But the rise of synthetic voices could spell trouble for companies in sectors like banking and healthcare, which rely on voice biometrics for identity verification. Bad actors have already started to use voice cloning to commit fraud. 

The first media reports of AI-generated voice spoofing emerged in Q3’19, when AI software was used to mimic the voices of CEOs in phone calls to employees with instructions to transfer money. More recently, 2 journalists were able to use voice cloning to trick phone verification systems, one for a bank and the other for an Australian government entity.

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The post Is generative AI making voice biometric companies obsolete? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Cybereason just fell off the list.

The Boston-based company raised a $100M round from SoftBank in April 2023, reportedly at a 90%+ discount to its $3.1B valuation in 2021.

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The post Cybereason just had a massive down round. What happened? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

The accelerator has continued to back hundreds of companies for its summer and winter classes, and it has been particularly active in areas it has classified as “frontier tech,” like climate tech solutions.

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The post Analyzing Y Combinator’s climate tech investment strategy: Where did the venture firm bet big in 2022? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

A funding drought, plummeting valuations, and the recent shutdown of Ketamine Wellness Centers — one of the largest chains of ketamine clinics — signal that investors may have soured on the space.

In this brief, we use CB Insights data to assess the current state of the psychedelics market. We look at the following data points:

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The post Is the psychedelics space experiencing a comedown? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

For example, the growing popularity of EVs has also increased demand for high-performing semiconductors like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), which can handle high-power applications more efficiently than traditional silicon chips — useful for increasing the driving range of EVs. Bosch, one of the leading automotive parts suppliers globally, recently doubled down on the silicon carbide space by acquiring TSI Semiconductors and announcing plans to invest $1.5B in upgrading one of its facilities to produce SiC semiconductors.

This trend towards efficient and high-performing semiconductors in the EV industry is likely to continue as automakers seek ways to improve vehicle performance and range.

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The post What Bosch’s $1.5B bet on silicon carbide semiconductors says about where the automotive market is heading appeared first on CB Insights Research.

According to the National Retail Federation, in 2021, retailers saw a 26.5% increase in organized retail crime (ORC) incidents. Retailers credit ORC for the year’s 4.1% increase in losses ($94.5B in total) over 2020. 

Companies from REI to Starbucks are also grabbing headlines as they close stores and cite crime and theft as a reason. Others, like Ulta, are simply locking up more products to keep them out of thieves’ hands.

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The post The $95B retail theft problem is an untapped opportunity for tech vendors appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Copilots are designed to work alongside humans, automating tedious tasks or providing suggestions to allow users to finish things up more quickly.

There are generative AI-powered copilots emerging for a host of applications, but one of the most prominent is software development. Since 2021, Microsoft-owned GitHub has offered a copilot for coders that taps into OpenAI‘s models, while Amazon recently launched a competing service called CodeWhisperer. But the tech giants face a growing slate of rivals vying for the attention of software developers.

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The post Startups offering genAI copilots for coders have already raised more than $100M this year appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Top players are using M&A to build up their capabilities, taking on everything from sales engagement to forecasting.

Which startups could get acquired next? We used the following CB Insights data to find out:

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The post The sales and revenue operations space is consolidating. Which company will get acquired next? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

But soaring costs and regulatory uncertainty have prevented these companies from fully commercializing their solutions, even with consolidation in the space. Former market leader Argo AI even shut down in October, despite billion-dollar investments from Ford and Volkswagen.

Most recently, GM’s Cruise reported disappointing numbers, losing $561M in Q1’23 on $30M in revenue. The results fuel growing concerns around the viability of robotaxis.

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The post Is Cruise’s lackluster performance a warning sign for the robotaxi industry? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

ESG in investing is the general approach of putting money into companies, funds, and projects that adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. It’s a framework for investors to identify opportunities and mitigate financial risks, with the ultimate goal of generating higher returns.

Asset and investment managers now feel mounting pressures concerning the accuracy, biases, performance, and even political motivations of ESG. The dramatic rise and fall of corporate interest in ESG can be seen in recent company earnings call mentions of the term.

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The post How BlackRock, Citigroup, and JP Morgan use AI to deliver more accurate ESG datasets to investors at scale appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Along the same lines, Schroders recently wrote down its investment in Revolut, another top-funded challenger bank, by 46%.

It’s not a great look for the sector. 

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The post N26 and Revolut are facing steep valuation cuts. What does this mean for other challenger banks’ prospects? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

This reflects a broader trend: Account-to-account (A2A) payments, where funds are transferred between two bank accounts without intermediaries such as card networks, are gaining popularity. Since A2A cuts out some steps compared to traditional payments approaches, it can be speedier, more secure, and — crucially — can reduce transaction costs.

Using CB Insights data, we dug into the A2A market to identify what will happen next.

