July 10, 2022: Not A Bad Week For Major Indices

Last week, the Nasdaq composite leapt 4.6%, the S&P 500 index advanced 1.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.8%. Surprising no one, Elon Musk formally told Twitter he wants out of the acquisition deal, sending shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. were rocketing 17% in after-hours trading Friday. FaZe Clan is going public—just as the creator economy shifts. A spike in listing applications from Chinese companies in June has nearly doubled China’s IPO candidates to almost 1,000, the highest in at least three years, potentially making the country a bright spot for bankers as equity offerings slow in other markets. Upstart plummets 22% after slashing quarterly guidance on inflation and recession fears. DoorDash, Uber stocks fall after Amazon inks partnership with Grubhub. France’s Deezer, rival to Spotify, sinks 35% on market debut. Apple TV+ reaches 6% market share in the US while Netflix loses subscribers. Amazon.com Inc.’s number of Prime members in the US stagnated in the first half of the year, suggesting a US$20 annual price increase that took effect in February may be turning off potential customers struggling with high gas prices and inflation. Pinterest launches new shopping features for merchants. Sam Bankman-Fried says the worst of the crypto liquidity crisis is likely over with FTX holding ‘a few billion’ to prop up failing ventures. Tesla will open up Superchargers to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US later this year.

In Canada, Electric toothbrush startup, Bruush files to go public on Nasdaq with $17.25 million IPO. VSBLTY (VSBY-CSE) announced a marketed financing for gross proceeds of $5 million led by Echelon Wealth Partners. Crypto broker Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy.

Electric toothbrush startup Bruush files to go public on Nasdaq with $17.25 million IPO.

Toronto-headquartered electric toothbrush company Bruush Oral Care has filed to go public on Nasdaq with a $17.25 million initial public offering (IPO). Initially incorporated in Vancouver in 2017, Bruush is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business that provides oral care products. Sold in the United States and Canada, the company claims to have over 28,000 active subscriptions in its program, whereby a customer will receive a toothbrush head refill every six months.  As of October 2021, Bruush has an accumulated deficit totalling $17.6 million. https://bit.ly/3yOr5hi

VSBLTY (VSBY-CSE) announces marketed financing for gross proceeds of $5 million led by Echelon Wealth Partners.

The Company announced that it has entered into an engagement letter with Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. (the “Agent”) to sell by way of a marketed short form prospectus offering on a commercially reasonable best efforts agency basis, 16,666,700 units of the Company (the “Units”) at a price of  $0.30 per Unit (the “Offering Price”), for aggregate gross proceeds of $5,000,010 (the “Offering”). The Company has filed and obtained a receipt for a preliminary short form prospectus (the “Preliminary Prospectus”) in respect of the Offering with the securities commissions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario (the “Offering Jurisdictions”). Each Unit will consist of one common share (a “Common Share”) and one common share purchase warrant (each, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.50 per Common Share for a period of 36 months from the closing of the Offering. https://bit.ly/3nVGdmA

Dye & Durham (DND-TSX) makes revised A$4.70 per share acquisition proposal to Link Group.

The Company has made a second revised proposal to the board of directors of Link Administration Holdings Limited (ASX: LNK) (“Link Group”) with respect to its offer to acquire Link Group. Dye & Durham’s latest proposal, which follows further additional negotiations with Link Group, of up to A$4.70 per Link Group share is comprised of A$4.57 per share in base consideration under the proposed acquisition’s scheme implementation deed (“SID”) and up to A$0.13 per share contemplated under the SID for the proceeds from the sale of Link Group’s Banking and Credit Management business. Dye & Durham has reiterated it is not prepared to make any further amendments or alterations to the SID. https://bit.ly/3PeUAhz

Crypto broker Voyager Digital (VOYG-TSX) files for bankruptcy.

