fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How to Get Funding for a New Business
By: Destry Witt
Tags: Funding, Startup, Business

Funding a new business is a challenge for many entrepreneurs. One may have a million-dollar idea but no funds to drive it home. Money is a constant when it comes to getting a business off the ground. With limited financing options, many companies remain an idea instead of a venture. Once an entrepreneur understands how much their new business needs, they should follow through by getting the appropriate funding. The following ways can get you the right financing for your new business.

Self-funding

Self-funding is a typical funding solution for many new businesses. It is also known as bootstrapping. Self-funding involves financing your business from personal savings. It gives a person full ownership and total authority to run and operate the business. When an individual is funding their business from their savings, they risk losing everything they have. Entrepreneurs must check with financial professionals before putting all their savings into ideas that may result in losses.

Investors

Business people look for investors to put their money in their new business for a piece of the pie. Investors only put cash in lucrative ventures. Venture capitalists are investors who fund businesses for an ownership share. For a new company to survive the cut-throat competition in most industries, the owners should ensure they take funding they can comfortably repay. Entrepreneurs should weigh their options regarding angel investors or venture capitalists, depending on the offer on the table.

Bank loan

Banks are typical creditors for many new businesses. They scrutinize the business plan to ensure they lend to a company that will comfortably pay back the loan with interest. Entrepreneurs should do in-depth research on various bank loans to compare their interests and ensure they settle for something reasonable. They should also consult professional financial advice before making concrete decisions.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is becoming more popular by the day for many entrepreneurs. They have come to realize it is the best funding with no strings attached. The process entails raising money from a large pool of people online. It is a low-risk funding strategy for new businesses since one is not obliged to part with ownership or pay back the money. The funding methods mentioned above are some of the best funding options depending on one’s preference.
Bitcoin the third ‘most crowded trade’ in global fund manager survey
By: Omgfin Exchange
Tags: Blockchain, Funding, Bitcoin

Asset managers around the globe are losing confidence in the dollar, encouraging them to seek out inflation-resistant investments for their clients.

A new survey of global fund managers reveals that Bitcoin has climbed in the rankings of “most crowded trade” beating out traditional investments like gold and bonds.

Bitcoin was third on the overall list of options for the category, named as the busiest trade by 15% of survey respondents. Only tech stocks (52%) and short dollar positions (18%) ranked higher.

The Global Fund Manager Survey was conducted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch between the period of Dec. 4 to 10 and asked 217 fund managers collectively responsible for $534 billion in assets, a series of questions related to trends in investor behavior.

A related question asked respondents if they held Bitcoin long positions, to which 15% responded affirmatively, which is three times more than last month’s total of 5%.

In a year in which money printing and stimulus has triggered fears of massive inflation, the trend away from cash and into uncorrelated assets such as Bitcoin is clearly highlighted by the survey’s results.

Many investment managers are seriously considering Bitcoin purchases for the first time, encouraged by the example of famous investments made by MicroStrategy, Square and Paul Tudor Jones. Following suit, insurance company MassMutual and investment manager Ruffer disclosed massive Bitcoin purchases in the last week as well.

The Bank of America survey also found the fund managers are underweight in cash for the first time since 2013, after buying a disproportionate amount of stocks, commodities and other assets including Bitcoin over the last few months.

This is not the first time Bitcoin has appeared in Bank of America’s monthly survey. In Dec. 2017, Bitcoin topped the survey’s list of most crowded trades, with 32% of respondents naming Bitcoin as the “most crowded trade.”

Bitcoin was named for the first time in a Sept. 2017 edition of the survey, in which it received 26% of respondent votes for “most crowded trade.”

On Aug. 18 2020, Bitcoin surpassed Bank of America in market cap size for the first time. Bitcoin now exceeds Bank of America in this metric by 45%.
Guardrails for Funding Rates
Tags: English, Announcements, Perpetual Contracts, weekly funding rate publications, Funding

A couple of months of activity and trades on the Leverj perpetuals markets has given us a good sense of how funding rates are playing out on the platform. Curious minds may want to look at our weekly funding rate publications.

On a few occasions the intermittent absence of quotes or widening of spread led to sharp funding rate increases. Consider reading the detailed notes on how funding rate is calculated for the perpetual markets. Also, dig into how funding payout impacts liquidation and deleveraging.

If the futures price and the underlying index is naturally diverging then high funding rates are expected and in line with derivatives market behavior. However, we wanted to put a few checks and balances in place to make sure any small quote adjustment windows or widening of spread for a split second didn’t adversely and disproportionately impact the rates. Some of the rate spikes were because of such intermittent samples and so we want to address it proactively.

You may recall from the funding rate math discussion that we take 60 samples every hour. These samples go into the calculation of the hourly rates. We have made a minor but important modification to how we consider this sample. If any of these samples are taken at a time during a sudden blip, when the spread between bid and ask is beyond a specified amount, then it is dampened by bounding it to a maximum value.

