Published:
May 21, 2022
Author:
Cindy Grazer
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For years financial institutions have been operating in the absence of capital markets infrastructure. Some, however, are beginning to pay the price. As the largest bankruptcy filing ever, the slow death of Lehman Brothers over the past 14 years is one manifestation of this consequence.
Since 2008, a select group of employees have had to remain to sort out the aftermath. For some a career defining opportunity, and for others, a painstakingly tedious obligation; consensus remains that modern technology should relieve all of these stragglers of their ongoing responsibility.
Despite Lehman’s involvement in the housing crisis, they did maintain a significant quantity of good assets. All in all, they were positioned with a similarly high-risk model to nearly every other major investment bank at the time. The defining factor as noted even in the official court commissioned report? A loss of confidence.
The failure and subsequent unwind of a major bank should never be so subjective. Enter modern technology. Secure, multiparty infrastructure has created a host of opportunities to avoid the mess of not only failures, but also to help healthy companies integrate workflow automation and synchronize information across entire markets. Looking to spice up the recipe even further? Then get a little bit “Salt Bae” and add distributed ledger infrastructure to the foundation of the mix.
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A Sprinkle Of DLT
The last of Lehman Brothers - The bank whose collapse marked the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis is only mostly dead. There are still some people attending to its last remains ahead of its final court cases. Read more
Industry News
Crypto exchange FTX expands to take on Schwab and Robinhood - This week FTX started letting some customers trade shares in companies like Apple, Visa, and Coca-Cola—putting it into direct competition with the likes of Charles Schwab, Robinhood, and other brokerage giants. The company has been preparing for the move into equities for months now - late in 2021, FTX acquired a broker/dealer license through a little-known company called RJL, which paved the way for the announcement. Read more
Robinhood launching DeFi wallet to rival Metamask - The new wallet application will allow customers to access non-fungible token markets, decentralized exchanges and swap tokens. Robinhood is hoping that the sleek and intuitive design of its new app will make engaging with web3 destinations less cumbersome for newbies. The firm plans to fully roll-out the product to its entire user base by the end of the year. Read more
Mastercard launches biometric ‘wave to pay’ program - Retailers that sign up to its pilot scheme can allow customers to pay in-store with a gesture such as a smile or a wave. The system, which requires customers to enroll first, could also be connected to loyalty programs and purchase history. Read more
With IPO market shut, the stock riches of tech employees find new buyers - As the IPO market slows and private companies face valuation cuts, firms are opting for additional approaches to make company stock liquid, including lower-priced options awarded to new employees and buying back existing stock from veteran staff. For example, fintech start-up Brex recently competed a $250m tender offer for employee stock and SpaceX reportedly is offering to sell shares from employees at a $125b valuation. Read more
Nomura prepares to launch crypto subsidiary - Nomura is to launch a new company to help institutional clients diversify into cryptocurrency, decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens, despite a recent run of volatility in the crypto market that has raised fundamental questions over its safety for investors. According to people with knowledge of the company’s plan, Japan’s largest investment bank will combine a number of digital asset services under a single wholly-owned subsidiary that will have a staff of about 100 by the end of 2024. Read more
BNP Paribas to provide carbon-linked credit line to Ant Group - Under the arrangement, BNP Paribas will offer revolving credit lines to Ant Group that come with a 'two-way interest rate adjustment mechanism' tied to a number of the Company’s SPTs (Sustainability Performance Targets). Each year, the bank will verify the SPTs using Carbon Matrix, AntChain’s enterprise carbon management SaaS (software-as-a-Service) product, which is built on blockchain. Read more
Meta's WhatsApp rolls out P2P payments for user contacts in India and Brazil - The new pay button in the contact card of the messaging system makes it possible for people to send money directly to family, friends, and loved ones from the contacts menu. Read more
M&A is coming for DeFi protocols as market conditions change - Investors at the Permissionless conference this week say M&A could explode in DeFi as markets sour. Given the current bearish crypto market conditions, the panelists agreed that while some DeFi protocols can survive the downturns and continue to raise money, when that capital dries up, it’ll be harder to sustain themselves and there will be a lot more consolidation in the next two years. Read more
Amateur investors rode the bull up, now the bear looms - Many of the estimated 20 million amateurs who started trading in the past two years - whether bored sports bettors or meme-stock aficionados who piled into GameStop - have tapped the brakes, or scrambled to shuffle their portfolios into more defensive positions. Read more
How a trash-talking crypto founder caused a $40b crash - Do Kwon, a South Korean entrepreneur, hyped the Luna and TerraUSD cryptocurrencies he created. Their failures have devastated some traders, though not the investment firms that cashed out early. Read more
Select Financings
Arrived - Seattle based single-family rentals investment platform raised $25m in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures. Read more
Belong - San Mateo based rental property management startup raised $50m in new funding led by Fifth Wall. Read more
Caribou - Washington D.C. based automotive financing platform raised $115m in Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Read more
Column Tax - New York based personal income tax software startup raised $21.7m in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. Read more
Coins.ph - Philippines based fiat and crypto wallet services provider raised $30m in Series C funding led by Ribbit Capital. Read more
Elwood Technologies - London based crypto trading platform raised $70m in Series A funding co-led by Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital. Read more
Evaluate Market - Brooklyn based NFT portfolio management platform raised $4m in Seed funding led by Rho Capital. Read more
FirstClose - Texas based data and workflow solution for mortgage and home equity lenders raised $35m in growth funding from Lateral Investment Management. Read more
Improvado - San Diego based revenue and sales data analytics company raised $22m in Series A funding led by Updata Partners. Read more
In3 - Netherlands based BNPL startup raised $83.5m in Series B equity and debt funding from Force Over Mass, Waterfall Asset Management and Finch Capital. Read more
Keep Financial - San Jose based compensation and retention startup raised $9m in Seed funding led by a16z. Read more
Lassie - Stockholm based pet insurance startup raised €11m in Series A funding led by Felix Capital. Read more
Modulr - London based embedded payments platform for digital businesses raised $108m in Series C funding led by General Atlantic. Read more
Nomad - Brazil based fintech that enables Brazilians to open bank accounts in the U.S. raised $32m in Series B funding led by Stripes. Read more
Parcl - New York based blockchain real estate investing platform raised $7.5m in Series A funding led by Fifth Wall and JAWS. Read more
Questbook - India based funding platform for web3 developers raised $8.3m in Series A funding led by Lemniscap. Read more
SpotOn - San Francisco based software and payment company raised $300m in Series F funding led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Read more
Thought Machine - London based B2B banking platform raised $160m in Series D funding led by Tamasek. Read more
Tiptop - California based consumer finance crypto startup raised $23m in Series A funding led by a16z. Read more
Trellis - Salem based car insurance policy shopping platform raised $5m in Seed funding led by Amex Ventures. Read more
Unit - San Francisco based banking-as-a-service startup raised $100m in Series C funding led by Insight Partners. Read more
Voyager - New York based crypto trading platform raised $60m in private placement funding led by Alameda Research. Read more
Xendit - Indonesia based payments infrastructure platform raised $300m in Series D funding led by Coatue and Insight Partners. Read more
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