Capital Gains: A Billion Dollar Round for Student Lending, Thrillist Splits Up and More

What happened in tech funding news this week? Reportedly the largest financial technology round ever plus growth rounds for Israeli data science, big e-commerce and media companies. Here’s what went down:

• Dutch payments technology company Adyen raised an undisclosed amount at a $2.3 billion valuation. The investment came from Iconiq Capital, the secretive money manager whose clients include Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman and other major Silicon Valley figures (Financial Times).
• SoFi, an online lending service that focuses on student loans, raised $1 billion this week in what Fortune’s Dan Primack suggested is the largest fintech funding ever. The round was led by SoftBank, and will go to help expand SoFi’s portfolio from mainly student loans to mortgages, auto loans and other types of financing (Fortune).
• Another consumer lending service, Avant, raised $325 million at a reported post-money valuation “in the ballpark” of $2 billion. General Atlantic led the round, and investors include J.P. Morgan, Tiger Global Management, August Capital, RRE Ventures and others (Fortune).
• Thumbtack, an online marketplace for freelance professionals (think house painters and fitness trainers), raised $125 million at a $1.3 billion valuation. The company was valued at around $750 million last year (New York Times).
• Coding education startup General Assembly raised $70 million in a new round led by Conde Nast proprietor Advance Publications, whose Internet strategy chairman Steven Newhouse is joining the General Assembly board. The company has raised $110 million in total funding (Wall Street Journal).
• Medium, the publishing platform founded by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, raised $57 million at a $400 million pre-money valuation. What’s it going to spend the money on? New features, an app and other projects that the company will talk more about at an event on Wednesday.
• Acquia, a Boston-based company that provides cloud services and data management for businesses that use the Drupal content management system, raised $55 million from Centerview Capital Technology, NEA and Split Rock Partners (VentureBeat).
• One of Thrillist’s selling points has long been that it houses a media business and an e-commerce business that complement one another. This week that ended: Thrillist-JackThreads raised $54 million and said the two companies are splitting up, as the latter tries to turn around its money-losing ways.
• After gutting a bunch of its business from a 2011 merger, programmatic ad platform PulsePoint raised $30 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, most of which will be used for near-term acquisitions (AdExchanger).
• Walker & Company Brands, a startup focused on selling health and beauty products to people of color, raised $24 million in a Series B round led by Institutional Venture Partners. The company also announced that it’s going to start selling stuff from its flagship Bevel brand in Target stores.
• Israeli IT support company BigPanda netted $16 million in a new round led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Mayfield Fund. This gives the company $25 million in funding since it launched in 2012 (Globes).
• Credible, an online marketplace for student lenders and borrowers, raised $10 millionin a Series A funding round. The company raised a $2.7 million seed round earlier this year.

This is how sub-Saharan Africa will cash in on its youth

At a time when population growth is slowing across the globe, sub-Saharan Af­rica’s (SSA) population will more than double to two billion by 2050. The vast majority of this population will be young: In 10 years, the region will be home to around a quarter of the global population aged 24 and younger.

To capitalize on its youthful populace and boost economic growth across the region there will need to be strong and sustainable job creation to match the demographic boom. But there’s work to be done: between 2000 and 2008 Africa created 73 million jobs, but only 16 million for young people.

Surely, this would be a challenge for any economy, but the charge stands even taller for a regional labor market that is already struggling to absorb workers into formal employment. Currently, an overwhelming majority of workers are either self-employed or work unpaid for their families. And the need for job creation is particularly crucial for Africa’s youth—they comprise around 60 percent of Africa’s unemployed, compared to a 44 percent global average.

But while Africa’s potential labor force is hefty and growing, big parts of the workforce remain unskilled, and there is a need for more colleges and technical schools to generate those skills. According to the World Bank, about two-thirds of all young workers in the sub-Saharan labor market—95 million people—lack the basic skills needed to be competitive. What’s more, unemployment rates for graduates are often high. In Nigeria, the graduate unemployment rate is 23.1 percent, and in Kenya, it can take up to five years for a graduate to secure relevant employment.

It’s easy to lambast ed­ucation that does not develop employable skills, and it’s true that one part of the problem is a lack of effective and widespread technical instruction. But there is also a gap in the data and available tools that might better pair skilled workers with those jobs that need their labor. Plainly, Africa needs a closer dialogue between schools and industry to optimize the demand and supply of skills.

The right strategy for Africa will address these weaknesses and make the investments today that strengthen the foundation for jobs of tomorrow. This strategy should rest on three tenets:

1. Education: Efforts to strengthen the education system should steer more student towards STEM subjects, increase funding for technical and vocational colleges, and improve ties between industry and labor.