Let’s walk through an example to illustrate what we are doing. Consider the case where we have both bids and asks on the book on a given minute, when we collect one of the 60 samples. The average of the best bid and the best ask is considered the futures price for that particular sample. The difference between the futures price and the underlying index for this particular sample contributes towards the calculation of the funding rates. Details are explained in a previous post titled: Funding Rates and Payments.

With our new guardrails, we look for relative divergence and make sure it never exceed the specified tolerance limits. That is:

|index_price - futures_price| / index_price < tolerance limit (or bound)

If the relative divergence is above the tolerance limit or bound, we simply take that tolerance limit into ascertaining the specific sample. Remember, that a specific sample has 1/60th impact into the funding rate for that hour.

This simple modification allows us to facilitate fair markets, while containing disproportionate impact from unintended momentary issues.

The current tolerance limit is set at 3% and could be adjusted in future.

Funding rate has been a topic of discussion among our early adopters. We appreciate the feedback and support from our community and do hope that this minor but important change makes for a better trading experience. Thank you for being part of this exciting journey!
Observations from a first-time Angel Investor in a Syndicate deal
By: Sean Scott
Tags: Funding, Investment, Technology

In December 2020, I became an angel investor by taking part in a syndicate deal. I hope to share my road toward a becoming a successful investor as openly as I can.

Observation 1: There is some serious talent out there

As I examined the stealth startup’s thesis, competitive analysis and deck, what came clearly through was just so how smart the team was and how knowledgeable they were about their verticals. If investing is about investing in companies run by much smarter people than you, than I am off to a great start. This early, you are investing as much into the people as you are into the idea or potential.

Observation 2: Tools are not important

It’s the idea stupid, and in the case of a startup, how well you communicate what the market potential is, which audience your product market fit is with and how you are going to execute better than the competition. To make the case and address those points, I reviewed competitive analysis and thesis on Notion, did founder research on Twitter and LinkedIn and reviewed their pitch deck on Canva.

Observation 3: It’s not a boys club but a DM club

Introduction to the Syndicate Deal VC wasn’t done in some fancy steakhouse or new age sushi restaurant. It took place over Twitter Direct Messages. It’s another sign that technology can level the playing field, even the funding technology playing feed.

Observation 4: It’s as easy as hitting submit funds button

Once the decision was made to invest, the process was incredibly easy and entirely digital. No walks to the bank to wire money or into a building to sign papers. For this deal, we leveraged the Assure platform. Documents were signed electronically, funds were transferred and within a few days, the payment was sent and received confirmation and all. This ease really opens up the pool of potential investors which if you are a founder, is a great thing.

Observation 5: vision is great but a working product is better

While the team, their vision and thoughts on monetization obviously played an important factor in my decision to invest, the fact that they had a working product and initial traction was even better.

Last Observation: Syndicate deals are a great way to get into deals with a smaller check size

This being the first investment, a smaller check sized made a huge deal in providing the confidence to go through with my evidence. The smaller check size was a key variable in my risk appetite equation. It allowed me to make the jump if you will and I am now hooked.

I can wait to make investment #2 and 3 and 4 and so on and so forth. It’s refreshing to see the great and deserving ideas that are needing those funds to get them to the next stage. And for me with a personal mission to impact positively as many fellow humans as possible, it’s a great match.

Don’t hesitate to drop me a comment if you want to learn more if you are thinking of investing for the first time.
Record $8 Million Funding for Queensland’s Social Enterprise Sector
By: Social Change Central
Tags: Qsec, Emma Kate Rose, Queensland, Elise Parups, Funding

The Queensland Social Enterprise Council (QSEC) President Richard Warner welcomed the Queensland Government’s $8 million commitment to assist the creation of jobs for vulnerable Queenslanders, announced through the Queensland Budget.

Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development Di Farmer said the Social Enterprise Jobs Fund aimed to help new and existing operations to grow, creating more jobs and providing needed services and products to customers.

“Throughout the COVID pandemic social enterprises have been working tirelessly in their local communities and through the Social Enterprise Jobs Fund we want to develop the capacity and capability of this sector, to build on these successes and open up new opportunities,” Ms Farmer said.

“Social enterprises support some of the state’s most vulnerable people by creating jobs and delivering other social benefits, as well as contributing to our economy.

“Over the coming two years the Queensland Government will work to develop the market and foster strong and vibrant social enterprises across the state.”

Incoming QSEC President Mr Warner said he was excited to work with the Government on the roll out of the Fund.

“We’re delighted to see our sector advocacy efforts recognised through this significant level of funding, and particularly grateful for Minister Farmer’s support in this early stage of the Government’s response to local economic solutions.”

