September 11, 2022: Climbing The Wall Of Worry

While headlines haven’t turned positive yet, Dow Jones was up 2.7% last week, the S&P 500 rose 3.65%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 4.1%. In Canada, Bragg Gaming secured U.S.$8.7 million funding for Company’s further execution on its growth initiatives. Shopify announced a pair of leadership changes Thursday, with a new chief operating officer set to take over immediately and a new chief financial officer slated to begin in October. U.S.-listed Chinese stocks fell Monday amid lockdown restrictions on 65 million people. Shares of Getty Images shot up 13.4% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the visual content company said it signed a “multi-year” renewal agreement with Amazon. GameStop reported wider loss, and announced a partnership with crypto exchange FTX. Netflix is trying to better control rising cloud computing costs with longtime cloud partner Amazon Web Services as part of its efforts to reduce total expenses, the Wall Street Journal reported. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger said on Wednesday that the company estimated a “substantial portion” of Twitter users were “not real” back in 2016 when the entertainment giant was considering buying the social media platform. Apple picks Globalstar for emergency satellite service on iPhone 14. While people are hyped up about the Apple September event, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman is back with more information regarding the upcoming Mixed Reality headset. According to him, Apple is developing three new headsets code-named N301, N602, and N421. Uber partners with Nuro on food deliveries using autonomous EVs starting in the fall. Rocket Lab’s recycled booster engine fired flawlessly after an ocean landing. Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series got a record 25 million viewers. Apple TV+ global market share surpasses 6%. Mercedes-Benz and Rivian partner to jointly build electric vans in Europe.

Bragg Gaming (BRAG-NASDAQ, BRAG-TSX) secures U.S.$8.7 million funding for Company’s further execution on its growth initiatives.

The Company entered into a funding agreement for an investment of U.S.$8.7 million (the “Funding Agreement”) with Lind Global Fund II LP, an investment entity managed by The Lind Partners, a New York-based institutional fund manager (together (“Lind”). The funding provided to Bragg by Lind will come in the form of a US$8.7 million convertible security (the “Convertible Security”) which will have a face value of US$10.0 million (the “Face Value”). Bragg will receive net proceeds of approximately US$8.2 million from the Funding after fees. The Face Value of the convertible security will have a 24-month maturity date and can be paid in cash or be converted into common shares of the Company (“Shares”) at a conversion price equal to 87.5% of the five-day volume weighted average price (“VWAP”) immediately prior to each conversion. Shares issued upon conversion are subject to a 121-day lock-up period following deal close. The Funding agreement contains restrictions on how much may be converted in any particular month, which is limited to 1/20 of outstanding balance or US$1,000,000 if exchange volume is above specified minimum, which conversions may be accelerated in certain circumstances. Bragg also has the option at any time to buy back the entire remaining balance of the Convertible Security, subject to a partial conversion right in favour of Lind to convert up to 1/3 of the outstanding amount into Shares in such circumstances. In connection with the funding, Lind will be issued a warrant to purchase up to 979,048 common shares at a price of C$9.28 per share for a period of 60 months. https://bwnews.pr/3AXL4Kk

Shopify (SHOP-NYSE, SHOP-TSX) taps Morgan Stanley banker Jeff Hoffmeister as next CFO.

Shopify announced a pair of leadership changes Thursday, with a new chief operating officer set to take over immediately and a new chief financial officer slated to begin in October. Kaz Nejatian, Shopify’s vice president of product, will assume the role of COO immediately, though he will also stay in his current position. Shopify looked outside the company as it sought a new CFO, and it announced Thursday that Jeff Hoffmeister, who worked for more than 20 years in Morgan Stanley’s technology investment banking group, will take over that position after the company reports third-quarter earnings Oct. 27. Amy Shapero, the current CFO of Shopify, will remain in her role until the earnings date. Chief Executive Tobi L�tke cheered Hoffmeister’s “keen vision of the future of the industry” in a release announcing the changes. Shares of Shopify are up 0.4% in premarket trading Thursday, though they’re off 78% so far this year as the S&P 500 has fallen 17%. https://on.mktw.net/3DfGaLE

Panache closes $100 million for second fund as firm doubles down on seed-stage startups.

