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.
Top Story
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.
Get Daily Updates
Subscribe to DailyAlts Today to get Alternative Investment news, insight, and commentary delivered straight to your inbox every day.
More Stories on News
Venture Capital: Refurbed, A Platform For Refurbished Electronics, Nabs $54M
Refurbed, a Vienna-based startup that sells refurbished electronics on its platform, has raised $54 million a Series B round led by Evli Growth Partners and Almaz Capital. Existing investors including Speedinvest, Bonsai Partners, and All Iron Ventures, all participated. New investors Hermes GPE, C4 Ventures, SevenVentures, Alpha Associates, Monkfish Equity, Kreos, Isomer Capital, and Creas Impact Fund also came on board.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate: As Low Interest Rates Bite, UK Investors Tilt Towards Alternatives
An independent survey of 889 UK investors commissioned by NexGen Cloud found that over 40% are likely to consider alternative investments such as real estate, cryptocurrencies and collectibles in the present low-interest rate environment.
FinTech: Freshly Listed Zomato Floats Subsidiary For Payments Business
Zomato (NSE: ZOMATO), the Indian online food delivery service that was recently listed with a blockbuster IPO on Indian bourses, and is backed by the likes of the Ant Group, Fidelity, and Tiger Global, is getting into payments processing.
Artificial Intelligence: Beewise Offers The Earth’s First Robotic Beehive
Agtech startup Beewise warns of an immediate and serious threat to the global food supply from the 35% global annual decline in bee colonies. Keeping bee colonies safe, well and preventing them from collapsing would allow for more pollination, as well as increased production of honey. Beewise has reinvented the traditional beehive, dating from 150 years back, and its Beehomes are solar-powered, AI-enabled, and armed with robotics to keep the bees safe, healthy, and productive.
Venture Capital: Virtual Events Startup Hopin Nabs $7.75B Valuation In A Mere Two Years
Two-year old virtual events startup Hopin has raised $450M in Series D funding co-led by new investors Arena Holdings and Altimeter Capital with participation from new investors Adams Street Partners, Untitled Investments and XN in addition to existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, General Catalyst, GIC, IVP, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures, Slack Fund, Temasek and Tiger Global.
Digital Assets: JPMorgan Launches In-House Bitcoin Fund For Private Banking Clients
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), which is led by bitcoin-sceptic CEO Jamie Dimon, is now offering an in-house bitcoin fund to clients at its Private Banking unit, CoinDesk reported. The big-four US bank is said to have partnered with New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) for the fund.
FinTech: Indian Payments Startup BharatPe Earns Horn, Values At $2.85B
Bharatpe, the Indian payments startup, enables shop owners to accept payments from any payment app for free. It makes payment acceptance simple by offering merchants a single QR to accept all payment apps such as PayTm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM and 150+ other UPI apps. It announced a raise of $370 million in a Series E round led by Tiger Global Management and including participation by Dragoneer Investment Group and Steadfast Capital.
Artificial Intelligence: Verizon Using AI For Optimal Placement Of 5G Transmitters
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is going to spend billions of dollars over the coming years on its 5G rollout. Apart from the cost of airwaves and related expenses, the telecom major will install network equipment across the US to build out its national 5G service. Literally, thousands of 5G wireless transmitters would have to be placed, and according to Shankar Arumugavelu, senior vice president and global chief information officer of Verizon, the company is looking to maximize service coverage with the least number of transmitters.
Venture Capital: Human Interest, Which Facilitates 401 (k) Plans For Small Businesses, Turns Unicorn
Human Interest, which offers affordable, full-service 401 (k) retirement plans to small and medium businesses, announced today its raise of $200 million in a round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and joined by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Existing investors including NewView Capital and Glynn Capital also participated in the round, alongside new investor Crosslink Capital. Human Interest vaulted to unicorn status after the financing valued it at $1 billion.
Digital Assets: Eyeing The Crypto Space, NCR Buys Bitcoin ATM Provider Libertyx
Earlier this week, NCR (NYSE: NCR), the software and device provider for payments with a market capitalization of $5.26 billion, announced its acquisition of Libertyx, America’s first and largest U.S. network of bitcoin ATMs, cashiers and kiosks with thousands of locations across 44 states nationwide.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate: ETFMG To Launch “PropTech”-Focused ETF
ETFMG, the fund manager specializing in thematic ETFs, has filed with the SEC to launch the ETFMG Housing Market ETF. The proposed ETF straddles the worlds of real estate and technology, or “proptech,” a sector that is garnering intense interest from venture firms, particularly after the pandemic.
