the VC code

Be critical

Hi there,

So Blue Apron’s stock price has been struggling since its IPO.  

Prior to the IPO, VC firm Goodwater Capital published a detailed but critical analysis of the company’s financials based on its S-1. It prompted this question from Blue Apron investor Phin Barnes, a partner at First Round Capital, who took exception with a fellow VC being critical of Blue Apron and startups in general.

Erin Griffith of Fortune asked if every VC firm must support every startup and Barnes responded that he thought so.

Barnes added that “those in the industry should support the industry.”

This is an interesting question. So we wanted to ask you:

Should VCs only support startups and the industry, at least publicly? (Click to vote)

Exits flying high

We looked at global exit activity in the drones space since 2012. Since 2012, there have been 34 exits within the drone space, with 24 of those just over the last two years.

Victoria’s fintech hub

CB Insights client, the Victorian Government of Australia is looking for a company to manage a new global fintech hub in Melbourne. If interested in managing the fintech hub, apply here.

Darn boy – you look fine

An oldie but goodie from The New Yorker poking at corporate innovation theater.

Frontier health

We identified 11 startups applying sophisticated “frontier” technologies to innovate within the medical and healthcare sectors. These companies are using VR, machine learning, and even brain-hacking to advance the future of healthcare. Vayu, which focuses on UAVs for the rural healthcare supply, is featured below.

__________

MESSAGE FROM OUR PARTNER

Finimize is the daily email that everyone in finance secretly reads. It’s the perfect 3-minute cheat sheet on what happened in the financial news – free and without any jargon. Founded by a Forbes “30 under 30” and featured in Wired, Forbes, Inc. Massive FOMO? Get in there.
__________

What is the point?

After seeing this “graph,” I can’t stop saying “the point of optimality” in a robot voice.  

“You have reached the point of optimality. I ask you to stop. The optimality threshold has been breached.”

Ok — maybe it’s just me.

In any case, it’s a nonsensical graph we wanted to share.

Active in Asia

We highlighted the top corporate investors within Asia — including Tencent Holdings, SBI Investment, and CyberAgent Ventures — in the past year and analyzed how these 12 players are fueling innovation in the Asia tech ecosystem. In Q1’17, these corporates participated in 125 deals across $6.6B in funding.

Industry Standard

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

Irish Tech News. Caroline Bowler writes about Japanese fintech company Moneytree and cites CB Insights investment data.

BusinessTech. A look at South African fintech startups with a reference to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list.

Houston Business Journal. A look at why energy companies will be major users of blockchain technology with a mention of CB Insights research on financial services giants.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal

P.S. Next week, we’ll be diving into financing trends, startups, and investors within the pharma space. Join us for the discussion.