Not ever or anything, I don't think. No. This year.
...
Right. I'm not in the mood for blogging today. I wasn't in the mood yesterday either, so I walked to Richmond and back - even though I said I wouldn't be going on any more long walks to Richmond, or anywhere. Well, that was the last one, man. I enjoyed walking there, yes. I had my lunch on Richmond Hill with a beautiful view. Great! But walking back I started to get angry, real angry, asking myself: Why am I wasting my time like this? Do you know what I mean?
I'm going to make another fresh start where I cut all the stupid stuff out of my life. Maybe Monday.
Oh, I bought that Nightcrawler film for my phone - even though I said I wouldn't be buying any more films, and even though I've got it on DVD. (The DVD player on my TV is broken. I've got one on an old laptop.) I don't regret it though. I mean, I don't regret buying it again. I like watching films on my phone, you know? And Nightcrawler is a great film.
Anyway, I've got two reasonably interesting PR emails. I might only do one of them. I might write about music this afternoon.
I don't know what I'm going to write about, uh ... music. I might not bother. I might just stare at my laptop screen in silence, my new laptop, and then I'll post it. You can read my silence. But there will be nothing to read.
I just want to do music. Maybe I'll write about that, wanting. Actually, this should become a music blog. The only problem is, I'm stuck with Money is the way. I mean, I can't change the name of this blog, can I?
...
Yeah, anyway ...
Global deals activity in the fintech space remained strong during the first half of 2020, despite the lack of mega-mergers and acquisitions. The uncertainty related to The Thing crisis kept investors focused on late-stage companies, who managed to raise significant funds from their venture capital, private equity, and merger and acquisition deals.
Who is this?
According to data presented by StockApps.com, the three largest fintech deals in the first half of 2020 hit over $5bn value.
Oh, okay. Tell me more. Tell my readers more.
In March, Indonesia's ride-hailing, delivery and mobile payments company, Gojek, raised $1.2bn in fresh capital and increased its ongoing Series F round total to $3bn, the biggest fintech deal in the first half of 2020, revealed the KPMG Pulse of Fintech H1 2020 data.
The startup, which launched an app for hailing motorbike taxis in Jakarta five years ago, today offers a variety of other on-demand services, including medicine delivery and house cleaning. Gojek, whose backers include high-profile firms like Tencent Holdings Ltd., Google, Temasek Holdings Pte, Facebook, PayPal, and Visa, said it would use the capital to expand its operations, despite the turbulence caused by The Thing outbreak.
And the second largest?
In June, Open Lending and Nebula Acquisition Corporation completed their reverse merger deal, the second-largest fintech deal in the first half of 2020. The Austin-based provider of automated lending services to financial institutions used a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by True Wind Capital, L.P., to avoid the traditional IPO path and go public with a valuation of $1.3bn.
The Yahoo Finance data revealed the merged company's market cap, renamed to Open Lending Corporation (NASDAQ: LPRO), jumped by 85% in the last three months, growing from $1.39bn in June to $2.58bn in September.
Groovers? Probably not. I think there were only five of them.
And the third?
KPMG data show Stripe's latest funding round represents the third-largest fintech deal between January and June. In April, the San Francisco-based tech company raised $850 million in Series G funding from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors.
Okay, okay. That's enough. There's a bit more of this email, but that's enough. Don't you think?
...
I haven't done any hypnosis yet. Maybe after lunch. After my cheese sandwich. And I'm having pizza tonight, by the way.
Bye.
