CB Insights - evil scooter

Hi there,

The team at YourStory Media dug into CB Insights discussing how we help clients navigate and make better, faster technology decisions.

We also discussed our strategy around:

• M&A

• research

• data

• our newsletter

If you’ve got a weird fascination with data/SaaS companies or CB Insights, you should read it.

Now for some other important news. 

Rihanna is “completely fine” after flipping over an electric scooter and bruising her forehead, according to her spokesperson. 

E-scooter accidents are no joke. 

But we found love (for scooters) in a hopeless place — e-scooters are one of the only ways to get around in the pandemic without having to touch or talk to other people. 

We look at some of the pros and cons of e-scooters and outline how micromobility cos are shaking up urban transport in this report.

Another one

Netherlands-based payments company Mollie just hit unicorn status after raising a Series B mega-round.

Mollie was one of our picks for the Fintech 250, our list of the 250 most promising fintech companies in the world. See them all here. 

We'll be walking through the process of how we compiled our Fintech 250 list and the insights and trends we learned along the way in an upcoming webinar. Register here to get a behind-the-scenes look.

Who’s a good boy

"Fluffy" the robot dog is helping out with mapping Ford's 2M-square-foot manufacturing plant. 

We highlighted advances in robot locomotion as one of 2020’s emerging trends in our 2020 Tech Trends report — see the rest of the tech trends we predicted here.

Everyone’s an investor now

Google Finance is getting a makeover — users will be allowed to build personal watchlists. 

Read more about where big tech is attacking financial services here. 

We don't miss

The speaker lineup for the Future of Health (September 23-25) doesn't disappoint. Here are a few superstars on the lineup:

• Chief Health Officer, Google
• Founder, Khosla Ventures
• CIO, World Health Organization
• CEO and President, Amwell (leading telehealth platform)
• Chief Digital Health and Analytics Officer, Humana (NYSE: HUM)
• Chief Medical Officer, Lyra Health ($1.1B valuation)
• CEO and Founder, Tempus ($5B valuation)
• Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, CMR Surgical ($1B valuation)
• Chief Marketing Officer, WeDoctor ($5.5B valuation)

Future of Health kicks off 2 weeks from today. Save $300 with code cantmissit.

Lesson learned

India-based online education platform Byju's just raised a $500M round led by Silver Lake that valued it at nearly $11B, according to Bloomberg.

Edtech is on track for a strong year. Clients can see the data and trends on the state of edtech in this interactive Story.

WWD. Arthur Zaczkiewicz (@arthurzaczkiew1) interviews CB Insights fintech analyst Alex Kern (@AlexKernA) about key takeaways from the CB Insights Fintech 250 report.

CNBC. Hugh Son (@Hugh_Son) looks at fintech payments companies’ rising market caps, quoting CB Insights fintech analyst Conor Witt (@ckwitt3).

Crain's New York Business. Ryan Deffenbaugh (@RyanDDeff) quotes CB Insights senior lead retail analyst Laura Kennedy in reporting on Whole Foods' customer-free store.

P.S. We’re looking for a director of sales development. Check out the job description here.

Phone it in. Researchers could tell if people were intoxicated based on their smartphone motion data.

WIRED

Checkmates. Viewership of live chess games has soared on Twitch since the pandemic began.

NYT

Night movers. In Japan, some companies help people disappear from their own lives. 

BBC

Drop it like it’s hot. Streams of the top 40 hits have dropped on Spotify, as the platform increasingly emphasizes discovery.

Quartz

Gaming the system. Disinformation is likely coming for video games, and it’s unclear whether the gaming industry is prepared.

Slate