Hi there,

• Jennifer Schneider, President, Livongo (NASDAQ: LVGO)  
• Daphne Koller, CEO, Insitro (Co-founder, Coursera)  
• Bryan Leach, CEO, Ibotta ($1B valuation)

• Chris Sacca, Co-founder, Lowercarbon Capital (angel investor, philanthropist, and former Shark Tank host)
• Cal Henderson, Co-founder, Slack (NYSE: WORK)
• Steve Case, CEO, Revolution (author of NYT bestseller "The Third Wave"; Co-founder, AOL)
• Pat Grady, Partner, Sequoia Capital (investor in Zoom)
• Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO, Sinovation Ventures (author of NYT bestseller "AI Superpowers"; former Google China President)
• David Sacks, Co-founder, Craft Ventures (founding COO, PayPal; Co-founder, Yammer)

$37M: UK-based Featurespace raised $37M. The startup offers behavioral analytics tech that aims to detect fraudulent transactions. The company was part of our most recent AI 100 list of the most promising AI startups in the world. See the other 99 featured companies in this market map. 
 

55%: Uber is in talks to acquire Grubhub, a move that could significantly consolidate the food delivery market in the US. The ride-hailing giant runs its own meal delivery service, Uber Eats, which would reportedly have a US market share of 55% if combined with Grubhub. We discussed the trend of recent unicorns like Uber looking to buy up complementary companies in our 14 Tech Trends To Watch In 2020 report.

-33%: Facebook is reportedly set to acquire GIF library Giphy for $400M. The deal would represent a 33% decrease in valuation for Giphy since its last funding round 4 years ago. We map some of Facebook’s biggest acquisitions, from WhatsApp to Instagram, in this infographic. 

$1B: San Francisco-based edtech company Quizlet became a unicorn after raising $30M at a $1B valuation — a 5x increase in valuation since its last funding round in 2018. One of the company’s earliest backers was Union Square Ventures, an investor included in CB Insights’ Smart Money list of top-performing VCs. See what we can learn from the early-stage bets of these Smart Money investors in this report.

14 minutes: Covid-19-carrying droplets produced from speaking can linger in the air for up to 14 minutes, according to a US National Institutes of Health study. The results indicate that conversations in confined areas are contributing to virus transmission. Clients can see  9 startups developing self-cleaning tech that could help make some spaces more sanitary in this analysis.
 

$750M: Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company Waymo announced $750M in new funding. Meanwhile, Waymo competitor Voyage partnered with Fiat Chrysler to provide self-driving vehicles to the auto giant. We look at how AI is helping power Waymo’s autonomous vehicle development in our client-exclusive report on  Alphabet in AI.

10,000 people: Consumer DNA testing startup 23andMe said that it would offer 10,000 free tests to people who have had Covid-19 in an effort to better understand how genetics affect various physiological responses to the disease. We look at the consumer genetics landscape in  this client-only research.

155 mph: Elon Musk’s transportation infrastructure-focused Boring Company completed work on a second tunnel under the Las Vegas convention center. The project is intended to ferry passengers around the campus at up to 155 mph, eventually using autonomous vehicles.

7,100 acres: The largest solar installation in the US was given the greenlight by the US government. The Berkshire Hathaway-backed project spans 7,100 acres and aims to power about 260,000 homes. Renewables’ power generation capacity is increasing more broadly in the US, with the government projecting this week that renewables will produce more of the country’s electricity than coal this year for the first time ever.

I love you.

P.S. We're hiring across our engineering, research, product, and design teams. Check out all the job openings here.

Quarantine portraits are gaining popularity, with some photographers going to extreme lengths to distinguish their pandemic portrait services.

One photographer uses drones to capture creative photos, like the one above. Another surprises her clients by showing up at random times to capture them in their natural state — even if they’ve just stepped out of the shower.