#427
Read The Fine Print

Griffin says 'fair to assume' that Citadel Securities will be market making in crypto in 'months to come' - In response to a question about Griffin's past stance on crypto and the recent participation of VC firm Paradigm in Citadel Securities's $1.15b funding round earlier this year, Griffin said that crypto "has been one of the great stories in finance over the course of the last 15 years." Read more

Amid global VC growth in 2021, tech funding in Africa grew faster than in any other region - In 2021, the tech ecosystem in Africa reached 2x the quantity of rounds and more than 3x the amount invested compared to the previous year. While there has been an acceleration throughout all round brackets, total funding was driven by a re-surge in large rounds above $50m. Read more

Visa, Mastercard block Russian financial institutions after sanctions - The government sanctions require Visa to suspend access to its network for entities listed as Specially Designated Nationals. The United States has added various Russian financial firms to the list, including the country's central bank and second-largest lender VTB. Visa and Mastercard also both pledged $2m toward humanitarian relief funds for Ukraine. Read more

TD expands U.S. footprint with $13.4b acquisition of First Horizon - The deal, the largest in TD's history, is expected to close during the bank's fiscal first quarter, which ends on Jan. 31, 2023. It will take TD into new markets in Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and Georgia. TD said it would become the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, with business in 22 states, after the deal closes. Read more

Sanctions significantly increase chances of a Russian international debt default - Russia has over $700m worth of government bond payments due this month. While in theory it has ample reserves to cover debt, in practice a freeze on some assets and other measures could affect its ability to make payments. Read more

Australia's Zip to buy U.S. buy-now-pay-later rival Sezzle amid softening market - Zip and Sezzle, which are both listed in Australia, had previously disclosed that they were discussing a buyout. They said they agreed terms this week, just as Zip confirmed a A$108.1m loss for July-December, excluding one-off items, versus a small underlying profit a year earlier. Read more

Credit Suisse caught trying to shred evidence of loans to Russian oligarchs backed by superyachts and private jets - According to reports in the FT, CS has quietly been offloading risks from its exposure to U.S.-sanctioned Russian oligarchs, after this group was responsible in 2017 and 2018 for a third of the defaults on yacht and private jet loans the bank extended. Hedge funds and other investors that bought securitized portfolios of these deals, backed by the ultra-luxury status items, were asked in a letter this week to “destroy and permanently erase” any evidence of the transaction, the paper reported. Read more

US investment into European startups reaches record levels - The flood of US capital into European startups is poised to accelerate this year after participation from investors across the pond reached a record high in 2021. Last year marked the first time that investment in European and Israeli startups crossed the €100b mark. The presence of US investors has, however, pushed up deal sizes, and valuations follow. The median European round with US participation nearly doubled in 2021 to €38m, compared with €19.4m the year before. Read more

Klarna’s widening losses driven by rapid expansion - The Swedish ‘buy now, pay later’ start-up posted a significant jump in credit defaults as it pushed into new markets. At the same time, retail banks like Monzo, Revolut, Virgin Money and Barclays have either trialed or have recently rolled out BNPL products of their own bringing competition to the space. The CEO of Klarna is not worried, comparing their efforts to retailers’ who have pivoted into ecommerce. “If they really go for it full-heartedly and make necessary changes, some will be able to succeed,” he said. Read more

Friends With Benefits is a V.I.P. lounge for crypto’s creative class. Is it empty hype or the future of friendship? - A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called ‘Friends with Benefits’ has grown into a social club of 6000 members for crypto’s ‘creative class’. Culturally, the membership skews less “Lamborghini-driving Bitcoin bros” and more “D.J.s from Williamsburg who dabble in Ethereum on the weekend.” In a recent orientation session, new members introduced themselves: an intellectual-property lawyer, a poet-slash-investor, a brand strategist for Nike, a handful of musicians and software engineers! Read more

Borrowed money funded share purchases by ‘Spac king’ Palihapitiya - Chamath Palihapitiya, the venture capitalist touted large personal investments when plugging his SPAC deals and called for others to put more “skin in the game”. However the FT points out that Palihapitiya’s definition of “investment” charitably included his use of $200mn in personal loans taken out from Credit Suisse to leverage his holdings and lower his actual investment costs closer to zero. Read more