Venture funding has remained fairly steady despite the pandemic, according to this report from KPMG Private Enterprise. I couldn’t quite reconcile the graphs, which seem to show a modest downturn, with the words, which say activity is well ahead of 2019. It’s more clear that capital is more available for late-stage companies than new ones.

Definitely on the bright side, Optimove has released “self-optimizing journeys”, which autonomously determines the next best action for each individual customer. While next best action isn’t new, Optimove says its approach looks beyond short-term metrics to maximize lifetime value. Good stuff.

Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation.  The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.