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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Alternative Investments/ESG: A New Large Cap Equity ESG ETF From Stance Capital
Stance Capital announced last week the launch of its Stance Equity ESG Large Cap Core ETF (NYSE: STNC). Stance previously offered ESG exposure via an active, semi-concentrated strategy, with a proprietary machine learning model and risk optimization overlay in separately-managed-accounts (SMA) for institutions and high net worth individuals, and through model delivery across a range of platforms.
Digital Assets: Investors Pile Into Blockchain.com’s $300M Raise, Valuing It At $5.2B
This mega-round follows on a $120 million raise just last month. Blockchain.com’s valuation has surged to $ 5.2 billion from $ 3 billion in just a month, such was investors’ appetite for its latest Series C raise. The investment was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and VY Capital, and included participation from other existing and leading investors across the globe.
FinTech: Payments Platform Airwallex Scores US$100M Extension Of Series D
Airwallex, the Australian payments platform that welcomes borderless businesses across the world, announced today a raise of US$100 million via an extension of its Series D round that had flagged off in April 2020. The additional funding lifts Series D to US$300 million, and the total funds raised by Airwallex to nearly US$ 500 million.
Venture Capital: AI-Powered, Digital Identity Verifier Jumio Scores $150M Round
Jumio, the leader in identity verification, eKYC solutions, and AML, announced Tuesday its raise of $150 million from Great Hill Partners, the Boston-based private equity firm that specializes in investing in high-growth companies across tech sectors. With this investment, Jumio has raised more than $255 million in total funding.
Artificial Intelligence: William Shatner Celebrates 90th Birthday By Creating An AI Lookalike
Movie star William Shatner turned 90 on Tuesday and fittingly celebrated the event by creating an AI likeness of himself that can interact and make conversation with the generations of fans to come. Shatner joined StoryFile, an interactive storytelling app, as a brand ambassador, and set things off by becoming the app’s first person to be featured in an AI-powered video.
FinTech: SaaS Banking Platform Mambu Is First Off The Block With A Shariah Version
SaaS banking software provider Mambu announced Monday the launch of the cloud-native, Shariah-compliant version of its banking platform. The solution enables Islamic banks and lenders across the world to offer banking that is fully compliant with all the tenets of Islamic banking and was made available from the end of 2020.
Venture Capital: Brazilian Real Estate Marketplace Loft Scores $425M
A booming housing market plus the digitization spurred by the pandemic have added up to land Sao-Paulo-based real estate marketplace Loft in a happy place. The three-year-old startup grew its business 28X in 2020 compared to the previous year, yet still has money left over from its last Series C raise of $175 million in January 2020. Nevertheless, Loft announced today its raise of $425 million at a whopping $2.2 billion valuation.
Digital Assets: Crypto Security And Infra Provider Fireblocks Raises $133M From BNY Mellon, Others
Fireblocks, which provides a specialized and secure platform for custody, settlement, and new crypto offerings, announced last its raise of $133 million via Series C funding. Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes led the round, while The Bank of New York Mellon made a strategic investment. Previous investors, including Paradigm, Galaxy Digital, Swisscom Ventures, Tenaya Capital, and Cyberstarts Ventures, also participated in the round.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Identifies Covid’s Tell-Tale Traces From Lung Ultrasounds
Researchers at Lawson Health Research Institute, London, have developed an AI-based computer system to pinpoint distinctive COVID-19 markers in the ultrasound scans of lungs of virus-afflicted patients. These hidden traces are indistinguishable even to highly trained and experienced medical personnel. The scientists trained an AI model on a dataset of lung ultrasounds from 243 patients, including 612 video loops and nearly 121,400 frames.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital Files For A Bitcoin ETF
Last week, Anthony Scaramucci-founded Skybridge Capital filed an S-1 registration prospectus for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). It follows previous applicants such as Vaneck and Valkyrie Digital Assets, all in the hope that the SEC will, after years of rejecting bitcoin ETF applications, may finally thaw this time around under the aegis of a new administration.
FinTech: Revolut Applies For U.S. Banking Charter
Revolut, the digital challenger bank led by co-founder and CEO, Nik Storonsky (pictured above), has filed a draft application for a banking charter with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Currently, without a banking license, Revolut offers financial services in the US through FDIC-insured Metropolitan Commercial Bank (NYSE: MCB).
Digital Assets: Greenidge Generation, A Powerplant-Crypto Mining Hybrid, To List On Nasdaq
Greenidge Generation, an 84-year old mothballed coal-fired power station located in the New York Finger Lake Region, pivoted to natural gas-based generation and crypto mining in the past few years after its purchase in 2014 by affiliates of Atlas Holdings LLC, the private equity fund. Greenidge announced today a merger agreement with Support.com (NASDAQ: SPRT) that is expected to close in Q3 of 2021.
