Good morning!
Welcome to another Sunday edition featuring:
NFT investment fund Meta4 has popped up in Miami
Apple’s privacy change is hitting tech companies
A weeklong Facebook news flood is about to begin
U.S. VC is invading Europe
And some Walmart shoppers can now buy Bitcoin at its stores
It’s October 24, 2021.
1. #MiamiTech
Miami-based Meta4 announces NFT investment fund backed by Andreessen Horowitz (Refresh Miami)
Meta4 Fund Management, the Miami-based cryptocurrency-focused investment management company announced the launch of its first fund, Meta4 NFT Fund I, an investment vehicle that will buy rare specimens of NFTs. The investment firm also announced a prominent lead investor.
Riding the wave of explosive interest and growth in all things NFT, the fund, co-founded by Managing Partners Brandon Buchanan and Nabyl Charania, seeks to raise up to $100 million. It has commitments so far for about a quarter of that and has begun deploying capital. Significantly, it has secured a lead investment from Andreessen Horowitz.
The fund will invest in significant digital art and collectibles, such as Miami’s Bored Ape Yacht Club, gaming-related NFTs like Zed Run, and metaverse-related purchases, such as virtual land. Buchanan says he knows of only two other funds with a similar focus on this emerging asset class and they aren’t in the U.S.
Because NFTs are a new asset class, Meta4 initially launched a pilot fund that acquired dozens of NFTs from various projects. Andreessen Horowitz General Partners Marc Andreesen and Chris Dixon were investors in the pilot fund, Reuters reported. Miami appears to be a rising star in the decentralized world of crypto and NFTs, one of the reasons Buchanan wanted to base Meta4 in the Magic City.
2. Digital Privacy
Apple’s privacy change is hitting tech and e-commerce companies. Here’s why (Wall Street Journal)
Apple’s privacy change, rolled out in April, is beginning to disrupt the online ad market, hurting e-commerce players and creating challenges for tech companies. Snap Thursday cited Apple’s change as one reason it expects its growth to slow in the current quarter. Snap shares fell 20% in after-hours trading after it made that disclosure in its earnings report. On Friday, Snap shares fell 27% to $55.14.
Apple’s new policy requires apps to ask users if they want to be tracked. Many users have opted out of tracking by popular apps. As a result, those apps are getting less data on consumers’ habits and interests, and can’t target ads at users as effectively. Advertisers are finding it harder to reach potential customers, according to the executives, and ad prices—which were already rising—are going up further because of Apple’s change.
An Apple spokesman said its change was meant to let users decide whether to share their data and with whom. U.S. users opt into tracking only about 16% of the times they encounter the Apple privacy prompt, according to mobile app analytics provider Flurry. When a user opts out of tracking, Facebook can still keep targeting that user with data it collected before the opt-out. But that data quickly loses value.
3. Facebook
Weeklong Facebook flood begins (Axios)
A gusher of Facebook stories hit the web Friday night and will cascade into this upcoming week, as a consortium of at least 17 news organizations unfurl a series branded "The Facebook Papers," based on documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen. The consortium's plan was for the stories to begin Monday. But one outlet after another jumped the gun last evening.
As supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Facebook engineers in California were racing to tweak internal controls to slow the spread of misinformation, AP reports. Emergency actions included banning Trump, freezing comments in groups with a record for hate speech, and filtering out the "Stop the Steal" rallying cry.
Inside Facebook, some employees "took to an internal discussion board to express shock and outrage," Bloomberg reports: "Many of the posts were imbued with a dawning sense that they and their employer — whose platforms for weeks had spread content questioning the legitimacy of the election — bore part of the blame."
What's next: Facebook reports earnings Monday and is reportedly planning a corporate rebrand with a new corporate name. Go Deeper: Facebook stories from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, and Bloomberg.