Voyager Digital, a high-profile crypto broker, has filed for bankruptcy, citing market volatility and the surprising collapse of Three Arrows Capital, just weeks after it suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits on its platform. The U.S.-headquartered firm — and its two affiliates — said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York that it had between US$1 billion and US$10 billion in assets and over 100,000 creditors. Voyager Digital owed US$75 million to Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, which recently threw the broker a lifeline of US$485 million, and about US$960,000 to Google, it disclosed in the filing. Voyager did not name other firms to whom it owes money. https://tcrn.ch/3uskQx7 

ACTO secures $23.5 million as pandemic tailwinds increase demand for life sciences education.

With a focus on training and data tracking for life sciences salespeople, ACTO has secured $23.5 million (US$18 million) in Series B, equity capital. The startup claims to have seen accelerated growth since 2020, specifically with large enterprise customers like AstraZeneca, as easily accessible, remote-based learning options for pharma reps and healthcare providers have become increasingly popular amid the pandemic. With its latest financing, ACTO has raised $47.1 million (US$36.1 million) to date. Its backers include Panache Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and MaRS IAF, among others. https://bit.ly/3bZimQz 

7 Generation Capital secures $8 million from Siemens, Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

Vancouver-based electric vehicle (EV) and charging infrastructure leasing company 7 Generation Capital (7Gen) has closed an $8 million Series A round.  The funding was co-led by Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Siemens Financial Services, the financial services division of international company Siemens. 7Gen previously received a $20 million equity investment from Boston’s Spring Lane Capital, last year. According to the startup, this latest investment from Siemens and Fonds de solidarité FTQ will help in accelerating the deployment of its electric trucks and buses, as well as the development of its software platform to facilitate project development. In the US, Siemens announced in April that it will invest $54 million to expand production across the country.  https://bit.ly/3yM52HY

Ecopia AI announces $8 million SDTC partnership to create 3D vector maps of Canadian cities.

Ecopia AI has announced a partnership with Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to build three-dimensional vector maps of the country’s “top 100” cities. The Toronto-based startup, which is “on a mission to create a digital twin of the Earth,” uses artificial intelligence (AI) to convert high-resolution imagery into high-definition (HD) vector maps, which are vector-based collections of geographic information system data. SDTC has committed $8 million in grant funding towards the project. Ecopia plans to offer each mapped city a two-year license to the data to support climate resilience initiatives. The startup told BetaKit that the 3D mapping data will be ready “starting in 2023.” https://bit.ly/3ySDf96

Haleo raises $5.2 million seed extension to expand virtual sleep clinic.

Montréal healthtech startup Haleo has closed a $5.2 million (US$4 million) seed extension. This round is in addition to its initial $1.3 million seed financing in June 2019, bringing Haleo’s cumulative seed financing to $6.5 million. The $5.2 million extension was co-led by Boréal Ventures and and AQC Capital, along with investments from Investissement Québec, Desjardins Capital, Real Ventures, and the Pan-Canadian Consortium MEDTEQ+ (with support from the Government of Canada). https://bit.ly/3apszFp 

TrackTik acquired by US security workforce management firm Trackforce.

Montréal-based SaaS startup TrackTik has been acquired by California company Trackforce Valiant. Both companies offer solutions for security professionals, and they expect that their consolidation will combine the best practices of each of their security workforce management platforms.  TrackTik will continue to operate in Québec as it works with Trackforce on developing security solutions, such as time and labour management, guard touring, incident management, dispatch and mobile control, as well as billing and payroll. Prior to becoming a Trackforce subsidiary, TrackTik had raised around $54.5 million to date from its investor base that includes the likes of Georgian Partners, Inovia Capital, Klass Capital, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. That total amount includes a $1 million seed round a year after TrackTik’s inception, a $1.5 million investment round in 2015, a $7 million raise in 2017, and $45 million in 2019. https://bit.ly/3bTKeFB

Musk formally tells Twitter he wants out of deal.

