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: Home Healthcare Company Cera Lands $320M
Dr Ben Maruthappu (pictured) founded Cera in 2016 and since then it’s grown to a team of a;most 10,000 professionals that provides over 40,000+ in-person healthcare visits in homes throughout the UK every day. Cera announced its raise of $320 million in equity and debt funding. The equity round was led by Cera’s existing investor Kairos HQ. However, the identity of the debt provider has not been disclosed.
Digital Assets: Fairfax County Retirement Systems To Invest In Crypto Lending
Crypto lending, or “yield farming” could boost returns at the Fund despite recent debacles such as at Celsius Network. The $6.8 billion Fairfax County Retirement Systems has been cleared by its trustees to commence a kind of investment known as “yield farming,” where the investor owning crypto tokens can lend them out and earn an…
Alternative Investments/Digital Assets: New, Blockchain-Focused ETF From Horizon Kinetics
Horizon Kinetics LLC launched the Blockchain Development ETF (NYSEARCA: BCDF) on August 2. The ETF will invest in companies benefit, either directly or indirectly, from the issuance, facilitation, custody, trading and administration of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies or distributed ledger technology.
Artificial Intelligence: FedEx To Buy 10% Of Robotic Solutions Provider Berkshire Grey
Fedex (NYSE: FDX) and Berkshire Grey (NASDAQ: BGRY) have enhanced their strategic relationship to include the purchase by FedEx of a stake in Berkshire tied to a multi-year commitment to purchase its robotic order fulfilment systems.
Venture Capital: L’ATTITUDE Ventures Raises $100M To Back Latino Startups
L’ATTITUDE Ventures closed its first institutional fund raising on Wednesday, raising over $100 million with an anchor investment from Wall Street titan JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and initial investments from Trujillo Group and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).
FinTech: American Express Launches Global Pay For U.S. Small Businesses
A new digital money transmission solution from American Express (NYSE: AXP) will make life easier for small US businesses grappling with payments to vendors at home and abroad. American Express Global Pay will enable these firms to send payments funded from their business bank account to their suppliers in more than 40 countries, across a range of currencies, via an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly platform.
Artificial Intelligence: Arcelor Mittal Will Use The Iris.ai Platform To Keep On Top Of Patent Research
Arcelor Mittal (AMS: MT) has a patents team housed inside its R&D Department, that carries out ongoing competitive analysis to identify market gaps and patentable solutions as well as monitoring for potential patent infringements. Manually searching and extracting experiment data from documents is a time-consuming and laborious task that can consume around two and a half hours per patent. The steel-maker can slash this to a few minutes using Iris.ai’s Extract tool which has 94% precision, and compares favourably with human extraction precision.
Digital Assets: MicroStrategy Posts Q2 Loss Of $1B; Saylor No Longer CEO
In another fallout of the crypto winter, bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor, who is currently Chairman & CEO of business intelligence company MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), has relinquished his role of CEO with effect from August 8. The organizational change came the same day that the company announced a net loss for the second quarter of $1.062 billion, or $94.01 per share, $93.17 worse than the analyst estimate of ($0.84). The loss was primarily on account of impairment losses of $917.8 million on the company’s bitcoin holdings.
Venture Capital: Hardware Wallet Company Ledger Reportedly Looking To Raise $100M
A Bloomberg report says Ledger, the French crypto wallet maker, is in talks to raise a minimum of $100 million from strategic investors. The company previously raised a $380 million Series C in June 2021 at a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion, and this may not be the best of times to raise financing given the dire state of the digital assets market.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Schwab To Debut Crypto ETF
Charles Schwab Corporation’s (NYSE: SCHW) asset management division, Schwab Asset Management, announced the debut of the Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF (NYSEARCA: STCE) on August 4 on the New York Stock Exchange. The ETF will be listed on the NYSE and trade under the symbol STCE.
FinTech: Payments Software Provider Global Payments To Acquire EVO Payments For $4B
Payments software firm Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) has agreed to acquire payment technology and acquiring solutions firm EVO Payments (NASDAQ: EVOP) for $4 billion in an all-cash transaction valued at $34 per share. The acquisition will allow Global Payments to expand into new territories such as Poland, Germany, Chile, and Greece, as well as scale-up in existing markets, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Alternative Investments/ESG: New ESG Gold ETF From Sprott To List August 2
Sprott Asset Management LP, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sprott Inc. (NYSE: SII), today announced the launch of the Sprott ESG Gold ETF (NYSEARCA: SESG) that will begin trading on the NYSE ARCA with effect from August 2, 2022. The new ETF will invest solely in gold (“Sprott ESG Approved Gold”) that satisfies the ESG and provenance standards developed by Sprott. (Financial Post)
Artificial Intelligence: Protecting Tigers In India
India’s majestic tigers are vulnerable to poachers, injury, accidents and illness, and faced with the threat of a shrinking habitat as humans muscle into their territories. India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has been using AI for helping in the mammoth task of protecting these magnificent animals, but is now looking to take the role of the technology to a new level.
