CB Insights - the unbundling of VC

Hi there, 
 

When I hear Web3 is going to disrupt VC, I'm mostly reminded of the Blades of Glory quote, “No one knows what it means, but it's provocative.”

It's a great — but meaningless — soundbite.

Disrupting VC is a topic that comes up basically every 18 months — think crowdfunding, algorithmic venture, and ICOs. It's mostly well-organized marketing.

BTW, the grifters pushing ICOs were quite a sight. The good old days.

Anyways, despite all the claims, venture has just gotten bigger and bigger.

2021 was a monster year — the biggest ever by a mile. $621B in 2021 vs. $294B in 2020.

So what might actually disrupt VC? Like many industries, VC will be unbundled.

Thinking of VC as a monolithic asset class is silly. VCs invest in SaaS, e-commerce, consumer, infrastructure, hardware, etc.

And so there will be new financing platforms for each of these. We're already seeing it.

In the last year, $700M+ went to platforms just focused on financing SaaS companies. In the first 14 days of 2022, SaaS financing platforms have already raised $226M of equity & debt.

There are similar sector-specific platforms being built for e-commerce, media, and more.

This unbundling is perhaps the biggest potential driver of VC disruption as it gives founders cheaper forms of capital.

But this unbundling of VC isn't going to happen anytime soon. 

Want to dig into the monster year of 2021 in venture? Check out our free 273-page VC data bible here.

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With the race for quantum computing on, no big tech company wants to be left behind. 

See how Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and Intel are investing heavily in building their own quantum computers and developing applications around enterprise use cases in this report.

Prime time

Amazon is poised to become the largest package delivery carrier in the US early this year. 

To streamline, optimize, and expand its operations, the e-commerce giant has been investing and partnering heavily across transportation and logistics over the last 3 years. 

We mined Amazon’s acquisitions and partnerships to discern the company's 4 most important strategic priorities in transportation and logistics here.

Tech meets healthcare delivery

By 2030, chronic diseases are expected to account for 70% of total global deaths and 56% of the global burden of disease. 

To address shortcomings in current treatments, payers and providers are looking to digital therapeutics. 

From smoking cessation to diabetes, we map out 150 DTx companies addressing 15 therapeutic areas here.

The Irrelevant Investor. Michael Batnik (@michaelbatnick) uses the CB Insights State Of Venture report to discuss how long private market multiples can stay elevated.

CNBC. Lauren Thomas (@laurenthomas) covers Walmart’s metaverse plans and mentions CB Insights research.

WSJ. Laura Forman (@DoubleLJSquared) looks into the global unicorn herd and the SEC’s plans to tame it using CB Insights unicorn data and research.

P.S. We’re looking for a backend software engineer. Check out the role here.