The Fund will support social enterprise sector development and job-creation which in turn increases capacity to tackle issues of homelessness, access to food, health and education, cultural and social inequities and environmental issues.

“We look forward to working with our sector partners and the Queensland Government to support emerging local solutions as enterprises strive to go beyond business as usual in these very unusual economic times,” Mr Warner concluded.
Metafy raises $3M in Series Seed Funding, Led by Forerunner
Tags: Metafy, Gaming, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Funding

Metafy raises $3M in Series Seed Funding, Led by Forerunner

Metafy was started with a straightforward mission: helping incredible players monetize their talent. This mission was driven by both personal experiences and observations of a rapidly growing gaming industry. As a team made up of lifelong competitive players, we’ve witnessed firsthand how difficult it is to make a living in gaming.

Some background

When I left Groupon, I tried (and failed) to be a professional gamer. I was top 20 in the world for a year in Clash Royale. I was playing for 8 hours a day. When I lost a game, I’d write down who I lost to and what I could have done differently in a notebook. I’d spend hours streaming daily on Twitch and creating (terrible) Youtube videos.

Forerunner still invested after seeing this video, so I think we’re on to something here.

None of that mattered, I wasn’t making money. Competitive play made me feel alive. I wanted to make a living doing it but it wasn’t working.

I gave up. I went back to tech, tail between my legs.

When my kids fell in love with the Pokemon TCG, I hired one of the best players in the world to coach them. After a few weeks, I asked him if he was playing Pokemon for a living — he was only charging us $20/hr; the numbers didn’t add up.

No, I wish. I make $30k a year working in a warehouse.

That was it — the moment everything clicked into place. The more I talked to incredible players across different games, the more I saw the same pattern emerge. Skilled players struggle to monetize their talent, while entertaining players flourished.

How we’ll use the funds

I know exactly what you’re thinking. With this round of funding we could buy six thousand Playstation 5s. I’ve already pitched that, but nobody loved the idea as much as the US Air Force and I did. I tried, I’m sorry.

Instead, we’ll be using the funds to continue building a platform that enables the best players in the world to make a living doing the thing they love most; playing games. Today, that’s through 1:1 coaching, but we have a few more things coming down the pipeline in a couple months.

We’re particularly mindful of the challenges of turning great players into great teachers, given what we know about how people learn. I’ve wrote a bit more about that here.

We’re empowering gamers with the tools necessary to make a living on their terms. I‘m one of those gamers, so is Tom — I wish this existed when we most needed it.

No doubt, there’s a staggering amount of work ahead of us, and if I’m being honest — we’re so young that we don’t know what we don’t know yet. Securing this funding is the first step of a (hopefully) long journey, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share the journey with so many who want to see this crazy dream become a reality as badly as I do.

We envision a world where, no matter your game, Metafy is where you go to start winning more. In that world, we can do for talented players what the tech industry has done for developers.
Cairo Angels Partners EG Bank To Launch The Mint Incubator
By: Digital Times Africa
Tags: Accelerator, Egypt, Startup, Angel Investors, Funding

Cairo Angels, an angel investment network based in Egypt has joined forces with Egyptian Gulf (EG) Bank to launch the Mint incubator, a highly competitive three-month incubation programme, designed to accelerate the growth of product-ready startups who are ready to go into the market.

The Mint incubator will support businesses with “no strings attached”, zero equity and will not offer debt to the startups enrolled in the program. The selected startups will benefit from the tools to power their businesses, as well as office space at EG Bank’s co-working space, located in the heart of downtown Cairo.

MINT Incubator will also facilitate various networking sessions with key ecosystem stakeholders with each startup being paired with a top-class mentor to offer support and guidance throughout the program

Additionally, the program will include workshops will address key areas that accelerate the startup’s business while enhancing their technical know-how in sales & marketing, finance, accounting basics, growth hacking, legal and governance, branding, and much more.

“We have leveraged our know-how as active investors in startups to identify where startups need help and we have worked with EG Bank to bring in best in class partners, mentors and advisors to address these gaps head on,” says Cairo Angels’ Chairman Aly El Shalakany. “The programme is designed to give selected startups the best opportunity to accelerate their business and attract future funding,” he adds.

Suzanne Wardani, Head of Youth Banking at EG Bank emphasized the motivation to launch MINT Incubator is “to give startups access to the right tools to build great companies. Combining our resources with Cairo Angels, the programme will provide technical knowledge, expertise, networking opportunities and an inspiring environment to push selected startups to the next level”.

At the end of the incubation period, a demo day will be held where startups will pitch their businesses to regional investors.

The applications will remain open till the 8th of February. Applicants can submit an application here.
Funding Rates: December 05–11, 2020
Tags: Historical Data, English, Charts, Rate, Funding

In the spirit of complete transparency we continue to publish historical hourly funding data on a weekly basis. Here is the ninth set.