Liquid Alternatives: Takeaways From The AMG Q2 Earnings Call
Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (NYSE: AMG) is a leading partner to independent active investment management firms globally. AMG’s strategy is to generate long-term value by investing in a diverse array of high-quality independent partner-owned firms. The company’s Q2 Earnings Call on Monday, August 2, had some valuable takeaways for alternatives investing, particularly liquid alternatives.
Artificial Intelligence: Tampa General Hospital Uses An AI Platform For Patient Transport
At the 1,041-bed Tampa General Hospital the complex task of managing its operational flow, including the processes of admitting, moving and discharging patients, has been made more efficient through the use of Enroute, an AI platform. The new system is a marked improvement over the earlier, manual process where a dispatcher scheduled all of the runs throughout the hospital.
FinTech: Australia’s Up Bank Launches Savings Product To Avoid Buyer’s Remorse From BNPL
Up’s new BNPL-killer product seeks to answer the demand for a savings-based alternative to BNPL from more than half (57%) of young Australians. The new “Maybuy” product from Up lets people budget and save for a desirable item they’ve found online, and buy it when they achieve their savings goal.
Alternative Investments/Digital: The KuCoin Crypto Exchange Launches An ETF Zone For NFTs
Seychelles head-quartered, global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin announced July 29 the launch of its NFT ETF Trading Zone that will allow the listing of 5 NFT ETFs covering hiBAYC, hiPUNKS, hiSAND33, hiKODA, and hiENS4 as underlying assets as a beginning. The ETFs shall be denominated in USDT, another first for KuCoin, rather than Ether (ETH). The exchange intends to improve the liquidity of NFT assets and lower the investment threshold of blue-chip NFTs for over 20 million users, as well as alleviate risks of holding these assets individually.
Alternative Investments/Digital: The Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF To Debut On August 4
The Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF (NYSEARCA: STCE), launched by Schwab Asset Management, the asset management arm of The Charles Schwab Corporation, will start trading on or about August 4, 2022. It will provide investors with global exposure to companies that may benefit from the development or utilization of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
Venture Capital: Enko, Which Uses AI To Discover Crop Protection Molecules, Raises $70M
Enko announced its $70 million Series C funding round led by agrochem company Nufarm with participation by Anterra Capital, Taher Gozal, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Eight Roads Ventures, Finistere Ventures, Novalis LifeSciences, Germin8 Ventures, TO Ventures Food, Endeavor8, Alumni Ventures Group and Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund.
FinTech: Plaid And Gemini To Collaborate On Crypto Payments
The market cap for cryptocurrencies surpassed $1T in 2021, and venture funding in the field surpassed $25B. The interest in digital assets has grown tremendously over the past few years, both for consumers, businesses, and institutions. However, despite interest in the ecosystem growing, the crypto world has a lot of entry barriers – especially for the new investor starting out. The process is hard, particularly for first-time crypto buyers, involving uploading the right documentation, opening an account, and funding it. Exchanges must provide an easy account-opening process for all users – therefore, Plaid and Gemini are building an easier bridge between traditional finance and crypto worlds.
Digital Assets: Greek Police Launched Unsuccessful Operation To Nab Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova
Police in Greece attempted to arrest Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian wanted by Interpol, Europol, and the FBI, according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, which cited well-informed police sources.
In 2017, Ruja Ignatova, the “Queen of cryptocurrencies,” disappeared without a trace after boarding a flight from Sofia to Athens. She is wanted for stealing at least $4 billion from unsuspecting victims through a complex fraud with the fake cryptocurrency OneCoin.
Liquid Alternatives: Investors Vote For Liquid Alts in 2022 Amidst Troubled Bond And Stock Markets
There is a spike in inflows into liquid alts funds during 2022. According to a 2019 study by Greenwich Associates, liquid alts then had a market share of 4% among institutional investors, ranging from a high of 6% among public pension funds to a low of 2% among corporate programs and outsourced CIOs in the…
Artificial Intelligence: DeepMind’s AlphaFold AI Software Releases Database Of 200M Protein Structures
In a defining moment for AI computing, a 200x expansion in the number of proteins included in Alphabet’s Deepmind’s database was announced Thursday, which the company says will significantly speed up drug development and other innovation. This week, Deepmind added over 200 million protein structures to its database, up from 1 million, and including predicted structures for plants, bacteria, animals, and other organisms.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Pando Asset Lists A Crypto Basket ETP On Swiss SIX
Pando Asset makes its debut in the European market with an ETP comprising the following six cryptos: 39.6% bitcoin, 27.3% ethereum, 11.9% binance, 8.1% solana, 7.3% cardano and 6% polkadot. The ETP listed on the Swiss SIX Exchange and has a total expense ratio of 2%.