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September 30, 2020

Cyndx Insights is your daily window to the business world, focusing primarily 
on M&A activities, capital markets, and important technology trends.

Daily Insights reports and categorizes financial news from
U.S.Europe and Asia for full global insights.

U.S. & Canada

Amazon Rolls Out Palm Payment Technology

Amazon has unveiled technology that lets shoppers at physical stores pay for their purchases by scanning the palm of their hands. Amazon One, which uses "custom-built algorithms and hardware" to create and read a person's unique palm signature.

Read more on Finextra.com
Image: courtesy of Amazon One

Another SPAC - AppHarvest To Go Public

AppHarvest, an Agricultural technology and indoor farm operator said on Tuesday it would go public through a merger with blank-check company, Novus Capital Corp NOVS.O, in a deal that will value the company at $1 billion and has the potential to provide the company with $435 million in net proceeds.

Read more on Crunchbase.com
Image: 279photo Studio / Shutterstock.com

JPMorgan Settles Spoofing Probe for $920 Million: Bloomberg News

JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N has admitted to wrongdoing and agreed to pay more than $920 million to resolve market manipulation investigations by U.S. authorities into its trading of metals futures and Treasury securities, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a statement from the regulator.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image: Felix Lipov / Shutterstock.com

Free Trial

U.S. Consumer Confidence Surges; Goods Trade Deficit Widens

U.S. consumer confidence rebounded more than expected in September amid an improvement in labor market views. Consumers also appeared to shrug off growing uncertainty ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index increased to a reading of 101.8 this month from 86.3 in August.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image: lightspring / Shutterstock.com

Coca-Cola to enter U.S. Alcoholic Drinks Market with  Molson Coors Tie-Up

There will be more than just fizz when Coca-Cola Co KO.N launches the alcoholic version of its Topo Chico sparkling water along with beer giant Molson Coors Beverage Co TAP.N in the United States. It will be the beverage giant's first alcoholic drink in the country.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image: courtesy of Cocca Cola and Topo Chico

Colorado's Burgeoning Startup Scene is Flying High

With COVID-19 and remote work causing many people to reconsider where they live, cities like Austin, Denver and Salt Lake City have increasingly come into the spotlight as emerging startup hubs. Colorado’s startup ecosystem has also been growing from within, with local companies raising billions in venture capital and seeing large exits.

Read more on Crunchbase.com
Image: Bridget Calip / Shutterstock.com

U.S. Funding & Capital Raising Round Up

The following capital raises were reported yesterday and this morning:

