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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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FinTech: Financial And Ride-Hailing Giant Grab Agrees $39.6B SPAC Merger
Grab, the Southeast Asian giant that straddles ride-hailing, online food delivery, and digital wallet payments in the region through a super app, has agreed to go public in the U.S. through a SPAC transaction. The SoftBank-backed startup will merge with Altimeter Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: AGC) and thereafter trade on the NASDAQ with the ticker GRAB.
Artificial Intelligence: Microsoft Eyeing Acquisition of Nuance Communications (Bloomberg)
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may buy Nuance Communication (NASDAQ: NUAN) at a valuation of $56 per share, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people who were familiar with the matter. The price represents a premium of 23% over the Friday closing of Nuance of $45.58.
Alternative Investments/ESG: BlackRock’s New ESG ETF Rakes In A Record $1.25B On Launch
The BlackRock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF (LCTU), which began trading on Thursday, won the crown for being the largest ETF launch ever, drawing investments of $1.25 billion from institutional investors. BlackRock also launched the BlackRock World ex U.S. Carbon Transition Readiness ETF (LCTD) alongside the US ETF. This ETF attracted $475 million in investments.
Digital Assets: XRP Makes A Comeback As Ripple Gains Legal Headway
XRP made a huge move Tuesday, shooting above $1 and touching a 3-year high. No real reason could be ascribed to the move then, beyond generally bullish cryptocurrencies – the market value of all cryptocurrencies moved above $2 trillion. However, Ripple made a dent in its suit with the SEC, winning the right to ‘discovery,’ or access, to the SEC’s internal records on bitcoin, ether, and XRP.
Venture Capital: KKR Amasses $15B Warchest For Asia Fund
KKR & Co (NYSE: KKR), the global investing heavyweight, has just wrapped up raising Asia’s biggest ever private equity fund. The KKR Asian Fund IV closed with commitments of $15 billion and will focus on private equity investments in the Asia Pacific region.
Alternative Investments/Digital: North America’s First Bitcoin Mutual Fund From CI Global
CI Global Asset Management announced Monday the launch of the first mutual fund to offer exposure to bitcoin. The CI Bitcoin Fund requires a minimum investment of only $500 and charges a management fee of 0.40% – claimed to be an industry-low. With the launch of this product, CI Global earns the distinction of being the only firm across the globe to offer a bitcoin mutual fund as well as a bitcoin ETF.
Venture Capital: Indian Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Raises $800M At $5B Valuation
Swiggy, the punchy online food delivery platform delivering food to India’s hungry middle class, has raised $800 million from global alternative asset manager Falcon Edge Capital, Singapore-based fund management firm Amansa Capital and US-based private investment firm, Think Capital. Other participants in the oversubscribed round included French asset management firm Carmignac, Goldman Sachs, Prosus and Accel.
Digital Assets: Man Loses $600K To Fake “Trezor” App Downloaded From Apple’s App Store
Last month, Phillipe Christodoulou downloaded an innocuous-looking app from Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store. All he wanted to do was check his bitcoin balance. But the app was a fake, and cleaned out his 17.1 bitcoins the moment he logged in crypto keys.
Artificial Intelligence: Mars Wrigley And Google Cloud Collaborate On A “Cakie”
Google Cloud and Mars Wrigley UK found out whether taste can be digitized by using AI to develop the first-ever Maltesers AI Cake.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management To Offer Cryptos
Mary Rich, the new incumbent leading digital assets for Goldman Sachs’ private wealth management division, said the investment bank will begin offering investments in bitcoin and other digital assets as early as the second quarter of this year.
Digital Assets: U.S. Shoppers Can Now Pay With PayPal’s New “Checkout With Crypto”
PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) has made it possible for its U.S. account-holders to pay for their online shopping using cryptos. The new feature, dubbed “Checkout with Crypto,” allows PayPal customers to instantly convert their crypto holdings of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, or Bitcoin Cash into a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar and pay for their order.
Artificial Intelligence: Krisp Uses AI To Cancel Noises (Like Barking Dogs And Crying Babies) During Calls
Last month, Krisp, an AI-powered noise-removal service, raised $9 million in a Series A round of funding led by RTP Global and saw participation by Storm Ventures. The Krisp app works with calls and recordings and supports Zoom, Meet, and 1000+ other apps out of the box. It removes noises such as background voices, barking dogs, room echoes, and other disturbances that can affect virtual meetings in real-time.