Panache Ventures, one of Canada’s most active early-stage investors, has doubled up for its second fund. The pre-seed and seed stage firm has embarked on Fund II with $100 million in fresh capital, just shy of double the $58 million raised for its first fund. Many of the limited partners (LPs) for Panache’s second fund are return investors, including the likes of Alberta Enterprise Corporation, Bank of Montreal, Investissement Québec, and Telus Ventures. Other investors include the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, and undisclosed “top” entrepreneurs, executives, and family offices. Fund II brings Panache’s total funds under management to more than $150 million. Panache initially had a target of $75 million for its second fund, but after what Lor called strong investor interest, the firm increased that number to $100 million. https://bit.ly/3qK8NJr

Network software startup Kaloom secures $27.4 million from Québec government, Alternative Capital Group.

Montréal SaaS startup Kaloom has received a $27.4 million investment from the Québec government and its current investor and majority shareholder Alternative Capital Group (ACG). Kaloom announced Series A capital in 2018, reporting it as a $10 million Series A1 from Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Somel Investments, and MBUZZ Investments. This latest investment, according to Kaloom, will support the company’s go-to-market strategy and extend its current “heterogeneous” hardware strategy by supporting additional platforms like SmartNICs and Servers. https://bit.ly/3d9jEJo

U.S.-listed Chinese stocks fall amid lockdown restrictions on 65 million people.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese stocks were falling in Monday trading amid reports of continued lockdown activity in China. More than 65 million people in China are subject to full or partial lockdowns, according to Chinese business magazine Caixin, via a report from the Associated Press. Among American depositary shares of Chinese companies dropping in Monday’s session are iQiyi, down more than 9%; Tencent Music Entertainment Group, down more than 8%; Huya, down more than 4%; Alibaba Group, down more than 3%; as well as JD.com Inc. and Nio Inc., each down more more than 2%. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF is off 2.9% in Monday afternoon trading. https://on.mktw.net/3QsNSVD

Getty Images stock shoots up after renewing deal with Amazon to provide images for Alexa, Fire TV.

Shares of Getty Images shot up 13.4% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the visual content company said it signed a “multi-year” renewal agreement with Amazon.com Inc. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The partnership with Amazon is for use of Getty’s images by Amazon’s Alexa services and products and Fire TV software. “We continue to license our premium collection of editorial, creative and archival content to Amazon, working closely with them to improve the visual experience of Alexa now and in the future,” said Peter Orlowsky, senior vice president of strategic development at Getty. The stock, which went public in late-July after merging with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II, has plunged 47.6% over the past month through Tuesday, while Amazon shares have declined 10.4% and the S&P 500 has lost 5.7%. https://on.mktw.net/3cZbvrb

GameStop reports wider loss, announces partnership with crypto exchange FTX.

GameStop said Wednesday that quarterly sales declined and losses widened, as it burned through cash and inventory swelled. The video game retailer also disclosed a new partnership with crypto exchange FTX. Shares of the company rose about 10% in after hours trading. In the second fiscal quarter ended July 30, the company’s total sales dropped to US$1.14 billion from US$1.18 billion in the year-ago period. Its losses widened to US$108.7 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of US$61.6 million, or 21 cents, a year prior. GameStop’s results cannot be compared with estimates because too few analysts cover the company. It did not provide a financial outlook and hasn’t provided one since the start of the pandemic. https://cnb.cx/3AVyj2U

Netflix looks to control cloud computing costs with AWS – WSJ.

Netflix is trying to better control rising cloud computing costs with longtime cloud partner Amazon Web Services as part of its efforts to reduce total expenses, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with that work. The streaming giant is also hiring more junior staff, paring back its real-estate footprint and reducing the number of copies of data and content it stores around the world, the report said. Netflix is trying to grow its subscriber base to as many as 500 million customers globally in the next three years. It lost 970,000 subscribers from April through June and offered a forecast below Wall Street expectations for the current quarter. https://reut.rs/3Dbuw4g

Disney estimated many Twitter accounts ‘Not Real’: Ex-CEO.

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger said on Wednesday that the company estimated a “substantial portion” of Twitter users were “not real” back in 2016 when the entertainment giant was considering buying the social media platform. Twitter has long maintained that fewer than 5% of the accounts on its platform are bots. In 2016, Disney was thinking about acquiring Twitter but pulled out partly due to concerns about bullying and other abusive behavior on the platform, Bloomberg reported at the time. Twitter then had a market value of US$20 billion. Iger’s comments come just as Twitter and Elon Musk are set to head to a trial in October. Twitter and Musk have been caught in a legal battle over the latter’s US$44 billion acquisition offer for the social media platform that was made public in April. https://bit.ly/3Ua4VPp

Twitter stock jumps after WSJ report that Elon Musk suit against Twitter can include whistleblower report.