Elon Musk made it official: He believes Twitter violated the terms of their merger aggreement and intends to back out of the $44 billion deal, Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s top attorney on Friday. The letter, disclosed in a filing with securities regulators, informed Twitter Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde that Musk was terminating his plan to acquire Twitter after it failed to disclose information related to the number of spam accounts on the service. For months, Musk has suggested the deal was in jeopardy unless Twitter could help him verify its claim that fewer than 5% of Twitter’s accounts, by one measure, are spam bots. The letter—written by Musk attorney Mike Ringler of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom—said Twitter had breached the merger deal by failing to give Musk the data he had asked for. “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information,” Ringler wrote. “Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.” This is likely only the beginning of the end of the Musk-Twitter relationship. It will be very difficult for the Tesla CEO to unilaterally walk away from the merger agreement, and it’s unlikely Twitter will allow him to do so. A long, bruising legal battle may be the next chapter in this saga. https://bit.ly/3uAfMGW

Digital World stock surges after Elon Musk terminates Twitter purchase.

Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. were rocketing 17% in after-hours trading Friday after Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk said he was terminating his US$44 billion deal for Twitter Inc. Digital World is a special-purpose acquisition corporation buying the company that operates President Donald Trump’s Truth Social business, which bills itself as a social network that “encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating on the basis of political ideology.” DWAC’s aftermarket rally Friday suggests that investors see Twitter as less threatening to Truth Social as a public company not controlled by Musk. DWAC shares have lost 47% over the past three months, as Twitter shares have dropped 20% and as the S&P 500 has fallen 13%. https://on.mktw.net/3yRhJBk

FaZe Clan is going public—just as the creator economy shifts.

FaZe Clan is a powerhouse that’s on track to do the unthinkable for an esports organization: go public as a NASDAQ-listed company. Later this year, you might be able to diversify your investment portfolio by adding “FAZE” to the mix. While FaZe Clan members compete in esports tournaments and play Call of Duty on Twitch, the company’s not-so-secret sauce is its high frequency of brand deals. Moving beyond obvious collaborations like headphones and gaming keyboards, FaZe Clan has recently helped sell everything from Nissan cars to the crispy chicken sandwich at McDonald’s. https://bit.ly/3ImxuTW 

China IPO applications jump, bucking global trend, as COVID curbs ease.

A spike in listing applications from Chinese companies in June has nearly doubled China’s IPO candidates to almost 1,000, the highest in at least three years, potentially making the country a bright spot for bankers as equity offerings slow in other markets. The rush was partly due to China’s easing of COVID curbs last month, bankers say. The IPO hopefuls also scrambled to submit their applications by June 30 to avoid having to refresh them with first-half results and further delay the process. In Hong Kong, the $1.71 billion listing next week of Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) is a welcome boost for the city’s flagging capital markets but is not expected to be a trigger for more deals as global financial markets remain volatile. Investors are also monitoring a potential IPO revival by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, which sources told Reuters has received tentative green light from China’s central leadership. https://reut.rs/3NYtxpI

Sequoia Capital China raises US$9 billion amid cooling tech sector.

Sequoia Capital’s China arm has pulled in US$9 billion in fresh capital to back the country’s startups, The Information first reported. The raise came at a time when global investors are reevaluating risks in China amid a COVID-hit economy and an ongoing regulatory crackdown on the country’s internet upstarts. The fresh capital came from pensions, endowment funds, and family offices from the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, Bloomberg reported. With the new financial injection, the firm will continue to bet on Chinese startups focused on deep tech, healthcare, and consumer tech. https://tcrn.ch/3OLB0Kd 

Upstart plummets 22% after slashing quarterly guidance on inflation and recession fears.

