Game of thrones: for SME's Neobanks & Crypto Marketplaces ๐
Weekly press review in Tech & Web3 - 28th March 2022 - Issue #41
Iโm Sebastien co-founder and CEO ofย Early Metrics.ย TechWatchbySebย is a weekly newsletter to provide Tech Investors, Entrepreneurs & Innovators with my selection of news on the Tech and Web3 ecosystems.
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Before starting โ๏ธ,
I launched this newsletter 1 year ago, with the ambition not to scale but to share with you, my friends, my views, my thoughts on whatโs happening on the tech scene.
Now we are together 73, with reading rates above 50% to 60% every week it gives me a lot of strength to keep on doing my best to offer you the best experience. Last week I announced to add a section dedicated to Web3 and Iโm looking forward to making this journey altogether.
Obviously, if you have any comments for improvement, feel free to share them using this button.
So thank you and enjoy the reading ๐
Summary for this week
Section 1 - Tech main news:
SMEs Neobanks: a battle to win
API to connect the dots
Thoma Bravo doesn't want to share the cake
Section 2 - Web3 main news:
Crypto marketplaces: the game of throne
Lux and Art to create a new digital world
Google invited to join the NFT party
Total of articles reviewed this week: 24
๐ฅSMEs Neobanks: a battle to win
After the massive wave weโve seen of Neobanks for individuals, now we start to see a strong acceleration of players aiming to cover the SMEโs sphere. Last week Mercury announced to launch a Venture loan arm. This week 2 major operations have emerged:
Fintech startup Jeeves ๐บ๐ธ raises $180M, quadruples valuation to $2.1B in half a year. Jeeves is building a premium financial operating system for global businesses. Starting with credit cards, the company has quickly scaled into local payments, multi-currency reconciliation and working capital loans. The company is backed by major investors such as Andreessen Horowitz.
Finally ๐บ๐ธ, the SMB back office automation platform, raises $95 million. Businesses can connect their bank and credit accounts and get immediate visibility into how their company is doing; the more data points a business connects, the more insights they unlock. With the launch of its corporate charge card, Finally plans to make over $1 billion in credit available to small businesses.
Source:
Jeeves: Techcrunch
Finally: prnewswire
๐ฅAPI to connect the dots
RapidAPI ๐บ๐ธ raises $150 million Series D to reach unicorn status.
RapidAPI is an API Hub that enables over 3 million developers to find, manage, and connect to APIs. RapidAPI lets developers manage all API integrations from one place and gives real-time performance metrics.
RapidAPI was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company has raised a total of $272M and is backed by investors such as Andreessen Horowitz or Softbanks.
Sources: Ctech
๐ฅThoma Bravo doesn't want to share the cake
The private equity firmโs Thoma Bravo ๐บ๐ธ is acquiring for $10.7 billion, the software company Anaplan ๐บ๐ธ being financed by Blackstone Credit, Apollo Global Management, Golub Capital and Owl Rock Capital.
Anaplan is driving a new age of connected planning. Large and fast-growing organizations use Anaplanโs cloud platform in every business function to make better-informed plans and decisions and drive faster more effective planning processes.
The company was founded in 2006 and went on Nasdaq in 2018.
Source: Bloomberg
๐ฅCrypto marketplaces game of throne
The crypto market is definitely buzzing, and what weโve seen recently is its importance in Geopolitics. I wonโt comment on this aspect, but it is interesting to see that some crypto exchanges are taking the lead. This week two major operations have happened:
Coincheck ๐ฏ๐ต to list on Nasdaq via over $1 billion SPAC merger. The company engages in buying and selling cryptocurrencies and provides payment as long as lending services of bitcoins. Coincheck was founded in 2012.
Coinbase ๐บ๐ธ said near deal to buy Mercado Bitcoin ๐ง๐ท, owner of Brazilโs largest crypto exchange. The company was founded in 2013, reached 3.2 million customers in 2021, of which 1.1 million were added last year, adding that its trading volume reached $7.1 billion in 2021.
Source:
๐ฅ Lux and Art to create a new digital world
Not big company fundraising for this section, but Iโve been interested in those two NFT use cases:
Ukraine ๐บ๐ฆ launches NFT 'Museum of War' in crypto crowdfunding push. The NFT collection website further details that the collection presents โA chronology of events of the Ukrainian history of modern times, set in stone โฆ The NFTs are facts accompanied by personal reflections.โ
Sothebyโs ๐บ๐ธ Expands NFT Arm With Liverpool FC๐ฌ๐ง Partnership. The collectionโs artwork will feature generative imagery of each of its 24 players, in what the club says will be an โinnovative way to celebrate being an LFC fan from anywhere in the world,โ according to a press release.
Sources:
NFT museum of war: bitcoin.com
Sothebys: Coindesk
๐ฅGoogle invited to join the NFT party
Google-backed Glance ๐บ๐ธ acquires gaming platform Gambit ๐ฎ๐ณ in NFT push.
Glance helps enterprise organizations create the ultimate customer experience with smart, omni-channel visual engagement solutions. Last week, the company has announced the acquisition of Indiaโs Gambit as the Google-backed firm looks to supercharge its mobile games offerings and introduce NFTs to its Gen-Z users.
Source: Techcrunch
Last but not least
If you want to access the rest of my press review for last week, please click on this button, and will send it back to you.
๐ Thatโs it for this week, wishing you a great week ahead, and feel free to share if you like ๐