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The post Shopify launches direct bill pay: What’s next for A2A payments? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Using CB Insights data, we dug into the retail tech and innovation landscape in Q1’23, including:

1. The continued decline in retail tech funding in Q1’23, to its lowest level since Q2’16
2. Early-stage deal strength in retail, and where the money is going
3. A steady quarter for exits, with 9 IPOs and a slight uptick in M&A activity
   
4. The handful of mega-rounds that buoyed food & meal delivery funding
5. The 11% quarter-over-quarter increase in US funding
   

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The post The State of Retail Tech in 5 charts: Funding in Q1’23 plummets to its lowest level since Q2’16 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Vector databases provide enterprises with an easy way to store, search, and index unstructured data at a speed, scale, and efficiency that current relational (and non-relational) databases cannot offer.

This is particularly useful for “similarity searches” — e.g., surfacing images similar to an input image, suggesting similar videos, or personalizing e-commerce product recommendations. Vector databases are seeing emerging applications across industries, from drug discovery to anti-fraud and enterprise search. 

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The post Vector database startups raise over $350M to build generative AI infrastructure appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Using CB Insights data, we highlight some of the key takeaways from our Q1’23 State of CVC Report, including:

1. Global CVC-backed funding reaches a 5-year low, deals fall 44% year-over-year (YoY) from record high.
2. Average deal size falls to $21.1M in 2023 YTD, lowest since 2016.
3. Median early-stage CVC-backed deal size ticks up to record high.
4. $100M+ mega-round funding sees QoQ increase for the first time since Q3’21.
5. The US sees the majority of late-stage CVC-backed deals in Q1’23.

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The post The State of CVC in 5 charts: Funding falls to a 5-year low in Q1’23 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

But hiring for the skills needed to tap into this opportunity can be difficult — 99% of supply chain leaders have said they need more in-house digital talent, according to a McKinsey survey. Microsoft wants to bridge this gap — and, in doing so, place itself at the center of companies’ supply chain operations. 

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The post Microsoft in Supply Chain: How the software giant is making supply chain management a tech battlefield appeared first on CB Insights Research.

But after bringing in $260M in funding, momentum in the space has stalled, with funding drying up in part due to the broader venture slowdown (link-in-bio companies have raised just $12M in 2023 YTD).

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The post Did Instagram’s new feature update just torch $260M of venture funding to link-in-bio companies? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

But the post-Covid comedown has been hard on connected fitness equipment players — which gained a lot of attention during the height of the pandemic from locked-down consumers — leading to disappointing hardware sales for MIRROR, as mentioned on Lululemon’s most recent earnings call:

“The overall at-home fitness space remains challenged. MIRROR hardware sales during the holiday season came in below our expectations” 

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The post Lululemon may be able to recoup its MIRROR investment despite challenges in the connected fitness equipment space appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Executive interest in AI applications for insurance spiked in early 2023 following the public release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in Q4’22 and the subsequent boom in generative AI-related media attention. 

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The post How are Aon, MAPFRE, and Tokio Marine Holdings using advanced analytics to lower the cost of P&C claims? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Last week, the retail giant sold Bonobos for $75M, a 76% markdown from the $310M Walmart paid for the men’s fashion brand in 2017.

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The post Why did Walmart take a loss on Bonobos? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

The fund’s venture arm, Sanabil Investments, is ramping up while venture activity as a whole is pulling back. Not only did Sanabil Investments’ deal activity increase last year, but it’s also investing more capital year-over-year — the venture arm now commits roughly $3B a year in capital, up from $2B in 2021. In April 2023, the state oil company Saudi Aramco gave Sanabil a 4% stake, worth almost $80B, to further solidify the venture arm’s position.

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The post Analyzing Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund’s venture strategy: Where is Sanabil Investments placing its bets? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

The beauty giant paid $2.5B — nearly 23x Aēsop’s valuation of $110M when its former owner Natura took a majority stake in 2012. 

But with such a large price tag, did L’Oréal overpay for Aēsop?

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The post Did L’Oréal overpay for Aēsop? A look at how skincare valuation multiples are faring appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Using CB Insights data, we highlight some of the key takeaways from our Q1’23 State of Fintech report, including:

1. Global fintech funding grows 55% QoQ in Q1’23; $6.5B is raised by Stripe alone. 
2. Early-stage deal share reaches 72%, a new high.
3. Unicorn births fall to 1 for the first time since 2016. 
4. Fintech M&A exits rebound, increasing 15% QoQ. 
5. Banking funding and deals hit lowest levels since Q2’17. 

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The post The State of Fintech in 5 charts: Funding rebounds due to Stripe, while deals continue to fall in Q1’23 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Its 3 core businesses — The Cigna Group, Cigna Healthcare, and Evernorth — cater to both payer and provider markets and provide coverage to 18M medical customers.

Cigna is betting big on technology to provide patients with more precise and personalized care experiences. It is looking at ways to use technology to conveniently deliver care, strengthen its insurance offerings, and do more with patient health data.

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The post Analyzing Cigna’s growth strategy: How the healthcare payer is expanding into virtual care, home health, and insurtech appeared first on CB Insights Research.

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The post Analyzing a16z’s AI investment strategy: How the VC is funding the AI global takeover appeared first on CB Insights Research.