Shares of Upstart Holdings slid Friday after the lending platform that uses AI technology cut second-quarter projections. The stock was down 22% at US$22.22 as of 9:35 am ET, nearing its IPO pricing of $20 from December 2020. Shares also toppled 57% in May when the company lowered its yearly revenue projections to US$1.25 billion from US$1.4 billion. Late Thursday, the company issued preliminary second-quarter figures showing revenue of US$228 million, down from earlier estimates of US$295 million-US$305 million. Net losses were put at US$27 million-US$31 million, deeper than the prior estimates for breakeven to a US$4 million loss. “Inflation and recession fears have driven interest rates up and put banks and capital markets on cautious footing,” said Upstart co-founder and CEO Dave Girouard in a statement. https://bit.ly/3yT0tM1

DoorDash, Uber stocks fall after Amazon inks partnership with Grubhub. Shares of DoorDash Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. are falling in premarket trading Wednesday after Amazon.com Inc. struck a partnership with Grubhub, a unit of Just Eat Takeaway.com NV . Through the arrangement, Amazon will make Grubhub a benefit to Prime members and offer members the chance to get delivery fees waived from certain restaurants, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, Amazon has an opportunity to take an initial 2% stake in Grubhub, and it could boost that stake to 15% if it hits targets around user acquisition. Just Eat shares are up more than 19% in Wednesday trading in the Netherlands, while shares of U.S.-based food delivery companies are falling premarket. Shares of DoorDash are down more than 7% and shares of Uber, which operates the Uber Eats delivery service, are off more than 3%. Just Eat still intends to look into a potential full or partial sale of Grubhub, per the Wall Street Journal report.  https://bit.ly/3usxYm2

France’s Deezer, rival to Spotify, sinks 35% on market debut.

Shares of French music-streaming platform Deezer plunged as much as 35% on its first trading day, in a blow to telecoms maverick Xavier Niel and luxury billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, who made the company’s market debut possible. Deezer, one of the country’s first so-called “unicorns”, or tech companies valued more than 1 billion euros, has been struggling to convince its capacity to take on bigger rivals Spotify and Apple Music. https://reut.rs/3P6rDnV

U.K. announces Antitrust probe into Microsoft’s Activision purchase.

The U.K.’s antitrust body has opened an investigation into Microsoft’s planned US$69 billion takeover of gaming studio Activision Blizzard, as regulators continue to circle the blockbuster deal. The Competition and Markets Authority released a statement on Wednesday saying that investigators would conduct a two-month probe to see whether Microsoft’s purchase of one of the world’s best-known video game makers could lead to higher prices and less choice for gamers. Other antitrust regulators, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan, are already looking into the deal. But the CMA’s probe may prove tricky for Microsoft, as the U.K. body has been increasingly antagonistic to U.S. tech firms in the years since Brexit. The CMA surprised the tech industry recently by ordering Meta to unwind its 2020 purchase of the GIF-maker Giphy over antitrust concerns. Facebook is looking to appeal that decision. https://bit.ly/3IrEijk

VR headset market grew 240% ahead of Apple’s launch; Meta’s strategy unsustainable.

The global VR headset market grew by 241.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest market intelligence data. Virtual reality (VR) headset shipments are expected to hit 13.9M units for the year as a whole. But next year is expected to be the crucial one for the VR and augmented reality (AR) sector, as Apple enters the market. IDC says that Facebook parent company Meta current dominates the VR market, but its current business model isn’t sustainable. One thing Apple will change for sure is the average selling price (ASP). This is expected to peak sharply as the Cupertino company enters the market, before gradually falling back to more affordable levels over the following years. https://bit.ly/3upVUGk

Apple TV+ reaches 6% market share in the US while Netflix loses subscribers.

A report from earlier this year revealed that Apple TV+ had been growing slowly, just reaching 5% of the market share of streaming platforms in the United States. Three months later, Apple TV+ finally accounts for 6% of the US streaming market – while Netflix continues to lose subscribers. Netflix lost 2% market share in the United States last quarter. While the platform remains the most popular, accounting for 21% of the market, it has been struggling to retain subscribers. Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max have gained more subscribers since January, but both platforms lost some subscribers last month. https://bit.ly/3yNAs0A

Hackers claim theft of police info in China’s largest data leak.

