CB INSIGHTS

TM

WE WANTED
FLYING CARS,
INSTEAD WE
GOT...

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

GAME CHANGERS
Theres been a lot of talk about companies building things
that dont have a material impact on the world. This
concern has also spread to the venture capital world and
its investments.
Peter Thiel of Founders Fund famously criticized the lack
of real innovation in VC investing with this motto:
We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.
More recently, Chamath Palihapitiya may have described
the problem best when he said:
And this is the biggest problem with venture capital
right now. We have replaced venture capital with
product-market fit capital.
We used CB Insights data to surface 55 companies
that we believe are solving very important and/or big
problems, or that are building truly innovative technology.
While some of these companies are what many would call
moonshots, all have admirable goals and are thinking
outside the box in order to solve real problems.
We call these the CB Insights Game Changers.
To learn more click the website image/logo of any
company.
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

TABLE OF CONTENTS
# CATEGORY

EXAMPLES

4 Aerospace

Private Space Travel, Global Internet

Access, 3D Printed Rockets

11

Robotics/Drones

Autonomous Drone Delivery, Personal

Robots, Smart Security Robots

15

Energy

Fusion Energy, Nuclear Waste Powered

Energy

18

Food Tech

Water-Intensive Food Replacement, Lab

Grown Meat & Leather

22

Healthcare

Grow Your Own Bones, Human Lifespan

Extension, Gene-Editing Technology

27

Digital Health

Ingestible Health-Sensing, Mood

Altering Wearables

Other

Driverless Cars, Hyperloop,

Environmental Sensor Networks

32

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

AEROSPACE
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

grown meat
...SMALL Laboratory
SATELLITE PROPULSION

& leather

Description: Accion Systems develops electric

propulsion systems for small satellites. Electric
(versus chemical) propulsion is more efficient,
and removes the risk of combustion, a key issue
as small satellites often hitch rides on larger
launch spacecrafts.
Born out of MIT, the company has seen the
rise of small satellites like those used by Planet
Labs, Spire, and many others as a large market
opportunity.
Total Disclosed Funding: $5M
Select Investors: Founder Collective, Founders
Fund, Galvanize, GettyLab, RRE Ventures, SDF
Ventures, Slow Ventures, TechU Angels

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

Laboratory
grown
meat
& leather
...GLOBAL
HIGH-SPEED
INTERNET
ACCESS

Description: OneWeb is building a constellation of 640+ satellites in order to provide global

broadband internet access to the world. The
internet coverage is planned to extend to airplanes, vehicle cell networks, as well as directto-home systems.
Total Disclosed Funding: $500M
Select Investors: Airbus Group Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Totalplay, Virgin Group, Intelsat
Holding Corporation, Bharti Enterprises, Hughes
Network Systems, The Coca-Cola Company
Similar Companies: O3B Networks, SpaceX

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

Laboratory
grownOF
meat
&
...DAILY SATELLITE
IMAGERY
EARTH

leather

Description: Planet Labs is a satellite imagery

company that utilizes constellations of Dove
imaging satellites to collect information about
the planet.
Planet Labs is one of the leaders in small satellite development and applications. The company
has deployed 101 satellites on 9 launch vehicles, the largest satellite fleet in history.
Total Disclosed Funding: $196M
Select Investors: AME Cloud Ventures, Capricorn Investment Group, Data Collective, Draper
Fisher Jurvetson, Felicis Ventures, First Round
Capital, Founders Fund, Industry Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lux Capital, OReilly AlphaTech Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, Space
Angels Network
Similar Companies: Spire, Orbital Insight, Windward, OmniEarth

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

Laboratory
...ASTEROID
MINING

grown meat & leather

Description: Planetary Resources is an asteroid

mining company that plans to conduct low-cost
robotic space exploration to identify commercially viable near-Earth asteroids. The eventual
goal is to extract raw materials such as precious metals and water (the latter can be converted to rocket fuel and oxygen).
Most recently, Planetary Resources deployed
its first spacecraft from the International Space
Station and plans to be at the forefront of the inspace refueling economy in the next 10 years.
Total Disclosed Funding: $12.2M
Select Investors: 3D Systems Ventures, Space
Angels Network, James Cameron, Larry Page
Similar Companies: Deep Space Industries,
Moon Express

