#454
God Save The Queen
Published:
Sep 10, 2022
Author:
Cindy Grazer
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This week marks a turning point for the United Kingdom and the world at large. Despite FTC’s New York base, we have deep British roots that have imparted an overwhelming sense of respect and admiration for Queen Elizabeth II over the years.
The Queen’s passing prompts us to recognize the importance of cultivating stability and longevity amidst the world’s increasingly fractionalized interactions. Her reign is not characterized by a single age or event, but by a style of leadership that has persisted as a strong symbol of continuity amid a fast-changing world.
Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926, one year before the television was invented. In the ensuing 96 years of her life, the UK has become a definitive center of global finance and a leader in global tech innovation.
The UK has birthed 47 unicorns to date, and just this week the latest Prime Minister announced, just three days into her service, that she expects the UK to be a global hub for cryptocurrency innovation.
Thirty-three currencies worldwide display, or have displayed, an image of Queen Elizabeth II – another layer of how the Queen has touched the way that money flows throughout the world.
Portfolio News
Mondu bolsters executive team - B2B payments company Mondu has announced the appointment of two senior hires to its c-suite. Mondu has welcomed Julian Kurz as CCO and Lauren Hoehlein Joseph as CPO, who will support the expansion of Mondu’s team and product internationally. Read more
Bringing a bit of Ubuntu to NYC - FinTech Collective's Samantha Wulfson partnered with Catalyst Fund's Aaron Fu to create a community of founders, builders, investors and ecosystem builders of tech in Africa - based in New York City. In just 6 months, a community of 80+ has come together for monthly events and ongoing connectivity. Read more
God Save The Queen
Queen Elizabeth II: April 21 1926-September 8 2022 - Her reign spanned Britain’s journey from the wireless to the smartphone, from social deference to egalitarianism, from empire to the EU — and out again. Through the dramas and vicissitudes of seven decades, with their wars and other woes, Queen Elizabeth II served as the nation’s figurehead, supremely able to hold her people together. Read more
Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96 after 70 years on the throne - Britain’s longest-serving monarch was a symbol of stability in a fast-changing world. Queen Elizabeth II’s historic reign spanned a period of deep social and economic change, from a nation of empire that pioneered globalization to a country that chose to pull out of the European Union, from a society with rigid class divisions to a diverse and more equal country. Read more
How the Queen changed the face of money - Queen Elizabeth II has been featured in currency ever since she was a little girl. Here's how she's appeared on banknotes around the world across nine decades. Read more
Industry News
UBS abandons $1.4b deal for robo-adviser Wealthfront - The companies together decided to terminate their January merger agreement, valued at $1.4b, according to statements from both of them that didn’t specify a reason. Instead, UBS will purchase a $69.7m note convertible into Wealthfront shares. Read more
Kim Kardashian’s newest business venture: private equity - Kim Kardashian and a former partner at Carlyle Group are launching a new private-equity firm focused on investing in and building consumer and media businesses. Ms. Kardashian is teaming up with Jay Sammons, who ran consumer investing at Carlyle, to launch SKKY Partners, they said in separate interviews. SKKY will make investments in sectors including consumer products, hospitality, luxury, digital commerce and media as well as consumer-media and entertainment businesses. Read more
As natural gas prices soar, Bitpanda lets you trade commodities - The European trading platform originally started as a cryptocurrency exchange but over the past few years, it has expanded to other asset types, such as stocks, ETFs and precious metals - and now, commodities. The timing of this release lines up with important fluctuations in commodity prices in Europe due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And Bitpanda is well aware of that. Read more
SEC’s Gensler signals support for commodities regulator having bitcoin oversight - Mr. Gensler, speaking at an industry conference, said Thursday he looked forward to working with Congress to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission added power, to the extent the agency needs greater authority to oversee and regulate “nonsecurity tokens…and the related intermediaries.” Read more
Bank of America tests no-down-payment mortgages for minority communities - Bank of America started a trial program aimed at helping first-time homebuyers in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods by offering mortgages that don’t require down payments, closing costs or minimum credit scores, all considered longtime obstacles to narrowing the gap between White and minority ownership. Customers using the program will be evaluated for a home loan not by credit scores, but rather factors such as their history of making rent, utility, phone and auto-insurance payments on time. Read more
Citigroup wins appeal over $500m it sent by mistake - A US appeals court has overturned a ruling that allowed hedge funds to keep half a billion dollars that Citigroup mistakenly sent to them, in a victory for the Wall Street bank that could enable it to recoup the money. Read more
Adam Neumann is back, this time with a crypto angle - Neumann has helped found two separate startups that involve crypto: Flow and Flowcarbon. Flow hasn’t made the details of its plan public, but they include a digital wallet for handling cryptocurrencies, according to people familiar with the matter. The wallet would also offer other financial services, such as allowing users to connect a bank account. Read more
Goldman lends $140m to Latin American fintech Xepelin - Goldman Sachs provided a $140m credit line to help finance a Mexico expansion for Latin American fintech Xepelin, which offers services including payments and credit to small and midsize companies that do business with other firms. Read more
BofA granted hundreds of patents - Bank of America scored a record 341 US patents in the first half of 2022, a 50% year-on-year increase, with information security and AI seeing the most action. Having boasted last year of a record 227 patents, the bank has stepped up its efforts again and now has 5556 patents pending or granted, more than any other financial services company. Read more
Ant launches digital operations platform for insurers - Ant Group's insurance arm has launched a blockchain-based digital operation platform for insurance companies in China. The Xingyun platform promises to help insurers improve operational efficiency and customer experience from sales to operations to customer service. Read more
Standard Chartered unveils digital banking service in Indonesia with Bukalapak - Commerce firm Bukalapak and international banking group Standard Chartered Bank have joined forces to launch a digital banking platform in Indonesia. Called BukaTabungan, the service boasts its paperless onboarding process delivers accounts in five minutes. Read more
Select Financings
Billogram - Sweden based invoicing platform raised $13.9m in new funding led by Swisscom Ventures. Read more
Boopos - Miami based business lending platform raised $50m in Series A funding led by Bonsai Partners. Read more
CashFlo - India based supply chain finance startup raised $8.7m in Series B funding led by General Catalyst. Read more
Ceezer - Germany based carbon credits marketplace raised €4.2m in new funding led by Carbon Removal Partners and Norrsken VC. Read more
Chargezoom - California based B2B invoicing and payments platform raised $10m in Series A funding led by Panoramic Ventures and Softbank. Read more
HotStreak - California based blockchain based sports betting startup raised $9m in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital. Read more
Mesh Payments - Israel based spend management startup raised $60m in Series C funding led by Alpha Wave. Read more
Mysten Labs - San Francisco based Web3 startup founded by executives from Meta's crypto unit raised $300m in Series B funding led by FTX Ventures. Read more
NowNow - Nigeria based payments startup raised $13m in Seed funding led by NeoVision Ventures, DLF Family Office and Shadi Abdulhadi. Read more
Omni - New York based noncustodial crypto wallet raised $11m in new funding led by Spartan Group. Read more
R2 - Mexico City based embedded lending startup raised $15m in Series A funding led by Gradient Ventures. Read more
Spice AI - Seattle based blockchain data platform raised $13.5m in Seed funding led by Madrona Venture Capital. Read more
SteelEye - London based regtech startup raised $21m in Series B funding led by Ten Coves Capital. Read more
Tailor - Japan based ERP platform raised $4.3m in Seed funding led by YC and Global Brain. Read more
VTS - New York based proptech firm raised $125m in Series E funding led by CBRE Group. Read more
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