Hi there, 

Today, we announced the acquisition of Blockdata, an Amsterdam-based technology and data company that untangles the blockchain economy.

With the acquisition, we now also have our first international office in beautiful Amsterdam, which we will be growing over the coming months.

Beyond the requisite great team, product, and data, what got us excited here were the signals we were observing that blockchain has now moved to the deployment phase.

In the last 8 months, we saw a material shift in the views of our financial institution, government, and enterprise clients about blockchain.

It went from something that was probable or possible to something practical.

With this shift, we also saw clients struggle with identifying the most credible use cases of blockchain and pinpointing the best companies and projects to work with.

Our aim with Blockdata is to help them drastically reduce the uncertainty, time, and effort it takes to go from technology discovery to decision.

If you’re a financial institution, central bank, or enterprise that needs help untangling the blockchain ecosystem, please check out Blockdata or reach out to me or our team.

Can't resist a sale

Apple has acquired the most out of the tech giants since the pandemic began, notching 8 acquisitions. In fact, Q2’20 ranked in the top 5 quarters for Apple purchases on record.

Take a look at all of big tech’s acquisitions since the start of the pandemic, and what it may mean for the companies here.

An apple a day...

The Apple Watch took the spotlight at Apple's big September product launch event, with a new blood oxygen-monitoring feature. 

The tech giant is ramping up its efforts to break into healthcare — using AI. We break down its healthcare AI strategy in this client-only report. 

Investor showdown

The upcoming Future of Health (September 23-25) will feature a select number of Digital Health 150 presentations. Three investors at a time will get the opportunity to put some of our winners — including Aetion, Firefly, Current Health, Kindbody, Protenus, and Alpha Health — in the hot seat. 

Featured investors include: Flare Capital Partners, Norwest, OurCrowd, Bain Capital Ventures, Plum Alley Investments, and Social Starts.

Save $300 with code hotseat and join us for this special showdown.

More than just Zoom University

Online learning is surging amid the pandemic. 

From language instruction to online exam proctors to curriculum planning, clients can read more about 5 ways education is adopting AI here.

YourStory. Tenzin Pema (@tenzin_pema) and Saheli Sen Gupta speak with CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal (@asanwal) about CB Insights’ acquisition of Blockdata.

EdSurge. Tony Wan (@tonywan) reports on ETS’ new edtech investment arm, quoting CB Insights analyst Kenya Watson and referencing CB Insights data.

CoinDesk. Ian Allison (@IanAllison123) covers CB Insights’ acquisition of Blockdata and quotes CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal (@asanwal).

P.S. Blockdata is our second deal in 2 months and comes soon after our acquisition of the assets of Dow Jones VentureSource in mid-July. If you know of industry or vertical data, research, or technology companies you think would be a good fit, we’re still aggressively looking. :)

P.P.S. The chief growth officer of Arrowhead Insurance Group will be joining us in our upcoming insurtech webinar. Register for it here.

Davy Jones’ server. Microsoft’s underwater data center experiment has resurfaced from the bottom of the Scottish sea. 

The Verge 

Catching the Love Bug. Twenty years after the Love Bug virus infected 45M machines worldwide, a journalist went looking for the man behind it.

WIRED

Changed tune. Guitar sales are booming, driven by young — and increasingly female — buyers.

NYT

StandardAIzed. New standards for AI clinical trials will ensure that medical AI research receives the same scrutiny as other medical interventions.

MIT Technology Review