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Old People, Superbowl


#425
What's Old Is New Again

Published:

Feb 19, 2022


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Old People, Superbowl

Published:

Feb 19, 2022


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Although crypto companies were the biggest spenders on Super Bowl ads this year, the most successful commercials were those that tapped into the past. In reminding millennials+ of the way things were before smartphones, TikTok, and virtual worlds dominated our lives, companies advertising the future of finance ironically - yet successfully - reverted to the “good old days,” like FTX, which featured Larry David going back in time, and Coinbase, which featured a QR code styled like the bouncing icon of a DVD screensaver.

The halftime show was no different, drumming up a deeply rooted sense of nostalgia from viewers who grew up idolizing the chosen performers - until the grim realization set in that they were being introduced to today’s versions of the “oldies”.

All jokes - and memes - aside, old(er) people are having a tough time these days. IBM is under fire for age discrimination, as unsealed court documents reveal managers referring to elderly employees as “dinobabies.” According to ProPublica, the company fired up to 100,000 workers over the age of 40 from ~2013 to 2018.

While it doesn’t necessarily get the most attention, accusations of age discrimination in tech are not uncommon, where being over 35 puts you in the dinosaur category and more than 60% of workers over 45 say they have seen or experienced it at some point. One of the biggest issues with IBM’s, and other tech companies’ thinking is that being over 35 is certainly not old by any means, and also does not make you irrelevant. “With age comes experience” holds a lot of truth, and having perspective is incredibly important.

But taking a step back, if being old is so uncool, then it is somewhat ironic that Gen Z-ers have not only brought back the bell-bottom, but embraced the mom jean with open arms. Regular headphones (with cords) and middle-part hairstyles are no longer relics of the past either. Ironies aside, what is old is now new (and cool) again, and that shouldn’t stop with fashion.

Portfolio News


African fintech company Flutterwave triples valuation to over $3b after $250m Series D - Congratulations to portfolio company Flutterwave on this latest round of financing! At $3b, Flutterwave is currently the highest valued African startup, surpassing the $2b valuation set by SoftBank-backed fintech OPay and FTX-backed cross-border payments platform Chipper Cash last year. Flutterwave has seen astronomical growth since its Series C last year. At the time, the payments company said it processed 140m transactions worth over $9b. A year later, the African payments giant, with an infrastructure reach across 34 countries on the continent, now processes 200m transactions worth more than $16b. Read more

Ethereum’s hippest wallet app Rainbow banks funding from Alexis Ohanian - While a world of internet users skeptically grapples with the rise of multimillion-dollar JPGs and crypto exchanges bankrolling celebrity-packed Super Bowl spots, a network of blockchain startups is trying to build friendlier consumer onramps into its vision of the crypto internet. Rainbow, a crypto startup building a mobile wallet app that allows users to interact with decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain, wants to be the app users download to tap into that future. Read more

Investors bolster The Graph with $205m Ecosystem Fund - This Ecosystem Fund isn’t an investment in The Graph, which is an indexing layer for Web3 and blockchain data — it is a fund that will invest in projects building on its protocol. Key projects include those building creator economies with NFTs and token design, as well as cross-metaverse identities and DAO tools. Read more

Tiiik preparing to bring crypto saving to the masses - Tiiik has just completed a seed funding round raising $5.2m from high-profile leaders of the local fintech scene, along with global crypto VCs that include FinTech Collective, DACM, Global Founders Capital and Jump Capital. The company will offer a 10% per annum yield, accruing daily, and hopes to profit from earning an even higher yield supplying customer funds into crypto lending protocols. Read more

Marqeta, Plaid team on ACH transfers for Marqeta customer accounts - The new tech will allow for Marqeta’s customers to more easily initiate ACH transactions for sending money between both customer accounts and external accounts. Customers will also be able to verify and link external accounts faster, which should simplify funding accounts and spending. Read more

What's Old Is New Again


The Super Bowl halftime show was a rude awakening for 'old people' - The Super Bowl 56 halftime show was a match made in millennial heaven. It was about time they moved on from Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones and brought in some music for the younger generation. Oh, wait. Sunday's epic performance that included hip-hop icons Dr. Dre, 56, Snoop Dogg, 50, Mary J. Blige, 51, Eminem, 49, 50 Cent, 46, and the "baby" of the group, Kendrick Lamar, 34, served as a harsh reminder that the Gen X and Gen Y generations are old now. Read more

Larry David doesn’t get crypto. That’s why FTX hired him - Larry David made his commercial debut in a Super Bowl ad for FTX Trading Limited. The comedian and creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is what the company calls an anti-sponsor, as David brings his own skepticism about crypto into the various characters he plays. Read more

IBM execs referred to older employees as ‘dinobabies’ and a ‘dated maternal workforce,’ according to explosive court docs - The documents, which were unsealed last week, are part of a lawsuit against the company by former workers accusing it of age discrimination. The company fired up to 100,000 workers over 40 years old from approximately 2013 to 2018, according to ProPublica. Read more

Industry News


Amazon and Visa agree to end global dispute over credit card fees - Amazon has been piling pressure on Visa to lower its fees, in a series of moves that signaled growing frustration from retailers over the costs associated with major card networks, as well as the tech giant’s market power and sway over its partners. Read more

US accuses financial website of spreading Russian propaganda - The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2m Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia. Read more

Divorcing couples fight over the kids, the house and now the crypto - An ugly divorce tends to generate arguments about virtually everything, but the difficulty of tracking and valuing cryptocurrency is creating new headaches. In many cases, divorce lawyers said, spouses underreport their holdings, or try to hide funds in online wallets that can be difficult to get into. Read more