Unknown hackers claimed to have stolen data on as many as a billion Chinese residents after breaching a Shanghai police database, in what industry experts are calling the largest cybersecurity breach in the country’s history. The person or group claiming the attack has offered to sell more than 23 terabytes of stolen data from the database, including names, addresses, birthplaces, national IDs, phone numbers and criminal case information, according to an anonymous post on an online cybercrime forum last week. The unidentified hacker was asking for 10 bitcoin, worth around US$200,000. It’s unclear how the alleged cyberattackers in this month’s breach gained access to Shanghai police servers. One popular theory circulated online among cybersecurity experts was that the breach involved a third-party cloud infrastructure partner. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co. are among the country’s biggest external cloud services. https://bloom.bg/3c1XXKH

Google offers concessions to fend off U.S. antitrust lawsuit.

As part of one offer, Google has proposed splitting parts of its business that auctions and places ads on websites and apps into a separate company under the Alphabet umbrella, some of the people said. That entity could potentially be valued at tens of billions of dollars, depending on what assets it contained. It couldn’t be determined whether any offer short of asset sales would satisfy the U.S. Department of Justice, where antitrust officials have signaled a preference for deep structural changes to Google’s ad-tech business, rather than promises to change business practices, the people said. Any moves by Google to restructure parts of its ad-tech business could shake the digital advertising industry. Advertisers are slated to spend more than US$600 billion on digital ads world-wide this year, according to eMarketer, and Google plays a major role as an intermediary in such sales. Last year, Google’s business of brokering the sale of ads on other websites and apps accounted for US$31.7 billion of revenues, roughly 12% of Alphabet’s total. https://on.wsj.com/3Peo4fI

Amazon Prime growth stalls in US after price increase.

Amazon.com Inc.’s number of Prime members in the US stagnated in the first half of the year, suggesting a US$20 annual price increase that took effect in February may be turning off potential customers struggling with high gas prices and inflation. The online retailer had about 172 million members as of June 30 who pay yearly or monthly dues in exchange for shipping discounts, video streaming and other perks, the same as six months earlier, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, a Chicago firm that tracks Prime members through consumer surveys. https://bloom.bg/3nR9saw

Pinterest launches new shopping features for merchants.

Pinterest announced today that it’s rolling out new merchant features, including product tagging on Pins and a Pinterest API for Shopping. The company says all of the new features are designed to make it easier for merchants to create engaging shopping experiences for users. With the new Pinterest API for Shopping, merchants will get access to new catalog management and product metadata features to enable more efficient data quality for merchant products. The company says merchants who have used this tool are already seeing a 97% accuracy level for price and availability data. https://tcrn.ch/3bZjfIT 

TikTok abandons ecommerce expansion in Europe and US.

TikTok has abandoned plans to expand its live ecommerce initiative in Europe and the US, after the social media platform’s foray into QVC-style shopping in the UK was hit by internal problems and struggled to gain traction with consumers. The Chinese-owned company’s venture called “TikTok Shop” was launched in the UK last year, its first market outside Asia. Brands and influencers broadcast live and sell products through a clickable orange basket on the screen of the viral short-video app. TikTok had planned to launch the feature in Germany, France, Italy and Spain in the first half of this year, before expanding into the US later in 2022, according to several people briefed on the matter. But the expansion plans have been dropped after the UK project failed to meet targets and influencers dropped out of the scheme, three people said. “The market just isn’t there yet,” a TikTok employee said. “General consumer awareness and adoption are still low and nascent.” https://on.ft.com/3ADxgX0

Sam Bankman-Fried says the worst of the crypto liquidity crisis is likely over with FTX holding ‘a few billion’ to prop up failing ventures.

The worst of the ongoing cryptocurrency rout that sent tokens plummeting and caused the collapse of some firms is over, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. He said that his exchange still had “a few billion” on hand to further stem turmoil across digital assets and the companies that trade them, which he says is necessary for the good of the market. SBF’s latest comments come after he’s thrown as much as US$250 million at firms like Voyager Digital, which filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, and BlockFi. Bankman-Fried has long maintained that the he would step in to ensure cryptocurrencies, and the broader market, survive the latest downturn that saw bitcoin tumble far from its all-time high of US$69,000 to below US$20,000 this month. https://bit.ly/3IojzwB

Meta starts testing NFTs as Facebook posts as part of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse quest.