Shares of Twitter leapt 4.2% in morning trading Wednesday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that a judged ruled that Elon Musk can amend his countersuit against the social media company he’s agreed to buy for US$44 billion to include a whistleblower report, but denied Musk’s request to postpone the trial to November. The judge said the Twitter-versus-Musk trial will still start on Oct. 17, the WSJ report said. Last week, Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, notified Twitter that he was terminating the merger deal, because of the whistleblower report published last month by the Washington Post, which was for a different reason than the termination letter delivered in July. Twitter’s stock has lost 6.8% over the past three months, while Tesla shares, which rose 1.5% on Wednesday, have tumbled 20.9% the past three months and the S&P 500 has declined 5.9%. https://on.mktw.net/3U2yXV9

CVS buys home-healthcare company Signify Health for US$8 billion.

We can’t be in primary care without M&A. We’ve been very clear about that,” CVS CEO Karen Lynch told analysts last month. Drugstore giant CVS said on Monday that it is buying Dallas, Texas-based home-healthcare company Signify Health in a deal worth US$8 billion, a move that underlines fierce competition among technology and healthcare giants alike to push more aggressively into medical services. Amazon and UnitedHealthcare were also both circling Signify Health, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. In July, Amazon said it would buy primary care startup One Medical for US$3.9 billion. CVS said on Monday that the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023 and that Signify Health CEO Kyle Armbrester will continue to lead the company under the CVS Health banner. Signify Health went public in February 2021 at US$24 per share, and by the end of 2021 its stock price had fallen to about US$14. https://bit.ly/3RtNDuJ

Cogent to purchase T-Mobile’s wireline business.

Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. plans to acquire T-Mobile US Inc.’s wireline business, the company said Wednesday. The companies also agreed that Cogent will offer IP transit services to T-Mobile for 54 months after the close of the deal, for which T-Mobile will pay US$700 million. Cogent expects the transaction to deliver “an ideal strategic fit with its existing business,” and the company doesn’t anticipate that it will need to issue new debt or equity to finance the deal. Cogent’s press release didn’t mention the financial terms of the deal for T-Mobile’s wireline business. https://on.mktw.net/3U0eDUo

ADT stock soars, after WSJ report of more than US$2 billion in investments from State Farm, Google.

Shares of ADT Inc. shot up 13.7% in premarket trading Tuesday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that insurer State Farm has invested US$1.5 billion in the home security provider, and a partnership aimed at expanding ADT’s customer base. Under terms of the investment, State Farm will pay US$1.2 billion to buy 133.3 million ADT shares. That represents about a 15% stake in the company, the WSJ report said, and a price for ADT shares of about US$9 each, or about 25% above Friday’s closing price of US$7.21. State Farm will also invest up to US$300 million to fund product and technology innovation and for marketing and customer acquisition, and will get a seat on ADT’s board, the WSJ report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The WSJ report also said Alphabet Inc.’s Google previously spent US$450 million for a 6.6% stake in ADT, and committed US$150 million toward engineering, designing and marketing of new products. ADT’s stock has lost 14.3% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has dropped 17.7%. https://on.mktw.net/3L7ywou

Foreign buyers hoover up Britain’s fast-growing tech firms.

A wave of foreign buyers is coming after British technology companies, threatening to rob the UK market of what little exposure it still has to high-growth assets. Canadian Open Text Corp.’s takeover offer for Micro Focus International Plc follows NortonLifeLock Inc.’s purchase of cybersecurity firm Avast Plc, interest from France’s Schneider Electric SE in industrial software developer Aveva Group Plc and US buyout group Thoma Bravo’s overtures toward Darktrace Plc. And GTCR said Tuesday it’s considering a bid for identity verification and fraud prevention company GB Group Plc. https://bloom.bg/3TWe2CS

Apple picks Globalstar for emergency satellite service on iPhone 14.

