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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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Venture Capital: Precision Farming Startup Solinftec Raises $60M
Founded in 2007 by a group of automation engineers from Cuba, Solinftec is an agtech focused startup with headquarters in both São Paulo, Brazil and West Lafayette, Indiana. The company raised $60 million in a growth investment round led by Lightsmith Group and joined by existing investors Unbox Capital and Circularis Partners and several undisclosed investors.
FinTech: Klarna Enables Block For Non-Card Gambling Payments
A gambling block helps customers keep in check their own urge to splurge on gambling sites. Gambling blocks were first launched by challenger bank Monzo in 2018, but applied only to card payments. Klarna announced April 28 that it had now enabled banks to extend voluntary gambling blocks to open banking-driven payments powered by its subsidiary, SOFORT. SOFORT is one of Klarna’s direct bank-to-bank payment methods, used by 75,000 merchants across Europe, including some online gambling and gaming sites.
Digital Assets: Goldman Sachs Makes Its First Loan Against Collateral of Bitcoin
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has extended its first ever loan backed by a customer’s bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency. According to a spokeswoman of the Wall Street giant, the secured lending facility lent cash collateralized by bitcoin owned by the borrower.
Alternative Investments/Digital: An ETP That Combines Gold And Bitcoin Now Trades On A Swiss Exchange
The new ETP from ByteTree Asset Management and 21Shares is based on the principle that in inflationary times such as these, “BOLD is the 60/40.” That’s because it balances a risk-on asset (bitcoin) with a risk-off asset (gold). The 21Shares ByteTree Bold Index ETP (BOLD) is the first exchange traded product (ETP) to combine gold and bitcoin in a single fund.
Digital Assets: Fidelity To Allow 401 (k) Investors Access To Bitcoin
Fidelity Investments today announced the launch of its workplace Digital Assets Account, a product designed to help workers to allocate a part of their savings to bitcoin through the core 401(k) plan investment lineup. The move follows a rising demand from employers to offer the bitcoin as an option to 401(k) investors, with MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) planning to be the first employer to use the product.
Digital Assets: Grayscale’s New Missive To The SEC
Grayscale Investment’s lawyers have shot off another letter to the SEC making their case for approval to convert GBTC to a spot bitcoin ETF. Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest manager of digital assets, has made yet another effort to get the SEC to approve its application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a…
FinTech: Stripe And Twitter To Test Crypto Payouts
Stripe said in a blog post today that it had been exploring crypto-currency based platforms to facilitate payouts to creators, freelancers, sellers, and solopreneurs across the world. The “open-access global financial rails” offered by cryptocurrencies was highly attractive to Stripe given that the Connect service could not still reach many countries due to hetereogenous local payment systems. In a pilot, Stripe is testing crypto payouts for Connect via a select group of creators on Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), its first partner.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Fractional Investment In $500M Hedge Fund Through NFTs
Blockchain startup IO Investment Academy is giving investors the opportunity to invest small amounts in a $500 million, blockchain-focused hedge fund that delivered a 300% return rate in 2021 and had an investment minimium starting at $100,000. This first DeFi NFT project is introducing fractional investment into the blockchain world to completely rewrite the traditional investing process.
Alternative Investments/ESG: New Japanese ESG Equity ETF Gets EUR 300M From Varma
Finnish pension insurance company Varma has invested EUR 300 million in the NEXT FUNDS Solactive Japan ESG Core Index ETF that was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 8. The ETF, custom-designed for Varma, is the largest ever environmentally responsible ETF to be listed in Japan.
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Mining And ‘Cryptoization’ Pose Risks To Sanctions And Global Finance (IMF)
In its Global Financial Stability Report for April 2022 the IMF has warned of the threats that ‘cryptoization’ could pose to the global financial system if crypto trading surged in emerging markets and countries such as Russia and Iran used their trapped energy to mine cryptos and undermine sanctions.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Allianz’ El-Erian Says Fed Waited Too Long To Recognize Inflation
Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian said bitcoin is likely to move higher when the Fed responds to inflation. He commented: “That’s what you get when you’ve waited too long to recognize what inflation is and to take action.”
Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz Launches ‘a16z START,’ A Startup Accelerator
a16z START is looking for founders in the categories of American dynamism, consumer, enterprise, fintech, games and “other.” Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the storied Silicon Valley venture firm, has announced its own startup accelerator dubbed ‘a16z START,’ backed by a16z’s $400 million seed fund. Originally launched in fall 2021, the VC firm’s accelerator has already received…
Digital Assets: Gemini Introduces Instant Crypto Rewards Credit Card
Crypto platform Gemini, which was founded by the Winklevoss twins, has launched the Gemini Credit Card. It’s the first instant crypto rewards credit card that provides a seamless way for consumers to acquire up to 3%+ back from 60+ cryptocurrencies supported on Gemini’s platform. Issued by WebBank, the new card features Mastercard as the exclusive card network.
Venture Capital/ESG: Stripe And Big Techs Launch $925M Worth Of ‘Advance Market Commitment’ For Carbon Capture Startups
Fintech giant Stripe is joining hands with several tech companies, including Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Meta (NASDAQ: FB) to form Frontier, which will spend nearly $1 billion to assure product offtake from carbon capture startups. Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) and McKinsey are also chipping in. Frontier will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Stripe.
Digital Assets: Sony And Lego Back Epic’s Metaverse Vision With $1B Each
Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, announced it had raised $1 billion each from existing investor Sony Group Corporation as well as KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company behind The LEGO Group. The funding, intended to advance Epic’s vision to build the metaverse and fuel its growth, valued Epic at $31.5 billion.
Digital Assets: Peter Thiel Targets Wall Street Head Honchos In Blistering Tirade
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami on Thursday, billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel questioned why bitcoin could not achieve the market capitalizations of gold ($12 trillion) and the equities market ($115 trillion).
Digital Assets: Online Checkout Company Bolt Acquires Blockchain Software Provider Wyre For $1.5B
Bolt Financial Inc will acquire Wyre Payments Inc in a transaction valued about $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, which quoted the WSJ for the deal amount. Both firms announced the takeover today citing the growing adoption of crypto for purchases of goods and services, as well as Web3.
Artificial Intelligence: OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 Program Draws (And Edits) Images From Text Commands
AI research group OpenAI has launched a revamped version of its DALL-E program that generates images from text commands. The all-new DALL-E 2 program is described as a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.
Alternative Investments/ESG: AXS Investments Continues Acquisition Spree, Acquires Six Tuttle ETFs
AXS Investments, a leading asset management firm providing investment opportunities in the alternatives space, has acquired a suite of ETFs from Tuttle Capital Management. The six ETFs together have assets under management of $417 million and include the $334 million Tuttle Capital Short Innovation ETF (NASDAQ: SARK), the inverse bet against Cathie Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA: ARKK).
Venture Capital: Deepki, Which Provides ESG Intelligence For Real Estate, Raises $166M
Deepki, a French startup, offers a SaaS platform that helps real estate investors, owners and managers improve the ESG performance of their real estate assets and in the process, enhance their value. Claimed to be the only such ESG intelligence company in the world with a focus on real estate, Deepki collected €150 million in a Series C round of funding that was co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe, two London-based VC firms specializing in European investments. Bpifrance, Revaia, Hi Inov and Statkraft Ventures also participated in the funding.
Venture Capital: Blockchain.com Raises Unspecified Amount, Clocks Massive $14B Valuation
A Bloomberg report Thursday said Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency exchange and financial services firm, had raised new finance at a valuation north of $14 billion, more than double its previous worth, in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with major participation from Baillie Gifford & Co.
Venture Capital: Chief, A Private Network For Women Executives, Raises $100M
Chief, a membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders, has raised a $100 million Series B round led by CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Previous investors General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Inspired Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, and BoxGroup also participated.
Digital Assets: Deep-Pocketed Buyers Including Terra And MicroStrategy Circle Bitcoin
A wallet said to belong to Do Kwon-led Terraform Labs received 2943.00002511 bitcoin ($139 million) on Wednesday, says a report in CoinTelegraph. With the latest purchase, the Terra wallet now has, hold your breath, about 31,000 bitcoin valued approximately $1.417 billion. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy has raised $205 million for buying bitcoin.
Digital Assets: Grayscale’s Sonnenshein Prepared To Take Legal Recourse If SEC Nixes GBTC’s ETF Conversion
Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein could escalate his ongoing struggle to get SEC approval for converting the firm’s flagship Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an ETF by taking recourse to the courts. In a Bloomberg interview the reporter asked whether Grayscale would consider an APA lawsuit if the SEC rejected its October 2021 application. “I think all options are on the table come July,” Sonnenshein replied.