2. Openness and localization: Policymakers should focus on creating a level playing field, eliminating regulatory burdens and streamlining administrative procedures. Further, allowing freer movement for skilled foreign workers can make it easier for companies—both domestic and foreign—to establish themselves and rapidly hire African nationals.

3. Enabling the Future of Work: Tenets 1 and 2 are needed to boost already established industries and to help broaden manufacturing capacity to extend the region’s industrial base. And with technology spurring rapid innovations across industry, government policy should encourage the rapid blend of digital and physical technologies—this could set the stage for sub-Saharan Africa to leapfrog outmoded industrialization models and surpass global competitors.

There is no industry more poised for future improvement than Africa’s healthcare sector. In a survey of over 110 African and Middle Eastern leaders, 77% of respondents rated “education and training to improve skills and increase capacity” as the single most important investment to im­prove national healthcare. The skills gap in leadership and management is particularly acute, but there’s room to foster clinical and technical training, as well as in the IT and e-health fields.

Since 2013, GE Healthcare has led over 25 Ministry of Health and regional leadership teams through its Leadership, Inno­vation, and Strategy (LIS) program. The curriculum focuses on improving the patient experience, designing strat­egy in uncertain times, innovation, and healthcare leadership development, drawing material from leading universities and healthcare institutions as well as GE Crotonville.

The educational innovations seeking to narrow the skills gap leverage the same robust entrepreneurial spirit that’s bloomed throughout the host of technology hubs in the region. The sub-Saharan’s youthful glow and enthusiastic dynamism will define Africa’s future, but their collective talents cannot go to waste; governments should continue to invest more in education and skills development. But the private sector can help, and GE stands strong in its ongoing commitment to doing more to help build African human capital.

Behind the arrest of a Nigerian ex-minister in London is a maturing Nigerian president

For some Nigerians, there’s an inevitable feeling of deja-vu about their country’s former petroleum minister, Diezeani Allison-Madueke, being arrested in London on charges of money laundering.

That’s because in 1984, under the rule of current president Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian government tried and failed to abduct another former cabinet minister, Umaru Dikko, in London. Dikko had been accused of looting as much as $1 billion.

BBC World Service retold the caper in 2012:

On a summer’s day, Mr Dikko walked out of his front door in an upmarket neighbourhood of Bayswater in London. Within seconds he had been grabbed by two men and bundled into the back of a transit van.

“I remember the very violent way in which I was grabbed and hurled into a van, with a huge fellow sitting on my head – and the way in which they immediately put on me handcuffs and chains on my legs,” he told the BBC a year later.

Labelled “Nigeria’s most wanted man,” a plot was hatched to get both him and the money back.

The extraordinary plan was to kidnap Mr Dikko, drug him, stick him into a specially made crate and put him on a plane back to Nigeria – alive.

The messy incident involving ex-Mossad Israeli operatives, a brave British customs officer, and a major diplomatic fall-out with Britain, shows just how much the ruling Buhari has learned about the importance of soft power and diplomacy over the past three decades.

At that time, president Buhari was a 42-year-old, no-nonsense, rigid military dictator and strict disciplinarian.

While Buhari has retained a strict, no-nonsense approach to leadership (one that is sometimes considered too slow), he also appears to have become a team player when it serves his interests—for example, at his inauguration in May when he talked about working with Nigeria’s border nations in the battle against the Islamic insurgents Boko Haram.

Now, Buhari is targeting Allison-Madueke as part of his election pledge to hold senior government officials accountable for corruption. Allison-Madueke is at the center of a missing $20 billion oil scandal; the country’s central bank, along with other independent investigations, have flagged the national oil company’s suspect accounting on her watch.

Whereas in the Dikko case Buhari ran into trouble with the British government for attempting to abduct a resident on its territory without warning, this time Buhari appears to have been working closing with British authorities before Allison-Madueke’s arrest; The raiding of her home in Abuja by local anti-graft agents appeared to be synced with her arrest in London.

And it was a newly formed International Corruption Unit of UK’s National Crime Agency that made the arrests of five people (including Allison-Madueke) connected to the case. Those arrests came after concerted efforts by Buhari to pressure Western governments and financial institutions to help combat money laundering and recover misappropriated funds from corrupt regimes, particularly in African countries.

Buhari’s government will need the continued support of international heavyweights like Britain and the US to prove his resolve in eradicating corruption in Nigeria. Unlike in 1984, he now has the democratic support of the majority of Nigerians, which Western governments like Britain can feel more comfortable standing behind.

