Cadence Growth Capital (CGC)’s Post

Great news! 🚀We are proud to announce the launch of our latest asset class, COMETUM 🎯Direct Investment. Our aim is to provide investors with access to unique scale-up companies and firms on the road to IPO. COMETUM simplifies the process, making these opportunities more accessible than ever before. To kick off this asset class, we are excited to offer access to one of the most awaited IPOs worldwide with the COMETUM Klarna Pre-IPO Bond, marking a significant milestone for us. It offers investors the chance to: 🎟️ Invest in Klarna shares pre-IPO, starting from €100,000. 🤫 Be part of Klarna's journey before it goes public. 🏆 Stand alongside experienced VCs such as Permira and BlackRock. 🗝️ Access our exclusive and private "Club Deal," available only on COMETUM. This is a unique opportunity to invest in a late-stage pre-IPO. For more information, visit our website: www.cometum.com Special thanks to Finance Forward for their comprehensive coverage. Your in-depth analysis is always appreciated. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dCqB3KxX FinanzBusiness Capital Magazin MUNICH STARTUP VentureCapital Magazin private banking magazin FinanzBusiness-Szene Payment & Banking Citywire Deutschland Start2 Group Startup Insider Startup Insider-Verband deutsche-startups.de FONDS professionell Uwe Paßmann Sascha Miller Risk notice: Capital at risk. For professional investors only.

Did you know, over 2.4 million devices still rely on 2G or 3G, according to Ofcom? When asked which longstanding piece of tech he’s shocked is still used today, Mike Dimelow — chief commercial officer at Bloc Ventures — couldn’t believe the figures doing the rounds. Read more thoughts from Mike: https://lnkd.in/e5bvGHXY #TechStartups #TechInvestment #TechLeader #2G #3G

I'm thrilled to be featured in today’s Business Daily! The article highlights Buy Simu Technologies and our journey in transforming gadget ownership through our Buy Now, Pay Later financing model. It’s an exciting moment for us as we continue to empower more customers with flexible payment options for their tech needs. A big thank you to Sinda Matiko and the Nation Media Group team for the feature! Check out the full story in today’s issue. #BuySimu #TechFinancing #BusinessDaily #BuyNowPayLater #Innovation

In a recent interview with Gründerszene, I had the chance to share some of my thoughts on the evolving fintech landscape. Here's a quick summary of my conversation with Nicole Plich:    🔍 I'm optimistic about the future, seeing an end to the liquidity crisis on the horizon   📈 Despite this optimism, investors are still exercising caution, paying close attention to startups' financial health     🌍 Closing the fintech innovation gap between startups and established financial institutions in Germany could yield significant benefits for the market as a whole   For a more detailed read, you can check out the article on Gründerszene. Link is below (note: it's in German)   #motiveventures #fintech #venturecapital #nicoleplich #gründerszene

It's incredible to think that three Manchester tech firms have been acquired by US buyers in the same week. The latest one is Altrincham-based e4enable, which has been bought by Richardson Sales Performance for an undisclosed sum. e4enable was co-founded by CEO Kate Lewis in 2019 and she's very impressive. I always think you can tell a lot about a business by the type of people who invest in it and Charles Sharland; Jonathan Fitchew; Tony Bolland; Rachel Cunliffe ACMA, CGMA; and Chris Lewis know a thing or two about tech investments. The acquisition comes in the same week that AppLearn® was snapped up by Nexthink and Membr was bought by Xplor Technologies. The trio of deals says a lot about the vibrancy of Manchester's tech sector although it's worth making the point all deal sizes are undisclosed. https://lnkd.in/eJmKEHkA