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

Laboratory
grown
...PRIVATE
SPACE TRAVEL

meat & leather

Description: SpaceX designs, manufactures,

and launches advanced rockets and spacecrafts. The company was founded by Elon Musk
in an effort to eventually enable human beings
to colonize other planets.
SpaceX has become one of the leaders in private sector space travel, as well as in the development of reusable rockets. Their efforts to
significantly bring down the cost of space travel
as well as enable other aerospace ecosystems
via launch services has proven critical for the
overall private space industry.
Total Disclosed Funding: $1.19B
Select Investors: Capricorn Investment Group,
Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Fidelity Investments,
Founders Fund, Google, Rothenberg Ventures,
Valor Equity Partners
Similar Companies: Deep Space Industries,
Moon Express, Blue Origin

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

CB

OTHER GAME-CHANGING AEROSPACE COMPANIES

Bagaveev is designing and testing 3D printed

aerospike rocket engines for nanosatellite launches
into low-earth orbit, a huge growth area for companies
like Planet Labs and more. Eventually, the company has
plans to compete with SpaceX and others for larger
commercial launches.

Golden Spike intends to commercialize moon landings by

providing full-service lunar missions to countries and large
agencies willing to pay to get there. The company plans to
charge upwards of $900M in order to get humans back on
the moon.

Total Disclosed Funding: $0.66M

Select Investors: Boost.vc, Sand Hill Angels, Y Combinator

Total Disclosed Funding: $0.15M

Select Investors: Space Angels Network

SpacePharma provides simple end-to-end microgravity

services for research. The microgravity experiments
helps scientists in areas ranging from vaccine
development to virus studies to agricultural innovations.

World View Enterprises is building a high-altitude balloon

for travel to nearspace for leisure, research, or education.
The companys platform is a cheaper, and longer duration
alternative to other orbital and suborbital options.

Total Disclosed Funding: Undisclosed

Select Investors: State of Mind Ventures

Total Disclosed Funding: $8.78M

Select Investors: Space Angels Network, Tencent, Rothenberg
Ventures

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

10

CB

ROBOTICS &
DRONES
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

11

CB

Laboratory
grown
meat
& leather
...PERSONAL
ROBOTICS
FOR THE
HOME

Description: Bossa Nova Robotics is developing

a fully autonomous, mobile robot. They hope
their personal robots will be able to bring robots
out of the lab and into consumers lives, bridging
the emotional connection between each in order
to accomplish daily tasks.
Total Disclosed Funding: $9.11M
Select Investors: Innovation Works, Riverwood
Capital

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

12

CB

Laboratory
grown meatSECURITY
& leather
...INTELLIGENT
AND AUTONOMOUS
ROBOTS

Description: Gamma 2 Robotics produces intelligent and autonomous robots for commercial
security.
The company has developed the Cybernetic Brain, which is artificial intelligence that
enables the robots to operate independently
while detecting and making judgments related
to invaders, fire, smoke, water, suspicious new
objects, and more.
Total Disclosed Funding: $3.55M
Select Investors: Foxlink Group

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

13

CB

Laboratory
grown
meat
...AUTONOMOUS
DRONE
DELIVERY

& leather

Description: Matternet is a drone delivery company that is building an automated delivery network for goods based on a fleet of autonomous
UAVs/drones.
The company ran initial tests with Swiss Post to
deliver parcels in areas that are difficult to access via traditional infrastructure.
Total Disclosed Funding: $2M
Select Investors: Undisclosed Investors
Similar Companies: Flirtey

