50 future unicorns

Use le force

Hi there,

To get young people off the couch, the French Fencing Federation has officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport.

This will definitely work.

Giphy

And now, on to the research.

Government shutdown on earnings calls

Today Southwest Airlines cut its revenue outlook, attributing a $60M hit to the government shut down.

While 2018 year-end results are still coming in, mentions of “government shutdown” have climbed dramatically on earnings calls, as the graph from our earnings transcript search engine below illustrates.  

Of course, we still have a long way to go before we hit the peak seen after the government shutdown during October 1-17, 2013.

The companies mentioning “government shutdown” are incredibly diverse, ranging from consultancies to banks to energy companies to producers of fiber optic connectors.

Clients can see the corporations talking about the government shutdown here.

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

What does the future hold for luxury? From concierge-like services to paying with cryptocurrency to flying cars, we take a look at 18 necessary and experimental luxury trends to watch.

Pre-unicorns

In 2015, we teamed up with the New York Times to identify 50 future unicorn companies. 48% of our predictions came true.

Well, we’ve done it again. This year’s list of high-momentum startups represent a wide variety of industries, from HR tech to payments to pharmacies.

See all 50 of our 2019 picks here.

 Moving right along

The $700B trucking industry is plagued with inefficiencies. As driver shortages persist and consumers demand faster delivery, trucking companies are facing rising costs.

Now startups are developing technology to solve issues across the supply chain. We’ve mapped out 50+ of these companies. Expert Intelligence clients can see them all here.

Any questions?

Fintech had a big year in 2018, with 1,700+ deals adding up to nearly $40B. From record levels of funding to increasing consumer tech adoption, fintech is seeing dramatic growth around the world.

We answer some of our readers’ most pressing questions about the state of the industry and what to expect going forward. Check it out here.

No small potatoes

ICYMI, the LA Times recently put out a 2×2 matrix ranking fast food French fries.

This caused quite a bit of commotion on our company Slack channel.

Personally, as long as McDonald’s is in the upper right, I deem it a sound framework.

What do you think? Accurate?

Double your money and make a stack

The total number of VC-backed AI deals in the US dropped in 2018, but dollars in the space nearly doubled. Funding to US AI startups increased 72% year-over-year, surpassing $9.3B.

We take a closer look at VC activity in the AI space here.

 What’s in your (digital) wallet?

Consumer and business preferences are shifting toward tech-first digital payments instead and away from cash and checks. So how will people pay in the future?

We take a look at how peer-to-peer (P2P) payments like Venmo and Cash App are growing, and how they could eventually bypass banks altogether. Clients can read about it here.

The Industry Standard

CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.

Forbes. Abdo Riani (@abdoriani) discusses launching a startup as a small business owner and references CB Insights research.

CNBC. Saheli Roy Choudhury (@sahelirc) highlights the most active corporate VCs in China and cites CB Insights’ latest Global CVC Report.

Business Times. Claudia Chong (@claudiachongbt) reports that Asia’s CVC deal activity came close to overtaking North America’s deal share in 2018 and refers to CB Insights Global CVC Report.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal 

P.S. We’re hiring a PR Associate. If you’re a curious, enthusiastic self-starter interested in translating data and research into newsworthy stories, we’d love to chat.