Green Energy Activist Cannon-Brookes Takes Aim at Major Polluters
Australian billionaire Michael Cannon-Brookes is continuing his climate crusade, planning to target a number of high polluting companies with weak plans to curb their emissions. Cannon-Brookes began with his own company, Atlassian, which achieved its goal of operating completely on renewable energy and intends on becoming a net-zero emissions firm by 2040. The change in operations has not come without cost to Cannon-Brookes, as his 22% stake in Atlassian has lost significant value over the past year. A recent win for his cause came when one of Australia's largest polluters, AGL, was forced to abandon a project that would have kept coal-fired power plants running for decades after joining their board. Cannon-Brooks acts in this manner across many business ventures, with his family office Grok Ventures backing a number of renewable energy companies including SunDrive Solar, Antora Energy and WeaveGrid.
Private Funding Pulse Check
Joonko, a recruiting software company, has closed on a $25M Series B round that included Oakland, CA-based Single-Family Office Kapor Capital
Frank McCourt's Family Office, McCourt LP has participated in a Venture funding round that totaled $27M for MeWe, a Next-Gen Social Networking platform
Taurus Multi-Family Office and Cathexis Holdings LP engaged in a Seed investment with Shipmates, a shipping platform for online business, totaling $2.2M
Greenoaks Capital Management took part in a $300M Series B deal with Mysten Labs, an infrastructure platform to accelerate web3 adoption
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Solutions Expect to Reach $680B by 2025
Over recent years, consumers have increasingly become more fond of the process of purchasing items and extending the cost over time. Formally called a "Buy Now, Pay Later" plan, the solution allows consumers to seek alternative methods of financing. Experts anticipate the industry to experience rapid growth, with forecasts predicting a CAGR of 13.23% from 2018 to 2025. BNPL options are still new to e-commerce transactions, which have grown 44.4% year-over-year since the pandemic. Companies that are most poised to take advantage of this emerging industry are direct providers of BNPL products, including Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna.
“The economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is pushing millions of consumers toward digital financing, and there are already signs that some companies will outcompete others and capture more of the market share. As e-commerce grows, so will the needs of the customers."
Insider Intelligence
Cathie Wood Buys the Dip Following Market Selloff
During the pandemonium of Tuesday's market selloff, caused by a higher than expected inflation report, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood was busy adding to her ARK ETFs. Wood and her team made a total of 27 purchases across eight ETFs, including Roku Inc. its largest buy, which is down 70% since January. The street has criticized the firm's largely underperforming funds including $ARKK which is down more than 55% this year. In a recent tweet from Woods, she stated "deflation is in the pipeline" and declining inflation pressures would provide a more optimal environment for equities.
“Her buys have gone down quite a bit after January but are starting moving up last few days. It just seems like her conviction is higher now...It seems like she is just walking the walk."
Athanasios Psarofagis, Bloomberg
KKR Opens PE Fund to Public Blockchain, Bypassing Institutions
Investment Management Company KKR & Co. has announced a new initiative, opening up a portion of one of its private equity funds to retail investors via the public blockchain. To facilitate these transactions, the company has partnered with Securitize, a San Francisco, CA-based digital alternative asset trading platform. In a conscious effort to source new capital, many private equity firms have been targeting high-net-worth individuals and families. This new "tokenized fund" will provide the opportunity for individuals to invest smaller amounts than typically required to gain exposure to these types of funds.
“When there’s something new, nobody wants to be the first one...KKR has been so far the most innovative in terms of making the decision to do this, and we hope that a lot of other asset managers will take note."
San Francisco, CA-based Perigon Wealth Management has announced a merger with New York RIA PM Wealth Management (FAIQ)
Curi Capital completes the acquisition of Park Ridge Asset Management, marking the group's second acquisition in the past year (Cision)
Sun Life announces it has acquired a majority stake in Advisors Asset Management (AAM), a leading independent U.S. retail distribution firm (IN)
Written by:
Andrew Popp | Data Research Associate
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