Photos of The most beautiful beer bottles in the world

Harvey Shepard does not just gulp down his beer. The graphic designer and blogger has been captivated by beer bottle graphics, labels, caps and cans since long before he was old enough to drink. It all began when he spotted a Coors bottle shaped like a baseball bat in a grocery store as a kid. “I was flabbergasted. I had never seen anything like it and just had to have it,” says Shepard who was also obsessed with baseball at the time. “After convincing my mother that I would never open it, she begrudgingly bought it for me. It still sits (unopened) at my parents’ house,” he tells Quartz.

Shepard has since crafted a life around beer. Six years ago, he and his wife traveled across the US and sought out jobs based on craft beer destinations. Moving every few months, they managed to visit 160 breweries in 20 states, as well as a few abroad. They’re now settled in the legendary Ballard neighborhood in Seattle, happily surrounded by nine breweries within walking distance.

In their new house, Shepard can harbor his growing collection of empty beer bottles, too beautiful to discard. But he admits he faces a problem with displaying his finds: “I can’t seem to find a way to present them without it looking like a college dorm room,” he says. “I haven’t accepted that I need to put in the recycling bin.”

Shepard has poured his connoisseurship into a new book, Oh Beautiful Beer: The Evolution of Craft Beer and Design. It’s a 200-page illustrated history of the art of beer packaging. From witty to weird to sublime, Shepard has compiled an impressive collection, with special attention to the the oft-overlooked details of a well-designed bottle.

Here are some of Shepard’s favorites, with his design notes excerpted from the book:

San Francisco, California: Gangster brew and sneaky eyes

The visual brand of San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales & Lagers captures the spirit of this remarkable time in America’s history. Their packaging centers around the central characters of the speakeasy scene, including crime bosses, flappers, jazz singers, and the police.

Ellon, Scotland: Taxidermy beer

In 2010, Scotland’s BrewDog grabbed headlines by releasing the highest alcohol content beer on record—and they put it in roadkill. Seven stoats and four grey squirrels, if we want to be precise. Aside from weighing in at 55% ABV, this freeze-distilled Belgian blond ale also set the record for the highest-priced beer at about $750 per bottle.

Copenhagen, Denmark: Labels that change over time

In 2012, famed collaborator Mikkeller worked with Swedish design firm Bedow for four seasonal releases. The labels for each limited-edition beer were printed with heat-sensitive ink, such that the labels’ scenes change as the bottles get warmer. For the Pale Spring Ale, the snowflake turns into a sun; the Wild Winter Ale shows an apple tree losing its leaves.

Vancouver, Canada: Peel-off patches

In honor of 2013 British Columbia Craft Beer Month, R&B Brewing, Brassneck Brewery, Red Truck Brewing, Main Street Brewing, and 33 Acres Brewing gathered for a special collaboration. Like a scout troop these five breweries set out into the wilderness collecting fresh spruce tips for their brew. Celebrants of BC Craft Beer Month were also able to earn this badge.The label easily peels off as a keepsake.

Stockholm, Sweden: Bottles without a brand name

There are a few things you assume every beer label will contain: brewery name, brewery logo and the name of the beer. Karl Grandin made a lot of distributors sweat by throwing all of these out the window on the way to creating a wonderfully bizarre, and oddly cohesive, collection of labels.

LEASING BANK GUARANTEES USD/EURO 5 M +

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QUESTION: WILL THE TERMS OF ISSUING AND PROVIDING REMAIN THE SAME, OR CAN THERE BE CHANGES?
Answer: This is not a regular banking service. The market of providing financial instruments is constantly on the move and we try to obtain best possible terms at any time. So you must be aware that an indication provided today might not be valid and available tomorrow.

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QUESTION: WHAT IS AN SBLC OR A BANK GUARANTEE?
Answer: An SBLC is a Stand By Letter of Credit. A BG is a Bank Guarantee instrument. It has nothing to do with the classical documentary Letter of Credit, which is used for international trading of commodities. An SBLC is the USA format of the well known Bank Guarantee (BG). The SWIFT message type (MT) is SWIFT MT799 for a pre-advice message and SWIFT MT760 for the actual guarantee instrument transmission.

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QUESTION: HOW IS AN SBLC OR BANK GUARANTEE USED?
Answer: SBLC’s (and BG’s) can be used to enhance your ability to apply for a line of credit with your bank; in other words, it can be used as collateral when your bank is asking for additional comfort when you ask them to fund your project.

