A blockchain-powered financial services startup Figure Technologies founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, announced it has closed a $103 million Series C round. But, that is not all folks. It has also added Morgan Creek Digital’s Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, one of the sector’s most vigorous supporters, to its board. That’s not a consequence because, according to the company’s announcement, the round was also led by Morgan Creek Digital, with participation from MUFG Innovation Partners and...
Read More »Duolingo Receives $30 Million Series E Funding Pushing Valuation to $1.5 Billion
One of the world’s most used language learning platform Duolingo has successfully pulled in $30 million in a new series F funding. The funding was handled by Alphabet’s investment division CapitalG, which had led the platform’s series D funding round a few years ago in 2015.Duolingo seems to be doing something right especially since CapitalG has decided to come back to pump more money after 4 years. So far, the language learning platform has raised a total of $138 million in funding, climbing...
Read More »Blockchain Arm of Ping An Insurance OneConnect Gives Details for its IPO Valued at $468M
OneConnect Financial Technology which is the artificial intelligence and blockchain arm of Ping An Insurance that is easily one of the largest insurance firms in China has come forth with the terms for its IPO valued at $468 Million. Sources indicate that based on the F-1 Filing of its prospectus with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm intends to conduct the initial public offering which is aimed at raising between $432 million and $504 million via issuing...
Read More »Mike Novogratz Is Likely to Purge Off the Unprofitable Pantera ICO Fund
In general, the fund that made a bet on different unknown coins is experiencing major troubles. The long-awaited “altcoin season” didn’t come.ICO Funds Related to Shitcoins are Receiving the HeatAccording to the sources, ICO designated portfolios are losing most of the profits. Many of the funds keep the “illiquid, pre-launched” tokens which will only be launched at the end of 2019. However, this does not add those tokens any credibility.Instead, we see that privacy-oriented PoW coins are...
Read More »SoftBank Leads $30M Funding Round for AI-powered Cashierless Stores Startup Accel Robotics
Now, we all know SoftBank for its “unicorn status” investment decisions and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to many that the investment giant has participated in a Series A round of funding for Accel Robotics which is a San Diego-based startup that has been involved in the cashierless space for a bit now. The funding round also attracted other investors including Toyo Kanetsu Corporate Venture Investment Partnership, RevTech Ventures and New Ground Ventures.Accel Robotics and other...
Read More »Rapyd Raises $20M from Durable Capital Partners at $1.2B Valuation
A growing trend in the financial technology world has been a continuous push towards consolidation where the bigger fish is acquiring the smaller fish. There is also an increasing number of interesting startups coming up. The acquisitions happen for the involved companies to enjoy enhanced economies of scale in a business model where all transactions bring incremental returns.However, on December 3, a startup that built the concept of consolidation into its basic DNA raised another funding...
Read More »Blockchain in Healthcare Symposium Event Overview
In health care industry there is a massive opportunity for a Blockchain revolution to lead a digital transformation from medical records, to pharmaceutical supply chains to smart contracts for payment distributions. There are plenty of opportunities to leverage this technology. Many healthcare companies are currently working on or have already released blockchain-based systems to improve healthcare for both professionals and patients.The adoption of the blockchain technology could save the...
Read More »Kuwait to Add $1 Billion in Saudi Aramco IPO, but Is It Really Worth It?
It seems Kuwait’s government could insert at least $1 billion in the initial public offering of Saudi Arabia state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. Sources familiar with the situation said that the kingdom asked its regional partners to support the share sale valued as high as $2 trillion.Until recently, the Kuwait Investment Authority had been pretty much unwilling to commit significant funds to the IPO. However, the government explained that a stake was in the country’s strategic interest,...
Read More »Morgan Stanley Demotes Roku as Investors Abandon Momentum Stocks
American multinational investment bank and financial services company Morgan Stanley has changed its rating on stocks from Roku, the on-demand video streaming platform backed by Fox. Even though Roku has had an amazing year and climbed quite explosively in the stock market with 400% year-to-date YTD returns, Morgan Stanley dropped its Roku rating from equal weight to underweight.In a recent note to the company’s investors titled “It’s All Priced In”, Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne,...
Read More »Blockchain Accelerator Tribe Backed by Singaporean Government Raises $16M for Startups
Tribe Accelerator, that is a blockchain accelerator backed by the Singaporean government, has raised 25 million Singaporean dollars which is roughly about $16 million for startups that are presented on its platform. Sources indicate that the accelerator revealed this in a press release yesterday and that about $28 million in total has been raised so far for startups that employ blockchain technology to revolve issues that the world currently faces. The accelerator further revealed that the...
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