4. VC
Big-name U.S. tech investors are moving in on Europe in increasing numbers (CNBC)
A growing number of renowned U.S. tech investors are moving to Europe to capitalize on the continent’s start-ups. It comes after several European tech companies saw their valuations sky-rocket during the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of European VC deals with U.S. investor participation has risen from 359 in 2011 to 1,434 in 2021. In 2011, the European venture deals with U.S. investor participation were collectively worth 2.7 billion euros, whereas, in 2021, the deals were worth 50.8 billion euros.
Alex Ferrara, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, confirmed that he moved from New York to London in September. Also last month, Silicon Valley firm Lightspeed Ventures hired Paul Murphy and Ross Mason to lead the company’s push into Europe. Elsewhere, General Catalyst hired London-based Chris Bischoff as a managing director in May and Juliet Bailin as a principal.
Sequoia, perhaps the best-known VC firm in the world, announced a move to London last year, with veteran partner Matt Miller moving from San Francisco to the U.K. capital. The investment firm now has an office in Marylebone with four partners and one talent director based there.
New York hedge fund Coatue Management confirmed this month that it is planning to set up an office in Europe. Chairman Dan Rose said that the European office will be opened at some point in the near future without specifying where it will be.
While Europe still lacks a tech behemoth like Apple or Amazon, it is home to an increasing number of tech companies worth tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars and some believe it’s only a matter of time before Europe creates a tech firm on the same scale as the behemoths in the U.S. and Asia.
5. BitKing
Walmart shoppers can now buy Bitcoin in 200 kiosks in its stores (Bloomberg)
Walmart has started a pilot program in which shoppers can buy Bitcoin at Coinstar kiosks in some of its U.S. stores. The test with Coinstar began earlier this month, Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said Thursday.
The pilot includes 200 kiosks in Walmart stores. That’s part of a broader initiative by Coinstar, which has teamed up with a cryptocurrency cash exchange called Coinme to offer Bitcoin at more than 8,000 kiosks. The pilot includes 200 kiosks in Walmart stores. Walmart is testing the service weeks after a high-profile hoax in which a fake press release said the retailer would start letting customers pay with Litecoin.
Customers buying Bitcoin insert paper bills into the Coinstar machine and then get a voucher. They must also set up a Coinme account and pass a background check before the voucher can be redeemed. The machines charge a 4% fee for the Bitcoin option and a 7% cash exchange fee. It’s an expensive way to buy Bitcoin but lowers the barriers to entry for first-time buyers of crypto.
6. Funding, IPOs, M&As
📱 Susquehanna Weighs $500 Million Sale In ByteDance: The U.S. investment firm is looking to offload shares in the TikTok owner.
🔋 Lonity To Raise €500 Million: German EV charging group Lonity is on the verge of raising funding from BlackRock.
🪙 FTX Raises $420 Million: The crypto exchange has raised new funding from 69 investors in what’s being called a “meme round.”
🖥 VideoAmp Lands $275 Million Series F: VideoAmp is a Los Angeles-based cross-platform media measurement startup.
📖 360Learning Raises $200 Million: The corporate learning platform has raised funds led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
🪙 Candy Digital Secures $100 Million Series A: Candy Digital is a next-gen NFT company. It’s now valued t $1.5 billion.
🧬 ReCode Raises $80 Million Series B: ReCode is a biotech company developing disease-modifying genetic medicines.
🏠 UpEquity Closes $50 Million Series B: The startup aims to democratize homebuying. S3 Ventures led the round.
🪙 Parallel Gets $50 Million: NFT sci-fi card game Parallel has raised funds led by Paradigm at a $500 million valuation.
⚙️ Via Separations Scores $38 Million Series B: The MIT spinoff is working to decarbonize manufacturing.
👩💻 Batch Brings In $23 Million: Customer engagement platform Batch has raised funds after years of bootstrapping.
🛵 Yummy Bags $18 Million: The Venezuelan delivery supper app has raised an A round led by Anthos Capital.
As always, please feel free to share questions, feedback, or requests for future newsletters.
Cheers!
Eric
#BeAmbitious