Quick cash, easy sales: iBuyers are grabbing more of the real estate market - While still relatively small, the iBuyer sector could have an outsized impact on the industry, which is currently grappling with a shortage of available homes. Some builders have seen iBuyers as a way to ensure the quick sales of homes. Opendoor has partnered with Lennar, and Offerpad has partnered with Taylor Morrison. If that proves effective, it could help spur more construction. Read more

Fireblocks acquires crypto payments processor First DAG in cash-and-stock deal - First DAG is building a crypto payments platform to help merchants accept stablecoins. The platform, to be launched this spring, will now help Fireblocks enable stablecoin payouts and B2B payments with stablecoins for its institutional clients. Read more

Coinbase offers free crypto cashouts for transfers to Mexico - Coinbase announced a pilot program this week that will let Mexicans receive crypto transfers and then convert the balance into pesos by presenting a redemption code at more than 37,000 stores, which will be free of charge until March 31. To arrange the transfers, Coinbase has partnered with the money transfer service Remitly, which has relationships with Mexican retail outlets like Bansefi, BanCoppel, Oxxo, Sorina, and Telecomm Telegrafos. Read more

Buyout firm Madison Dearborn to take MoneyGram private in $1.8b deal - The Dallas-based company, with nearly $800m in net debt and more than 150m customers, became an acquisition target as it struggled to capture the growing market for payments and remittances amid competition from rivals such as Remitly Global and Western Union. Read more

JPMorgan opens a Decentraland lounge - In Decentraland, one of the most popular metaverses, the bank's Onyx lounge resides in Metajuku, a virtual version of Tokyo's Harajuku shopping district. A tiger wanders the first floor, and a picture of the bank's boss Jamie Dimon hangs on the wall. A winding staircase leads to the second floor, where a person's avatar can watch experts talk about the crypto market. Read more

FIS acquires Payrix to boost embedded payments, eCommerce and SMB financial offerings - The acquisition will allow FIS to go global at scale and includes new capabilities including digital and automated onboarding, compliance, billing and settlement, which will allow the firm to expand into new market segments, including SMB eCommerce. Read more

Crypto company Circle comes back around on SPAC deal while doubling its valuation to $9b - The company announced it has terminated its previously announced merger agreement with special-purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp., but has agreed to new terms that will double the crypto company’s valuation to $9b. The original deal with Concord was announced last July and valued the company—an issuer of USD Coin at $4.5b. However, USD Coin’s circulation has more than doubled since the original deal was announced and has now reached $52.5b. Read more

Mercado Pago starts to operate as a payment initiator in Brazil - Mercado Pago is the first company with a payment transaction initiator (ITP) license to have the service operational. This figure was created in the third phase of open banking and allows you to initiate operations at a third party without leaving the environment of the original institution, simplifying operations. Read more

Centre consortium unveils decentralized ID solution for crypto finance - Centre - a consortium founded by Circle and Coinbase to serve as a standard setting body for blockchain-based financial services - announced Verite, a decentralized model for identity credential issuance, custody and verification. Read more

Select Financings


3Box Labs - New York based developer of a decentralized network for composable data raised $30m in Series A funding led by Multicoin Capital and Union Square Ventures. Read more

Akulaku - Indonesia based banking and digital finance platform raised $100m in Series E funding from Siam Commercial Bank. Read more

Atom - UK based neobank raised £75m in growth funding led by BBVA, Toscafund, and Infinity. Read more

Banked - UK based payments startup raised $20m in Series A funding led by Bank of America and Edenred Capital Partners. Read more

Check - New York based digital payroll startup raised $75m in Series C funding led by Stripe. Read more

Coast - New York based provider of expense management software for fleet operators raised $27m in Series A funding led by Accel and Insight Partners. Read more

Earnipay - Nigeria based earned wage access company raised $4m in Seed funding led by Canaan Partners. Read more

Fenbeitong - Beijing based expense management company raised $140m in Series C plus funding led by DST Global. Read more

Flow - San Francisco based provider of private fund formation and management software raised $20m in Series A funding led by SVB. Read more

Found - San Francisco based provider of "full stack" financial services for self-employed workers raised $60m in Series B funding led by Founders Fund. Read more

Funding Societies - Singapore based SMB financing platform raised $144m in Series C funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Read more

Genesis - London based application development platform for financial companies raised $200m in Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management. Read more

Maverick - Decentralized permissionless derivatives protocol raised $8m in new funding led by Pantera Capital. Read more

MoneyHash - Egypt based super-API for payments orchestration raised $3m in Pre Seed funding led by COTU Ventures. Read more

Multis - France based crypto management software company raised $7m in Seed funding led by Sequoia Capital. Read more

Mundi - New York based fintech startup focused on cross-border trade raised $16m in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures. Read more

Nomad - Denver based guaranteed rent marketplace for small landlords raised $20m in Series A funding led by SVB. Read more

Passthrough - New York based SaaS for fund subscription documents raised $5m in Seed funding led by Positive Sum. Read more

RapidRatings - New York based provider of financial health data and analytics raised $200m in growth funding led by Spectrum Equity. Read more

Sharegain - Israel based securities lending company raised $64m in Series B funding led by WestCap. Read more

Spotter - Los Angeles based financial liquidity services company for YouTube creators raised $200m in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Read more

Stitch - South Africa based embedded finance startup raised $21m in Series A funding led by Spruce House. Read more

Tilled - Colorado based PayFac-as-a-Service raised $11m in extended Series A funding led by G Squared. Read more

Trullion - New York based financial document automation company raised $15m in Series A funding led by Aleph and Third Point Ventures. Read more

ViaBill - Denmark based provider of BNPL services for physical retailers raised $120m in equity and debt funding led by Fasanara Capital. Read more


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