CB Insights - metaverse map

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Startups selling to startups. How does this play out?

In 2020 and 2021, there was a boom in expense management, credit card, and banking tools targeting startups.

Think folks like Brex, Ramp, Airbase, Mercury, and many others.

In this current climate, what do you think will happen to them?

Here are some options:

• They go upstream into enterprise

• They stay the course and grow alongside the startup/private market, which will continue to boom over the long term

• Most fail, and the remaining players consolidate into 1-2 key players

• The good ones are acquired by the likes of AmEx, CapOne, Citi, etc., and the not so good are “acqui-hired”

WDYT?

The 4 companies I named above are just a small sampling of the players in the broader expense management to small biz/startup space, as you can see on Ramp's CB Insights profile.

Eyes on the prize

The metaverse is a vision, not a specific technology. 

And it has distinct technological layers. 

This includes everything from the hardware devices that will allow people to experience the metaverse to the tech that will enable people to buy, sell, and store goods and services in shared virtual worlds.

Who are the technology companies at each layer making the metaverse a reality? Check out our market map here.

For those that want to look at the full list and associated data, we’ve created a Metaverse Collection. If you don’t have a CBI account, you can create one here.

In the Collection, you can filter companies by category tag, geography, last funding date, and more. Work with it here.

Banking on crypto

Finance’s big dogs are investing in the long-term future of digital assets. 

While crashing crypto prices may slow these ambitions in the near term, 61 of the top 100 banks by assets under management have now invested in blockchain- or cryptocurrency-related companies — either directly at the corporate level or through their subsidiaries. 

Our friends at Blockdata take a look at where banks have placed their bets since August 2021 here.

Find me in Miami

A vocal crowd of investors and founders are embracing Miami as the next US tech hub. 

As the city’s tech ecosystem grows, we dug into the startups — and founding teams — that are emerging.

Here are 6 of the most promising. 

When push comes to shove

Sustainability has become central to supply chain strategies across industries.

Despite ambitious carbon neutrality commitments, supply chain leaders are struggling to adopt effective sustainability practices.

We look at the companies helping retailers like Walmart and Amazon make their supply chains greener with visibility platforms, autonomous ground delivery, and more. 

Clients can download the market map here.

New York Times. David Yaffe-Bellany (@yaffebellany) and Erin Griffith (@eringriffith) cover the state of the crypto ecosystem and reference CB Insights data.

The Economist. The Economist analyzes Alphabet’s moves in healthcare and cites CB Insights research.

Business Insider. April Joyner (@aprjoy), Dakin Campbell (@dakincampbell), Ben Bergman (@thebenbergman), and Bradley Saacks (@SaacksAttack) take a deep dive on Tiger Global, using CB Insights data and quoting CB Insights Senior Associate Editor Alex Lee.