FinTech: Blockchain-Based Fintech Figure Technologies To Merge With Homebridge
Mike Cagney-led Figure Technologies announced Tuesday (3 August 2021), its merger deal with Homebridge Financial Services, a mortgage lender which funded more than $25 billion in home loans at the close of 2020. Figure Technologies is on a mission to transform financial services using blockchain technology, particularly the origination, finance, servicing and trade of loans. you know
Artificial Intelligence: The Pentagon Harnesses AI For “Days-Ahead” Outlook On World Events
NORTHCOM Commander Gen. Glen D. VanHerck revealed that the US Northern command recently completed the third in a series of tests of the Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) with the objective to “leap forward our ability to maintain domain awareness, achieve information dominance and provide decision superiority in competition and crisis.” GIDE is an amalgam of machine learning, sensors around the globe, commercially available information and cloud computing.
Digital Assets: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Is All For Regulating Cryptos
Speaking on a Bloomberg interview on Tuesday, Gary Gensler, chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, said he supported more regulatory protection of the crypto space. His comments had a negative effect on the price of bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, which at one stage fell below $38,000.
FinTech: Rapyd, A Fintech-As-A-Service Startup, Lands $300M Series E
Fintech-as-a-Service provider Rapyd, which enables ecommerce companies, technology firms, marketplaces, and financial institutions to quickly integrate fintech and payment capabilities into their applications, has raised $300 million.
Artificial Intelligence: An AI Model From IBM And The Michael J Fox Foundation Predicts Parkinson’s Progression
Researchers at IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research have developed an AI model that helps predict the progression of Parkinson’s disease. The model groups typical symptom patterns of the disease and predicts the timing and severity of these symptoms.
Alternative Investments/ESG: BlackRock Launches Two New Paris Aligned UCITS ETFs
BlackRock has launched the iShares MSCI EMU Paris-Aligned Climate UCITS ETF (EMPA) and the iShares MSCI Europe Paris Aligned UCITS ETF (EUPB) both of which are Paris-aligned climate ETFs. These ETFs are listed on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange effective July 29.
Venture Capital: Tiger Global To Invest $125M In Indian Tech Startup Infra.Market (Bloomberg)
Tiger Global Management has reportedly agreed to invest an additional $125 million in Infra.Market, an Indian startup and B2B online procurement platform that helps construction companies save 5%-7% of their input costs. The transaction values the startup at $2.5 billion.
Digital Assets: Marathon Buys 30,000 Antminers For $120.7M
Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) has placed an order on Bitmain for the supply of 30,000 numbers of its flagship bitcoin mining hardware the AntMiner S19j Pro. The order, valued at $120.7 million will be fulfilled between January 2022 and June 2022. Marathon would thereafter have a capacity of over 133,000 bitcoin miners.
Alternative Investments/Digital: ProFunds Launches Bitcoin Mutual Fund That Will Invest In Futures
Mutual fund issuer, Bethesda-based ProFunds launched last week an innovative bitcoin mutual fund suitable for retail investors looking to invest in the leading crypto currency without the risks and hassles of holding it in wallets or exchange accounts. The Bitcoin Strategy ProFund (BTCFX) is the first open-ended U.S. mutual fund that will track bitcoin prices.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Study Of Roads Of Major US Cities Finds Philadelphia Has The Best
As workers across the country prepare to return to offices, the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Foundation, in a new AI-powered study titled AI For Infrastructure, ranks the cities where drivers may encounter fewer problems—and notes the places where headaches may be the worst.
FinTech: Square Plonks Down $29B For Aussie BNPL Giant Afterpay
Jack Dorsey-led Square (NYSE: SQ) announced today (August 2, 2021) its acquisition of Australian fintech and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) leader Afterpay (ASX: APT) for $29 billion in an all-stock deal. Square will acquire all the outstanding shares of Afterpay at this valuation based on the closing price of Square common stock on July 30, 2021.
Venture Capital: Elon Musk’s Neuralink Raises $205M For Its Brain-Machine Interface
Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is building brain interfaces that can help people with paralysis to connect with computers and phones, announced the completion of its Series C fundraise. The round, which raised $205 million, was led by Vy Capital, with participation from Google Ventures, DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, and Gigafund.