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Could Be Outlawed, Says Ray Dalio
Dalio is the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the $150 billion hedge fund that is the world’s largest. History could repeat itself and bitcoin could be done in by a governmental crackdown similar to the one on gold when the U.S. government made it illegal for individuals to own the precious metal. Speaking to Yahoo…
Digital Assets: Investors Pile Into Blockchain.com’s $300M Raise, Valuing It At $5.2B
This mega-round follows on a $120 million raise just last month. Blockchain.com’s valuation has surged to $ 5.2 billion from $ 3 billion in just a month, such was investors’ appetite for its latest Series C raise. The investment was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and VY Capital, and included participation from other existing and leading investors across the globe.
Artificial Intelligence: William Shatner Celebrates 90th Birthday By Creating An AI Lookalike
Movie star William Shatner turned 90 on Tuesday and fittingly celebrated the event by creating an AI likeness of himself that can interact and make conversation with the generations of fans to come. Shatner joined StoryFile, an interactive storytelling app, as a brand ambassador, and set things off by becoming the app’s first person to be featured in an AI-powered video.
Venture Capital: Brazilian Real Estate Marketplace Loft Scores $425M
A booming housing market plus the digitization spurred by the pandemic have added up to land Sao-Paulo-based real estate marketplace Loft in a happy place. The three-year-old startup grew its business 28X in 2020 compared to the previous year, yet still has money left over from its last Series C raise of $175 million in January 2020. Nevertheless, Loft announced today its raise of $425 million at a whopping $2.2 billion valuation.
Digital Assets: Greenidge Generation, A Powerplant-Crypto Mining Hybrid, To List On Nasdaq
Greenidge Generation, an 84-year old mothballed coal-fired power station located in the New York Finger Lake Region, pivoted to natural gas-based generation and crypto mining in the past few years after its purchase in 2014 by affiliates of Atlas Holdings LLC, the private equity fund. Greenidge announced today a merger agreement with Support.com (NASDAQ: SPRT) that is expected to close in Q3 of 2021.
FinTech: Goldman Sachs Eyes JetBlue’s Credit Card Business
As Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) continues its determined advances in consumer finance, it is eyeing yet another card business. This time it is making a play for JetBlue’s (NASDAQ: JBLU) credit card program, currently operated by Barclays (LON: BARC).
Artificial Intelligence: The Potential Bounty From AI Could Be $13,500 Per American Adult
AI technology will enable “Moore’s Law for everything” – housing, education, food, clothing, etc. could become half as expensive every two years, and for decades to come. There would be so much wealth to go around that every adult in the United States could be paid $13,500 annually as soon as 10 years from now.
FinTech: India’s Fintech Industry Represents A $100B Value Creation Opportunity (BCG Report)
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted a study of the Indian fintech industry in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The report titled “India Fintech: A USD 100 Billion Opportunity,” said India’s fintech was a vibrant ecosystem on a high-growth trajectory, having raised USD 10 billion over the past five years, and currently poised at an estimated valuation of USD 50-60 billion.
FinTech: Stripe Raises $600M; Triples Valuation To $95B In Less Than A Year
Stripe, the global payments major founded by the Collison brothers, said on Sunday that it closed on a $600 million funding round at a valuation of $95 billion. Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital, and Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) invested in the round.
Venture Capital: Forward Health Lands $225M In Series D Funding
Forward Health is an entirely new ‘concierge’ healthcare system empowering doctors with technology and data to monitor and guide health outcomes. It raised $225 million in Series D funding with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Marc Benioff, and The Weeknd, among others. The funding will help the tech-centric primary healthcare startup expand its services across the U.S.
Digital Assets: Crypto Lender BlockFi Snags $350M In A Series D Funding Round
BlockFi, which functions as a one-stop crypto bank, allowing you to earn interest on your crypto holdings, announced today the close of its Series D fundraising of $350 million that valued the startup at $3 billion.
Venture Capital: Israeli Cloud Security Startup Snyk Scores $300M Funding; Quadruples Valuation
Israeli startup Snyk, which specializes in cloud-native application security, said today it had closed a Series E financing round for $300 million of which $175 million flowed into the company’s coffers. The rest constituted a secondary offering. Of note is the fact that Snyk has quadrupled its valuation in a year, such was the impact of the pandemic and the resulting demand for security from digital transformation.