Hi there, 

ICYMI: Tomorrow's the last day to apply for this year's Fintech 250.

Ok...now let’s get into it.

Right now, SPAC investor presentations are the funniest thing in business. 

Seriously, for finance nerds lolz (did I do that right?), there is no better game in town.

What are SPACs? We explain SPACs here, but I’ll offer a quick summary below.

SPACs are for companies that:

• Can’t raise in the private markets cuz investors there are smart enough to stay away from these companies.

• Are not healthy enough to go public via a traditional IPO cuz they can only sell a promise (not actual performance).

On the first point, there is an insane amount of capital in the private markets currently. Our Q2 venture report is coming out in a few days so stay tuned, but it’s new records across the board. There is no lack of capital in the private markets for promising companies.

One of the upcoming SPACs is BuzzFeed.  

Here’s a slide from the company's investor presentation to give you a taste for what you can find in these SPAC presentations.

If you’re reading this on a mobile phone, it might be hard to see some of that so I’ll break it down.

• The company did $425M in revenue in 2019.

• It did $421M in 2020 (that’s lower btw).

• It now expects to grow at a 26% CAGR between 2021 and 2024 and hit over $1B by 2024.

Like I said — lolz.

Unicorn birth rate popping

CB Insights issued this market map of the world's 728 unicorns 2 weeks ago.

We're already at 746.

That’s 18 new unicorns in 12 days!

For the full, updated list in real time, bookmark this page.

Lay of the land

Our friends at Blockdata sat down with the team at LTO Network to learn about how the UN is deploying their tech to update Afghanistan's land registry system. 

LTO uses blockchain to provide trusted identity and verifiable credentials, both of which are core parts of many traditional business processes. Read the deep dive here.

Listen up 

We're excited to reveal our first 5 main-stage speakers for this year’s Future of Fintech (October 5-6, NYC + online).
 

Get ready to hear from:

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

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

• CEO and Founder, Qualia (unicorn — $2.18B valuation)

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

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

As usual, our speaker lineup is super senior and ready to share insights.
 

Under lock and key

In 2020, US healthcare provider data breaches rose 30% year-over-year to 514, affecting more than 17M individuals. 

To protect sensitive data and comply with new regulations, healthcare orgs are turning to patient data privacy solutions. Find out which vendors are leading the way in this client-only report. 

It’s not me, it’s you

Synthetic media — or content that has been generated, edited, or enabled by AI — is enabling next-gen consumer engagement and personalization at scale. 

We look at what brands and retailers need to consider for adoption and what’s ahead for the tech here.

Forbes. Sergei Klebnikov (@skleb1234) and Eliza Haverstock (@ElizaHaverstock) look at what Robinhood’s co-founders stand to gain from the co’s IPO and cite CB Insights data.

CNBC. Evelyn Cheng (@chengevelyn) discusses the Chinese IPO landscape and references CB Insights valuation data.

Orlando Business Journal. Alex Soderstrom (@ASoderstrom_OBJ) covers ObvioHealth’s funding raise and cites CB Insights research.
 

P.S. We’re looking for a senior analyst who is passionate about emerging trends in the healthcare space. Apply here.

The Blurb
 

Unwinding. 75% of the links in the Harvard Law Review no longer work — a symbol of how link rot could undermine the modern web.

The Atlantic 

In the crosshairs. The cyber insurance sector has been upended by last year’s 400% surge in ransomware attacks.

AP
 

Behind the curtain. Fake videos of animal rescues have proliferated on YouTube despite efforts to combat them. 

National Geographic 

Shut it down. Airbnb blocked 50,000 people from making reservations during the pandemic as part of its global ban on parties.

The Verge