CoinShares Exercises Option to Acquire Valkyrie Funds

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Near Foundation To Reduce Workforce By 40%

2) Taki Brings Play-to-Earn Mobile Games to Polygon

3) CoinShares Exercises Option to Acquire Valkyrie Funds

4) Rivero Raises $7 Million to Expand Payment Automation Offering

5) Pier Banks $2.4M to Launch ‘Stripe for Credit’

Near Foundation To Reduce Workforce By 40%:

• Near Foundation, a non-profit organization, has announced a 40% workforce reduction, affecting around 35 employees, primarily in marketing, business development, and community teams.

• The decision follows a review that highlighted inefficiencies in the foundation's operations, with CEO Illia Polosukhin stating the need to focus on a narrower set of high-impact activities.

• Despite the staff cuts, part of a long-term decentralization effort, the Near Foundation's treasury remains strong with substantial assets. The Near Protocol continues to show strong performance and usage, boasting 7 million monthly active accounts and over 2 million daily transactions.

Taki Brings Play-to-Earn Mobile Games to Polygon:

• Taki Games, formerly a crypto-powered social app on Solana, has merged with blockchain studio Unite and acquired mobile games, pivoting to focus on play-to-earn experiences on the Polygon network.

• The company, led by new CEO Weiwei Geng (former CEO of Unite), has acquired mobile games Bored Button and Mom’s Kitchen, and plans to launch its native TAKI token on Polygon with a deflationary token rewards model named "Takinomics."

• Taki Games aims to revolutionize Web3 gaming by offering value to players through its play-to-earn model and token rewards for gameplay. The TAKI token is already being implemented across the company's 11 mobile games and is part of a broader strategy to grow in Web3 gaming, with plans to expand across more blockchain networks.

CoinShares Exercises Option to Acquire Valkyrie Funds:

• CoinShares, an investment firm, has exercised its option to acquire Valkyrie Funds following the SEC approval and trading debut of Valkyrie's spot bitcoin ETF.

• The acquisition is part of CoinShares' strategy to extend its success to the U.S. market, offering American investors access to regulated digital asset products. CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti emphasized the firm's ambition to be a global leader in the digital asset space.

• CoinShares anticipates that its assets under management will increase by $110 million with this acquisition, adding to its current $4.5 billion. However, Valkyrie's spot bitcoin ETF was one of the lower performers among newly debuted ETFs in terms of trading volume.

Rivero Raises $7 Million to Expand Payment Automation Offering:

• Swiss FinTech company Rivero, specializing in the digitization and automation of payment processes, has raised $7 million in a Series A funding round to expand into new markets and enhance product and workforce development.

• Rivero offers two SaaS products, Kajo for payment scheme compliance and Amiko for fraud recovery and dispute management, aiming to simplify operations in the highly regulated payments industry.

• Despite a decline in investment for European startups and FinTechs in the previous year, Rivero's successful funding round reflects the growing interest in payment automation solutions, which are expected to bring cost savings, enhanced cash flow, and faster, more reliable payment processes to businesses.

Pier Banks $2.4M to Launch ‘Stripe for Credit’:

• Jessica Zhang and Alex Hegevall Clarke, previously at Stilt, founded Pier to address the costly and complex process of adapting credit industry tech stacks to meet federal and state regulations. Pier aims to automate credit products for businesses, offering a 'Stripe for credit' solution.

• Pier's technology simplifies credit lifecycle management, including origination, underwriting, compliance, and servicing, through easy integration of its APIs. This contrasts with other solutions that focus on specific lifecycle components.

• The company operates on a SaaS model, charging monthly fees based on loan volume and use cases. Having recently raised $2.4 million in seed funding, Pier plans to use the capital for product development and team expansion, despite not disclosing user numbers or revenue growth.

NoRamp:

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