a robot has died

A check on chatbot chatter

Hi there,

Signals from the CB Insights platform suggest that the chatbot craze may be slowing.

(Note: all of these were pulled in a grand total of < 2 minutes.)

News chatter about chatbots is declining.

On earnings calls, execs have already moved on from chatbots.

While news and transcript mentions have declined, patent activity about chatbots has held steady. IBM leads the pack in chatbot patents, followed by Microsoft and Kik Interactive.

Funding to chatbots has mostly been relegated to early-stage companies (seed/angel & Series A), with few breaking out despite many receiving initial funding.

If you want to see how any particular trend or technology is doing in minutes across news, patents, funding, M&A, and earnings calls, log in to your CB Insights account or create an account here.

Are you well?

What’s next for wellness? From private labels to smart refrigerators to personalized, next-gen nutrition, we take a look at the top 18 wellness trends to watch in 2018. See them all here.

Rest now, sweet prince

After running a successful Indiegogo campaign and raising over $60M in VC funding, the company behind Jibo the social robot is shutting down.

A video was posted yesterday showing Jibo the robot himself announcing his impending death.

Another innocent victim of hardware being hard.

New unicorn = new speaker

Fresh off a $200M round of funding, Chime CEO Chris Britt is our newest confirmed speaker for Future of Fintech (June 11-13, NYC).

Now valued at $1.5B, Chime is yet another unicorn added to our killer speaker lineup. We look forward to digging into the company’s plans for growth and efforts to reach underbanked and frustrated consumers.

Save over $2K with our group ticket here (more details coming soon on stages 2 and 3), or save $500 off a single ticket with code newunicorn.

Around the world

Total annual global VC funding increased by 21% to $207B in 2018. Deal activity rose 10% to 14,247.

We take a look at the most active global VCs from Q4’18. Check them out here.

Wag if you love wellness

Wellness isn’t just for humans anymore — it’s seeping into the world of pets with high-grade food, fitness trackers, and even cannabis-based supplements.

Pet pampering is one of the Experimental trends we discuss in our new What’s Next In Wellness report, which you can download here.

Get that bread

What does perfect toast look like to you?

Marie Claire

Per the hundreds of responses we got on Instagram, there are some clear favorites. It’s also unanimous that if you say J9, you are a psychopath.

 Big tech loves unicorns

Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple have invested in unicorn companies across a wide range of industries, from diagnostics to ride-hailing to VR.

We take a closer look at where the biggest US tech companies are placing their bets. 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.

Reuters. Anshuman Daga (@anshumandaga) and Aradhana Aravindan (@rdchatters) report that Grab is considering raising more funding after its record $4.5B round and cite CB Insights data.

San Francisco Chronicle. Carolyn Said (@csaid) writes about meal delivery startup Ritual and quotes CB Insights intelligence analyst Natan Reddy (@natan_reddy).

Nikkei Asian Review. Coco Liu (@cocojournalist) discusses TikTok’s recent string of scandals and references CB Insights data.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal 

P.S. We’re hiring. If you like smart people, quarterly Hack Days, and unlimited Babybel cheese, check out our open positions here.