Twig enters liquidation, becoming latest UK fintech to shut down Customer Refocus Investment 2024-02-02 Tyler Pathe Anthony Hyams and Kelly Knight of Insolve Plus were installed on 23 January to liquidate the fintech. <p>UK-based circular economy fintech Twig has entered liquidation and is being wound down, just two years after securing <a href="https://lnkd.in/dEKVvZjh">$35 million in a Series A</a> financing round.</p> <div class="wp-caption"><img sizes="(max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px" src="https://lnkd.in/ecaMvF4Y" alt="Twig Logo" width="236" srcset="https://lnkd.in/ecaMvF4Y 240w, https://lnkd.in/eawkq-JA 600w, https://lnkd.in/e7X6CAQe 100w, https://lnkd.in/eP7Md4mC 280w" class="wp-image-15243580" height="177"><p class="wp-caption-text">UK fintech Twig goes into liquidation</p></div> <p>According to its latest Companies House filings, Anthony Hyams and Kelly Knight of Insolve Plus were installed on 23 January to liquidate the fintech and its subsidiary, the mobile phone reselling platform Mobi Market.</p> <p>The filings show that the fintech is being “wound up voluntarily” and owes approximately £15.4 million to its creditors.</p> <p>The move brings Twig’s story to an end less than four years after the company was originally founded in 2020 as Diem Group.</p> <p>Based in London, Twig’s circular economy offering was first <a href="https://lnkd.in/dr-Rruf2">launched in 2021</a>. Describing itself as a “bank of things”, the fintech provided a platform that enabled customers to sell their unwanted belongings through its app for cash.</p> <p>It also offered a carbon offsetting subscription service and a co-branded debit card with Visa, enabling customers to send and receive money transfers as well as complete transactions in store.</p> <p>After its Series A round in 2022, the fintech had sought to further diversity its offering with a venture into <a href="https://lnkd.in/dEKVvZjh">Web 3.0 green payment infrastructure</a>. The company also acquired <a href="https://lnkd.in/eh9UGBri">Vybe Technologies</a>, a provider of teenage banking services, and Loopster last year.</p> <p>However, not even these efforts appear to have been enough to save the fintech. It joins fellow UK fintechs <a href="https://lnkd.in/dXxJek_v">Paysme</a> and <a href="https://lnkd.in/eSUG-Sa2">Kikapay</a>, who have both also wound down operations in recent weeks.</p>

KLARNA CEO AT RISK? Sequoia Capital with 22% of Klarna has enough weight to make changes – first step the removal of former long-time leader Michael Moritz from the Klarna board… them the CEO? Michael Moritz led Sequoia Capital’s investments into Google, PayPal, YouTube and Klarna over a near-40 year career “One person with knowledge of the move said removing Moritz could be viewed as “step one to removing (CEO) Sebastian” FT report “One investor said they did not hold out any hopes of an IPO under Siemiatkowski, despite the chief executive’s public statements” “The formal procedure to oust Moritz was initiated by (Sequoia in) a letter to other investors seeking an extraordinary shareholder meeting to remove his former colleague from the Klarna board” KLARNA VALUE DROP Klarna founded in 2005 as a bank offering unsecured loans is not a Fintech, but hitched a ride on the recent boom. Klarna’s value went from US$2.5 bn in 2015 to US$45.6 bn in 2021 with boasts of US$60 bn in the next round Alas poor performance , no profits, big marketing costs, growth in bad debts and the huge impact of rising interest  rates on BNPL ( apps have to fund the gap between paying merchant and being paid by consumers) plunged the value on Europe’s largest Unicorn Klarna value dropped by 85% achieving US$6.7 bn to gain US$800 million in cash needed to run the unprofitable business BNPL ISSUES ❌ Unregulated in many markets – regs will slow apps down add costs 📛 Competition has ramped up, PayPal the largest BNPL player ⭕ High interest rates area killer ☢ Very high-volume low margin business avg margin 3.8% ⚠ High loans losses as competition forced a race to the bottom IPO “Klarna has long been viewed as a prime candidate for a public offering, and has backing from big investors including SoftBank Group Corp., Silver Lake, Permira, @Canada Pension Plan (CBA Bank Aust) and Mubadala Investment Company” “Behind the scenes, Klarna had been preparing for an IPO for the past year..” “The IPO drought has increased the pressure on venture capital firms, which rely on mergers, acquisitions and listings to cash out stakes in private companies and return capital to their own backers..” #fintech #klarna #bnpl https://lnkd.in/g37iGcW4