Artificial Intelligence: Citadel Receives Multiple Contracts For Its AI-Based Anti-Drone System From Five Eyes
Citadel Defense announced Thursday that it had won multiple counter-drone delivery contracts from Five Eyes (FVEY) customers. The company said its Titan counter unmanned aircraft system (CUAS) had been chosen based on the experience during joint missions with U.S. forces, and after three years of deployments for military and federal agencies. Titan is an autonomous, artificial intelligence-enabled counter-drone solution that forces hostile drones to safely land without disrupting nearby communications or electronics.
Venture Capital: Momenta Raises $500M From Automotive Majors Including Toyota
SAIC Motor (SHA: 600104), Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203) and auto parts supplier Bosch are among the investors to fund a $500 million Series C round by Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta. The startup, which counts Daimler and Tencent Holdings amongst its backers, also received investments in the current round from Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek, Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital, Cathay Capital, and some unnamed institutions.
Digital Assets: Bank of America Punctures Most Arguments In Favor Of Bitcoin
Bank of America issued a report on Wednesday that debunked many arguments generally touted in favor of bitcoin as an investment. A team of analysts led by Francisco Blanch, the head of Global Commodities, Equity Derivatives, and Cross-Asset Quantitative Investment Strategies at the bank, said the only reason for owning bitcoin was if you “see prices going up.”
Alternative Investments/ESG: UBS Launches New “Climate Aware” ETF
The UBS Climate Aware Global Developed Equity CTB UCITS ETF provides investors with access to large- and mid-cap global stocks that have a strong climate-positive profile, are compliant with UBS’ Climate Aware framework, and tilt towards the global transition to a low carbon economy.
Venture Capital: TPG’s Impact Investing Arm Pays $200M For Stake In Airtel Africa’s Mobile Money Biz
Airtel Africa plc (LON: AAF) announced Thursday that The Rise Fund would invest $200 million for a minority stake in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary that was the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations. It also announced that other Airtel Africa mobile money businesses would soon be merged into this company. Ultimately, Airtel Mobile Commerce BV would be the umbrella owner of the mobile money units in all 14 African countries where they operate.
FinTech: Goldman Sachs Eyes JetBlue’s Credit Card Business
As Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) continues its determined advances in consumer finance, it is eyeing yet another card business. This time it is making a play for JetBlue’s (NASDAQ: JBLU) credit card program, currently operated by Barclays (LON: BARC).
Artificial Intelligence: Myanmar Said To Deploy AI Surveillance On Protesters
On February 1, Myanmar leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown in a coup by the country’s military. Since then the country has been rocked by violent protests and riots as dissenters demanded her return. To quell the “Spring Revolution,” as the civil resistance movement is called, the authorities have detained at least 2175 people and killed at least 183 protesters. Human rights groups allege that the military or police are now using Huawei cameras armed with Chinese facial recognition technology that can scan faces and vehicle license plates in public places, and alert authorities to those on a wanted list.
FinTech: UK Fintech True Potential Clocks Its Best Year Ever In 2020
True Potential is a technology-focused provider of financial solutions that works with about 20% of the U.K.’s financial advisers. In 2020, the company clocked record turnover and solid profits after rapidly adapting its digital technology to pandemic conditions.
Digital Assets: Visa Signals Potential ‘Mainstream’ Adoption of Bitcoin
In a hugely positive comment for the global adoption of bitcoin, Al Kelly, CEO, Visa (NYSE: V) said on a podcast earlier this week that the leading cryptocurrency could potentially become “extremely mainstream” within five years.
Venture Capital: Cyber-Risk Insurer Coalition Scores $175M Round
A rash of high-profile, sophisticated, and allegedly state-sponsored cyberattacks on American companies and government agencies has brought businesses face-to-face with the risks they face from hackings and ransomware attacks. Within commercial insurance, coverage against cyber risks is a relatively new phenomenon. Coalition, a cybersecurity platform that also provides insurance, announced Wednesday its raise of $175 million.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Grayscale Expands Product Lineup; Launches Five New Crypto Investment Trusts
Grayscale Investments launched on Wednesday five new digital currency investment trusts to address the growing global demand for digital currency products. The new trusts are named the Grayscale Basic Attention Token Trust, Grayscale Chainlink Trust, Grayscale Decentraland Trust, Grayscale Filecoin Trust, and the Grayscale Livepeer Trust. These trusts are now open for daily subscription eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.
Artificial Intelligence: The Potential Bounty From AI Could Be $13,500 Per American Adult
AI technology will enable “Moore’s Law for everything” – housing, education, food, clothing, etc. could become half as expensive every two years, and for decades to come. There would be so much wealth to go around that every adult in the United States could be paid $13,500 annually as soon as 10 years from now.