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QUESTION: WHAT IS THE TYPICAL VALIDITY PERIOD OF AN SBLC/BG?
Answer: The SBLC/BG is generally issued for 1 year and 1 day (With the option of Rolls and Extension), but can easily be extended up to 5 years, sometimes longer. Once issued the SBLC is transferred to your bank via the SWIFT protocol MT760.

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QUESTION: WHAT ARE BASIC CRITERIA FOR AVAILING AN SBLC OR A BANK GUARANTEE?
Answer: To successfully apply for an SBLC you need to be aware of four vital points: You need to have a good project, You need to have a bank funding your project based on the supporting collateral, You need to have the money to pay for the leasing of the Bank Guarantee or SBLC, You need to have a realistic exit strategy to repay the loan and return the SBLC at the end of the term, or renew the instrument, year after year.

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QUESTION: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN APPLYING IF MY BANK IS AWARE OF THE LEASING TRANSACTION OR NOT?
Answer: YES, you have to provide an RWA that is bank endorsed indicating that the SWIFT and bank fees are blocked in your account. If your bank is not aware of your transaction, and you cannot come up with a bank endorsed RWA, then you will have to pay a USD/EUR 5,000.00 processing fee, after application and following invoice. This fee will be credited towards a commission payment that will be due after you followed through with the transaction and your relevant obligations.

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QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY ADVANCE FEES?
Answer: The SWIFT and bank arrangement fees will have to be placed directly with the provider and paid into an account as nominated by the provider after executed contracts and before the SWIFT MT799/760 is sent to your receiving bank. This is fully refundable and credited towards your annual leasing fees.

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QUESTION: WHY SHOULD I PAY FOR SWIFT AND BANK ARRANGEMENT FEES?
Answer: Once you have signed the contract with the provider, and the provider accepted you as a potential client and countersigned the contract, you will receive the provider’s corporate refund undertaking and the invoice for the SWIFT and bank arrangement fees are due to be paid. This fee is refundable and will be credited towards the annual leasing fees. As soon as your payment reaches the provider’s designated account, he will block his cash funds or assets for your transaction and applies for delivery of the SWIFT MT799 and MT760 to your bank. The provider will block his cash or assets for your transaction, once you have paid for the arrangements. You will pay for the actual leasing fees only after receipt and verification of the SWIFT MT760 through your own bank within 7 banking days.

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QUESTION: WHAT ARE THESE SWIFT AND BANK ARRANGEMENT FEES?
Answer: Depending upon the size of your transaction, these SWIFT and bank arrangement fees apply:
USD/EURO 10M TO 49M USD/EURO 50,000.00
USD/EURO 50M TO 99M USD/EURO 70,000.00
USD/EURO 100M TO 199M USD/EURO 100,000.00
USD/EURO 200M TO 499M USD/EURO 200,000.00

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QUESTION: WHEN AND TO WHOM DO I HAVE TO PAY THESE SWIFT AND BANK ARRANGEMENT FEES?
Answer: SWIFT and bank arrangement fees have to be placed directly with the provider into his nominated account. The fees are refundable once the client followed through with payment of the yearly leasing fees

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QUESTION: WHICH FEES ARE INVOLVED IN THIS LEASING TRANSACTION OF USD/EUR 5 M TO USD/EUR 250M?
Answer: The Processing Fee – which is only relevant, if your bank does not confirm that you have the SWIFT and bank arrangement fees ready
The SWIFT and bank arrangement fees – which are relevant in any transaction of less than USD 250 million. These fees will have to be placed with the provider and paid into an account nominated by the provider after contract, refund undertaking and invoice, but before the SWIFT MT799/760 is sent to your receiving bank.
The annual leasing fees and broker commission – This is 6% (leasing fee) and 2% (broker commission) which will have to be paid within 21 banking days of receipt of the financial instrument at your receiving bank and verification by your bank.

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QUESTION: WHAT RECOURSE IS AVAILABLE IF AFTER REMITTING THE SWIFT AND BANK FEES, THE INSTRUMENT IS NOT ISSUED?  IS THIS CONCERN COVERED IN THE CONTRACT BETWEEN THE BORROWER AND THE PROVIDER?
Answer: YES, it is covered in the contract and there is a Corporate Refund Undertaking which spells out the refund in the event the instrument is not issued in line with the contract. Also, there is a 1% penalty payment in the event of default on the contract terms, also if the default is on the side of the provider.

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QUESTION: DO YOU STILL LEASE INSTRUMENTS AT $5M LEVEL OR HAS YOUR Q&A SECTION NOT BE UPDATED?
Answer: Instruments can still be leased at USD/EUR 5,000,000 but in that case the provider will have to combine several transactions, which could possibly result in a slightly longer processing period.

