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/Digital: ProShares Will Debut A Short Bitcoin ETF This Week
Bitcoin has already lost about 70% from its all time high of $68,789 touched in November 2021. But as they say – better late than never. ProShares is likely to launch the first US short bitcoin ETF, the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy, on Tuesday, allowing investors to take a punt on a decline in the…
FinTech: Brex Dumps Thousands Of Small Business Customers In Rejig
Brex will now focus on venture-backed technology startups and larger companies. Brex, the Silicon Valley-based lender to small and medium sized businesses and startups, has announced a shift in its business priorities. It will now focus only on venture-backed technology startups and larger companies. Announced last week, the change puts tens of thousands of small…
Alternative Investments: HSBC Asset Management Sets Up New Unit For Alternatives
The CSG will be headed by Borja Azpilicueta and will be responsible for fundraising and bespoke offerings in private and sustainable assets that deliver flexible capital solutions for both institutional and wealth clients of HSBC Asset Management.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Craft Beer Launched By Nola Brewing Co
NOLA Brewery will release its AI Blonde Ale at a Launch Party on June 20 to time with CVPR, the world’s premier computer vision event. It is the first craft beer created by an AI platform, and was the upshot of an experiment by The Australian Institute for Machine Learning and Barossa Valley Brewing (BVB), the latter founded by Denham D’Silva. BVB is the current Champion Australian Small Brewery (SA National Beer Awards 2021). D’Silva is also the co-founder and CEO of Deep Liquid, formed in 2022 to maximize the opportunity to provide critical easy-to-implement AI services to capture and unlock the value in SMEs collective data.
Digital Assets: Regulators Investigating Withdrawals Ban By Celsius
The decision by Celsius to ban customer redemptions, due to “extreme market conditions,” is under regulators’ lens in the states of Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas and Washington. Joseph Rotunda, enforcement director at the Texas State Securities Board confirmed this to Reuters on Thursday.
DataStax Lands $115M For Multi-Cloud Database
DataStax announced a $115 million funding led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with participation from RCM Private Markets fund advised by Rokos Capital Management (US) LP, Singapore-based global investor, EDB Investments Pte. Ltd. and DataStax’s existing investors including Crosslink Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, OnePrime Capital and other current investors. The company will use the money to further develop and expand its ‘Astra DB’ multi-cloud database and its ‘Astra Streaming’ streaming service.
Alternative Investments/AI: Optimize Advisors Launch AI Smart Sentiment Event-Driven ETF
The Optimize AI Smart Sentiment Event-Driven ETF (NYSEARCA: OAIE) from Optimize Advisors uses a proprietary Options Artificial Intelligence “Smart Sentiment” technology to selects its investments. This rigorous, systematic process is at the core of the actively managed, long-only fund.
FinTech: Klarna Facing A Down Round, May Raise $500M To $1B
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Klarna, the fintech company famous for its ‘buy-now-pay-later’ product, is in talks to raise funding at a valuation of $15 billion, nearly a third of its 2021 valuation of $46 billion.
Artificial Intelligence: Clearview AI Cuts Sales Staff; Senior Executives Depart The Company
Clearview AI has reduced sales headcount this week while two senior executives appointed a year ago have departed amidst a churn in the company triggered by legal issues and potentially recessionary conditions in the economy.
Digital Assets: Crypto Winter Travails
The Celsius Network, the source of a second shock to the crypto market after Terra/UST, is said to have hired Citigroup (NYSE: C) for advice. Celsius has barred all withdrawals, swaps and account transfers, attributing its steps to “extreme market conditions” a.k.a crypto winter.
FinTech: Mambu’s Technology To Drive Commonwealth Bank’s New Digital Mortgage
SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu will power the new, next-gen digital mortgage brand, Unloan, by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), the country’s largest bank. Unloan is a highly innovative product for the Australian mortgage industry launched in May 2022. It provides loan refinancing applications in as little as 10 minutes and a discount that increases every year for up to 30 years.
Venture Capital: The New, £3m ‘Black Founders Fund’ From Google For Startups Will Back 40 European Entrepreneurs
Between 2009 and 2019, a mere 0.24% of VC funding went to Black founders in the UK. Last year, Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) backed 30 Black-led startups with a £1.5m Black Founders Fund. These firms have already achieved an additional £65m in follow-on funding. Encouraged, Google has doubled this year’s fund to £3 million.
