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Robots in commerce.
Zoom's top stakeholders. Startups for your workout.		 VIEW IN BROWSER
CB Insights July 18, 2019
Stay cool
Hola,

It's summer. It's almost the weekend. There's a heatwave coming.

Let's get right to it.
Source: Giphy
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Adapt or die

Corporations in the retail space are scrambling to integrate AI into their products. 

Retail AI startups have raised $2.67B across 564 deals since Q1'13. Meanwhile, traditional retailers are entering the playing field with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba.

From manufacturing to last-mile delivery, we break down how new-school retailers and incumbents are using AI to automate the retail chain. Read about it here.
Zoom, zoom, zoom

Zoom went public exactly 3 months ago at a share price of $36, surpassing its expected range of $33-$35. Since then, its top investors' stakes have gotten more and more valuable.

We take a look at Zoom's biggest stakeholders and how well they're doing now. Check it out here.
CLIENT-EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH
EXPERT INTELLIGENCE
Harder, better, faster, stronger

Funding to fitness tech startups is on track for another record-breaking year, with nearly $1.3B raised since January.

From fitness trackers to gym and studio networks to apparel, we take a look at 75+ companies helping consumers sweat harder and smarter.

Expert Intelligence clients can see them all here.


Have a great rest of the week.

Marcelo
@ballve

P.S. NYC temps aren't the only things getting hotter. Check out our AI deal tracker heatmap here.
THIS WEEK IN DATA
  • 375: The number of unicorns reached 375 this week after Turo, Icertis, FlixBus, and Beike Zhaofang all reached valuations of $1B+. Turo, a peer-to-peer car sharing platform, raised $250M in Series E financing, while cloud-based contract management company Icertis closed a $115M Series E. Long-distance bus co FlixBus hit a $2.25B valuation after a $561M round, and online real estate platform Beike Zhaofang’s $1.2B Series D brought its valuation to a whopping $10B. Take a look at all of the world’s $1B+ companies using our real-time unicorn tracker.
     
  • 6 micrometers: Elon Musk laid out a vision for creating a direct brain-to-machine interface. The billionaire said his Neuralink company is developing “threads” about 6 micrometers thick, similar to a red blood cell’s diameter, to gather brain activity data. These threads would be implanted in the human brain by a “sewing machine” — which the company is also working on. Neuralink is far from alone in the neurotech space. Here are 20 other startups coming for your mind.
     
  • -40%: Nestle has developed a method to create chocolate without adding sugar. The approach uses cocoa plant byproducts, which naturally contain sugar as a sweetener, reportedly resulting in a 40% sugar reduction in the final product. Sugar reduction is a rising trend in the food industry. Clients can read our report on how companies are approaching the challenge.
  • £50: The Bank of England has announced computer pioneer Alan Turing as the face of its new £50 note. The researcher broke codes in WWII and helped pave the way for modern advances in artificial intelligence. AI now permeates a wide range of industries, from healthcare to finance to logistics — with $66B invested in AI companies since mid-2013. See where the most financing deals are going using our AI deal tracker.   
  • 4.5M+: A cyberattack on Bulgaria’s tax agency led to a trove of personal information — including names and addresses — being stolen. Analysts say that the hack most likely affected almost the entire adult population of Bulgaria, estimated to be more than 4.5M people. Find out more about the latest trends in cybersecurity in our 2019 Cyber Defenders report. 
  • -130,000: Netflix said that it saw a net loss of 130,000 US subscribers in Q2’19, the first decline in almost a decade. The drop in US-based users comes after a recent pricing increase and as the streaming service faces looming competition from rivals such as Disney.   
     
  • 50 years: This weekend will mark 50 years since humans first touched down on the moon. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstong and Buzz Aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon’s surface after touching down on July 20, 1969. The anniversary comes as a number of private companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, are beginning to offer rocket launching services and to shuttle private citizens up to space.
One More Thing
Source: Getty Images
Scientists have figured out how to make coffee without the beans.

Food scientist Jarret Stopforth teamed up with entrepreneur Andy Kleitsch for the project, which they call Atomo.

The pair separated more than 1,000 compounds in coffee to recreate the color, aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel.

It might not be a bad time to ditch the beans — the amount of land conducive to growing coffee is projected to shrink by about 50% by 2050.
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