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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Digital Assets: Bitcoin Nuggets
A student found the long-forgotten private keys to a 2011 stash of 127 bitcoin on December 22 when the crypto was trading in the $23,000s range. The lucky HODLer (“BitcoinHolderThankU”) them cashed them out for a net haul of $4.24 million at a price of $33,439.02 per coin minus a 0.15% fee.
Venture Capital: French Telecom Giant Orange Hives Off Venture Arm
Orange Ventures is among the top ten corporate venture capital funds in Europe. Orange, (EPA: ORA) the French telecom giant, has hived off Orange Ventures, its venture capital business, into a separate new entity and allocated it €350 million. It also decided to hand over the management of its Orange Digital Ventures initiative launched in…
Alternative Investments/Digital: Biden’s $3T Stimulus More Rocket Fuel For Bitcoin?
Crypto aficionados are eagerly looking forward to a new stimulus plan worth $3 trillion from U.S. President-elect Joe Biden. Though meant to be a rescue package for millions of Americans reeling from the economic damage inflicted by the virus, it may undercut the value of the dollar. However, that does not appear to be a concern for Biden, given his recent statement: “Economic research confirms that with conditions like the crisis today, especially with such low interest rates, taking immediate action – even with deficit financing – is going to help the economy.”
FinTech: How The Pandemic Stifled Use Of Cash In Saudi Arabia
The pandemic triggered a significant shift in the way Saudis used money during 2020. They wholeheartedly embraced online shopping, resulting in a 75% jump in digital payments. On the other hand, cash drawn from ATMs, and its use at payment points, fell sharply by 30%.
Artificial Intelligence: Baidu And Geely Tie Up To Make ‘Smart’ EVs
Geely’s (HKG: 0175) Linhai plant, built along the lines of Volvo’s global manufacturing system, boasts of one of the most advanced production lines in the world. The company’s Emgrand EV, an electrified version of its best-selling Emgrand 7 sedan, has a 500km NEDC combined city and highway range. It goes from 30% to 80% charge in 30 minutes. Geely’s automotive strengths will join with Internet giant Baidu’s (NASDAQ: BIDU) automotive driving technology in a new joint venture between the two companies that will make ‘smart’ electric vehicles (EVs).
FinTech: SaaS Banking Platform Mambu Scores €110 Million In New Capital
After reporting 100% year-on-year growth, SaaS banking platform Mambu announced a new funding round of €110 million. This round was led by TCV, while additional investment was received from Tiger Global and Arena Holdings, as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Runa Capital, and Acton Capital Partners.
Digital Assets: Amidst Bitcoin’s Moonshot, Crypto Exchanges Are Wheeling-Dealing
A Bloomberg report said today, citing anonymous sources, that crypto trading exchange Bakkt was negotiating a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings (NASDAQ: VIH). At the other end of the globe, Nexon (TYO: 3659), the South Korean multi-billion-dollar gaming conglomerate, is negotiating to buy out a controlling stake in Bithumb, Korea’s largest bitcoin and crypto exchange.
Venture Capital: Games Platform Roblox And Cloud Security Developer Lacework Score $500M+ Funding Rounds
The new year is off to a good start with two funding rounds, each over $500 million, announced in its first week. Fast-growing Lacework, which allows companies to build securely in the cloud, closed a $525 million Series D round, earning a valuation tag of more than $1 billion. Online games platform Roblox raised $520 million in a Series H round that valued it at $29.5 billion. Both companies benefited from the digital shifts triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Altimeter Capital was a lead investor in both companies’ rounds.
Artificial Intelligence: Hyundai’s Flip-Flop On Self-Driving With Apple
Hyundai first confirms, then retracts its statement on a tie-up with Apple on self-driving EV cars. On Friday, Hyundai Motor (KRX: 005380) sent investors and motor enthusiasts into a flurry of excitement with its announcement of a potential tie-up with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) for an electric car (the so-called Apple car) and batteries.
Alternative Investments/ESG: The SP Funds S&P Global REIT Sharia ETF For Exposure To Shariah-Compliant Real Estate
This is a new faith-based ETF from SP Funds, home of North America’s largest family of Shariah-compliant ETFs. SP Funds has a solution for investors looking for Shariah-compliant exposure to real estate using the ETF vehicle. The asset manager has launched North America’s first Shariah-compliant REIT ETF. The SP Funds S&P Global REIT Sharia ETF (NYSEARCA: SPRE) launched on the New York Stock Exchange on December 30.
Artificial Intelligence: AI To Use Mobile Devices To Monitor Mental Health
A person’s devices such as smartphones and smartwatches and other sensors (such as IoT devices) may sense signs of depression and other changes in the mental health of their user. In fact, these devices can accurately and continuously monitor these behavioral shifts, that otherwise may not be symptomatic. Their data, combined with AI, can help mental health doctors to better manage and monitor their patients.
