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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FinTech: Bilt Rewards, The Credit Card For Renters, Lands $150M Funding
Bilt Rewards, a credit card and loyalty program offered to renters to help build their credit and earn rewards on rent payments, has landed a $150 million round led by Left Lane Capital with participation from banking giant Wells Fargo, Smash Capital, Greystar, Invitation Homes, Camber Creek, Fifth Wall and Prosus Ventures. Bilt earned a valuation of $1.5 billion in the funding.
Venture Capital: Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Temasek And Others To Launch Agritech For Rice Cultivation Decarbonization
Wavemaker Impact, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GenZero, and Singapore’s Temasek have come together to create an innovative agritech that will promote rice decarbonization in Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia. The agritech will identify strategies to cut rice field emissions using a combination of climate-tech, agri-food, and venture-building capabilities.
Venture Capital: Saudi Aramco Launches $1.5B Sustainability Fund
Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL: 2222) announced Wednesday a $1.5 billion Sustainability Fund to be managed by Aramco Ventures, its venture capital arm. The Fund would support Aramco’s ambitions to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its wholly-owned operated assets by 2050, development of new lower-carbon fuels businesses, and furthering Aramco’s broader environmental objectives.
Artificial Intelligence: Self-Driving Startup Argo AI Shuts Down, Parts To Be Absorbed By Backers Ford, VW
The signs were all there. In July, Argo AI, the self-driving startup backed by Ford (NYSE: F) and Volkswagen (ETR: VOW) laid off 150 jobs and slowed down its hiring. At the time the company attributed the action to “prudent adjustments to our business plan.” Three months down the line, Argo has downed shutters, with parts of it being taken over by Ford and VW.
Venture Capital: Walmart To Raise Upto $3B For Indian E-Commerce Subsidiary Flipkart
A news report said Flipkart, Walmart’s (NYSE: WMT) Indian e-commerce subsidiary was mulling a fundraise of $2 – 3 billion at a valuation of over $40 billion to drive a country-wide expansion. Last year, Flipkart raised $3.6 billion in a funding round that had the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart as investors. That round gave it a valuation of $37.6 billion.
Artificial Intelligence: Shutterstock Ties With Open AI To Launch AI-Generated Content Capabilities
The Shutterstock partnership with OpenAI will deliver the most advanced creative tools in the industry. Creative platform Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) has announced a partnership with OpenAI to launch its AI-generated content capabilities in a manner that is responsible and transparent for its customers and contributors, and a fund to compensate artists for their contributions to…
Alternative Investments/ESG: Global X Launches Green Metals ETF In Australia
Global X ETFs Australia, which is a part of international investment manager Mirae Asset Financial, has launched the Global X Green Metal Miners ETF (ASX: GMTL). The new ETF provides investors with exposure to international companies producing critical metals for clean energy infrastructure and technologies, including lithium, copper, nickel, rare earths and cobalt. These are all minerals used extensively in the production, transmission and storage of renewable energy, and which will be instrumental in worldwide efforts to fight global warming as governments and companies alike strive to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Alternative Investments/ESG: IndexIQ Launches High Yield And Equity ESG Funds
IndexIQ has launched the IQ MacKay ESG High Income ETF (IQHI) and the IQ Candriam ESG U.S. Mid Cap Equity ETF (IQSM). The funds expand further the firm’s existing lineup of ESG investment solutions.
FinTech: Nirvana Money Offers A Hybrid Credit-Cum-Debit Card
Bill Harris has launched Nirvana Money, a credit card that also works like a debit card, allowing for the best of both worlds. It allows the user to use credit when they need it, and cash when they have it. The product also includes an inbuilt gamified rewards program. Intending users need to put their names onto a waiting list, however.
Digital Assets: Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Outlines Plans For Crypto
The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TLV: TASE) has outlined four goals in its strategic plan for the years 2023-2027 one of which is “creating a platform for digital assets using blockchain (digital ledger technology) and venturing into crypto.”
Venture Capital: BASF’s VC Arm Leads $10M Round In Brazilian Fintech Traive™
BASF Venture Capital GmbH (BVC), the corporate venture company of BASF SE (ETR: BAS), has announced its first investment in South America. BVC will lead a $10 million investment round in Traive™, a Brazilian financial services provider that is developing a technology infrastructure for financial services and AI for credit risk analysis and portfolio management.