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

14

CB

ENERGY
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

15

CB

Laboratory
grown
...NUCLEAR
FUSION ENERGY

meat & leather

Description: General Fusion is working on a

Magnetized Target Fusion system. Fusion power
is touted as an abundant, clean, and incredibly
efficient energy source.
Experts say that if properly done, fusion power
could supply the worlds energy needs for millions of years.
Total Disclosed Funding: $71.8M
Select Investors: BDC Venture Capital, Bezos
Expeditions, Braemar Energy Ventures, Cenovus
Energy, Chrysalix Global Network, Entrepreneurs
Fund, GrowthWorks, New Ground Ventures, Robeco, SET Venture Partners, Sustainable Development Technology Canada
Similar Companies: Tri Alpha Energy, Helion
Energy

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

16

CB

Laboratory
grown meat
&
...NUCLEAR
WASTE-POWERED
ENERGY

leather

Description: Transatomic Power takes the previously harmful nuclear waste generated from
nuclear power and turns it into an affordable,
carbon-free energy source.
Total Disclosed Funding: $6.73M
Select Investors: Founders Fund

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

17

CB

FOOD TECH
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

18

CB

Laboratory
grown meat
leather
...EGG- AND
WATER-INTENSIVE
FOOD &
REPLACEMENTS

Description: Hampton Creek Foods is a company working on disrupting the worlds food industry by replacing eggs as well as other water-intensive foods with plant-based substitutes.
Hampton Creeks plans extend globally, hoping
to eventually make over 30 different food products, including high-protein snacks for emerging
markets that can be cheap, easily produced and
help fight hunger.
In March 2015, the company said its foods had
led to water savings of over 1.3B gallons in the
past year.
Total Disclosed Funding: $120M
Select Investors: AME Cloud Ventures, Bill
Gates, Collaborative Fund, Eagle Cliff Partners,
Founders Fund, Horizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures, New Ground Ventures
Similar Companies: Beyond Meat, Impossible
Foods

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

19

CB

Laboratory
grown
& leather
...LABORATORY
GROWN
MEAT meat
AND LEATHER

Description: Modern Meadow is a company

that uses a tissue-engineering technique called
biofabrication to grow meat and leather in a
lab from skin and muscle cells.
The current process of making in vitro meat has
raised concerns around cost (a pound of meat
would cost well over $75). But the expected
sales increases for leather over the next 5 years,
as well as rising costs associated with production, bodes well for Modern Meadow if they can
figure out their process.
Total Disclosed Funding: $10.3M
Select Investors: ARTIS Ventures, Collaborative
Fund, Horizons Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Red
Swan Ventures, Breakout Labs, Sequoia Capital
Similar Companies: Beyond Meat, Impossible
Foods

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

20

CB

Laboratory
meat & leather
...LOW-COST,
HEALTHY,grown
MEAL REPLACEMENT

Description: Soylent is a food replacement

company that has created a powder and drink
that is meant to provide low-cost, healthy, and
complete meals in liquid form.
Initially, Soylent was greeted with complaints
about poor taste and texture, not to mention
some strong resistance to the concept of food
replacement. Soylent has since iterated on its
recipe to its latest version (2.0) which is a bottled meal replacement at less than $5/meal.
While the idea of replacing every meal with
Soylent is still controversial, the implications of
a healthy, low-cost replacement arent just for
the tech crowd.
Total Disclosed Funding: $21.5M
Select Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Index
Ventures, Initialized Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures
Similar Companies: Mosaic Nutrition

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

21

CB

HEALTHCARE
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

22

CB

Laboratory
grown meat
...GENE-EDITING
TECHNOLOGY

& leather

Description: Editas is one of the leading companies developing the gene-editing technology
called CRISPR. This technique will allow us to
edit genes and potentially cure previously intractable diseases. The company is already partnering with several other companies to treat disorders such as sickle cell anemia, LCA10 (a retinal
disease), and blood cancer.
Total Disclosed Funding: $163M
Select Investors: Flagship Ventures, Polaris
Partners, Third Rock Ventures, T. Rowe Price,
Viking Global Investors, Google Ventures, Fidelity
Investments, Partners Innovation Fund, Casdin
Capital
Similar Companies: CRISPR Therapeutics