Alternative Investments/Digital Assets: FiCAS’ Active Crypto ETP Greenlighted For All Investors Across The European Union
FiCAS AG announced today that it has received the regulatory go-ahead to offer its 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP throughout the European Union to all investors. FiCAS, a Swiss-based crypto investment boutique, had first launched the ETP in Switzerland in July 2020 on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The actively managed ETP does not track bitcoin or any other crypto. Instead, FiCAS actively manages its investments in 15 top cryptocurrencies to generate sustainable returns over a time horizon of 3 to 5 years.
Venture Capital: Indian B2B Startup udaan Raises $280M Including From Tencent
udaan, the Indian business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, has scored a solid funding round of $280 million that valued it at $3 billion, post-money. It raised the funds from existing investors that included Chinese internet giant Tencent (HKG: 0700), and venture funds Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, and Altimeter Capital. Two new investors, Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital, also participated in the funding.
FinTech: Green Dot’s New Mobile Bank To Help Financially Challenged Americans
Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) announced Wednesday the launch of GO2bank, a new mobile bank that is FDIC-insured. The new bank will address the problems faced by those Americans that have limited financial means. Typically, these families are forced to eke out their lives from one payday to another.
Digital Assets: CPPIB Takes $113M Haircut On Investment In SolarWinds
Around December 9, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Canada’s largest pension fund, bought approximately 5% of Texas-based software company SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI) for $315 million from private equity firm shareholders Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo. The price was $21.97 per share of SolarWinds. A week later, news broke of the very sophisticated cyberattack on SolarWinds. The price of the stock fell to a low of $13.98, knocking off 36% of CPPIB’s investment.
Alternative Investments/Digital: “Bitcoin Could Be Rat Poison, But The Rat Could Be Cash,” Says Bill Miller
Bill Miller, the founder of major investment management firm Miller Value Partners and Co-Founder of Legg Mason Capital Management, made some very bullish observations on bitcoin in his Market Letter for Q4.
FinTech: European P2P Lending Platform Robo.cash Reports Surge In Loan Offtake
The year 2020 ended with a flourish for European P2P lender Robo.cash. In November, the platform funded € 9.2 million – a monthly record. In December, it chalked up a cumulative lending of € 200 million, the highest total ever.
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Smashes Past $35K
The leading cryptocurrency sets yet another new all-time high in 2021.
For those impressed by the 16.26% return the S&P 500 clocked in all of 2020, here’s something to chew on. At the time of writing, bitcoin is sitting pretty on a gain of nearly 19% achieved in just six days of the new year. For 2020, the crypto achieved a return of 301.33%. Bitcoin (BTC) struck a new high of $35,879 on January 5 but is currently trading around $34,400.
Venture Capital: Hinge Health, The Digital Clinic For Back And Joint Pain, Raises $310M
The Series D funding valued the startup at $3 billion post-money – a 6X increase in less than a year.
According to a report by TechCrunch, San-Francisco-based Hinge Health raised $310 million in a Series D round that valued it at $3 billion post-money. Hinge is the first digital clinic for back and joint pain and offers musculoskeletal (MSK) care at every stage from prevention to post-surgery.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Tackles The Locust Menace In Africa
In 2020, Africa was afflicted by an invasion of desert locusts that ravaged crops and worsened an already critical food shortage. Hundreds of millions of these rapacious insects attacked food crops across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. The UN described the outbreak as the worst seen in over 25 years. One swarm of these insects reportedly measured 40 km by 60 km. A locust swarm of a square kilometer can devour the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people, according to the FAO. Kuzi, an AI-powered early warning system, helps farmers safeguard their crops from this menace.
Digital Assets: Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund Switches Out Of XRP
In continuing bad news for the beleaguered XRP cryptocurrency, Grayscale Investments announced today that it had removed XRP from the portfolio of the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund. It said it used the sale proceeds from XRP to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, the other components of the fund.
FinTech: Spend Management Fintech Divvy Nabs $165M In Series D Round
Big-name, new investors such as Hanaco, PayPal Ventures, Whale Rock, and Schonfeld participated in Divvy’s latest investment round. Previous investors such as NEA, Insight Venture Partners, Acrew, and Pelion also chipped in, catapulting the leader in spend management to unicorn status.
Alternative Investments: Simplify Asset Management Launches Four New Disruptive Technology ETFs
Four new ‘bleeding edge’ ETFs are on the anvil from Simplify Asset Management. Founded by Paul Kim and David M. Berns, Ph.D., the firm’s new thematic ETFs focus on firms that have important technological or cultural edges and provide meaningful concentration to their stock price.
Venture Capital: Population-Scale Healthcare Platform Color Raises $167M At $1.5B Valuation
Color, a startup that works on a population scale in distributed healthcare and clinical testing, announced Monday its raise of $167 million in a Series D round. Led by General Catalyst and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., with participation from Viking Global Investors and others, the round tagged Color with a valuation of $1.5 billion.