ETHUSD Perpetual

Dec 05–Dec 11, 2020 (time in UTC)

Dec 05–Dec 11, 2020 (time in UTC)

The funding rate is in floating point numeric format. A value at 0.00040000 implies a rate of 0.04% or 4 basis points.

The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.

BTCUSD Perpetual

Dec 05–Dec 11, 2020 (time in UTC)

Dec 05–Dec 11, 2020 (time in UTC)

The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.
Scott Sage, Co Founder of Crane Venture Partners | Q and A
By: Silicon Roundabout
Tags: Venture Capital, Entrepreneur, Startup, Founders, Funding

1. What inspired you to become a VC and was there a particular ‘lightbulb’ moment?

I didn’t go to Harvard, I’m not technical and I have a short attention span. Oh, and I’m from Texas. When I finished school, I wanted to figure out who I was and have life experiences. So I moved to London and had the opportunity to work at a big co for a year.. Thereafter, I was a nanny (I suppose one would say manny), worked in an antique shop, worked in A&R and haphazardly became a researcher and learned how to use MATLAB (I thought I had always hated math until I had a good teacher). This led me to a commercial role at a startup and the rest is history.

2. You describe Crane as a “thematic” investment firm, what does this mean?

We only invest into founders building enterprise companies. How can Crane support these founders if we’re generalists investing into D2C brands, food delivery or healthcare? We have a deep bench of investors and company builders who can help any one of our companies at any stage of their go-to-market. Now that European founders have a choice of who to take money from at the seed stage, we’ve found that they would rather partner with a specialist investor than the other options.

3. What particular DNA do you look for in a Founder/team?

Every team we have backed to date is deeply technical and has experienced the problem they have committed their working lives to solve. But, a lot of geniuses do not have the ability to build a system or architecture to enable their company to thrive. So we also look for founders who not only have a relentless drive to win through attracting the best talent and providing the most value to their customers, but they are humble. They can’t hog the limelight and they implicitly understand how important it is to build a team and let them shine.

4. Most seed funds invest in their core market plus maybe one other country. Why does Crane invest on a Pan European basis?

My co-founder Krishna and I invested in 7 European countries before we founded Crane. It was there that we witnessed a talent explosion. We love investing in places like Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Madrid, but London does have a dominant role to play in Europe. There are thousands of experienced people working in or around London for cloud companies or the largest global tech companies, not only in engineering, but in sales, marketing and ops. So it’s the easiest place to scale a business in Europe, but we see this changing as there are more exits across the Continent.

5. What advice do you have for younger VCs just starting their investing career?

Become indispensable to your team and to the founders you support through leveraging your own unique talent. Figure out what that is and sharpen it. Also, be patient. It takes years to master this craft. I passed the 10 year mark earlier this year and still have a lot of growing left. If you don’t wake up every single morning looking forward to working with founders, I highly suggest taking some time out to find yourself (or become a nanny).
Reliant Funding Supports the Wounded Warrior Project
By: Jaymie White
Tags: Funding, Wounded Warrior Project

In celebration of the National Veterans Small Business Week, Reliant Funding will donate $100 to the Wounded Warrior Project for every small business client funded in November. The money will be used in career counseling, mentorship and other programs services offered by the Project to veterans, their families and caregivers. In addition, Reliant will waive origination fees for veteran-owned firms through the end of this month.

https://suppliertynews.com/2020/12/14/reliant-funding-supports-the-wounded-warrior-project/
Pandemic Relief Funding for US Business
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Funding, Loans

Business Funding Program:

The benefits of the program: We are offering this program as a means of helping businesses that have been unable to get relief from government sources like the PPP grants and loans, as widely reported in the news. We custom tailor each of our funding to best suit your specific business needs.

Our goal is to provide funding options for your business that will promote sustainable growth over many years. Even if you missed the government PPP loans, you may still qualify for unsecured lines of credit at 0% interest or term loans for small business owners looking to start or grow their businesses.

What this means for you:

Business Technology Management, Inc could be a great option for you and your business if you need Capital Funding now. The process is simple and easy. Best of all, decisions are quick and you can possibly qualify based on your corporate credit, not your personal score. The only application requirement is a credit score of 500 or higher. To start with >>>> Schedule 15 Minute Meeting with our dedicated Funding Specialist, Erick Joier. And we will work with you hand in hand to custom tailor a funding option for your specific business needs >>>> https://meetings.hubspot.com/ej-joier

Regards,

BizTechMgt Crew

248.940.1100

www.biztechmgt.com

facebook.com/biztechmgtcom
Venture Capital Funding Hasn’t Just Recovered — It’s Booming
By: Frederik Bussler
Tags: VC, Investing, Venture Capital, Startup, Funding

Venture Capital Funding Hasn’t Just Recovered — It’s Booming

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Containment measures for COVID-19 plunged the world into a deep recession, with tens of millions of people losing their jobs.