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

23

CB

grown
...GROW Laboratory
YOUR OWN BONES

meat & leather

Description: EpiBone uses stem cell technology

to allow patients to grow their own bones.The
technology utilizes a scan of the patients bone
defect and the patients own stem cells to construct and cultivate a bone graft.
Total Disclosed Funding: $0.35M
Select Investors: Breakout Labs

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

24

CB

Laboratory
grown
meat &
...EXTENDING
THE HUMAN
LIFESPAN

leather

Description: Human Longevity is building the

largest human sequencing operation in an effort
to address age-related human biological decline.
Total Disclosed Funding: $70M
Select Investors: Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Similar Companies: Color Genomics

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

25

CB

OTHER GAME-CHANGING HEALTHCARE COMPANIES

Intarcia Therapeutics develops an implantable

matchstick-sized diabetes pump that lowers blood
glucose levels and continuously delivers a diabetes
drug for up to a year.

One Medical Group has re-invented the primary care system

in the US, with a focus on user experience and digital health
technology such as telemedicine.

Total Disclosed Funding: $689.1M

Select Investors: Brentwood Associates, Delphi Ventures,
Alta Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Venrock

Total Disclosed Funding: $117.5M

Select Investors: Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Serent
Capital, Oak Investment Partners, Maverick Capital

Stemcentrx aims to cure cancer by targeting stem

cells instead of the typical approach which focuses on
rogue mature cells.

SynCardia Systems manufactures the Total Artificial Heart,

which serves as a bridge to transplant for people suffering
from end-stage heart failure.

Total Disclosed Funding: $373.5M

Select Investors: ARTIS Ventures, Elon Musk, Fidelity
Investments, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital

Total Disclosed Funding: $55M

Select Investors: Desert Angels, Solstice Capital, Athyrium Capital
Management, SWK Holdings

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

26

CB

DIGITAL
HEALTH
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

27

CB

Laboratory
meat &DATA
leather
...AT HOME
MOLECULEgrown
LEVEL HEALTH

Description: Cue makes a consumer-focused

deep-health tracker device that measures five
key health indicators via different cartridges that
take samples for identifying molecule level data
at home.
The tracker pairs with a mobile phone to show
users how their health choices affect them.
Currently, the test tracks testosterone, influenza,
vitamin D, fertility, and inflammation.
Total Funding: $7.5M
Select Investors: Immortalana, Sherpa Capital

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

28

CB

Laboratory
grown meat
...INGESTIBLE
HEALTH-SENSING

& leather

Description: Proteus Digital Health develops

services and personal health analytics based on
its ingestible sensor technology.
The digital health feedback system provides a
detailed view into an individuals personal health
choices and physiologic responses.
Total Funding: $367.2M
Select Investors: Adams Street Partners, Spring
Ridge Ventures, The Carlyle Group, Asset Management Ventures, Fletcher Spaght Ventures,
Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Novartis, Oracle,
Frazier Healthcare Partners

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

29

CB

grown meat
...MOOD Laboratory
ALTERING WEARABLES

& leather

Description: Thync is engineering a wearable

device that uses neurosignaling algorithms to
optimize peoples mental state by calibrating
energy, focus, and stress.
Total Funding: $13M
Select Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla
Ventures

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

30

CB

OTHER GAME-CHANGING DIGITAL HEALTH COMPANIES

Flatiron Health operates the OncologyCloud platform

which uses big data analytics to allow cancer care
providers to gain deep clinical intelligence.

Glooko offers a diabetes-management solution for patients

and healthcare professionals. The companys mobile app
allows clinicians to remotely access their patients data.

Total Disclosed Funding: $138M

Select Investors: BoxGroup, First Round Capital, Google
Ventures, SV Angel, The Social+Capital Partnership

Total Disclosed Funding: $28M

Select Investors: Canaan Partners, LifeForce Ventures, Medtronic,
Samsung Ventures, The Social+Capital Partnership

Oscar Health Insurance is a health insurance provider

that utilizes technology to create a new type of
insurance provider.

Psious helps treat behavioral health issues through

augmented and virtual reality, including claustrophobia,
agoraphobia, and more.