Apple Inc on Wednesday selected Globalstar Inc as its partner for a feature that would allow iPhone 14 users to send emergency messages from remote locations. The tech giant said it was dedicating US$450 million from its advanced manufacturing fund toward satellite infrastructure to support the feature. GlobalStar will receive the majority of the funding, but the iPhone maker did not specify which other players will receive the rest and in what form. While Apple will pay for 95% of the approved capital expenditure for the new Globalstar satellites needed to support the service, Globalstar said it would still need to raise additional debt to construct and deploy the satellites. Globalstar’s shares were trading slightly higher after the bell. They had jumped more than 20% in regular trading but reversed course to finish lower on Wednesday. https://reut.rs/3RPPwBz

Elon Musk says Starlink is in talks with Apple to hook up its internet service with iPhones.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company’s satellite internet division Starlink has been talking to Apple. Musk tweeted Thursday saying: “We’ve had some promising conversations with Apple about Starlink connectivity,” adding: “iPhone team is obv super smart.” Apple this week announced its next iPhone, the iPhone 14, which promises to use satellite service to allow users to make emergency calls even when they have no signal. Musk also said: “closing link from space to phone will work best if phone software & hardware adapt to space-based signals vs Starlink purely emulating cell tower,” which seemed to imply Apple would have to adapt its phones if it wanted to allow them to connect to Starlink satellites. https://bit.ly/3d1gU0K

Gurman: Apple developing three headsets, ‘Reality Pro’ to be unveiled in 2023.

While people are hyped up about the Apple September event, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman is back with more information regarding the upcoming Mixed Reality headset. According to him, Apple is developing three new headsets code-named N301, N602, and N421. The first headset which Apple will unveil will likely be called Apple Reality Pro. This will be a Mixed Reality headset and “will probably end up being the company’s high-end rival to Meta’s upcoming Quest Pro.” The device has been in development for years and will blend augmented reality with virtual reality. Apple will release the headset in 2023, with a lighter-weight AR-only version coming in later years. As reported by Kuo on his personal blog, Apple has already been talking to its suppliers as the company is working on the second generation of its AR/VR headset. It’s expected to come in two different models. The first will be an upgrade to the first-generation headset with better hardware and the other will be a more affordable model. Due to its complexity and high-end hardware, analysts believe that Apple’s new headset will be priced too high. It’s no surprise that Apple will eventually bring the new AR/VR experience to more people with a less expensive model, as the company has been doing the same with entry-level models of the iPhone and iPad. Last but not least, the N421 model is “Apple’s long-held dream of augmented reality glasses,” according to Gurman, although he doesn’t believe it will launch anytime soon. https://bit.ly/3DgfSZx

Meta will reveal its new high-end VR headset on October 11th.

Meta has announced that its Connect Conference will be livestreamed on October 11th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. In a post on the Oculus blog, the company says it’ll cover the progress it’s made on the metaverse and offer “a look at what’s to come in the near and far future.” The announcements can’t measure up to last year’s Connect, where the company changed its name from Facebook to Meta, but the company has said we’ll see information on the Horizon Worlds virtual reality app and hinted that the high-end “Project Cambria” headset will show up as well. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the company is announcing a new VR headset in October, and on Tuesday, he backed up that idea with an image he posted to Facebook. The device he’s wearing in the photo looks very similar to what we’ve seen of Project Cambria already. According to Zuckerberg, the headset will include eye and facial tracking and color passthrough, and it’s rumored to have a higher-res screen than what’s currently included on the Oculus Quest 2. It’s also expected to be significantly more expensive than the Quest 2, which recently got its price bumped up to US$399.99. https://bit.ly/3TZl6ih

Uber partners with Nuro on food deliveries using autonomous EVs starting in the fall.

Uber Technologies Inc. announced Thursday a 10-year partnership with Nuro, to use Nuro’s autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs) for food deliveries in the U.S. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The ride-hailing company’s Uber Eats service will start deliveries using Nuro AEVs in the fall, in Houston and Mountain View, Calif. The companies plan to expand the service the greater Bay Area. “Nuro’s distinctive autonomous vehicles are a great match for the Uber platform, and this partnership will bring a compelling combination of innovation alongside the convenience, affordability and reliability our customers and merchants have come to expect,” said Noah Zych, global head of autonomous mobility and delivery at Uber. Uber’s stock fell 1.0% in premarket trading Thursday, while shares of food delivery service DoorDash Inc. dropped 1.7%. Meanwhile, futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.4%. https://on.mktw.net/3B4d0Mv

Rocket Lab’s recycled booster engine fires flawlessly after ocean landing.

