Hi there,

My best <$100 purchase of the last year has been YouTube Premium. No commercials on YT is a game changer, especially given how much interesting content it has. Below are some recent videos I liked, but first…B A N A N A S.

Yes — corporate venture went bananas in 2021.

The year saw 221 new CVCs, up 53% YoY. 

Companies launching their first fund and the rise of more focused funds (like on sustainability) drove growth.

Examples include CVS Health, which launched a $100M fund, and Circle, which created a fund to invest in early-stage blockchain startups.

At the same time, global CVC-backed funding more than doubled to reach a record $169.3B in 2021. Silicon Valley captured $35B of this (you guessed it — a new record). 

Dig into the regions, sectors, and companies attracting corporate venture $$$ here.

Blockchain 50

The Blockchain 50 — our ranking of the 50 most promising blockchain and crypto companies in the world — is here.

This year’s winners were selected from a pool of over 3,000 companies. Highlights include: 

• The winners are based in 15 countries, with 44% of the companies based outside of the US.

• The top blockchain category by number of winners is infrastructure & development.

• Coinbase Ventures is the top investor in this year’s Blockchain 50, with 16 of the 50 companies in its portfolio.

Get the list of companies here.

Special delivery

FedEx operates the world’s largest all-cargo airfleet, which connects over 99% of the world’s GDP. 

But to keep up with competitors like UPS, USPS, and Amazon, FedEx is turning to new tech solutions.
 

From e-commerce fulfillment to warehouse automation, we mined FedEx’s acquisitions, investments, and partnerships to discern the company's strategic priorities.

Vids worth watching

Alright, here are some of my favorite YT videos. I hope I’ve not perpetrated any thought crimes by sharing these. Some have salty language.

Lex Fridman’s conversation with Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck is pretty thoughtful and reasonable in this. I particularly liked his answer to how he feels not being liked. He doesn’t get all emo about it. He just acknowledges that it’s part of the job. It reminded me of the quote by coach Nick Saban: “If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader; sell ice cream.” 

Art Williams Just Do It. Just a great one to get pumped up.

Peter Thiel’s Competition is for Losers. Thiel’s clarity of thinking and thoughts on competition are great in this Stanford University presentation. “You always want to aim for monopoly.”

Hope you like them. LMK what you think.

The complete package

With consumer and regulatory pressure increasing, corporates are taking action to fund, test, and implement more sustainable packaging options. 

Coca-Cola, for example, aims to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of its own packaging by 2030. 

We analyzed top CPG companies’ activity to identify which sustainable packaging solutions are gaining the most traction here.

CNBC. Hugh Son (@Hugh_Son) discusses JPMorgan’s new fintech project and references CB Insights data.

Modern Retail. Maria Monteros (@MariaMonteros_) quotes CB Insights Managing Analyst Rachel Binder and cites CBI research in her coverage of retail investment in automation.

Barron’s. Luisa Beltran (@LuisaRBeltran) reports on the IPO market and references CB Insights data.
 

P.S. Get extra analysis on the state of fintech in our live webinar on Thursday. Register here.