CB Insights - killing clubhouse

Hi there, 

Clubhouse single-handedly birthed the “social audio” category. 

For 5 years, there was virtually no chatter about social audio, and then boom: as this news trend search on CB Insights reveals, social audio became a thing.

…and then less of a thing. 

Media chatter has dropped off over the last year — as well as Clubhouse downloads. 

And so have the clones. Twitter is redirecting resources from its Spaces product, and Facebook has discontinued some of its audio offerings. 

This isn’t the end of tech’s hot new market circa 2021. 

Spotify is bringing its live-audio experience into its main app, while Amazon has launched the beta version of its “live radio” app. Chat platform Discord’s Stage Channels feature has found a receptive audience among its gaming and non-gaming communities.

But given waning interest post the pandemic hype, signs currently point to social audio as overheated sector #3.

Top gun

Ever see those Tom Cruise deepfakes?

They were good, right?

Deepfakes have expanded from hyper-realistic images to voice and video spoofs, including face reenactment (where one face in a video is swapped out with another).

This has implications beyond fake news and political disinformation. 

Deepfakes are also targeting enterprise customers — and have the potential to become a mainstream tool in consumer phishing and extortion scams.

Deepfake detection tech is fighting back against this threat. 

We dig into this and 6 other AI trends to watch in our latest report. The killer nerds at CB Insights break it all down here.

Comeback kids

Are electric scooters making a comeback?

Hit hard by the pandemic, e-scooter-sharing companies have seen ridership mostly recover in 2022. 

Companies like Bird, Lime, and Voi have raised hundreds of millions of VC dollars in their quest to shake up urban transport, positioning themselves as an environmentally friendly alternative to cities’ current transit mix. 

Whether they can make the economics sustainable remains the question.

Bird has seen its stock take a nosedive since its SPAC deal in November: it’s down 90% at a current market cap of ~$210M (it raised $768M). The company is also planning to cut nearly a quarter of its staff.

Check out our deep dive on the micromobility revolution here.

A pal named Pay

Over the last two years, PayPal has forged hundreds of strategic business partnerships and invested in more than 30 different companies.  

Where is it headed? 

The payments giant’s activity points to 2 long-term goals: entry into global markets and expanding into other financial services and crypto & blockchain.

We uncover the 5 most important strategic priorities emerging from PayPal’s acquisitions, investments, and partnerships in this client-only analysis.

Making crypto more transparent

One way crypto compliance providers are solving crypto’s transparency problem is through transaction monitoring — aka “know-your-transaction,” or KYT.

Check out Blockdata's spotlight on how Chainalysis is making crypto more transparent for financial institutions here.

Protocol Fintech. Ryan Deffenbaugh (@RyanDDeff) looks at the state of the crypto industry and cites CB Insights data. 

TechCrunch. Anna Heim (@abracarioca) reports on where mental health tech funding is headed and mentions CB Insights research.

Bloomberg. Stephan Kahl and Ivan Levingston (@IvanLevingston) cover Trade Republic’s latest funding round and reference CB Insights fintech funding data.
 

P.S. There are just 2 weeks left to apply for our Fintech 250 awards. Join the fintech elite here.

Mr. Postman. The delivery management software market is slated to grow substantially, driven by an urgent need for major retailers to reduce costs at the last mile. 

What does it all mean? In the past 5 years alone, Salesforce acquired more than 20 companies, invested in 300+ startups, and amassed an ecosystem of 6,000+ partners.

Feeling fabulous. From virtual stores to plant-based materials, these early-stage startups are spurring innovation in luxury retail.