Total Disclosed Funding: $327.5M

Select Investors: BoxGroup, Founders Fund, General Catalyst
Partners, Khosla Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, SV Angel,
Thrive Capital

Total Disclosed Funding: $1.1M

Select Investors: Rothenberg Ventures, River Accelerator

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

31

CB

OTHER
#CBIGAMECHANGERS

32

CB

Laboratory
grownNETWORKS
meat & leather
...ENVIRONMENTAL
SENSOR

Description: Aclima designs and deploys environmental sensor networks that collect, process,
and understand real-time data about the environment.
Aclima deploys sensors indoors, outdoors, and
on vehicles in order to provide a high-resolution picture of the world around us.
Total Disclosed Funding: None
Select Investors: None

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

33

CB

Laboratory
...DRIVERLESS
CARS

grown meat & leather

Description: Cruise Automation makes automated driving technology. Their first product is
a highway autopilot system that installs in any
existing vehicle. It uses sensors and machine
vision to autonomously drive your vehicle.
Total Funding: $16.8M
Select Investors: Sam Altman, Signia Venture
Partners, Spark Capital, Y Combinator

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

34

CB

Laboratory
...HYPERLOOP

grown meat & leather

Description: Hyperloop Technologies designs,

builds, and tests every aspect of the worlds next
transportation system, Hyperloop.
The expected speeds for transporting people
and cargo top 500 MPH.
Total Funding: $8.5M
Select Investors: Formation 8, Sherpa Capital

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

35

CB

Laboratory
grown
meat
& leather
...DETAILED
ECONOMIC
DATA VIA
MOBILE
PHONES

Description: Premise Data develops software

and mobile infrastructure that collects millions
of discrete data points every day from local
sources. This data allows clients to navigate
various financial-market related industries, as
well as get a more detailed view about a given
regions economic stability than previously available.
Total Disclosed Funding: $61M
Select Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Bowery
Capital, Google Ventures, Harrison Metal, Neu
Venture Capital, SK Ventures, The Social+Capital
Partnership, Valor Equity Partners

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

36

CB

Laboratory
meat
...PRIVATE
EQUITY FORgrown
CANNABIS

& leather

Description: Privateer Holdings is the cannabis

industrys first private equity firm. The fund intends to build a portfolio of investments around
the emerging legal cannabis industry.
Total Disclosed Funding: $82M
Select Investors: Founders Fund

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

37

CB

OTHER GAME-CHANGING COMPANIES

AltSchool is re-imagining K-8 education via microschools that offer personalized and child-centric
learning experiences.

Magic Leap is a developer of cinematic augmented reality

software and technology.

Total Disclosed Funding: $136M

Select Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Baseline Ventures,
First Round Capital, Founders Fund, Harrison Metal, Learn
Capital, Omidyar Network

Total Disclosed Funding: $592M

Select Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Google, Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers, KKR, Qualcomm Ventures, Obvious Ventures,
Legendary Entertainment

Palantir Technologies utilizes proprietary software

applications to aid in big data analysis with a focus on
security, scalability, ease of use, and collaboration.

Veniam turns vehicles into Wi-Fi hotspots, building cityscale vehicular networks via mesh networking, while also
collecting mass amounts of urban data.

Total Disclosed Funding: $1.49B

Select Investors: Founders Fund, In-Q-Tel, Reed Elsevier
Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Youniversity Ventures

Total Disclosed Funding: $4.93M

Select Investors: Cane Investments, True Ventures, Union Square
Ventures

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

38

CB

CB INSIGHTS
www.cbinsights.com [website]
@cbinsights [Twitter]

TM
CB Insights is a National Science
Foundation backed company
that uses data to provide VCs,
corporate strategy, M&A teams,
and business development
professionals with intelligence
on emerging companies and
disruptive technology trends.
CB Insights is based in NYC,
is revenue-funded with an
amazing and talented team and is
growing like a weed.
To see how our data can
make your life easier, visit
www.cbinsights.com

#CBIGAMECHANGERS

39

CB