July 31, 2025

Hold Please

Hi there,

CB Insights just dropped our biggest release ever. 

Magic Mode for ChatCBI automates M&A analysis and competitive intel at the click of a button. 

Plus, new search filters let you quickly analyze 10M+ companies, using:

• Markets (1500+ analyst-curated markets)
• Business models
• Your personal watchlists

And now in addition to having 10M companies, we're also #1 in US equity deal coverage.

Learn more here. 

And now, here is this week's Hot or Not.

Hot: Robot customer service

US customer service giant NiCE's nearly $1B acquisition of German startup Cognigy marks Europe's biggest AI M&A deal to date, signaling massive investor appetite for agentic customer service solutions.

AI customer service agents command the highest valuation premiums in the sector — averaging 127x revenue multiples compared to 52x across all top AI agents.

This gap signals investors are betting on aggressive revenue acceleration as businesses rapidly replace human support teams with AI agents.

See CB Insights' ranking of the top 20 AI agent startups by revenue and which of them earn the highest multiples.

Not: Digital health funding

Digital health equity funding fell 21% QoQ in Q2’25, while deal volume dropped to its lowest level in 5 years. 

This trend mirrors the broader venture landscape, where deal activity reached its lowest level since 2016.

The funding landscape this quarter shows a clear preference for mature digital health companies — late-stage deals averaged $137M, up 69% from the prior quarter.

This rise was powered by a few significant raises, most notably the Elon Musk co-founded Neuralink’s $650M Series E round – the largest digital health deal since 2021. 

Get the full scoop on the slowdown in our State of Digital Health Q2’25 report.

Hot: Retail AI agents

Walmart consolidated its AI capabilities into 4 centralized "super agents" this week, including:

• Sparky, for customers
• Marty, for suppliers, sellers, and advertisers
• An associate agent for store workers
• An agent for Walmart’s tech developers 

Walmart has previously developed retail-specific LLMs and introduced assistants for merchants, associates, and shoppers, plus AI tools for virtual fitting and shelf condition tracking. 

This puts the retailer well ahead of its competition.

CB Insights' Retail AI Readiness Index shows most major retailers are dramatically unprepared for AI adoption, with giants like Costco and TJX scoring zero.

See which retailers are leading the pack and which are falling behind in our full index here.

Not: In-house AV development

Uber recently partnered with Lucid and Nuro to launch its own robotaxi fleet, joining an industry-wide race as autonomous vehicles boom again.

This AV revival is creating demand for simulation and training solutions. 

Major automakers like GM and Hyundai are buying these tools from specialized companies rather than building them internally — especially after their own self-driving efforts hit safety and timing problems.

Take Applied Intuition, which just raised $600M at a $15B valuation and counts 18 of the top 20 automotive OEMs as clients.

CB Insights data shows 74% of OEM relationships since 2022 have concentrated among the top 5 simulation providers. 

See CB Insights' analysis of the most promising autonomous driving training and simulation providers capturing the outsourcing wave.

The +1

Source: u/ImthebestGG via Reddit

Europeans can't even agree on math. Google Translate is confused. 

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal 

Co-Founder & Exec Chair

P.S. Want to learn more about insurtech's latest investment trends and AI developments? Register for our midyear briefing on insurtech with Gallagher Re here. 

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