Hi there, 

No quarantine boo? How about a virtual one? 

Therapy chatbot startup Replika says that roughly 40% of its 500,000 monthly users see its app as a romantic partner, according to the Wall Street Journal.

We’ve talked about how chatbots can transform the mental health industry — specifically, in supplementing cognitive behavioral therapy. These bots largely fell short of expectations during their initial hype thanks to their stilted responses, but as companies strive for efficiency via automation and deploy more advanced neural network algorithms, chatbots are now able to generate more empathetic responses than ever. 

As a result, more users are seeing them in a more human-like — and even romantic — light. The lack of human contact amid self isolation also helps.

What about everything we've been through?
 

US deals dropped 22% year-over-year in March, likely due in part to the pandemic.

Take a look at the latest venture capital trends in our Q1’20 PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree report.

Less FUD, more facts
 

There are a lot of "sky is falling" anecdotes about startups and venture funding out there, leading to fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).

But there aren't a ton of data & facts.

We’ve been updating this thread with the latest funding/startup stats covering everything from early-stage deal activity to corporate venture funding activity and more.

For more data and less noise about what is going on in startup/venture land, bookmark this thread.

Gotta go my own way

Companies like Amazon thrive by building and defending strong business moats — key competitive advantages that set them apart. 

From leveraging network effects to cost advantages, here’s how 19 of the world’s largest companies were able to set themselves apart.

Start of something new

We have a few new speakers to announce for Future of Fintech (NEW DATES: November 16-18, San Francisco):

• SEC Commissioner, Hester Peirce, aka "Crypto Mom" 

• Head of Execution Services, Citadel Securities

• Head of Technology Capital Markets, NYSE

They’ll be joining all 50+ of our reconfirmed speakers, including:

• CFO, SoFi (recently acquired Galileo for $1.2B)

• General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

• President, Honey (acquired by PayPal for $4B)

• CEO of Consumer Banking, Citigroup (NYSE: C)

• Head of Seller Business, Square (NYSE: SQ)

• CEO, Next Insurance ($1B valuation)

Stay tuned for 50 more speakers still to be announced.

Tickets are on a special sale through the end of the month. All ticket holders get access to a few exclusive perks, including a virtual speaker series and a dedicated Slack workspace. Register today.

Stick to the status quo

Deal activity declined across North America, Asia, and Europe in Q1’20, but Asia saw the largest drop — 20% — in deals year-over-year.  

Check out more venture funding trends in our latest PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree report.

Bloomberg. Zheping Huang (@pingroma) reports on TikTok parent company ByteDance’s recent hiring spree and mentions CB Insights data.

Fortune. Lucinda Shen (@ShenLucinda) looks at nontraditional investor trends and cites the PwC and CB Insights Q1'20 MoneyTree report in the Term Sheet newsletter.

P.S. We’re looking for a business intelligence technical lead. Check it out here.

No shelf left behind. Instacart has made its vast troves of data available to CPG companies so they can track real-time shelf demand.

Adweek

Venture continentalist. To keep up with Silicon Valley, the EU has created a council dedicated to investing in Europe’s startups.

Science

Robot daycare. Scientists are pulling from the child education playbook to train AI systems how to teach themselves. 

New York Times

Ferrets & horses & mice, oh my! Diverse animal groups are forming the backbone of Covid-19 testing efforts. 

Quartz