Rocket Lab has big aspirations when it comes to reusable launch vehicles, and back in May ticked off a huge achievement, successfully catching its Electron booster as it fell from space. The company has since been busy refurbishing the rocket and has now ticked off another notable milestone, proving it can work again just like a brand new one. The reusability method employed by Rocket Lab differs from that of SpaceX, in that it is aiming to use a helicopter to catch the Electron’s first stage as it plummets back to Earth. Parachutes help slow the descent of the falling rocket, before a modified Sikorsky S-92 chopper swoops in and collects it in midair. Rocket Lab has now managed to refurbish one of the nine Rutherford engines that power the recovered Electron booster, and shown that it can overcome the corrosive forces of the ocean to become fully functional once again. The team carried out a full-duration, full-thrust test fire at its engine testing facility last week, where it passed all of its usual testing criteria for every one of its engines. https://bit.ly/3B3E7Yk

Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series gets record 25 million viewers.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series attracted more than 25 million viewers for its first two episodes that were released on Thursday September 2. The audience is “breaking all previous records, marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video,” the company added. Amazon Studios chief, Jennifer Salke, called the series and the initial response a “proud moment” for the company. It is the first time Amazon has revealed the number of viewers for its programming. The series, based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, is the most expensive television production in history with a budget for the first season alone of about $1 billion. Earlier this year, Amazon spent US$8.5 billion to acquire MGM, pointing to longer-term ambitions in entertainment movie. MGM’s library includes the James Bond and “Rocky” franchises. https://bit.ly/3QsOZ7H

Apple TV+ global market share surpasses 6%.

New research from JustWatch seen by 9to5Macshows that Apple TV+ has now surpassed 6% global market share while its competitors continue to lose subscribers. The research considers data from January 2021 through August 2022. According to JustWatch, the last 1.5 years have been great for Apple TV+ compared to other big players. For instance, Apple’s streaming platform grew 29% during this period, while Amazon Prime Video and Netflix decreased by 19% and 14%, respectively. Apple TV+ now has 6.2% of the global streaming platform market share. It’s getting closer than ever to HBO Max, with 7%. Disney+ comes in third place with 18.2% of the market share. Amazon Prime Video, which comes in second place, now has 24.3% market share. As for Netflix, which remains the leading platform in the segment, it now has a 27.3% share. https://bit.ly/3RrJQOl

TikTok denies claims of data security breach.

TikTok said it has found no evidence of a data breach, after a user post on a hacker forum claimed that there had been a breach. The forum, Breached.to, said the user who made the original claim about a TikTok data breach was likely lying. The forum has banned the user’s account permanently for the violation. While the data breach claim may have been false, it was still widely shared on social media, spurring discussions among cybersecurity analysts on Twitter. TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has been under pressure from U.S. lawmakers who have raised national security concerns about the video app’s ability to collect vast troves of data on Americans. “TikTok prioritizes the privacy and security of our users’ data. Our security team investigated these claims and found no evidence of a security breach,” TikTok said in a statement. https://bit.ly/3QwH5Kj

Instagram hit with €405 million fine for violation EU children privacy rules.

Instagram has received the second-highest fine under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation with a €405 million bill – the highest was a €746 million penalty to Amazon last year. This fine is due to a violation of children’s privacy, including the publication of kids’ email addresses and phone numbers. The Irish DPC has still another six investigations into Meta-owned companies and it declined to comment on this penalty to Instagram. In February, Meta threatened to pull Instagram and Facebook in Europe over privacy laws. Regulators have challenged the company, which not only didn’t go out of business in the country, but it’s now facing its third fine. https://bit.ly/3qiOyCo

Juul agrees to pay US$438.5 million in probe over teen marketing.

Electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs has agreed to pay US$438.5 million to settle a multi-state investigation that found it had marketed vaping products to underage smokers, authorities said Tuesday. The total sum is to be paid out to 33 states and Puerto Rico — all of which launched a joint probe — over six to 10 years, said a statement from Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s office. Per the statement, the investigation found Juul had “relentlessly marketed to underage users” with launch parties, advertisements with young and attractive models, social media posts, and free samples. The settlement also involves a slew of changes affecting how Juul can advertise to young people. The company launched in 2015 and has grown to lead the US e-cigarette market with a 35.7% industry share, according to June reports. In June, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that Juul would no longer be able to sell its e-cigarettes and must remove its products from the US market immediately. https://bit.ly/3D6Jmcj

SEC’s Gensler signals support for commodities regulator having Bitcoin oversight.

