Hi there, 

I’m excited to share our State Of Venture Data Book for Q2’21.  

You can grab the 144-tab Excel file here. More on this below and some related tips on how you can get featured in the newsletter.

Amazon FBA & Shopify roll-up fever

The amount of $$$ piling into Amazon’s Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) and Shopify merchant roll-ups is staggering.

In Q2’21 alone, funding to companies that buy and scale brands that sell on Amazon hit $1.2B. 

The closest thing I can remember to this is daily deals (remember Groupon?) 10 years ago where everyone was piling into the space. 

But while Groupon saw steep losses from the start, third-party brand acquirers are claiming to be profitable since year one. 

How does this end? We highlighted some of the possibilities here.

Let’s get down to business

Amid headline-making cyber attacks and increasing digitization, cybersecurity has become a top priority for governments and corporations alike in 2021. 

We analyze 14 tech categories shaping the future of cybersecurity and highlight 28 early-stage startups well-positioned to thwart any accompanying risk.

Download the free report here.

Remixing our venture data

Since the launch of our Q2’21 State Of Venture Report, we’ve seen a number of smart folks pen articles and tweetstorms which take elements of our data and offer insights on a variety of topics.

For example, there was this excellent Twitter thread on the FOMO in the VC landscape by Frank Rotman of QED Investors.

There was also this excellent post by Om Malik featuring State Of Venture data discussing startup funding and the news cycle.

To make it easier for you to take our data and mashup and remix with your own insights and data, we created this Q2’21 Data Book. It’s 144 tabs of data, so there is a lot in here. A lot.

If you ultimately remix the data in some interesting and insightful way and reference CB Insights, please do share with us via Twitter or via email (you can simply respond to this email).  

We’ll feature some of your "remixes" to the 726,000+ on this newsletter and via our social channels as well. 

Up, up, and away

The AI industry is maturing at a blistering pace, with 50 mega-rounds, 24 new AI unicorns, and 119 exits in Q2’21. 

Across the US, investors are betting on the tech. See the top-funded AI startup in every US state in this infographic.

ESG scores grow up

ESG scores have become crucial for achieving corporate sustainability goals and driving investor confidence. Now, AI and alternative data are helping make them more accurate. 

Find out how brands can replace anecdotal evidence with quantitative findings and what it means for investors here.

Ready to rumble: Blockchain vs. Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted many inefficiencies in the healthcare industry on a global scale, including: 

• Regulatory uncertainty

• Manual processing of medical data

• Disorganized vaccine distribution

• Fraud and identity theft

Our amigos at Blockdata discuss how blockchain is battling these inefficiencies and more here.

Retail Dive. Maria Monteros (@MariaMonteros_) digs into the CB Insights State Of Retail Tech Q2’21 report.

Bloomberg. Max Reyes (@MaxJReyes) covers the BNPL phenomen, quoting CB Insights senior analyst Anisha Kothapa (@AnishaKothapa) and citing CBI research.

Financial Times. Dave Lee (@DaveLeeFT) looks at the growth in marketplace aggregators and quotes CB Insights senior lead analyst Laura Kennedy.
 

P.S. We’re looking for a senior frontend engineer. Check out the job spec here.

Talk it out. Couples therapy, but for startup co-founders, saw growing interest amid the stressful pandemic year. 

Wired
 

Who’s who. Going against the grain, some VCs are disclosing the names of the LPs who invest in their funds.

Protocol 

VTubers. Virtual YouTubers in Japan are growing in influence, notching more than 1.5B views per month amid the pandemic.

Rest of World

Plugged in. Community Wi-Fi networks are aiming to bring cheaper internet to NYC residents.

NYT 

Palm reader. Amazon is offering a $10 credit to people who enroll their palm print in the company’s Amazon One system. 

The Verge