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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, aims to secure $1 billion in equity financing to compete with industry leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The company, co-founded by Musk, has already garnered $135 million from investors, as revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Alternative Investments/ESG: NBA Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo Partners With Calamos On Sustainable ETF
NBA superstar and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, also known as the “Greek Freak,” has partnered with Illinois-based Calamos Advisors on a stock ETF that has a sustainable edge. Titled the Calamos Antetokounmpo Sustainable Equities Fund, the new ETF will invest only in firms that comply with ESG standards determined internally.
Venture Capital: Lunar Energy Raises $300M To “Remove The Use Of Fossil Fuels From Every Home”
Lunar Energy, a startup aiming to transform how we power our homes by building an ecosystem of all-electric products starting with a next-generation home battery system, announced its raise of $ 300 million over two rounds by Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN), the leading American residential solar and battery storage provider, and South Korea’s SK Group (KRX: 034730).
Venture Capital: Landing, A Network Of Furnished Apartments For Rent, Raises $125M
Landing has successfully closed a $125 million series C raise comprising both equity and debt funding. Delta-v Capital led the round which also received participation from new and existing investors,including Greycroft and Foundry.
Venture Capital: Celonis, Which Makes Software To Fix Processes, Raises $1B
Celonis, a software startup located in Munich and New York, raised an additional $1 billion in funding. A raise of $400 million, which was an extension of the Series D round, was led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and includes new blue-chip investors Activant Capital, a fund advised by Neuberger Berman, Alta Park Capital and Commonfund Capital.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Inspire Advances The Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) Movement With New ETF
Inspire Investing, which is the world’s largest provider of biblically responsible ETFs, has launched the Inspire Fidelis Multi-Factor ETF, a faith-based fund comprised of 100 high-quality, biblically aligned companies seeking growth and momentum purchased at a reasonable price.
Artificial Intelligence: Capitol Records Dumps AI Rapper FN Meka, Apologizes To Black Community
Famed record label Capitol Records, which signed AI-generated, virtual rapper artist FN Meka earlier this month, has walked away from the contract citing unintended and overlooked racial overtones and the AI character’s “gross stereotypes” of the Black community.
Artificial Intelligence: Developer AI Platform Inworld Raises $50M For AI Driven Virtual Characters
Inworld is a developer platform for creating AI-driven virtual characters for gaming, metaverse, and business applications. It was founded by conversational AI pioneers Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Michael Ermolenko, and Kylan Gibbs to enhance the social interactions in the immersive worlds of gaming, metaverses, entertainment, and brand experiences.
Digital Assets: This Dangerous New Crypto Scam Is Called “Pig Butchering”
A new scam is making the rounds, and the criminals typically locate and home in on their victims using social media or dating portals such as Tinder and LinkedIn. After establishing contact, they develop an ongoing relationship with the victim, gradually leading to trust. This could easily be a romance-cum-investment scam unfurling over weeks, even months, a period that could be described as a grooming period.
FinTech: Indian Savings App Jar Lands $22.6M Series B At A $300M Valuation
Jar, an Indian fintech app that wants to “reintroduce this generation to the concept of piggy banks by helping them save in digital gold,” has raised $22.6 million in its Series B round, led by existing investor Tiger Global. Existing investors Arkam Ventures, Eximius Ventures, Force Ventures, LetsVenture, Rocketship Venture Capital and WEH Ventures also participated in the funding. New investors included 1Finance, Capier Investments, Cloud Capital, Folius Ventures, Panthera Capital, Prophetic Ventures and others.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Enables Dead UK Woman To Address Mourners At Her Own Funeral
Marina Smith MBE, a Holocaust survivor from Nottingham, England, expired in June 2022, appeared at her own funeral as a hologram, looking realistically alive. What’s more, she was even able to talk to her beloved mourners using the AI-powered ‘holographic’ video tool. (AnalyticsIndiaMag)
Digital Assets: Ether Options To Debut On CME September 12
Derivatives exchange CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) intends to launch options on its ether future contracts on September 12. The new option contracts are based on one ether futures, sized at 50 ether per contract, and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of Ether.
Venture Capital: Property Management Platform Guesty Lands $170M Series E
Guesty, which provides management software for the short-term rental, vacation rental, and hospitality industry, has raised a $170 million Series E round led by Apax Digital Funds, MSD Partners and Sixth Street Growth. Existing investors Viola Growth and Flashpoint also participated in the round. Guesty will use the funds to scale its operations, develop new technology and solutions, expand into now business verticals and for strategic acquisitions.
Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz Invests $350M In Adam Neumann’s Rental Real Estate Startup
Andreessen Horowitz, also known as “a16z,” and usually described as the storied venture capitalist firm from Silicon Valley, announced Monday its $350 million investment in Flow, a rental real estate startup founded by Adam Neumann, of WeWork fame. The investment, said to be the largest individual cheque Andreessen Horowitz has ever written in a round of funding to a company, valued Flow at $1 billion, even though it is expected to launch only in 2023.
Digital Assets: Skybridge Capital’s Scaramucci Says Bitcoin Could Experience A “Demand Shock”
Anthony Scaramucci, of Skybridge Capital, said on a CNBC interview that the long-term fundamentals of bitcoin remained robust, more so due to recent developments on the institutional side. “Everybody is a long-term investor until they have short term losses,” he observed. Two factors could affect institutional activity in bitcoin and trigger a demand shock for the crypto.
Alternative Investments: Direxion Launches Four Single Stock Leveraged ETFs Including Inverse 1X Apple And Tesla
As single stock ETFs roll out thick and fast, Direxion jumped on the bandwagon with the launch of its first four single stock leveraged and inverse ETFs. The funds, which trade on the Nasdaq, allow sophisticated traders to obtain magnified or inverse exposure to the daily performance of the common stocks of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Alternative Investments/ESG: An “Anti-ESG” ETF, Backed By Thiel And Ackmann, To Gun For Fossil Investing
Strive Asset Management announced the launch of the Strive US Energy ETF (NYSE: $DRLL) which seeks to take advantage of a likely bull run in US energy stocks from an unfolding demand-supply imbalance in the global energy markets. Taking an anti-ESG stance, the ETF will mandate U.S. energy companies to reject shortsighted political agendas and to focus on long-term profitability, including through increased investment in oil and gas production.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Robot TX SCARA To Debut In 300 FamilyMart Stores In Japan
Telexistence Inc., the Japanese robotics company, announced the launch of its TX SCARA restocking robots in 300 FamilyMart convenience stores in Japan later this month as part of its AI-based “robot-as-a-service” for grocery retailers.
Digital Assets: Singapore-Based Hodlnaut Suspends Withdrawals Amidst Crypto Downturn
Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut has frozen withdrawals, swaps and deposits following an apparent liquidity crunch it attributed to “recent market conditions” and an intention to “focus on stabilising our liquidity and preserving assets.”
Venture Capital: Softbank’s Vision Fund Posts $21.68B Quarterly Loss Amidst Tech Wreck
The meltdown in technology stocks following hardening interest rates has taken a massive toll from SoftBank (TYO: 9984) and its Softbank Vision Fund, one of the most prolific and high stakes investors in the sector. The Vision Fund’s $21.68 billion loss for the June quarter pushed Softbank into a corporate loss of $23.38 billion.
FinTech: Some Emerging Market Fintechs In Hot Water As Central Banks Crack The Whip
After a months-long investigation, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has ordered Tag, one of the fastest growing startups in the country, to immediately refund all customer funds on grounds of “violations of SBP’s regulatory requirements and other concerns.”
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…
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.
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.