Hi there, 

Here’s another Request for Startup idea: A way to back people who are not currently entrepreneurs just because you believe they’ll eventually do something big.

You’d invest to get access to or a piece of what they might build in the future, but at the time of investment, you have no idea what they might build. 

Pre-idea investing, I guess?  

For example, French entrepreneur Alex Masmej announced in March 2020 that he would tokenize himself to fund his entrepreneurial activities. 

Dror Poleg’s excellent piece (see The Blurb below) digs into how this experimental type of risk-sharing — through issuing personal tokens — could become the future of work, as technology makes more occupations scalable. 

Anyone else doing something like this?

Up and to the right 

Retail tech funding hit a record high of $31.5B in Q2’21 — triple the amount from Q2’20. 

Check out our free State Of Retail Tech Q2’21 report to see the 5 highest-valued new retail unicorns in the quarter, notable M&A activity, sector-specific funding trends, and more.

Download it here.

It’s showtime

$13.4B in equity funding. 200+ partnerships. 10 public exits (or plans to exit).

The Digital Health 150 class of 2020 went places.

And your company can too. Applications are open for the 2021 Digital Health 150.

Apply here before August 3. (It takes less than 3 minutes.)

Coming from the lips of a unicorn 

Some big updates on the Future of Fintech Conference (October 5-6, NYC + online).

We’ve added killer speakers in the last week, including from a few more unicorns:

• CFO, Stripe (unicorn — $95B valuation)

• Co-founder and CEO, Revolut (unicorn — $33B valuation)

• CEO, Betterment (first speaking engagement as the new CEO)

• GM, the Americas, Ant Group (Asian super app)

• CEO and Founder, Qualia (unicorn — $1B+ valuation)

• Co-CEO, Public.com (unicorn — $1.2B valuation)

• Founder and CEO, MX (unicorn — $1.9B valuation)

There are so many more speaker announcements to come, including over 35 tech company founders who will each be giving 6-minute presentations of their products.

Meet them plus hundreds of other senior level execs, get exclusive research from CB Insights analysts, and enjoy some pretty epic NYC views while you’re at it.

You can grab a ticket for $50 off the list price with code unicorns.

In-store drones? 

The future of retail will be built on the tech being tested today. 

From shopper emotion detection to in-store robotic warehouses, we analyze the emerging technologies that will impact store innovation in the years to come here.

Chip off the old block

Funding to blockchain tech has surged in 2021, as investors take note of rising consumer and institutional demand for cryptocurrencies.

Clients can check out the top blockchain investors and where they’re placing their bets in this analysis. 

Modern Retail. Maile McCann (@mailemccann) reports on modern convenience store Foxtrot’s expansion and quotes CB Insights analyst Jackie Tubbs. 

Business Insider. Mohana Ravindranath (@ravindranize) discusses new healthcare unicorns with CBI managing analyst Marissa Schlueter (@mschlueter13).

Wall Street Journal. Angus Loten (@angusloten) looks at Scale AI’s growth and cites CB Insights data.
 

P.S. We’re looking for an onboarding specialist to provide a world-class training experience to our new customers. Check out the role here.

Token economy. Dror Poleg dives into how “The Ponzi Career” may be the future of work.

Dror Poleg

What to expect when you’re expecting. Some entrepreneurs are throwing baby showers (including gift registries) for their new businesses. 

NYT

Welcome to the club. Clubhouse announced that the social audio network will no longer be invite-only. 

The Verge

Making a splash. Airbnb-style pool rental platforms are seeing surging demand this summer.

WSJ

Happy hour. Zoom will add third-party apps to its video conferencing platform as it looks to make meetings more engaging and productive. 

BBC