Adlumin, a Washington, DC-based provider of security and compliance automation platform for the financial sector, raised $6m in Series A funding. The round was led by Leawood Venture Capital. Finsmes.com
Elevate Security, a Berkeley, Calif.-based human risk management platform, raised $8.25m in Series A1 funding. The round – which brought total funding to $18.3m – was led by the Foundry Group. Finsmes.com
Rally, which has built a platform for owners to list rare collectibles, and for others to take investments in them starting at $1, has raised $17 million in an investment of its own, . Techcrunch.com
Datasaur, a member of the Y Combinator Winter 2020 batch, announced a $3.9 million investment from Initialized Capital, Y Combinator  and OpenAI CTO Greg Brockman. Techcrunch.com
Collective is setting out to offer self-employed people, who CEO Hooman Radfar calls “businesses-of-one,” with the first online back office platform designed to support and connect the self-employed community. General Catalyst and QED Investors led the round. Crunchbase.com
Liquid Death,a Santa Monica-based startup that sells water from the Austrian Alps, has raised $23 million in Series B funding. Backers in the round include Convivialité Ventures, which is Pernod Ricard Group’s venture arm; the musician known as Fat Mike; and earlier backer Velvet Sea Ventures. Techcrunch.com
Doorvest, a San Francisco, CA-based end-to-end real estate investing platform, raised $1M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Mucker Capital. Finsmes.com
Fluree, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-a secure data management company, closed its seed round of $6.5m in venture capital funding. The round was led by 4490 Ventures. Finsmes.com
Leonardo247, an Los Angeles, CA-based solutions for remote monitoring of onsite multifamily operations, raised $9.5m in funding. The round was led by Level Equity. Finsmes.com
Cappello's, the makers of frozen-fresh, simple, real-ingredient foods, announced today the closing of a significant funding round led by Alliance Consumer Growth. VCNewsdaily.com
HaptX, a VR glove maker  announced it has won a $1.5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to bring haptic feedback to users’ arms and legs, a project that’s been quietly underway for years. Venturebeat.com
Intelage, a Seattle, WA-based cloud-based global trade management (GTM) and logistics platform, closed $3.5m in seed funding. The round was led by Blumberg Capital with participation from Vulcan Capital. Finsmes.com
ButterflyMX, a smart intercom maker, announced it has raised $35 million in a growth equity round led by Volition Capital. Venturebeat.com
SISU, a chain of cosmetic clinics has now raised a $5.5 million Series A led by Greycroft  and Bullpen Capital. Techcrunch.com
Thinkific, a Vancouver, Canada-based platform for creating and selling online courses, raised $22M in growth financing. The round – which brings the total raised to date to $25M – was led by Vancouver-based Rhino Ventures. Finsmes.com
Retirable, a NYC-based company simplifying the retirement process with a personalized, digital plan from Certified Financial Planners, raised $4.7m in seed funding. The round was led by Vestigo Ventures. Finsmes.com
Imvaq Therapeutics Corp., an innovative cancer immunotherapy company founded by world-leading researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, announced the closing of its $15 million Series B financing. VCnewsdaily.com
Trym, a Novato, Calif.-based cannabis cultivation software company, completed its $3.1M seed funding round. In addition to an initial friends and family of $1M, 7thirty Capital and Delta Emerald Ventures co-led the round of $2.1M. Finsmes.com
Alkami Technology, Inc., a Plano, Texas-based cloud-based digital banking solutions provider for banks and credit unions, held the initial closing of a $140m funding round, led by D1 Capital Partners. Finsmes.com
Axis Security, a San Mateo, California–based Zero Trust Access company, raised $32m in Series B funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from existing investors Ten Eleven Ventures and Cyberstarts. Finsmes.com
Buzzer, a mobile platform for live sports personalized for fans and authenticated through existing subscriptions or micropayments, today announced the close of a $4 million seed funding round. The funding was led by Lerer Hippeau. VCnewsdaily.com
Capitalize, a New York-based independent platform to transfer retirement assets, closed a $2M seed funding round. The round was led by Bling Capital, with participation from Greycroft, RRE Ventures and Walkabout Ventures. Finsmes.com
Seismic, a startup developing a sales enablement and market orchestration platform, today raised $92 million at a valuation of $1.6 billion. Permira led the series F round. Venturebeat.com
Cogniac, a San Jose, California-based provider of enterprise-class AI image and video analysis platform, raised $10M in Series B financing. Autotech Ventures led the round. Finsmes.com
Advent International, the U.S. private equity firm has raised a $2 billion fund to invest in Latin American companies. Reuters.com
H.I.G. Acquisition Corp, a blank-check company backed by private equity firm HIG Capital, is looking to raise $450 million in a U.S. initial public offering. Reuters.com

U.S. & Canada
Deals of the 
Day: M&A and Strategic Investments

Jumio, the AI-powered identity verification and KYC outfit has acquired the AML platform of Beam Solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Finextra.com

CyndInternational News - Europe & Asia

Thiel-Backed Fintech Deposit Solutions Launches in United States

Deposit Solutions, a German fintech firm backed by Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, is launching its savings portal in the United States as it seeks a slice of the $16 trillion market for deposits in the world’s biggest economy.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image: courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Beckham's Guild Esports Raises $26 Million Ahead of Friday Debut in London

David Beckham’s Guild Esports has raised 20 million pounds ($25.73 million) and plans to make its debut on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, making the former England soccer captain’s esports enterprise the first to go public in Britain. The company said on Tuesday its oversubscribed offering of 250 million shares was priced at 8 pence per ordinary share.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image: courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Pfizer to Buy 9.9% of CStone for $200 Million, Eyes Collaboration

CStone Pharmaceuticals said on Wednesday a unit of Pfizer Inc PFE.N had agreed to buy a 9.9% stake for HK$1.55 billion ($200 million), as the Hong Kong-listed biopharmaceutical firm seeks to improve the commercialisation of its products.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

Baidu's Smart Home Group Seeks to Raise Capital at a $2.9 Billion Valuation

Baidu today announced that it will seek to raise financing for its Smart Living Business (SLG), the internal group that maintains Baidu’s DuerOS voice platform and DuerOS-powered smart devices. Baidu expects a series A funding round valuing SLG at approximately RMB 20 billion ($2.9 billion) to close in Q4 2020 with definitive agreements from CPE, Baidu Capital, and IDG Capital.