Billionaire Masayoshi Son – one of Japan’s richest people – has seen his net worth surge 50% in less than a year, gaining $8 billion on the back of chip designer Arm’s soaring share price and his SoftBank Group Corp. reporting its first quarterly profit in more than a year. Son, 66, has a net worth of $28.8 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker. That’s up from $20.9 billion in May 2023, when he was ranked No. 3 on Japan’s 50 Richest list. Shares in Son’s SoftBank, which owns roughly 90% of Arm, have been tracking the Nasdaq-listed chip company’s rally following its third-quarter earnings last week that gave a bullish outlook amid strong AI demand. “We are also seeing strong momentum and tailwinds from all things AI,” said Rene Haas, Arm’s CEO, in the earnings call. “From the most complex devices on the planet for training and inference...more and more AI is running on more edge devices and end devices, and that’s all running on Arm.” Son’s SoftBank acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016, taking the formerly London Stock Exchange-listed company private. Billionaire Jensen Huang’s Nvidia tried to buy Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion in 2020, but the deal fell through in 2022 following regulatory scrutiny. Last September, Arm listed on the Nasdaq in the year’s biggest IPO.

Thrasio, the U.S. startup that raised billions of dollars and popularized the concept of e-commerce aggregation — buying up and restructuring dozens of smaller brands and third parties selling on marketplaces like Amazon in a bid for better economies of scale — has commenced a restructuring of its own. The company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to cut its losses on a mountain of debt. It said it has also secured an emergency $90 million in emergency financing from unnamed existing lenders. Thrasio raised more than $3 billion in equity and debt over the years to fuel its roll-up play, and its collapse into bankruptcy protection is one of the biggest examples of how mighty growth-stage tech companies have fallen in recent times. The restructuring support agreement covers 81% of Thrasio’s revolving credit facility lenders and 88% of its term loan lenders, the company said, and it will erase around $495 million of its existing debt, as well as defer all interest payments in the first year post-emergence from Chapter 11. https://lnkd.in/dtea57XE

As the valuations of fintech firms have plummeted the last two years, alongside venture funding, perhaps no one has suffered more than Chime Financial. Shares of Block, formerly Square, have fallen about 77% since August 2021, while PayPal is down about 79% during that same period. The privately held Chime, valued at $25 billion as recently as 2021, has also seen its value drop. But by how much? Pricing data from Forge, an online marketplace for buying and selling shares of private firms, marked Chime shares at $16.40 on Jan. 23, a spokeswoman said. This implies a valuation of just $5.9 billion, a 76% plunge from 2021, when Chime shares were valued around $69.07. Chime was one of the most actively traded securities on the private stock marketplace Hiive in 2023, which saw a total of 130 buy- and sell-side orders, according to a spokesman. Chime last traded at $18.50 a share, at the end of third quarter on a block of 60,000 shares, the spokesman said. This implies a valuation of $6.7 billion. Current buy-side indications of interest for Chime are around $16.50 a share for its common stock, at block sizes of roughly $2 million to $5 million in value, the Hiive spokesman added. Most recent sell orders for Chime on Hiive range from $18.50 to $26, with associated block sizes in the range of 5,000 to 30,000 shares. Most sellers are believed to be in the low- to mid-twenties price range, the spokesman said. One venture executive told Fortune that they weren’t surprised to see such a drop in Chime’s value, to about $6 billion. “That valuation seems more reasonable than their other one,” they said. Others say they’re skeptical of the numbers being tossed around on secondary markets. One Chime investor, who’s owned a stake for about 10 years, said their firm conducted a full analysis of Chime’s business last June that valued shares closer to $45, meaning a total valuation of about $16 billion. That same executive added that by Dec. 31, Chime’s valuation had risen to $57 a share, implying a valuation of $21 billion. “We have been very happy with our investment in Chime since the outset, and we continue to be excited about the company’s current execution metrics AND its long-term growth potential,” the executive said via text message. Founded in 2012, Chime is a neobank that offers traditional financial services such as fee-free checking, savings accounts, and debit cards. It doesn’t have a bank charter, instead partnering with the Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank in offering its services. According to Chime’s website, customers have access to more than 60k ATMs, and perhaps the biggest perk for many is SpotMe, which allows for overdrafts of up to $200. Rather than chasing high-net-worth individuals, Chime caters to those making less than $100k. The company declined to share with Fortune its current customer base, but Forbes in 2022 pegged the number at more than 14.5 million. https://lnkd.in/gtW9h34Q