Facebook started trialing NFTs as posts with a “digital collectible” label this week in a bid to expand its efforts in the metaverse.  Meta announced in June that it would broaden testing of digital collectibles to Facebook and at a later date on Instagram with augmented reality platform SparkAR. Meta’s trial with a small group of US creators comes as NFT sales have plunged to the lowest levels in a year. NFT sales plummeted to close to US$1 billion in June, down from a peak of US$12.6 billion in January, the Guardian reported. Research from crypto market data firm Chainalysis show that was significantly lower than the same period last year when sales amounted to US$648 million. The social media giant announced Friday that in September it is closing down its pilot cryptocurrency wallet, Novi, amid a downturn in the digital asset market. The platform was trialing crypto payments through the Facebook-backed Diem cryptocurrency, but had to scrap those plans. https://bit.ly/3yhOYfA 

Reddit is launching a new NFT avatar marketplace.

Reddit is launching a new NFT-based avatar marketplace today that allows you to purchase blockchain-based profile pictures for a fixed rate. The company said that you need not have a crypto wallet to buy them, so your credit or debit card should be enough, and you can use Reddit’s own wallet product to store them. The social network said it is releasing 90 designs with the total amount of NFTs going for sale in this early-access phase being “tens of thousands.” The company noted that if you purchase one of its limited-edition NFTs, you will have licensing rights to use it on and off Reddit as an avatar. https://tcrn.ch/3P9kN12

Intel Bets 17 billion Euros on a tech revival in Eastern Germany. 

Intel Corp. announced in March that it would invest 17 billion euros (US$17.3 billion) to build a cutting-edge production site in Magdeburg to make chips for both its own business and external customers, part of Europe’s ambitious attempt to lure global chipmakers back to the region. https://bloom.bg/3bYALg3 

Chip boom loses steam on slowing PC sales, crypto rout.

The frenzy to buy laptops and other gadgets early in the Covid-19 pandemic has vanished as inflation dissuades people from upgrading machines that they bought in the past couple of years amid the shift toward remote work and learning. The fading of the crypto boom has also put an end to early pandemic scenes of people camping outside computer stores to buy chips for cryptocurrency mining and high-end videogaming. Personal computer shipments are expected to retreat by 8.2% this year to 321.2 million units, according to International Data Corp., which cut its forecast in June. Those numbers are a sharp reversal from the height of the pandemic, when shipments grew 13% in its first year and 15% in the second. https://on.wsj.com/3ArG1mI

Tesla reportedly nowhere near goal of installing 1,000 solar roofs a week.

Five and a half years on (well, really 5.69), Tesla’s solar roofs are looking less like a revelation and more like a hobby. Though Elon Must set a goal of 1,000 solar roof installations per week, the company’s latest averages are reportedly a tiny fraction of that figure. Citing an anonymous source, Electrek reports that Tesla installed just 2.5 megawatts of solar roofs in the second quarter. That would equate to about 260 medium-sized (9.6-kilowatt) home installations last quarter, or roughly 20 each week, per some back-of-the-napkin math. A more generous estimate (say, if we assume each installation were rated at just 5 kW) would still place Tesla somewhere around 38 per week, or nearly 4% of the way toward that 1,000-per-week target. https://tcrn.ch/3amuhau

Tesla will open up Superchargers to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US later this year.

Tesla plans to open up its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US in late 2022, according to a White House memo. The company has been allowing non-Tesla EVs to use its Supercharger plugs in several cities in Europe as part of a limited pilot program but has been quiet about when US charging stations would be available to non-Tesla EV owners. A “fact sheet” published by the White House on June 28th and noticed by InsideEVs indicates that those EV owners may be able to use Superchargers as soon as the end of this year. “Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers,” the White House states. https://bit.ly/3amucUt