CB Insights

Who are the most active accelerators? Two accelerators lead by a large margin in terms of deal volume: Plug and Play and Y Combinator. Each did over 2,000 accelerator deals from 2020 to 2022. Techstars takes the third spot with over 1,600 deals. These 3 players are among the oldest accelerators, with YC pioneering the model back in 2005.

The generative AI boom has been more than a decade in the making. Now, it’s accelerating. For countless companies around the globe, one question is looming larger than any other: How can we win in the era of generative AI? We analyze how the tech has developed, where it's going, and which trends and players you need to watch in our Generative AI Bible. Here are a few highlights: ▪️ 300+ startups have emerged across the genAI landscape ▪️ Nvidia is the #1 investor in genAI ▪️ US startups are raising deals at 2x the rate of the rest of the world combined ▪️ While OpenAI is a clear leader, there’s no winner yet in foundation models Get the free 122-page report here: https://cbi.team/3QoUGX1

Tap into the moves global leaders are making in AI. In this webinar: https://cbi.team/3Wm75yL

Our book of strategy maps shines a light on the strategies of the world’s most important companies. These strategies are not found by listening to senior executives rattle off carefully coached talking points. They’re found by mining data. Where is a company deploying its resources? Who are a company’s partners, investments, and M&A targets? These are the non-BS predictors of strategy. https://cbi.team/3UeHp4q

Sam Altman has become the face of the generative AI movement. Prior to heading up OpenAI, he was president of Y Combinator, one of the most successful startup accelerators in the world, from 2014 to 2019. Behind the scenes, Altman is a remarkably active angel investor — with over 100 investments since 2010, including rounds to Stripe, Reddit, and Instacart. In addition to his individual investments, he is the founder of VC firm Hydrazine Capital and investment fund Apollo Projects, launched with his brothers Max and Jack Altman. Altman Capital, which is managed by Jack, also counts Sam as a limited partner. His investments highlight wide-ranging interests, including lab-grown meat, longevity, energy, education — and, of course, artificial intelligence. We mapped out Sam Altman’s universe of portfolio companies by category since 2019, and note where companies have publicly disclosed a relationship with OpenAI.

Generative AI has taken the world by storm. So we set out to find the 50 most promising genAI startups across the globe. Our first-ever GenAI 50 winners show just how versatile this tech can be. Together, they’re working across 7 industries, 8 cross-industry applications, and 5 categories of AI development tools. Meet all 50 winners and find out what they do in our GenAI 50 report: https://cbi.team/3wmbgQn

Berkshire Hathaway’s “crown jewel” Geico reported a 174% quarter-over-quarter jump in underwriting profit, to reach $1.9B in Q1’24. Despite the gains, the conglomerate faced questions at its annual meeting on Sunday about the insurance company’s vulnerabilities vs. competitors like Progressive. Its big disadvantage? Data analytics. “One of the drawbacks that Geico is faced with [is that] it hasn’t been doing a good job at matching rate with risk, and segmenting and pricing product based on the risk characteristics. This has been a disadvantage at Geico for a few years now. We are trying to still play catch-up. Technology is something that is unfortunately a bottleneck.” — Ajit Jain, Vice Chair of Insurance Operations at Berkshire Increasingly, the industry is moving in the direction of AI — from automated vehicle inspection to claims processing. Geico is ranked 42nd on the CB Insights Insurance AI Readiness Index. Progressive is ranked 23rd. See how prepared the top 50 insurance companies are to adapt to a rapidly evolving AI landscape in this briefing. https://cbi.team/4a0nSuu

These are the stories behind the biggest #VC home runs of all time. https://cbi.team/3QouewH

For many of the world’s largest companies, AI simply can’t be ignored — and executives are making moves in the space. Uncover their strategies across enterprise tech, financial services, healthcare and industrials: https://cbi.team/4bv623W

Despite growth in broader venture funding in Q1’24, #insurtech funding declined 18% quarter-over-quarter to hit its lowest level in years. Even so, median insurtech deal size is up in 2024 so far — signaling that investors are still willing to make notable bets where they see opportunities. Dig into 70+ pages of charts and data detailing the latest venture trends in insurtech here: https://cbi.team/3USsjTK