Social media has officially infiltrated investing — giving rise to social investing platforms — think investing while “tweeting” your gains (but mostly losses) in a single app. eToro, an early champion of this concept, is going public via SPAC, FinTech Acquisition Corp. V ($FTCV) — valuing eToro at over $10b. $FTCV initially jumped 42% on…
Read more
Lightspeed goes on an acquisition spree — acquires Vend for $350m in its latest addition
Ever heard of a little Canadian success story called Shopify (38x increase in its stock in past 5 years)? Another rapidly growing tech company is emerging out of the Great White North — Lightspeed. On Mar. 11, Lightspeed reached an agreement to buy Vend, a New-Zealand-based retail management software, for $350m. Growing beyond its Canadian…
Read more
Hindenburg Research goes after Clover Health, the insurance firm backed by Chamath Palihapitiya
Hindenburg, the firm that famously revealed the fraud behind electric vehicle maker, Nikola ($NKLA) in 2020, is back at it again. This time, they’re targeting Clover, the insurtech company, backed by famous investor and SPAC evangelist, Chamath Palihapitiya. Learn more: What is a SPAC? The company that was supposed to disrupt US healthcare Founded in…
Read more
Cross-border payments fintech, Payoneer — announces plans to go public via SPAC
2020 was a big year for Fintech IPOs and 2021 just might be even bigger.. The latest Fintech to join the rush to go public — Payoneer, a cross-border payments company. On Feb. 3, Payoneer agreed to go public by merging with SPAC, FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp ($FTOC) — valuing Payoneer at $3.3b. $FTOC is…
Read more
Insurtech stocks heat up — best returning IPO of 2020 is Lemonade
COVID has accelerated one too many industries — amongst them is insurance technology (insurtech). Insurance is going through a digital shift and all it took was a couple centuries to get here. Insurtech companies help write better loans using better data/tech to make the process of writing/selling insurance easier. Technologically backward Insurance is one of…
Read more
Square to acquire Credit Karma’s tax business — Cash App continues to grow in importance
On Nov. 25, Square’s Cash App — the app that wants to rule all financial apps, reached an agreement to buy Credit Karma’s tax preparation service for $50m. Users over profits Square Cash was launched in 2013 as a way to transfer money to friends. Over the years, the app expanded its services to allow users to…
Read more
Ant Group was about to become the largest IPO in the world — until they pissed off the wrong people
Make friends, not enemies — someone should have told this to Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, before he decided to start a fight with the wrong people. On Nov. 3, Chinese regulators put a stop to Ant Group’s $37b+ IPO, just days before listing on the Asian stock exchanges. What not…
Read more