However, Venture Capital funding survived much of the crash intact, down just 4% year-over-year in the first quarter, and down just 2% YoY in Q2. The second quarter already represented significant growth from March’s bottom, up 17 percent quarter over quarter.

The numbers for Q3 show that there’s indeed been a swift turnaround, as funding was up 9% YoY. Q3 was a “seven quarter high” in venture funding for US companies, and Q4 is on pace for significant YoY growth.

Figures by CrunchBase. Q1, Q2, Q3. Visualized by author.

Q4 — The Grand Finale

Venture capital runs the gamut from angel investments all the way to IPO, and there are a lot of exciting IPOs rounding out 2020, including Affirm, Airbnb, DoorDash, QuantumScape, Wish, Roblox, ThoughtSpot, UIPath, and C3.ai.

There’s a bunch more, and several will run into 2021, but in any case, there’s a lot of recent VC funding and deals in the pipeline.

Affirm is a $10 billion installment loans company that filed for IPO on October 8th, and is expected to list once the SEC completes its review.

QuantumScape is an Electric Vehicle battery company with exciting tech that supposedly surpasses Telsa — a rival whose stock is up over 10,000% all-time.

C3.ai is an AI solutions company that IPOd under the ticker $AI. Their products include AutoML, a niche within AI that’s growing even faster than the industry as a whole. While I haven’t worked with C3.ai in particular, I work with AutoML tools like Obviously.AI, which makes implementing AI orders of magnitude easier, so there’s a lot of potential.

Not Just a Recovery, an IPO Boom

The long line of IPOs may even rival the frenzy of the dot-com era, and become the biggest year ever for IPOs. A lot can change in the next month, but it’ll be a big year no matter what.

Globally, U.S. exchanges have made up 87% of IPO proceeds in Q3, according to the Global IPO trends: Q3 2020 report. In the first three quarters of 2020, well over 100 companies IPOd, including long-awaited giants like Palantir and Snowflake.

Summary

If you’re a startup looking for funding, quarterly financing data shows that now is an incredible time. You need look no further than Crunchbase or even Twitter to find countless startups raising capital.
Why we invested: Phasecraft
Tags: Quantum Computing, Starups, Venture Capital, Funding, Quantum

By Carina Namih

We are delighted to be backing Phasecraft in the largest seed funding round for a UK quantum computing company as they announce a new quantum algorithm breakthrough.

Phasecraft founding team: Toby Cubbit, John Morton, Ashley Montanaro

I’ve spent long enough working with emerging technologies to know just how rare it is for internationally renowned scientists at the very top of their field to step back from their academic career and instead focus decisively on real-world application of their research.

It is a bold move. And one that we at Episode1 are excited to back. Here’s why:

We are bumping up against the ceiling of Moore’s law. As classical computing chips reach physical limits, the exponential increases in computational power that we have been enjoying for decades will soon be a thing of the past.

If we want to tackle the complex challenges of our time — like better battery storage, more efficient solar cells, even new drug discovery — we could really do with the help of more powerful machines. Today, we could fill hundreds of football fields with classical computers, running for hundreds of years, and still not accurately predict exactly how a new drug molecule will behave.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Quantum computing could be the answer. This technology is perfectly suited to complex simulation and modelling.

Deep pocketed tech companies have poured resources into building the hardware: quantum computers. And they have made great strides in the last few years. Quantum machines are emerging with ever more power and stability. The critics who claimed that quantum would never move out of the theoretical realm have largely been silenced. And while there are still major challenges ahead, we can now see a way forward.

This quantum hardware, however, will be practically useless unless and until a quantum algorithm layer is developed.

Phasecraft is developing algorithms and software that push today’s quantum hardware beyond experimental demonstrations and towards useful applications. Their work could accelerate the application of quantum computers by years, if not decades.

The UK has long been home to the very best scientists and continues to sit at the top of global rankings for high impact research. The Phasecraft founders, Toby, Ashley and John, are among the best of them and have spent decades leading quantum research teams at UCL and University of Bristol.

Having founded a deep tech company and invested in many, I see in this team the unique combination of grit, vision, technical brilliance and practical good sense needed to build a pioneering company.

We are proud to be backing Phasecraft, alongside LocalGlobe, UCL Technology Fund and Parkwalk Advisors, as they break new ground in quantum software.

More information on their recent breakthrough here: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v13/s159

Further coverage: https://fortune.com/2020/12/10/u-k-tech-startup-quantum-computers-exotic-materials/
WE ARE PROVIDING THIRD PARTY COLLATERAL PAN INDIA.
By: Manjeet Singh
Tags: Third Party Collateral, Pan India, Third Party, Projects, Funding

WE ARE PROVIDING THIRD PARTY COLLATERAL PAN INDIA.

