Fintech Focus For April 14, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “I think smart money understands that, although volatility has contracted a lot in these last two months, we are still seeing signs of excess market fragility appear from many different angles.”

Source: Kris Sidial

One Big Thing In Fintech: ConsenSys, a key player in crypto and a major proponent of the Ethereum blockchain, has raised a $65 million funding round from J.P. Morgan, Mastercard and UBS AG, as well as major blockchain companies Protocol Labs, the Maker Foundation, Fenbushi, The LAO and Alameda Research.

Additional investors include CMT Digital and the Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund. As well as fiat, several funds invested with Ethereum-based stablecoins, DAI and USDC, as consideration.

Source: TechCrunch

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Boson Protocol concluded its sale.
• Metaco launching Harmonize tech.
• Liquidity Book adds an investment.
• Fixed income tech in an arms race.
• Coinbase set $250 reference price.
• Luxembourg fintech hub launches.
• Confluence adding pension funds.
• Pine Labs acquires Fave for $45M.
• Goldman to open a tech hub office.
• MFS leads $2.3M seed in Numida.
• Enso raises $5M for social trading.
• Hatch launches with $20M funding.
• BlackRock, Temasek collaborating.
• Clubhouse rolls out payments tech.
• TradeWeb, AWS partner on access.
• BSCstarter empowering innovation.
• Checkout eyes $100B opportunity.
• FormFree taps MX over processes.
• What is behind the Filecoin hype?
• Mendix: Hyper-automation is next.
• Synctera added Socure, CheckAlt.

Watch Out For This: U.S. partners South Korea and Taiwan joined China in opposing Japan’s plan to release radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean starting in about two years.

Source: Bloomberg

Interesting Reads:

• Schwab unintentionally sent $1.2M.
• Spotify unveils in-car entertainment.
• 1Password has acquired SecretHub.
• Biden to begin withdrawing troops.
• Facebook tests video speed dating.
• Consumer prices rise post-COVID.
• McConaughey is promoting soccer.

Market Moving Headline: In the last 15-plus months, more than 550 special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, have gone public. Of those, more than 400 are still actively seeking their target, according to SPACInsider. While not all of those SPACs are looking solely at tech, the sector has proven popular with the new financial tool.

However, as the number of EV and greentech companies with public market credentials begin to dwindle, those who watch the industry think traditional software, social media, quantum computing, fintech and more could be eyed by SPACs as competition heats up and investors seek out new corners of tech.

Source: Crunchbase