Read more on Venturebeat.com
Image: testing / Shutterstock.com

Germany to Tighten Scrutiny of Telecoms Network Vendors

The German government has agreed in principle to tougher oversight of telecoms network vendors that, while stopping short of a ban on Huawei, will make it harder for the Chinese company to keep a foothold in Europe’s largest market.

Read more on Reuters.com
Image:  / Shutterstock.com

October Closes $300 Million in New Funds For its SME Lending Marketplace

French fintech  startup October has raised some fresh capital to invest in small and medium companies on its lending platform. Overall, the company has gathered $300 million (€258 million) from various partners. October works with small companies in France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and Germany that need a credit line.

Read more on Techcrunch.com
Image: NicoElNino / Shutterstock.com

Tech Investment Top Priority for UK Banks

The UK’s financial institutions are planning for a year of investment in new technology, despite the uncertainty posed by Covid-19, according to a new Lloyds Bank survey. Nine in ten (88%) senior leaders within financial institutions say tech investment is a top strategic priority for the next 12 months.

Read more on Finextra.com
Image: NicoElNino / Shutterstock.com

Europe & Asia Funds & Capital Raising Round Up

The following capital raises were reported yesterday and this morning:

Insurwave, the commercial lines insurtech platform, today announces the completion of a £5million fundraise. fintechf.com
India’s Reliance Industries Ltd said private equity firm General Atlantic will invest 36.75 billion rupees ($498.31 million) for a 0.84% stake in its retail arm. Reuters.com
TP ICAP TCAPI.L, the world's biggest inter-dealer broker, said on Tuesday it was in advanced talks to buy electronic trading network Liquidnet Holdings Inc for $600 million to $700 million. UK.Reuters.com
Neuron Mobility, a Singapore-based e-scooter rental startup, announced today that it has added $12 million to its Series A. Led by Square Peg, an Australian venture capital firm and GSR Ventures. Techcrunch.com
Emjoy, a Barcelona-based audio app for women that sells a narrative of sexual self-care and empowerment, has picked up $3 million in seed funding led by JME Ventures, with existing investor Nauta Capital participating. Techcrunch.com
Papaya Global, an Israeli startup that provides cloud-based payroll, as well as hiring, onboarding and compliance services for organizations, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding led by Scale Venture Partners. Techcrunch.com
EdtechX Holdings, an investment platform focusing on the future of education and work, is launching its second listed blank-check company and is looking to buy a business in the sector worth up to $2 billion. Reuters.com
HomeDoctor, a Warsaw and Amsterdam-based digital healthcare provider, has announced a €3.7 million Series A funding round, led by Cogito Capital Partners, and with participation from the company’s founders. Eu-startups.com
Inshorts, which operates a popular news aggregator app in India, has raised $35 million in a new financing round led by Lee Fixel’s Addition, as the Indian startup looks to scale its adjacent, social network platform. Techcrunch.com

Europe & Asia
Deals of the 
Day: M&A and Strategic Investments

Caesars Entertainment, the U.S. casino operator, agreed on Wednesday to buy British-based gambling group William Hill for 2.9 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) to expand in the fast-growing U.S. sports-betting market. Reuters.com
Covestro 1COV.DE will purchase Dutch peer DSM's DSMN.AS Resins and Functional Materials business for about 1.6 billion euros ($1.88 billion), banking on a rebound of a global economy depressed by the coronavirus pandemic. Reuters.com

Making the News

The following stories have made financial news:

British authorities hit Airbnb UK with an extra tax bill of 1.8 million pounds ($2.3 million) last year, the home rental company’s accounts showed on Tuesday, following an investigation into the firm. Reuters.com
A war of words between LVMH and Tiffany escalated on Tuesday with the French group describing Tiffany’s prospects as “dismal” and the U.S. jeweller accusing LVMH of improperly trying to renegotiate a takeover deal. Reuters.com
The Seattle City Council passed a minimum pay standard of at least $16.39 per hour for drivers for companies like Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N and Lyft Inc LYFT.O on Tuesday. Reuters.com

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