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DeFi, Portfolio News


#313
Poop Token

Published:

Nov 23, 2019


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Posted In:

DeFi, Portfolio News

Published:

Nov 23, 2019


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“Sh*t coins” usually refer to alt coins that have become completely worthless. However, there's now a new coin out to change that perception by going after San Francisco's street poop…

Last week, a couple of Samaritans launched “Poop Token”, an ERC-20 token built on UMA’s Synthetic Token Builder, to help solve San Francisco’s public-defecation problem.

The token tracks the frequency of poop sightings as reported by San Francisco's SF311 (yes, there is an API for that). The token's price goes up with the number of sightings and down as the city gets cleaner. If that sounds like a digital asset for you, then it's available for purchase today on Uniswap.

Tokens can play a meaningful role in incentivizing behavior within communities – allowing for coordination and monetary rewards for governments and citizens alike, whilst holding cities accountable to solve real problems such as homelessness.

While the City of San Francisco may not be issuing “sh*t coins” any time soon, it is good to see someone out there get their hands dirty...

Portfolio News


Anyfin wins Swedish startup award - Anyfin was recognized at Sweden's 7th Annual Startup Gala last week with the Team of The Year award. Read more

Flutterwave named on CNBC's Upstart 100 list for 2019 - This is CNBC's annual list of 100 venture-backed startups that have the potential to transform industries. Each Upstart has raised no more than $50m in VC funding. Read more

Plaid expands to France, Spain, and Ireland - Throughout 2019, Plaid has made a strong push to global expansion, previously entering Canada and the UK. The 3 new markets are powered by Plaid's banking integrations with Société Générale, Santander, and AIB. Read more

Octane Lending is debuting a new securitization offering for $210.9m - The company is planning to securitize twice in 2020 following its inaugural transaction this week, CEO Jason Guss told Powersports Finance. Read more

Poop Token


The SF Poop Token was conceived at the recent ETHWaterloo hackathon - Creator Hart Lambur used UMA, a FinTech Collective portfolio company, to create the token. At the event, he humorously describes the trend as, “Sh*t is going up!” Read more

Industry News


Fintech startups are tackling the issue of elder financial abuse - The largest holders of personal wealth in the U.K. are above the age of 55, representing 63% of the £12 trillion personal wealth, which makes them a target for fraud. Read more

Fintech arm of Chinese insurance giant files for US IPO after blockchain push – SoftBank-backed OneConnect Financial Technology, the fintech arm of Ping An Insurance, filed a prospectus on Wednesday for an IPO with the SEC after a failed Hong Kong listing. Read more

Truecaller starts offering financial services to their 100m daily active users in India – India is Truecaller’s biggest market for revenue and users. The Company claims every tenth user has linked a bank account to Truecaller Pay, which it could leverage for lending. Read more

Google Pay to offer checking accounts through Citi and Stanford's credit union – The tech giant announced it will offer personal checking accounts next year through its Google Pay app, initially in partnership with Citigroup and a small credit union at Stanford University. Read more

(Opinion) Tencent spinning off its fintech unit could unlock as much as $230b in value - Tencent has a growing fintech business making up 26% of its revenue last quarter. On its own it would be China’s 4th largest listed company. Read more

Visa is in talks to acquire 20% of Interswitch, Nigeria's largest merchant acquirer, for $200m - Based in Nigeria, Interswitch operates across 20 markets on the African continent powering online payments. Read more

The incumbents respond as Charles Schwab is in talks to buy TD Ameritrade - With zero commission trading ubiquitous across trading firms a few years after Robinhood, the industry has been facing pressure. A deal between Schwab and TD Ameritrade would create a behemoth with more than $5 trillion in combined assets. Read more

PayPal acquires deal-finding browser plugin Honey for $4bn - The plugin works on 30,000 merchant websites helping 17m members save more than $2bn. This is PayPal's largest acquisition to date. Honey had raised $49m from investors, including Ludlow Ventures. Read more

Elavon acquires Sage Pay for $300m to become fourth-largest merchant acquirer in Europe - Sage Pay is one of the bigger payment processors in the UK and Ireland serving SMEs. Read more

Global FinTech Report CB Insights 2019 Q3 – Q3 set the quarter record for fintech deals (if you take out Ant Financial’s $14bn round last year) driven by 19 $100m+ rounds. Early-stage (seed/angel and Series A) deals fell to an 11-quarter low. Read more

Aon to acquire CoverWallet, the digital insurance platform for SMEs - The acquisition provides Aon with additional access to the fast-growing, $200bn+ premium digital insurance market for SMEs. Read more

Select Financings


Alpaca - San Mateo, CA based commission-free stock trading API has raised a $6m Series A round led by Spark Capital. Read more

Bison Trails - New York based node infrastructure provider has raised $24.5m of Series A capital led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, ConsenSys, A Capital, Galaxy Digital, Initialized, and Collaborative Fund. Read more

Blue Vine - Redwood City, CA based financing platform for SMBs raised $102.5m in Series F funding led by ION Crossover Partners. Read more

Compound - San Francisco based decentralized finance lending protocol has raised $25m of Series A Capital led by A16z crypto. Read more

DadeSystems – Miami based provider of integrated receivables solutions raised $9m Series D led by Napier Park Financial Partners. Read more

Data Cubes - Chicago based provider of underwriting software for P&C insurers raised $15.2m in Series B funding led by Palm Drive Capital. Read more

Eigen - London based startup that helps banks extract information and insights raised $37m Series B led by Lakestar and Dawn Capital, with participation from Temasek and Goldman Sachs. Read more

Juniper Square - San Francisco based investment management platform for commercial real estate raised $75m in Series C funding led by Redpoint. Read more

Neon - Brazil based digital bank with 2m active users has raised $94m in funding led by Banco Votoantim and General Atlantic. Read more

OPay - Nigeria based mobile wallet and motorbike ridesharing provider raised a $120m Series B led by Chinese investors right on the heels of a $50m Series A in June. Read more

PalmPay - Nigeria based online payments joint venture between Transsion, Africa's top phone maker, and Chinese giant, NetEase, raised $40m. Read more

Perfios - India based credit decisioning and analytics company raised $50m in its Series B round led by Warburg Pincus and Bessemer. Read more

Spreedly - Durham based payments API raised $75m in growth funding led by Spectrum Equity. Read more

Tabby- United Arab Emirates based 'buy now, pay later' startup raises $2m Seed led by Global Founders Capital, with participation from Arbor Ventures and Wamda Capital. Read more

Vouch - San Francisco based business insurance provider for startups closed a $45m Series B led by YC's Continuity Fund. Read more

Wrappier - New York based revenue management for mobile publishers raised $4m Seed Round led by Counterview Capital. Read more

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