Former CFTC chief says he could back giving agency oversight of nonsecurity tokens. Mr. Gensler, speaking at an industry conference, said Thursday he looked forward to working with Congress to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission added power, to the extent the agency needs greater authority to oversee and regulate “nonsecurity tokens…and the related intermediaries.” The remarks come amid an intensifying battle among federal agencies and congressional committees that oversee them over who will regulate crypto. Cryptocurrencies remain largely unregulated by the federal government, leaving investors without protections from fraud and market manipulation that come with many other types of investments. Mr. Gensler has also repeatedly demanded that cryptocurrency-trading platforms such as Coinbase Global Inc. register with the agency as securities exchanges akin to the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. In May, the SEC nearly doubled the staff of an enforcement unit focused on cryptocurrencies. https://on.wsj.com/3Qsk633

Binance to convert USDC into its own stablecoin, Binance USD.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, announced Monday that it would automatically convert existing balances and new deposits of the USDC stablecoin—a token pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar—to its own stablecoin, Binance USD, at the end of September. The exchange said that the automatic conversion, which will also apply to the pax dollar and trueUSD stablecoins, will “enhance liquidity and capital-efficiency for users.” Users will still be able to withdraw funds in the form of each of the three stablecoins following the automatic conversion. The move is seemingly a way for Binance to boost use of its own stablecoin and move up in the rankings. Binance USD is the third largest stablecoin by market capitalization, behind tether and USDC, according to the crypto data firm Messari. In a tweet, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said he predicts the change “leads to a gradual net share shift from USDT to BUSD and USDC.” https://bit.ly/3Uch0DJ

Sorare teams up with NBA for a new NFT fantasy basketball game.

French startup Sorare originally launched a fantasy football (soccer) game. This year, the company is expanding to new sports. After partnering with Major League Baseball earlier this year, the company is announcing a new partnership with the National Basketball Association and National Basketball Players Association. Thanks to this multiyear partnership, Sorare will launch an officially licensed NFT-based fantasy basketball game this fall. It will be called… Sorare: NBA. Last year, Sorare reached a valuation of US$4.3 billion when it announced a US$680 million Series B funding round. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led the round with Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree also participating. Behind the scenes, Sorare cards are Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens. The company partnered with Starkware to switch over to ZK rollup. https://tcrn.ch/3eDqjMi

Mercedes-Benz and Rivian partner to jointly build electric vans in Europe.

Mercedes-Benz and Rivian are partnering to produce electric vans at scale in Europe. The joint venture announced Thursday will help each automaker scale its bespoke large battery-electric van businesses as Mercedes-Benz plans to phase out gas-engine vans by 2025. The news sent Rivian shares up 9% in morning trading. Together, the companies plan to build and operate a factory in Europe that produces vans for both brands as Rivian, which has a contract to supply Amazon with 100,000 electric delivery vans (EDVs), begins to seek other commercial customers. The partnership will enter production in a few years, according to Mercedes-Benz. The new EV factory will be located near one of Mercedes-Benz’s existing plants in Europe and serve as Rivian’s first international presence. Mercedes wouldn’t disclose the exact location, except to say it is in Central or Eastern Europe. Rivian currently makes electric vans for Amazon, which holds an 18% stake in the startup and has a contract for 100,000. The automaker plans to start selling the commercial van to other customers next year. However, the agreement is currently only a memorandum of understanding and subject to regulatory approval. Ford dissolved a partnership to build an EV with Rivian last year. https://tcrn.ch/3B7VIhA

Causis E-Mobility ($63 million investment): AP Cabinet clears SIPB’s investment proposals Worth Rs 1,26,748 Crore.

The cabinet has also cleared the SIPB approval of a proposal from Causis E-Mobility for an investment of Rs 386.23 ($63 million) crore on an electric bus-manufacturing unit at Kopparthy in YSR district. The venture would create over 1,200 jobs. https://bit.ly/3RP9AER