Artificial Intelligence: Chinese AI Can Pursue, Attack, And Capture Satellites
A study published in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Aerospace Shanghai gave details of an AI experiment in which the AI technology commanded three small satellites in their mission to hunt, attack, and capture other target satellites. (
Alternative Investments/ESG: BlackRock Launches Paris-Aligned Corporate Bond ETF On Xetra
BlackRock has listed the iShares € Corp Bond ESG Paris-Aligned Climate UCITS ETF (CBUJ) on Xetra. The ETF seeks to capitalize on opportunities arising from the transition to a lower-carbon economy, while screening out businesses exposed to oil, gas, thermal coal, controversial weapons and high carbon electricity.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Franklin Templeton Debuts The First Paris-Aligned Chinese Equity ETF In Europe
Franklin Templeton has launched the Franklin MSCI China Paris Aligned Climate UCITS ETF on the London Stock Exchange in US dollars (PABC LN) and pound sterling (CHPA LN) as well as on Deutsche Börse Xetra (FVCH GY) and Borsa Italiana (FRCP IM) in euros.
FinTech: PayPal Extends Its BNPL Scheme To Monthly Payments
PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) has launched “PayPal Pay Monthly,” its latest BNPL product, aimed at offering customers more choices and flexibility for making payments. The product is addressing the issue of credit card debt, now a serious problem amidst 40-year record inflation, rising interest rates and fears of an impending recession.
Venture Capital: Travertine Raises $3M To Remove Carbon Dioxide While Producing Sulphuric Acid
Travertine Technologies, a spin-off resulting from University of California research, has raised a seed round of $3 million to commercialize its process that captures and permanently sequesters ambient carbon dioxide while producing sulphuric acid. The round was led by jointly led by Grantham Environmental Trust and Clean Energy Ventures. The funds will allow Travertine to advance towards its objective for a pilot scale implementation of its process.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Analysis Of Israeli Artifacts Shows Humans Used Fire Over 800,000 Years Ago
AI has helped researchers from the University of Toronto, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Hebrew University establish that ancient humans, or hominins, used fire at least 800,000 years ago at an archaeological site in Western Israel.
Venture Capital: Sequoia Raises $2.85B Venture Fund For India, SouthEast Asia
Sequoia (India & Southeast Asia) announced today the raise of $2.85 billion comprising $850 million for the firm’s first dedicated fund for the SEA region, and the rest for Indian venture and growth funds. The VC firm launched in India back in 2006 and has invested $6 billion in more than 400 firms across India and SEA.
Digital Assets: Coinbase To Axe 18% Jobs; Downgraded By JPMorgan
Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) on Tuesday informed employees by email that it would cut 18% of jobs, which would amount to roughly 1,100 people considering it employs about 5,000 people. The company is the largest US crypto exchange and its share price has slid sharply since its IPO last year. Year to date, the stock has lost 79%, and since November, the crypto market has also entered a vicious downturn.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate/ESG: Bridges Closes Fifth Fund At £350M For Sustainable Real Estate
In a rousing testament to the demand for sustainable real estate, Bridges Fund Management closed its fifth real estate fund, the Bridges Property Alternatives Fund V at its hard cap of £350 million. Fund V is about 60% larger than its predecessor fund, and is notable for investment by a host of new LPs drawn to the fund’s dual objectives of both financial and sustainability performance.
Digital Assets: BlockFi And Crypto.com Forced To Cut Jobs Amidst Crypto Market Crash
In more signs of pain in the crypto assets market, already in the throes of a massive downtrend, two major players have announced job reductions. While crypto lending platform BlockFi Inc. said Monday that it will slash staff count by a fifth, digital currency exchange Crypto.com announced Friday that it was cutting jobs by 5%. Meanwhile, bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, is currently trading at $22,592, its lowest price since December 2020.
Artificial Intelligence: Spotify Acquires Sonantic, Which Created Val Kilmer’s Voice In “Top Gun: Maverick”
Audio streaming service Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) announced Monday its acquisition of Sonantic, a startup that uses AI to simulate the human voice. Sonantic was in the spotlight recently for helping create Val Kilmer’s voice dialogues in “Top Gun: Maverick,” because the actor is unable to speak due to throat cancer.
FinTech: Mambu To Facilitate Western Union’s Digital Banking In Europe
Mambu , the rapidly growing cloud banking platform, announced the integration of its solution into Western Union’s (NYSE: WU) next generation real time multi-currency digital wallet and digital banking platform in Europe.