Artificial Intelligence: Google’s Dialogflow Service To Power Wells Fargo’s New Digital Assistant
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) announced its launch of Fargo, a new virtual assistant that will assist customers with their banking in the coming months and provide a more personalised, convenient and simple banking experience. Fargo will be built upon the Google Cloud conversational AI platform known as Dialogflow which has language processing capabilities, can understand customers’ intents, and deliver an appropriate response.
Venture Capital: Climate Tech Fund Propeller Raises $100M For Ocean Climate Startups
Climate-tech fund Propeller announced its raise of a $100 million fund to support startups aiming to solve the climate crisis by innovating planet-saving, ocean-based science and technology solutions. The fund is launched in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a private, non-profit organization established in 1930, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education.
FinTech: India’s PhonePe On Decacorn Path, Mulls Fundraise At Over $12B Valuation
PhonePe is negotiating a fundraise at a valuation of over $12 billion, with General Atlantic likely to lead the round with an investment in the range of $450 – $500 million. If the funding goes through, it would catapult PhonePe to the position of the most highly-valued fintech in India.
Digital Assets: Brazilian Digital Bank NuBank To Float Own Crypto For Rewards Program
Buffett-backed, Brazilian digital bank Nubank (NYSE: NU) announced Wednesday its plans to launch Nucoin, a digital token as “a new way to recognize customer loyalty and encourage engagement with Nubank products.” The move would also mark the neo bank’s move into crypto assets.
FinTech: NatWest Group And Warburg Pincus-Owned Vodeno Tie-Up For Providing BaaS
NatWest Group (LON: NWG) and European BaaS provider Vodeno Group have entered a strategic partnership to float a new entity that will offer Banking-as-a-Service to clients in the UK. The Vodeno Group, which owns the Poland-based Vodeno Sp Z.o.o, a software company providing its API-based technology platform and the Belgium-based Aion Bank, is majority owned by Warburg Pincus (NYSE: WPCA).
Venture Capital: Chinese EV Maker Aion Raises $2.53B Series A
Aion, the EV unit of Chinese automaker GAC (HKG: 2238), has raised a huge RMB 18.3 billion ($2.53 billion) Series A round at a whopping RMB 103.3 billion ($14.28 billion) valuation. That puts Aion at the top of the league of Chinese private, venture capital-backed EV makers.
Venture Capital: AI-Powered, Precision Medicine Startup Tempus Raises $275M In Equity And Debt
Tempus, which uses AI to advance healthcare solutions in drug discovery, clinical trials and diagnostics, has raised $275 million through equity from previous investors and debt financing from Ares Management.
Artificial Intelligence: Adobe Announces Generative AI For Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) has been researching Generative AI for its transformative potential to accelerate creativity and make it accessible to millions of people; for example, by speaking a few words to describe an image, and having the corresponding image magically produced on the computer screen by the AI.
Artificial Intelligence: French Privacy Watchdog CNIL Hits Clearview AI With 20M Euro ($19.6M) Fine
Privacy advocates across the globe have cause to celebrate. Clearview AI, a facial recognition firm that scraped an estimated 20 billion photographs from the internet and social media without permission, has been slapped with a 20 million euro fine by French regulator CNIL for not cooperating with its previous order.
Digital Assets: Walmart Global CTO Says Crypto To Play Big Role In Payments
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) global CTO, Suresh Kumar made it very clear Tuesday that he envisaged a major role for crypto in the company’s future: “Crypto will become an important part of how customers transact. We want to make sure that we make it as friction free for customers to be able to transact, and to be able to buy, and how they are able to derive value out of it.”
Venture Capital: JPMorgan Launching A Platform To Facilitate Venture Finance
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is launching Capital Connect, its own venture capital platform, to simplify the funding process for startups, and expand its own penetration of the private market. Banks have sought to present a friendlier funding face to founders given the rapid increase in recent years in the number and size of unlisted and private ventures.
Artificial Intelligence: Reducing Sulfur In Shipping Fuel Cut Sea Air Emissions (NASA AI Model)
An AI model built by NASA confirmed that an IMO move to slash sulfur content in shipping fuel paid off in spades, because it led to the lowest air pollution levels at sea in 2020. However, part of the credit must also go to the reduced shipping traffic volumes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alternative Investments/ESG: VanEck Launches “Green Infrastructure” Equity ETF
VanEck, an asset manager with $60.8 billion under management, announced the launch of of VanEck Green Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ: RNEW), an equity ETF offering exposure to companies that would address the huge opportunity in making U.S. infrastructure more “green” and sustainable.