CB Insights

The most influential strategy teams have clear KPIs. That’s part of the reason why they outperform the 60% of teams who can’t clearly measure their performance. These winning teams are 50% more likely to sign deals. And they see 67% more of their strategic recommendations implemented. Their secret? Project-specific KPIs. But there’s more to it. Do you want to know what else the most influential strategy teams do better? Find out in our free strategy team playbooks report: https://cbi.team/3zGQ5dI

Legal AI agents either need to innovate, or position for a quick sale. Because buyers aren’t sold. Agentic AI in legal tech may be garnering hype (and attracting investor $$$), but customers are giving mixed reviews. Differentiation between competitors is low, and most startups are not well integrated into other legal workflow solutions. As the space continues to grow, switching between companies will only get easier. So what's next for legal AI agents and copilots? We see 2 paths: compete on features or angle for acquisition. What do you think startups need to stand out in the AI agent market? And who could be scooped up next?

Just 24 new unicorns (companies reaching $1B valuations) emerged in Q3’24. Sure, this marked a lil’ bump QoQ, but it makes you miss the times when we were birthing 130 in a single quarter. Oh, the good ol’ days. It seems like this moderate level is the new normal for unicorn births. And right now, the magic is concentrated in one particular area: AI, the venture bright spot. As AI pulls in more VC dollars than other sectors, it is also minting more unicorns than any other sector (13 in Q3’24).

When selecting AI models, businesses and developers have many vendor choices: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc. These can all cost serious $$$ to use, but price isn't always the top consideration. Many businesses are sticking with OpenAI’s models — rather than switching to those developed by rivals like Google — simply because they are easier to use. Take it from this OpenAI customer, who highlighted that ease of use is keeping them exactly where they are:

Can vaporizing rock solve our energy needs? The Earth's interior holds vast energy, but it's largely inaccessible — geothermal accounts for less than 0.2% of global energy. Now, startups like Quaise Energy and GA Drilling are pioneering plasma and millimeter wave techniques to drill deeper, faster. Their goal? Tap into superhot rock energy available 24/7, everywhere. Tech giants like Google and Meta are coming on board, exploring geothermal to power their data centers. Will ultra-deep drilling become the next frontier in clean energy?

Meet the 50 private digital health companies that will transform the healthcare industry. https://cbi.team/3ZFLGlO

Let’s be clear: AI will reshape the utility sector. So which companies are winning the AI race? Our experts scored the 50 largest global utility companies by market cap based on their innovation and execution in AI to find out. The leader? Enel Group. They’re making bold moves in renewable energy optimization and infrastructure, outpacing their peers. The utility sector is projected to spend nearly $9B a year by 2032 on AI, and several companies are pursuing targeted strategies that hint at the sector’s future direction. Our AI Readiness Index reveals who’s leading, who’s lagging, and what it means for the future of energy: https://cbi.team/3Y4orAE

1 in every 3 VC dollars now goes to AI. Within AI, a company’s age and stage don’t always correlate to the size of financing rounds. One of the largest rounds in Q3’24, for instance, was a mammoth $1B deal to Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) — an early-stage startup founded in June by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. The company has just 10 employees. SSI’s deal is the 9th $1B AI equity round this year. Given their willingness to participate in such large rounds to so many companies, investors appear confident that a new tech giant will emerge from the space — and apparently have FOMO. Yet despite investors’ bullishness, many of today’s fledgling AI startups will struggle to live up to lofty expectations, and some will ultimately fail. Learn more in our new State of Venture Report: https://cbi.team/3zzsFXH

It’s hard to become a unicorn. …right? On average, it takes just over 7 years for today’s unicorns to cross the billion-dollar mark. Until, of course, you zoom in on generative AI startups. They average 3.9 years to hit unicorn status – 45% less than all other unicorns. And some do it in a fraction of the time. Mistral AI, for example, grabbed a $2B valuation in 8 months after being founded. Is it sustainable? Or a bubble about to burst? And are investors chasing the next big thing, or are they ignoring the risks? Dig into the data here: https://cbi.team/3ZD0WzX

AI agents — LLM-powered bots that can independently reason and execute tasks — will reshape the workforce. More than 50 companies have emerged in the last 2 years in this space. One step further are multi-agent architectures, which outperform single agents on complex tasks by leveraging specialized sub-agents. We dive into the outlook for these systems, including agent “subcontracting” and future marketplaces that will emerge: https://cbi.team/4gnn0oc