CB Insights - the 500th unicorn

Hola,

At the end of 2013, there were 43 unicorns (private cos valued at $1B+). By October 2015, there were 141.

Fast-forward to this week, and the unicorn club surpassed 500 for the first time.

So, which was the 500th? See This Week In Data below for the answer. 

You win some, you lose some
 

Uber is reportedly in talks with competitor Aurora to sell its autonomous vehicle unit, ATG — which “has simply failed to evolve and produce meaningful progress,” according to an ATG manager.

See where Uber makes money, where it spends it, and where it's looking next to move closer to profitability in this report.

There can be only one
 

Latin America is becoming the new battleground for super apps — digital platforms that provide consumers with a wide variety of services all-in-one.

We examine the current state and opportunity of super apps in Latin America here.

You can get with this, or you can get with that
 

A growing number of companies want to use distributed ledger tech like blockchain to reimagine capital markets infrastructure. 

In collaboration with Blockdata, we break down which DLT networks are most popular among financial players here.

In for the long haul
 

A severe driver shortage is placing undue pressure on the trucking space as demand for e-commerce surges.

Automated driving — both fully autonomous solutions and advanced driver assistance — stands to address this. Read up on providers and solutions in autonomous trucking here.

500 unicorns: Forter, a CB insights Fintech 250 startup looking to prevent e-commerce fraud, became a unicorn after closing a $125M round at a $1.3B valuation. There are now 500 unicorns in the world — the first time the milestone has been passed. See them all on our real-time tracker.

$270M: Enterprise data automation platform DataRobot raised $270M in fresh funding at a $2.7B valuation. The company was featured in our latest AI 100 cohort. See our picks for the most promising AI startups in the world here.

2 days: Amazon launched an online service that sells prescription drugs with free 2-day delivery for Prime members. The move is only the latest in Amazon’s efforts to make inroads into the massive healthcare market. We break down its strategy in this report.

10 years: The UK government is set to ban the sale of new fossil fuel-powered cars by 2030. The commercial momentum behind electric vehicles is picking up. We dig into the global landscape in this report and clients can see  70+ startups innovating in the space in this market map.

11 banks: Google announced updates to its Google Pay platform that signal an increasing focus on providing consumer financial services. The tech giant said that it’s now working with 11 partner banks to offer services like checking accounts. We look at how  challengers and incumbents are going after the digital banking space in this client-exclusive report.

45 minutes: A man at a US hospital was saved after his heart stopped for 45 minutes. The medical team there used a machine to circulate blood around his body and remove carbon dioxide until his heart started beating again.

Corrugated cardboard is having a moment.

The shift to working from home has created a massive supply of boxes — Amazon packages, delivery containers, and even greasy pizza boxes.

This has been a boon for paper mills, which turn mixed paper recyclables into coffee cups, toilet paper, and even more boxes.

Mixed paper now goes for about $30 a ton — a huge jump, considering it was essentially free at the start of 2020.

Have a great rest of the week.

Marcelo