.

Automation station
 

Insurers’ internal operations include many repetitive tasks built on legacy code that is difficult to change. Robotic process automation (RPA) is providing a workaround.

Clients can dig into 9 vendors helping P&C insurers automate tedious processes in this ESP Vendor Assessment Matrix.

Wall Street Journal. Paul Vigna (@paulvigna) reports on Blockchain.com’s $300M raise and references CB Insights data. 

Bloomberg. John Tozzi (@jtozz) covers Evidation Health’s latest financing round and cites the CB Insights State Of Healthcare report.  

STAT. Erin Brodwin (@erbrod) discusses Uber’s moves in prescription delivery and quotes CB Insights research.

P.S. You can now get direct access to CB Insights data. See the details on our API and data feeds here. 

P.P.S. Our friends at the National Science Foundation are hiring a program director of small business innovation. Check out the job posting here.

P.P.P.S. I know 3 P.S.’s is absurd, but it’s worth noting that all 600+ unicorns are collectively worth the same as Apple. Wild.

The Blurb

BookTok. Emotional book reviews on TikTok are influencing best-seller lists and catching the eye of publishers. 

NYT 

Hijacked. Some smartphones in India are being sold on loan with software that locks users out if they get behind on payments. 

Rest of World 

Homebodies. There were more realtors than homes for sale in the US in January amid a hot housing market.

WSJ

Night owls. Bedtime procrastination — when you stay up later than you know you should — is a well-researched phenomenon.

WIRED

Glass ceiling. Professional female gamers in China are facing down gender discrimination and lack of opportunity.

Protocol