Fintech Fast Facts

Seems our new feature which we launched on Friday was quite well received, so we'll try to do these more often!

First, a quick shout out to our friend David Beazley at Purple Arch Ventures, the Northwestern-targeted VC, who mentioned FintekNews on his latest e-blast...we love it!

"Last month I was interviewed by FintekNews. The first question they asked me was:

What is your role within your firm and what do you do there on any given day?

Here was my answer:

As the Founder and Managing Partner of Purple Arch Ventures, I try to advance all our initiatives every day with a focus on creating value in our venture portfolio. This means tapping our best resource, our brilliant and engaged alumni community advocating for the fund. This community, which is comprised of our investors, advisors, ambassadors, fellows and newsletter subscribers, has deep domain expertise in all the areas we’re interested in deploying capital, including, but not limited to cloud services, cyber security, marketplaces, ed tech, ag tech, IoT, big data, B-to-B Saas, AI/machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, mobility, clean tech, green tech, ecommerce, social commerce, innovative consumer goods, biotech, healthcare IT, and of course financial technologies.

My main function every day is to manage our wonderful community. It is also my favorite part of the job, talking to successful alums who want to help."

Next up and following in the footsteps of the CME, the CBOE has announced plans to launch a new bitcoin futures contract, in conjunction with the Winklevoss' digital currency exchange this past week. Seems the bros couldn't get that darned bitcoin ETF launched, so it appears they finally shelved it and went a different direction. Smart move. With LedgerX launching bitcoin options later this year, and the CryptoFacilities product out of the UK, this space is heating up (and hopefully headed toward less volatility).

Over the weekend, our friends at WarrenPay emailed to let us know they have just launched a cool new fintech that makes issuing multiple invoices each month easier. We promise to get you more info on it in the near future! Congratulations to Tom & Omri!

Last but not least, our friend Ron Chernesky at investFeed made a very interesting and controversial pivot of his firm recently, and just concluded an ICO. According to a recent email we received on Friday...

"investFeed, the social investment network that dropped equities for cryptocurrency, has rolled out the first version of its new platform midway through its Token Generation Event (TGE). The beta, initially scheduled to be released

within 90 days

of its

August 7th

TGE close, was fast-tracked to give participants and potential users a taste of the unique cryptocurrency-based marketplace and a first-look at live tickers and weighted average price charts.

The New York based tech company made the controversial pivot from equities to cryptocurrency due to repeated requests from their users, as well as the explosive growth of the $100 billion USD cryptocurrency industry. Their Token Generation Event, initiated July 23rd, is designed to help fund the development of the new platform, as well as provide users a utility token for accessing popular investing ideas, peer-to-peer price predictions, investor insights and “Boosting” or promoting individual content."

That's it for today! Have a great week!