News
Each day, DailyAlts tracks major developments across the alternative investment world. Our content is procured from primary contacts in the industry and secondary sources across the web. Our goal is to give readers the most up-to-date news and engaging experience to open new doors and areas of knowledge. Our stories cover nine separate verticals of the alternative investment industry.
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Chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) has unveiled a range of innovative AI solutions spanning from data centers to personal computers. The AMD Instinct MI300 Series features data center AI accelerators, while the ROCm 6 open software stack introduces new features supporting Large Language Models (LLMs). Additionally, the Ryzen 8040 Series processors come equipped with Ryzen AI capabilities.
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Venture Capital: India’s ShareChat Scores $502M Raise From Top Investors
Sharechat, the Indian AI-powered social media and content-sharing platform, announced a raise of $502 million in a round led by Tiger Global. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Lightspeed, and Snap (NYSE: SNAP) also participated in the investment round which valued the start-up at $ 2.1 billion.
Digital Assets: XRP Makes A Comeback As Ripple Gains Legal Headway
XRP made a huge move Tuesday, shooting above $1 and touching a 3-year high. No real reason could be ascribed to the move then, beyond generally bullish cryptocurrencies – the market value of all cryptocurrencies moved above $2 trillion. However, Ripple made a dent in its suit with the SEC, winning the right to ‘discovery,’ or access, to the SEC’s internal records on bitcoin, ether, and XRP.
FinTech: Indian Fintech Startup Cred Raises $215M, Turns Unicorn
Cred, a fintech founded by Kunal Shah, has just achieved the distinction of becoming the second-fastest Indian startup to emerge as a unicorn, that too within a mere 29 months of launch. It raised $215 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $ 2.2 billion, as investors continued to favor its business model of rewarding credit card payments made on time.
Artificial Intelligence: Indoor Farming Company AppHarvest Acquires Root AI
AppHarvest, Inc (NASDAQ: APPH), an indoor and sustainable farming company, announced today its acquisition of Root AI, a startup that develops AI-powered robots for use in indoor farming and harvesting. The deal includes Root AI’s signature robotic harvester dubbed Virgo. AppHarvest will pay about $60 million for the acquisition, comprising $10 million in cash and the rest in shares.
Alternative Investments/Digital: CoinShares And 3iQ Join Hands For BTC ETF
Asset manager Coinshares is partnering with 3iQ for the launch of the 3iQ Coinshares Bitcoin ETF. The move follows a strategic investment by CoinShares in 3iQ. The ETF is expected to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange from early April under the symbols “BTCQ.U” (in US dollars) and “BTCQ” (in Canadian dollars). 3iQ will act as the investment and portfolio manager of the ETF.
FinTech: Plaid Collects $425M At A Solid $13.4B Valuation
Fintech Plaid announced today its Series D round funding of $425 million at a valuation of $13.4 billion. The round was led by Altimeter Capital with participation from new investors, Silver Lake and Ribbit Capital. Earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and New Enterprise Associates also participated.
Artificial Intelligence: Google’s Ethical AI Crisis Escalates; Samy Bengio Resigns
Renowned AI authority and senior AI research manager at Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Samy Bengio, has resigned. His departure, scheduled for April 28, shows the rising discord within Google’s AI ranks, as it follows on the firings of researchers Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell. The two women reported to Bengio. Google later handed over the charge of Bengio’s department to Mariam Croak.
Venture Capital: KKR Amasses $15B Warchest For Asia Fund
KKR & Co (NYSE: KKR), the global investing heavyweight, has just wrapped up raising Asia’s biggest ever private equity fund. The KKR Asian Fund IV closed with commitments of $15 billion and will focus on private equity investments in the Asia Pacific region.
Digital Assets: Paxos’ Blockchain Conducts The First-Ever, Same Day (“T+0”) Equity Settlement
According to an announcement on Tuesday, Credit Suisse (SWX: CSGN) and Instinet settled U.S.-listed equity trades, entered at 11 AM ET and 3 PM ET, on the same day at 4:30 PM ET via a same-day settlement cycle (“T+0”) conducted on the Paxos Settlement Service blockchain.
FinTech: Stripe Enters The Middle East
Payments processing giant Stripe announced Monday its official launch in the United Arab Emirates, marking the company’s first expansion into the Middle East. With the UAE launch, businesses in the UAE can make payments across the world, while existing global users of Stripe can now access the UAE for growing their business in the region.
Alternative Investments/Digital: North America’s First Bitcoin Mutual Fund From CI Global
CI Global Asset Management announced Monday the launch of the first mutual fund to offer exposure to bitcoin. The CI Bitcoin Fund requires a minimum investment of only $500 and charges a management fee of 0.40% – claimed to be an industry-low. With the launch of this product, CI Global earns the distinction of being the only firm across the globe to offer a bitcoin mutual fund as well as a bitcoin ETF.