VALUE: 3 CR TO 30000 CR

TYPE: RESIDENTIAL / COMMERCIAL / INDUSTRIAL / AGRICULTURAL

LOAN SHARING BASIS: 50–50

Terms and conditions from collateral provider/owner side:

1. All induction charges in company will be bear by company only.

2. All Bank expenses will be bear by company only.

3. All traveling expenses will be bear by company only for collateral owner + 2 persons.

4. Half of the all above expenses, company can deduct from the disbursement amount.

Terms and conditions from Qolaris side:

1. Our commission will be 3% of the loan amount used by company.

2. Work will be start after the token fees of Rs. 11000 non refundable, further can be adjusted from our commission on disbursement.

3. We will provide clean title with complete owner KYC and Video of collateral and owner within 30 days of token.

4. Meeting will be done with collateral owner in our office only.

5. Loan arrangements will be done by you only.

6. We will give you collateral from pan India.

If Have the question from below list, we are the only Answer for you:

1. I have a high price property but no source of income. Wish I could generate some money out of my property.

2. I am master of my job. I want to pursue my own goal and does my own business have seed capital but how can I manage large capital for my business?

3. Bank rejected my application for loan citing that we don’t have regular income to repay the loan. How can we use our assets to have some cash for our commitments?

4. I have lots of real estate which is in shambles and not selling. Tired of the business cycles also. I would be more happy to be part of some good scalable business that generates regular income.

5. I have good running business and want to expand my business. My bank is asking for more security. How can I expand my business?.

6. I have just got a Big government order for road construction. I asked my bank for credit facilities & they are insisting security for the facilities.

7. My regular income is not sufficient. Can I generate some more income by utilizing my home while staying there. I don’t want cash flow in form of a mortgage loan.

8. I wish I could utilize my assets and be a part of big business that generates income and goodwill rather than non cash property appreciation.

9. Money from unorganized sources is costing a bomb. Bank is asking for security for the loan. How do I finish my movie project?

Thanks and regards

Manjeet Singh

CEO

Qolaris Solutions Pvt Ltd

+91- 8700237256

+91- 9811993953
Announcing Rally Ventures Fund IV
By: Rally Ventures
Tags: Enterprise Technology, Venture Capital, SaaS, Funding, Technology

We are excited to announce the close of Rally IV, a $250 million fund to invest in early-stage companies bringing innovative approaches to enterprise technology.

Rally had oversubscribed demand for this fourth fund, closing well above target, and bringing the firm’s total committed capital raised since inception to nearly $600 million. Rally closed its last fund of $150 million in 2018.

We’re proud to have the continued support of our existing limited partners and thrilled to be adding new investors with a long-term commitment to venture capital: a high-caliber group of endowments, foundations, family offices and corporate investors.
Funding Rates: November 28– December 04, 2020
Tags: Historical Data, English, Charts, Rate, Funding

In the spirit of complete transparency we continue to publish historical hourly funding data on a weekly basis. Here is the eighth set.

ETHUSD Perpetual

Nov 28–Dec 04, 2020 (time in UTC)

Nov 28–Dec 04, 2020 (time in UTC)

The funding rate is in floating point numeric format. A value at 0.00060000 implies a rate of 0.06% or 6 basis points.

The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.

BTCUSD Perpetual

Nov 28–Dec 04, 2020 (time in UTC)

Nov 28–Dec 04, 2020 (time in UTC)

The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.
Ethereum Push Notification Service Successfully Raises $750k USD in Seed Round 🌱
By: Harsh Rajat
Tags: Announcements, Decentralization, Blockchain, Funding, Ethereum

Genesis of “Missing Piece of Web3 Infrastructure”

Previous technology often follows a pattern which can be observed to find ways to address the pain points in upcoming technology. As Mark Twain puts it, History doesn’t repeat itself but often rhymes. We can learn a great deal from observing and, of course, being at the right place at the right time.

The genesis of the idea for EPNS occurred when we sat down to observe what, if any, pain points still existed among blockchain apps (dApps / smart contracts / services) that we could solve. We were quick to realize that something felt a bit odd, but took some time to realize that Web3 tech behaved a lot like the early days of the internet.

Think 2004ish when GMail was launched and changed inboxes forever. At that point of time, the internet was still growing and the services offered behaved exactly the same way they do in Web3 today. For instance, you as a user were expected to log in to your mailbox to check email, reply to friends / work and then come back to it later and rinse and repeat. If you were the trendy one back in those days then maybe you went to Myspace and Orkut as well! But no matter the service, you were always going back to check on your actions.

This drastically changed when Apple came up with notifications in 2010 (though Google might have invented them). All of a sudden, services began to reach out to users whenever an action was required from their end. It increased engagement rate 7x and massively improved user experience. Notifications have been so engraved into our lives now that we hardly realize most of our online actions are caused by them; think about it, whatsapp, facetime, emails, payments, games all inform you now. You don’t go back to them to see if something has happened.

