Global healthcare funding trends.
Apple’s sleep patent. A teeny tiny black hole.
What the hack?
Hola,
We have a hallowed tradition at CB Insights called Hack Day. Four times a year, everyone — not just engineers — is able to take the time to work on an experimental project.
People work across teams and functions and often create something great. It’s always fun.
If you’d be excited to join a company where experimentation is part of the culture, look here.
THE RESEARCH
On a health kick
This year is on pace to set a new annual record for healthcare funding, with startups in the space seeing over 3,400 deals so far in 2019.
+129%: Funding to European healthcare companies reached $2.9B in Q3’19, a 129% increase compared to the previous quarter. Europe was the second-biggest region for healthcare funding in Q3’19, overtaking Asia but still far behind top-spot holder North America, which saw $7.6B in funding. See more insights in our latest Global Healthcare Report.
$26B: America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved T-Mobile and Sprint’s $26B merger. The mobile carriers said that as a combined entity, they would aim to deploy 5G to 97% of Americans within 3 years. See how the next-generation wireless standard could transform industries like healthcare and manufacturing in our explainer, What Is 5G?
415 unicorns: Payments fraud prevention startup Riskified and customer engagement platform Coveo became unicorns after reaching $1B valuations. The global unicorn herd now stands at 415 — see them all on our tracker.
$3.5B: Freshworks raised $150M at a valuation of $3.5B, a more than 2x increase in value since its prior funding round last year. The customer support startup has now brought in $399M in total disclosed funding.
64 years: A digitally rendered version of James Dean is set to fill a “secondary lead role” in an upcoming movie about the Vietnam War. The Rebel Without a Cause star died 64 years ago at the age of 24.
3 patients: Doctors used CRISPR gene-editing techniques in an attempt to treat 3 cancer patients by altering immune system cells to better target the disease. The researchers stated that it’s too early to conclude if the approach is effective, but said that it appears to be safe. Want to know more about how CRISPR can change healthcare? Check out our explainer.
18M: Nasdaq announced that it had deployed AI to help prevent fraudulent activity across the ~18M daily trades on its stock exchange. The deep learning system is intended to work alongside humans in identifying nefarious attempts to manipulate stock prices — like placing and then canceling large orders to influence market sentiment. AI is gaining traction across a wide range of industries; see where it’s picking up the most steam in our AI deals tracker.
12 miles: Astronomers have observed a black hole — a cosmic object dense enough that not even light can escape its gravitational pull — that may only be 12 miles in diameter, less than the distance of a half-marathon. Researchers estimated the mass of the object to be 3.3x our sun, making it the smallest black hole yet detected.
One More Thing
Source: Instagram
There are Instagram influencers for everything: fashion, makeup, fitness, and now Trader Joe’s products.
That’s right. The grocery chain’s cult following has taken to the ‘Gram to show their love of its new products, share recipe inspiration, inspire grocery cart envy, and more.
The most popular of the TJ’s fan accounts, Trader Joe’s List, has over 972,000 followers.
All the data in this newsletter comes from CB Insights.
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