The startups betting on Airbnbs and NFTs

One such startup is New York-based LEX, which acts as a securities broker and helps commercial buildings do a public offering of shares that any investor can buy and sell on the LEX platform. Another is Miami-based Here, which offers a marketplace of securities backed by existing vacation rental properties. And then there is Toronto-based Vesta Equity, which lets homeowners tokenize and sell portions of their home equity as real estate-backed NFTs packaged as securities. All have launched within the last four months. 

While all these companies tout the same mission of opening up the asset class to wider access, market insiders and investors aren’t sure this strategy is the best idea for the market, or the underlying users. 

Clelia Warburg Peters, a longtime property tech investor and founder of Era Ventures, questions whether the average investor is really prepared to tackle real estate’s nuances and wonders what problem these companies are really solving. Retail investors already can invest in real estate through real estate investment trusts (REITs), and many don’t. 

“The level of education in the public even around holding REITs is pretty low,” Warburg Peters tells Forbes. “This is literally exposure to a direct asset or a pooled vehicle of private assets. There is both education needed and risk.” 

But so far, there is some demand for these startups. LEX now counts more than 12,000 users and 1,600 broker accounts and says commercial landlords are showing strong interest. Here launches Tuesday and says it has 20,000 people waiting for access. Vesta Equity, currently available only to accredited investors, plans to open to nonaccredited investors within the next year.

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— One of the biggest negatives of the rise of cryptocurrency is how enormous its carbon footprint is and how damaging the mining and trading of tokens is to the environment. Blockchain-focused venture capital firm CoinFund is launching a new initiative with financial services company Apex Group and carbon-removal startup Nori that aims to offset its carbon emissions from the sector. 

— KPS Capital Partners agreed to buy Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope for about $3.45 billion in cash, taking control of the building products company from London construction giant CRH. Based in Dallas, Oldcastle specializes in glass, glazing and aluminum framing products. KPS is a frequent investor in the manufacturing and industrials sectors.

— Three-letter listings in Hong Kong are all the rage. FWD, an upstart insurance power in Asia led by billionaire Richard Li, filed on Monday for an IPO in the city. And NIO, an electric vehicle maker that’s already listed in the U.S., said it plans to conduct a secondary listing in Hong Kong, a move that can perhaps be traced back to China’s 2021 crackdown on foreign IPOs. 

— Micromobility investing experienced a resurgence last week. On Thursday, Brooklyn-based Revel announced a $126 billion Series B round led by BlackRock Renewable Power for its electric moped scooters. On Friday, Singapore-based Beam raised $93 million for its electric scooters in a round led by Affirma Capital. Prior to last week, it had been a long time since we saw excitement about this once-hot sector.  

— “Sweet Caroline” has a new owner. Universal Music Group said it has acquired full rights to Neil Diamond’s entire song catalog, making Diamond the latest major songwriter and performer to cash in on a life’s work. The deal also includes 110 unreleased songs and an unreleased album. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

— Zendesk’s proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of Momentive Global is dead after Zendesk shareholders voted resoundingly to abandon it. Some 90% of the votes cast were against the purchase of Momentive, best known as the parent of SurveyMonkey. Activist investors on both sides had voiced their opposition since the would-be deal was announced in October.

— HearHere raised $3.2 million for its immersive storytelling app in a seed round led by Camping World. The startup lets users link their GPS location to the app and provides them with audio stories about the people, land and history of the places they drive through. 

— A recent flurry of acquisition activity continues in the buy-now, pay-later market, as Australia’s Zip agreed to buy U.S.-based rival Sezzle for A$491 million (about $356 million). The move comes as major consumer credit companies like Equifax and Experian have begun including the popular installment loans provided by such companies in their credit reports.

— A subsidiary of Indian biopharmaceutical specialist Biocon will pay as much as $3.35 billion to buy the biosimilars business of Viatris. Based in Pennsylvania, Viatris is a pharmaceutical company formed in late 2020 through the merger of Mylan and Upjohn, the latter of which was formerly a division of Pfizer. Biocon’s upfront payment will comprise $3 billion in cash and stock

Swiftarc Ventures will consider only women candidates for the four to six roles it plans to fill in 2022. The firm says this will help balance its gender breakdown, but to some this might just feel like a marketing ploy. (Fortune) 

Americans have been job-hopping like never before during the pandemic, which means we’re in the golden age of the farewell email. (Wall Street Journal)

Katherine Wu is leaving Coinbase Ventures after less than six months, saying it wasn’t the right fit. She’s the latest investor—so far, they’ve all been women—to leave a larger established crypto firm for an upstart. (TechCrunch) 

A detailed look at the developing standoff between the Russian government and America’s social media giants. (Recode)

London-based Atomico, arguably one of the most notable homegrown U.K. venture firms, just fired one of its top investors after complaints from staff about his management style. (Forbes)

At JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon appears to be preparing a major push into the private markets. (CNBC)

From relocating employees to working from bomb shelters, Ukrainian tech startups are struggling to keep their staff safe as Russia invades. (Forbes)