CB Insights - our secret sauce

Hi there,

Fourteen of our 2020 50 Future Unicorn picks have already hit $1B+ valuations. Harness and Sennder were the latest cos to hit the mark, giving us a solid 28% hit rate so far. 

Our secret sauce is the Mosaic algorithm, which accounts for a co's financials, traction, and strength of market to assess its overall health. Read more about how it works here. 

For more on our list of 50 Future Unicorns (done in collab with Fast Company), take a look here. Clients can check out the Expert Collection here.

Record-breaking
 

2020 investments hit a new annual record despite the pandemic.

Check out which companies, industries, geographies, and more garnered the most funding in our latest PwC & CB Insights MoneyTree report.

Agree — luck, skill, or both?
 

Below is a pretty strong take on success from a Hacker News commenter.  

While luck is certainly important and vital in success, I’m pretty sure it’s not as random as the comment below implies. 

What do you think?

Not a regular corporate, but a cool one

Healthcare startups aren’t the only ones disrupting the space. 

From Novartis & Microsoft's AI innovation lab to Boston Children's Hospital's in-house accelerator, here are 26 corporate innovation labs that are developing solutions to the biggest problems in healthcare.

Changing it up 
 

The pandemic has upended retail as we know it. Tech-enabled solutions, ranging from smarter shopper marketing to on-demand delivery to loyalty programs, are helping retailers stay afloat.

We’ll be highlighting the key retail trends to keep an eye out for in tomorrow’s free webinar. Even if you can’t make it, sign up anyways and we’ll send you the good stuff after.

I like small brands and I cannot lie
 

Scaling brands on Amazon is a ripe opportunity. Companies like Thrasio and Perch are buying third-party brands that are part of Amazon’s Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) program, which allows the brands to use Amazon’s fulfillment infrastructure and be part of Prime. 

Take a look at how these holding companies are making money, and what’s next for Amazon’s marketplace in this client-only brief.

WSJ. Sara Castellanos (@SCastellWSJ) quotes CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal (@asanwal) and uses CBI data to cover deals to the US internet sector.

CNBC. Hugh Son (@Hugh_Son) discusses Accolade’s reportedly upcoming acquisition of 2nd.MD and references CB Insights research.

Bloomberg. Yoolim Lee (@yoolimleenews) and Julia Fioretti (@julia_fioretti) report on online marketplace Bukalapak’s funding and cite CB Insights valuation data.

P.S. We're looking for a director of digital marketing. See the role here.

The Blurb

Hips don’t lie. Robots are helping surgeons replace joints like knees and hips with more precision. 

NYT 

The free encyclopedia. As Wikipedia turns 20, its creators recount how it all came together.

OneZero 

Way hay and up she rises. A Scottish postman is behind the sea shanty videos trending on TikTok.

BBC

Sweeter than honey. A new test that can detect honey laced with sugar syrup could help combat the fraudulent honey trade.

WIRED

Flying free. The Clean Air Act may have saved 1.5B birds over the past 40 years.

Audubon