General News

February 21, 2022 @ 9:32 am By JD Alois  |  

This is an interesting factoid. In a tweet, Funderbeam noted that Estonia claims the title of having the highest number of unicorns, per capita, in the world. 🦄 Estonia might soon have its 10th unicorn and already has the highest number of unicorns per capita… Read More

February 19, 2022 @ 7:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Dr. Emin Gün Sirer, Founder and CEO at Ava Labs, ex-professor at Cornell, confirmed that BENQI liquid staking is live. Liquid staking is live. https://t.co/7ltUAvEXHn — egs9000🔺⚔️ (@el33th4xor) February 16, 2022 The team at BENQI noted that they are pleased to confirm the release of BENQI’s… Read More

February 19, 2022 @ 2:52 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Cryptocurrency donations have increased considerably along with the Bitcoin price (and those of Ethereum as well as other major altcoins). Last year, Fidelity Charitable investors reportedly donated over $330 million in digital currency, which is over 12x the amount provided back in 2020, according to… Read More

February 19, 2022 @ 2:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

A new report by Telstra Ventures highlights how the tech hub ecosystem is changing. The US has long been a hotbed of entrepreneurship and innovation with early-stage firms establishing dominant hubs in locations like the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. But COVID… Read More

February 19, 2022 @ 1:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Billtrust (NASDAQ: BTRS), a B2B accounts receivable automation and integrated payments company, announced the latest version of its machine learning-driven Cash Application solution. With virtual payments, non-standard remittance information and the proliferation of accounts payable (AP) portals challenging today’s accounts receivable (AR) teams, Cash Application… Read More

February 18, 2022 @ 12:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Federal Open Market Committee has announced new restrictions on senior Fed officials in regards to investing and trading activities. According to a statement by the Fed, under the new rules, senior Federal Reserve officials are prohibited from purchasing individual stocks or sector funds, holding investments… Read More

February 18, 2022 @ 11:42 am By JD Alois  |  

SIM Swap fraud has been prevalent for years now targeting both traditional financial services as well as crypto investments. The scam is where a criminal hijacks your mobile phone by using a new SIM card affiliated with your phone number. Once accomplished, two-factor authentication goes… Read More

February 17, 2022 @ 11:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

In a sign that we are all moving from quantum exploration to quantum production – and that quantum software development is an important ingredient in gaining quantum advantage – Classiq, which offers a platform for Quantum Algorithm Design, announced that it has secured $33 million… Read More

February 17, 2022 @ 3:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Symphony – the markets’ infrastructure and tech platform – is teaming up with Digital Asset – a software and services provider that assists enterprises with building economic value via interconnected networks – in order to “generate efficiency and remove manual processes in the broadly syndicated… Read More

February 17, 2022 @ 2:17 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Pindrop’s Voice Intelligence and Security Report 2021 provides detailed evidence of how fraudsters have shifted strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 2020 call centers typically saw fraud rates of one out of every 770 calls, but in 2020 the ratio rose to one out… Read More

February 15, 2022 @ 2:17 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The early stage continues to resemble the “late stage of years past.” Last year, the median early-stage valuation surged 50% YoY to $45.0 million. This value represents a greater median than the late stage only a few years ago “and illustrates the tsunami of capital… Read More

February 14, 2022 @ 9:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A report from PeerIQ notes that the official numbers are in and they’re not looking so great. Inflation, as measured by the CPI, surged at a higher than expected 7.5% annualized rate in January 2022. That’s the fastest rate of price increases since 1982. Expectations… Read More

February 14, 2022 @ 11:46 am By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday was the 56th Super Bowl where the LA Rams topped the Cincinnati Bengals by just a three-point spread. While the game was exciting, much discourse around the annual event tends to target the television commercials that costs advertisers millions of dollars due to the… Read More

February 14, 2022 @ 6:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Worldline (Euronext: WLN), a provider of payments and transactional services, is reportedly getting ready to sell its point-of-sale terminal business to Apollo Global Management for $2.3 billion. This, according to a report from the WSJ. A deal might be finalized within a few days as… Read More

February 13, 2022 @ 11:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The past few years have seen the crypto and blockchain space impact just about every industry in one way or another. However, one innovation in particular is leveraging blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) in order to “fundamentally disrupt how organizations are structured, codified and… Read More

February 13, 2022 @ 5:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech Affirm‘s (NASDAQ:AFRM) stock had fallen over 20% to a $58.68 share price on Thursday (February 10, 2022) following the firm’s disclosure of its Q2 results (which came ahead of schedule). Affirm closed the week at $46.55 after starting the year at over $95 so… Read More

February 12, 2022 @ 9:54 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Northspyre, a financial tracking and project delivery automation platform for real estate developers, has reportedly acquired $25 million via a Series B round to further grow its business and expand its solution “to improve the development process within the multi-trillion dollar commercial real estate industry.”… Read More

February 11, 2022 @ 9:09 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Algorand Foundation has confirmed the appointment of Staci Warden as its Chief Executive Officer. Warden, who has served on the Algorand Foundation’s Board since September of last year, steps into the additional role of CEO effective February 11, 2022. Warden has reportedly led international… Read More

February 10, 2022 @ 10:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Rino, the newly-launched startup founded by Trung Thanh Nguyen, has finalized a $3M pre-seed round in order to accelerate the firm’s blueprint for 10-minute instant delivery by “setting up dark stores and building its own logistics units beginning with Ho Chi Minh City.” Trung Thanh… Read More

February 10, 2022 @ 3:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

LendIt Fintech has announced the winners of the fifth annual LendIt Fintech Industry Awards. The awards announcement coincided with an event in Miami, Florida that incorporated a gala dinner. Following the conclusion of the second day of the inaugural Nexus Dealmakers Summit, the Awards brought… Read More