Contrast this experience with any dApps, smart contracts or services you interact with on Web3. There’s no way to inform users (wallet addresses) any time an important event occurs. Instead, the user is assumed to go back to the service time and time again to check their activity.

For instance, Liquidation on AAVE, Compound or any DeFi, DAO Governance proposal (Yam!), or ENS / dEx orders. Each of these are a reality right now but no solution exists to address them and the problem will only worsen as more services come to Web3.

This was the moment that we realized that this stone age era of communication in blockchain needs to go. You are not foreclosed by your bank without proper notices that reach you, but DeFi — while enabling awesome use cases — does that to you. And we wanted to fix that.
Rihla Secured RM100 Thousand in Equity and Debt to Meet Demand and Help Domestic Travellers Save
By: Badzlan Bakar
Tags: Financing, Entrepreneurship, Hotel, Funding, Accommodations

Rihla, a Malaysia-based accommodation provider similar to Outsite and Starcity in the US, is now armed with RM100 thousand, mixture of equity and debt, is posed to enter the next phase.

Prior to this investment, the company was essentially bootstrapped and profitable since it was founded in Feb 2020 by the brothers duo, Badzrul (former CEO/COO) and Badzlan (then, advisor). Badzrul went on external assignment in the similar industry and Azam invited to become a partner, bringing his construction expertise into the fold taking the Chief Technical Officer role and Badzlan moved to CEO role.

The performance has been promising: for the first 8 months operation, operating profit is hovering at 24%. On month-to-month basis, revenue is growing at 26%, booking at 21% and revenue per booking at 3%. “We are doing very well despite of the pandemic. We can only imagine the opportunity in front of us once the pandemic is over”, said Badzlan.

The next phase will see the company growing its revenue through construction of new rooms and implementation of new tech to improve margin. “For the past few months, operational excellence is the key reason why we are doing very well in the market compared to other competitors. With the financing we will build our leadership in the market, growing our inventory,” Azam explained.

Set up as limited partnership entity, the team is expected to do another fundraising in early mid 2021 bringing in more investors and advisors to help the company succeed. “It is still super early in the journey, more to come”.
Our Investment in CodeSignal: Helping Companies Uncover the Best Technical Candidates
By: Menlo Ventures
Tags: Portfolio, Venture Capital, Future Of Work, Automation, Funding

JP Sanday, Partner at Menlo Ventures JP Sanday

The pandemic profoundly changed our world yet the need for diverse pools of qualified candidates remains the same. In fact, the accelerated shift to digital has led to a surge in demand for developer talent as companies bolster their digital capabilities to respond, recover and reimagine.

The employment of software engineers is projected to grow 22%, adding approximately 316,000 new jobs in the U.S. by 2029. To meet this demand, companies have been forced to cast the net wider than traditional pools of talent and rethink their recruitment processes.

CodeSignal, the most recent addition to the Menlo portfolio, helps companies reduce hundreds of hours of engineering and recruiting time by automating the technical screening and phone interview process to focus only on qualified candidates.

Through our research, we’ve come to learn that assessing candidates in the technical recruiting process is a very acute pain point shared by companies of all shapes and sizes. Technical talent is difficult to find and a challenge to retain. Engineering time is sacred and the current process of manually screening candidates with coding challenges given over the phone by engineers is not sustainable. With engineering talent in such high demand, there is a need to fill the roles quickly and at scale, so having the ability to review thousands of applicants to find the right candidates is crucial to achieving technical hiring goals.

CodeSignal allows talent acquisition professionals and engineering leaders to confidently go beyond resumes and make data-driven decisions based on a candidate’s skills, not just their educational background or resume. It’s effectively unlocking new pools of talent, which helps reduce bias and increase workplace diversity. CodeSignal’s product is gaining traction in companies across all verticals as well as the Fortune 500 including Brex, Databricks, Instacart, Robinhood, UpWork and Zoom. And rightly so. The significant momentum it’s experiencing coupled with a world-class product makes this a unique opportunity.

Behind every successful company is an amazing team. I have gotten to know Tigran Sloyan, CEO and co-founder, over the past year and have always come away impressed with his horsepower, hustle, strategic perspective, extreme curiosity and willingness to roll up his sleeves.

CodeSignal CEO Tigran Sloyan

We are excited to welcome Tigran and the entire CodeSignal team to the Menlo portfolio. We’re focused on pursuing companies with the potential to disrupt huge markets. CodeSignal certainly fits the bill.

The future of work and intelligent automation will continue to be an area of interest for us. CodeSignal is in good company alongside our other portfolio companies Aisera, Observe.AI, Matik and Anvil. If you are a founder of a company that’s defining the future of work, we’d love to hear from you.
Cubefunder — Supporting National Talent
Tags: Talent, Funding, Golf, Business Loans

“At Cubefunder we don’t only support businesses, we support talent.”

