TREND REPORTS
(Infographic) Unicorn Hunters : These Investors Have Backed The Most Billion-Dollar Companies
[Investing]
2016/10/24 10:39
SV Angel has the most early-stage investments in billion-dollar companies, followed by Sequoia.[click to enlarge]There are 176 private unicorn companies globally valued at a billion dollars or more as of 10/20/16, according to our unicorn tracker. We used CB Insights data to update our analysis on which investors have backed the most unicorns and which are in the best position to capitalize sho...
Drone Receives Wireless Power, On The Fly
[Tech]
2016/10/24 10:38
The Imperial College drone, flying without a battery or tether.Given that the battery life of most multicopter drones typically doesn't exceed 30 minutes of flight time per charge, there are many tasks that they simply can't perform. Feeding them power through a hard-wired tether is one option, although that only works for applications where they're hovering in place. Scientists at Imperial Col...
Fueled by the Audience Network, Facebook Advertisers Saw Higher Q3 Spends & Returns
[Business]
2016/10/24 10:38
A new report from social ad automation company Nanigans shows substantial growth in both YoY Facebook ad spend and on the overall Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). In Q3 2016, the average increase in ad spend was +249 percent YoY, while the average ROAS was also up 26 percent from 2015.One of the main drivers of this increase was Facebook’s expanded Audience Network. In Q2 2016, that allowed brands t...
How Canadians' Dietary Choices Are Influencing Food Purchases
[Consumer]
2016/10/24 10:36
Consumers today are taking an active role in managing their health, which includes following proper nutrition guidelines to prevent and control health issues. These healthy attitudes are having an impact on food trends, providing Canadians with a multitude of options to help them achieve their goals, including minimizing future health problems (82%) and losing weight (69%). Canadians’ shifting...
(PDF) Mckinsey - How Customer Demands Are Reshaping Last-Mile Delivery
[Business]
2016/10/23 11:10
The last mile is seeing disruption from new business models that address customer demand for ever-faster delivery, as well as new technologies such as drones and autonomous ground vehicles.Last-mile delivery, especially of parcels, has recently received lots of attention in the media and from investors. The cost of global parcel delivery, excluding pickup, line-haul, and sorting, amounts to abo...
(Infographic) The Top 22 Celebrity Startup Investors And Their Investments
[Investing]
2016/10/23 11:09
A list of the top 22 most active celebrity startup investors since 2007, including Shark Tank vets, quarterbacks, and rappers.Celebrities are making investments in private tech companies as early-stage angel backers, and also participating in later-stage growth rounds. Some stars have even formed their own venture capital funds which have LPs or limited partners (i.e., pension funds, university...
L’Oréal Wants To Help Visually Impaired Women Apply Makeup
[Business]
2016/10/23 11:08
The cosmetics brand has developed a series of audio tutorials for Brazilian consumers with reduced sight.Every woman deserves to feel beautiful, which is why L’Oréal Brazil came up with a new project for its Maybelline New York Brand that will help visually impaired women learn about self-makeup. The project is called Audio Makeup, a platform where lessons are taught via audio narrated classe...
Plummeting Newspaper Ad Revenue Sparks New Wave of Changes
[Business]
2016/10/23 11:07
With global newspaper print advertising on pace for worst decline since recession, publishers cut costs and restructure. Global spending on newspaper print ads is expected to decline 8.7% to $52.6 billion in 2016. Newspapers are suffering an accelerating drop in print advertising, a market that already was under stress, forcing some publishers to consider significant cost cuts and dramatic chan...
(PDF) Microsoft's New Breakthrough : AI That's as Good as Humans at Listening... On The Phone
[Tech]
2016/10/23 11:06
Microsoft's new speech-recognition record means professional transcribers could be among the first to lose their jobs to artificial intelligence.Microsoft's speech-recognition AI could eventually be used to enhance Cortana's accessibility features, say, for deaf people.Microsoft researchers have developed a system that recognizes speech as accurately as a professional human transcriptionist.Res...
