CB Insights - web3 explainer

Hi there, 
 

Web3 is the likely winner of the most-hyped tech term of the last 12 months. (Remember DAOs? lol)

Just take a look at the surge in media attention:

So what exactly is it?

From the metaverse to decentralized finance to NFTs and beyond, we break down what Web3 is today, what it could mean for the future of the internet, and what challenges it faces.

Read our Web3 deep dive here.

Cyber-insecurity

Even cybersecurity isn’t immune to the venture funding drop.  

Startups in the space saw funding decline 32% quarter-over-quarter, which was greater than the 23% fall seen across the broader venture landscape. Funding levels, however, do remain above where they were in 2020. 

But it wasn’t just a funding dip.  

Other quarterly drops include:

• Fewer deals

• Fewer mega-round financings (>$100M)

• Slowing M&A activity

To dive deeper into cybersecurity’s aches & pains and also find some bright spots in the space, check out our State of Cybersecurity report.

Are you ready?

It’s been great to see the Digital Health 150 applications rollin’ in.

Haste makes taste

Consumer expectations are evolving faster than ever. 

By the time a food or beverage product goes through traditional R&D processes, consumers may have already changed their minds about what it is that they really want. 

CPG giants like Mars have turned to product development and distribution solutions to keep up with both consumers and their D2C competitors — by speeding up the R&D process, predicting consumer preferences, developing new ingredients, and more. 

These giants aren’t alone. A number of startups are working to advance both food and beverage product development and distribution. One of them has even figured out how to digitize taste. 

Learn more about early-stage innovation in the space in our recently published market map.

No boundaries 

Mastercard is looking to expand beyond its core payments processing offering. 

The company is not just eyeing new markets globally. It’s also aiming to increase its presence across a number of categories:

• Banking

• Blockchain & crypto 

• Credit & lending 

• Cybersecurity 

• Payment infrastructure

• And more 

We mined CB Insights data on Mastercard’s investment, acquisition, and partnership activity to assemble this strategy map.

Claim to fame

P&C insurers are striving to provide a positive claims experience, as it’s key to making their customers stay.

But the P&C claims process is growing more complex and costly by the day, making it increasingly difficult for these insurers to deliver the experience their customers expect. 

We take a look at 104 companies optimizing claims evaluation and settlement via solutions for:

• Catastrophe modeling

• Medical bill review 

• Fraud analytics

• And more 

Find out who they are and what they do in this tech market map.

Bloomberg. Shubham Saharan (@ShubhamSahara18) and Max Reyes (@MaxJReyes) dive into neobank challenges using CB Insights research. 

Business Insider. Rebecca Torrence (@RebeccaTorrenc5) covers the mental health tech companies ripe for acquisition and quotes CB Insights intelligence analyst Nicole Witowski. 

Bloomberg. Olga Kharif (@olgakharif) and Anna Irrera (@annairrera) explore crypto security investment and cite CB Insights data.
 

P.S. We’re hiring strategic account executives with experience selling to the APAC region. Apply here.