Digital Assets: MicroStrategy Adds To Bitcoin Hoard With $15M Purchase
MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) the listed business intelligence company led by bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor has invested another $15 million in cash to buy bitcoin. The purchase came to light in an SEC Form 8-K filing.
Venture Capital: Source Code Capital, The Chinese VC Firm, Raises $1B
Source Code Capital, the highly regarded Chinese VC firm, announced today its raise of $1 billion for new dollar-denominated funds. According to DealStreetAsia, the funds are presumably intended for Source Code Growth Fund II ($580 million) and Source Code Venture Fund V ($420 million), going by a previous filing with the U.S. SEC.
Artificial Intelligence: Indian Lingerie Maker Clovia Uses AI To Recommend The Right Bra Size
Clovia sells innerwear, loungewear, and personal care brands across India and proudly proclaims it has served over 2 million customers. It uses data science and machine learning to crunch over 150 million data points from 2.8 million users daily. The technology helps Clovia across all aspects of its business – from manufacturing to dispatch.
Digital Assets: Government Could Crack Down On Bitcoin (Ron Paul)
Former presidential candidate Ron Paul sounded the alarm bells on a government crackdown on bitcoin at an interview last week with Kitco News’ Michelle Makori. Separately, ex-SEC Chair Jay Clayton also warned of potential new regulations around bitcoin.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Grayscale Trains Its Sights On Morphing GBTC Into An ETF
In a blog post today, Grayscale cleared the air on its intentions regarding a bitcoin ETF, given the increasing number of applications piling up with the SEC for permission to launch such a vehicle for the leading cryptocurrency.
Venture Capital: Indian Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Raises $800M At $5B Valuation
Swiggy, the punchy online food delivery platform delivering food to India’s hungry middle class, has raised $800 million from global alternative asset manager Falcon Edge Capital, Singapore-based fund management firm Amansa Capital and US-based private investment firm, Think Capital. Other participants in the oversubscribed round included French asset management firm Carmignac, Goldman Sachs, Prosus and Accel.
FinTech: Next Insurance Raises $250M, Doubles Valuation To $4B
Digital insurtech Next Insurance, which focuses on insurance for small businesses and the self-employed, raised $250 million in a round led by FinTLV Ventures and Battery Ventures with participation from CapitalG, Group 11, Zeev Ventures, Founders Circle, and G Squared. This funding was the startup’s second within the space of just seven months, bringing up its total amount raised to over $881 million.
Artificial Intelligence: Dubai Police Use AI To Nab Notorious Drug Lord, “The Ghost”
On Thursday, Dubai Police announced the arrest of French drug lord Moufide ‘Mouf’ Bouchibi, allegedly involved in drug operations in Europe valued 70 million euros ($82.6 million) annually. Brigadier Jamal Salem Al-Jallaf, director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation (CID), said his team used AI to track and arrest Bouchibi.
Digital Assets: Man Loses $600K To Fake “Trezor” App Downloaded From Apple’s App Store
Last month, Phillipe Christodoulou downloaded an innocuous-looking app from Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store. All he wanted to do was check his bitcoin balance. But the app was a fake, and cleaned out his 17.1 bitcoins the moment he logged in crypto keys.
Alternative Investments/ESG: New Hydrogen ETF From Direxion
As investors accord increasing importance to ESG and clean energy in their portfolios, hydrogen is now making its way onto the center-stage of fuels that are renewable, zero-emission, and a store of energy. The Direxion Hydrogen ETF (HJEN) will give investors exposure to companies powering the clean hydrogen economy.
Venture Capital: Delivery Service Glovo Nabs $529M, A Record For Spanish Startups
Barcelona-based delivery startup Glovo has scored € 450 million ($ 529 million) in a Series F funding round led by Lugard Road Capital and Luxor Capital Group. This round, set to be the largest in Spanish venture capital history, also saw investment from existing investors including Delivery Hero, Drake Enterprises, and GP Bullhound.
FinTech: Airtel Africa Sells Another Chunk Of Its Mobile Money Biz – This Time To Mastercard For $100M
A wholly-owned unit of MasterCard (NYSE: MA) has agreed to pay $100 million for a 3.75% stake in Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations that span 14 countries in that continent.
Artificial Intelligence: Mars Wrigley And Google Cloud Collaborate On A “Cakie”
Google Cloud and Mars Wrigley UK found out whether taste can be digitized by using AI to develop the first-ever Maltesers AI Cake.