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QUESTION: IF THE SWIFT AND BANK FEES ARE TO BE REFUNDED, WHY MAKE THE APPLICANT PAY IT UPFRONT?
Answer: Because these are costs that occur and have to be paid to conduct the transaction of the client. Why should the provider have to advance these fee payments for the client who is the ultimate beneficiary of the service? Would the client’s own bank send a (any) SWIFT message for the client, if the client’s account is not in funds for them to deduct the transmission fees right away?

We provide BG/SBLC, DLC and performance or payment guarantees for your import and export activities.

We provide BG/SBLC, DLC and performance or payment guarantees for your import and export activities. The amounts range from USD/EUR 500,000 to USD/EUR 10 Billion. For issuing these instruments, we do not ask you for a collateral, an escrow deposit, or any such money that may affect your cash flow.

Issuing fees for LC, BG or SBLC for trade finance purposes are provided upon request because fees depend upon the amount, duration and banking costs.
Our procedures for issuing trade finance instruments are as follows:

1. Client completes application form (provided on request)
2. WE send the first draft of the LC, BG or SBLC, payment or performance guarantee
3. Client reviews the draft in consultation with the beneficiary (i.e. receiver or seller)
4. Client requests changes or modifications (if any).
5. Client receives revised draft and repeats step 3
6. Client provides us with the following:

• Signed and approved copy of the final draft for issuance
• Client Information Sheet (CIS)
• Passport copy of the authorized signatory of client’s company
• Agreement signed by the authorized signatory

7. Provider receives required issuance fees against a commercial invoice
8. Instrument is issued to the receiving bank per wording as approved by the client
9. Client receives swift copy of the issued instrument.

Should you have the need for trade finance instruments without stressing your cash flow, bank facility or even when your bank becomes uncooperative, let us know and we will start the process immediately.

Any questions? Please send an email. I need you to have total clarity!

CREDIT ENHANCEMENT

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QUESTION: WHAT IS CREDIT ENHANCEMENT?

Answer: Credit Enhancement is a method whereby a company attempts to improve its debt or credit worthiness. Through credit enhancement, the lender is provided with reassurance that the borrower will honor the obligation through additional collateral, insurance, or a third party guarantee. Credit enhancement reduces credit/default risk of a debt, thereby increasing the overall credit rating and lowering interest rates.

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QUESTION: WHAT PURPOSE DOES A LEASED INSTRUMENT, WHICH IS NOT CALLABLE, SERVE?

Answer: You are leasing an instrument on the basis that the instrument is not called, even though it legally could be called, but you lease it for your own credit enhancement. You can not seriously expect that a 4% leased instrument will actually be available to pay for your eventual debts of up to the face value of the leased instrument.

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QUESTION: HOW IS CREDIT ENHANCEMENT APPLIED?

Answer: Credit enhancement is used to obtain better terms for an outstanding debt. Securitization, posting collateral and obtaining external credit enhancement such as a letter of credit are some basic forms of credit enhancement. Firms may also increase cash reserves or take other internal measures to uphold superior solvency ratios.

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QUESTION: WHAT IS A CREDIT ENHANCEMENT INSTRUMENT?

Answer: A leased instrument that can be a powerful business tool when used for enhancement purposes, to enhance your credit position with your bankers (or at your supplier’s bank), or to improve your balance sheet. All the securities should be callable, assignable, fully transferable and lien capable. Only a solid financial standing of the applicant/client and a proper legal structure can build the required framework to achieve this.

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QUESTION: WILL THE PROVIDER PAY FOR MAY DEBTS IF THE INSTRUMENT IS CALLED?

Answer: Think about it, the majority of bank instruments are for an amount of USD/EURO 100M and more, and are owned by the most affluent individuals in the world. Do you really think they would allow you to use it as collateral for risky transactions, all for just a 5-10% fee per year? No, that would be ignorant, and not worth the risk. Any transaction is structured in the way that YOU ORDER A SWIFT and the provider arranges that SWIFT MESSAGE as ordered by you. You will end up having to pay for your debts yourself.

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QUESTION: IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT BANKS DON’T LIKE LEASED BGS. IS THAT THE CASE AND WHY? WHAT MAKES YOURS ACCEPTABLE AS COLLATERAL?

Answer: We do not provide any sort of education on how you should use Bank Guarantees and SBLCs for your credit enhancement. On this subject, please consult with your own banker. Your bank will have to provide you with a credit line and agree to fund your project or business once a Bank Guarantee or Standby Letter of Credit has been advised to your receiving account via SWIFT MT799 andMT760, issued by a major world bank.