Cubefunder is an FCA Authorised Fintech lending platform providing affordable loans to SME customers.

However, at Cubefunder we don't only support businesses, we support national talent.

In partnership with Golfing4Life we have proudly sponsored national talents.

Golfing4Life is a non-profit organisation supporting the development of young golfers from underprivileged and challenging backgrounds. They provide support to help those overcome adversity and have a chance at changing their life through golf.

Cubefunder has been helping young Calum Fyfe, a rising home-grown British talent in golf, through Golfing4Life for the past 2 years.

With the support of Golfing4life, Cubefunder, and others, Calum has overcome many challenges to get to where he is and continues to defy the odds. His hard work and dedication paid off to secure his spot on the 2021 PGA EuroPro Tour.

Calum Fyfe.

We are also proud to announce our support to Lily May Humphreys.

Twenty amateurs have earned passage into the 75th U.S. Women’s Open Championship, which will be hosted by Champions Golf Club, in Houston, Texas, from December 10–13, 2020, among them our national star Lily May Humphreys.

Humphreys will make her U.S. Women’s Open debut thanks to being №17 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Humphreys was a member of the 2018 Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup Team and she represented Europe in the 2019 Junior Solheim Cup. This year, Lily was the runner-up in the English Women’s Amateur and finished third in the English Women’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship.

Lily May Humphreys.

It is a privilege for Cubefunder to support such unique young talents.
Rep. Malcom Kenyatta Addresses Need for Reimagining of Public Education Funds
By: Trey Fox
Tags: Politics, Funding, Pennsylvania, Education

In a recent virtual meeting, Temple University journalism students discussed several key socioeconomic issues with Pennsylvania State Representative Malcom Kenyatta — one of which addressed the need for changes in the public education system.

Photograph: Rep. Malcom Kenyatta|©Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Kenyatta, when asked about the failings of public education, proposed many promising measures needed to fix the broken system. Kenyatta began by suggesting that taxes be lowered and that residents should not pay the same in taxes as commercial businesses. “I don’t think that Comcast tower should pay the same percentage as your grandma. I think that’s just unfair.”

Kenyatta added that sky-high property taxes serve to limit individuals in terms of quality of life, which includes a poorly funded education system. He discussed the need for progressive taxation in Pennsylvania. Kenyatta believes that recurring streams of revenue, such as legalized marijuana, need to be used to support the funding of schools.

“We [Pennsylvania] are an older state per capita. We have a lot more people who are going to hit retirement age. And if we think we are going to get all the money that we need to fund our schools — out of the stone that is fixed income when people get a certain age — then we are lying to ourselves.”

Kenyatta addressed the need for nuance as it relates to public policy. He also discussed the waste of resources in the form of taxes regarding marijuana stops. While marijuana has become decriminalized, “If you look at the numbers, almost the same amount of people are getting stopped for having a bag of weed as before it was decriminalized.”

These measures are taxpayer resources that could potentially go towards public education, along with the revenue streams provided by legalized marijuana. Pennsylvania, in Kenyatta’s opinion, must become more creative in its policymaking strategy.
Angel Investors VS Venture Capitalists — Which One Is Right For You?
By: Dan Martell
Tags: Venture Capitalist, Investing, Startup, Angel Investors, Funding

How are angel investors different from venture capitalists?

Both invest in businesses. Both can write you big checks. Both have the power to help your business growth with a cash injection you otherwise would never get.

Are they the same?

Heck no.

I found this out the hard way…

When I was raising money for my 4th company Flowtown, I really didn’t know enough about investors.

I got some pretty weird looks when they read my terms sheets.

I didn’t understand their expectations. And all I had to go on were stories from colleagues, and a head full of wrong assumptions about what investors are looking for.

I started on the wrong foot. But eventually, I learned how to do it right…

So, when it was time to raise funds for my next business, Clarity.fm, I knew what the investors were looking for.

And I nailed it.

I closed $1.6M in funding…

…in 3 days!

It pays to know who you’re talking to and what they want. Trust me.

So I want to clear the air so you know the difference and you don’t raise money from the wrong people with the wrong expectations.

That’s what this week’s video is all about.

Exclusive Download: Fundraising Like a Pro — Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding

In this video, you’ll discover the difference between angel investors and venture capitalists down to 5 specific criteria:

Source of money Investment thesis Pitching style Check size Investment filter

By the way, I’m also an investor myself, having invested in 40+ companies.

But I am an angel investor, and not a venture capitalist.

Hit play on the video and let’s go over the differences.

P.S. Prefer audio? Subscribe to the Growth Stacking Show directly on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and make sure to leave a rating and review if you find the show helpful.

—

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get access to all my latest business hacks.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited three tech companies: Spheric, Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on Twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.