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Aspen Digital Launches Inaugural Web 3 Investment Summit for Traditional Private Wealth Investors

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Aspen Digital Launches Inaugural Web 3 Investment Summit for Traditional Private Wealth Investors

Aspen Digital, a full-service digital asset management platform serving family offices and high-net-worth individuals, has announced the inaugural  Web 3 Investment Summit, the first of its kind  digital asset summit that brings together  private wealth  investors, entrepreneurs and industry leaders from the traditional finance and Web 3 industries from around the world

The upcoming summit is expected to attract over 2000 physical and virtual attendees and will be  hosted on March 20 2023 at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. Christopher Hui, GBS, JP, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury has been confirmed as keynote speaker at the Summit.

Sponsored by InvestHK, Summer Capital, Emperor Wealth Management and FOMO Asia, Web 3 Investment Summit will see a lineup of exceptional speakers taking the stage from Invest Hong Kong, J Rothschilds Capital Management, Pacific Hawk Asset Management, UBS, Emperor Group, CSOP, KPMG, HKEX, Hashkey, Dapper Labs, Merkle Science and Lukka.

Allen Ng, CEO of Everest Ventures Group, partner of Web 3 Investment Summit said, “The Web 3 Investment Summit will offer some unique perspectives within the digital asset sector where the content and speakers are focusing on a much more traditional view on allocating to the space. This is especially important given Hong Kong’s latest stance and its development towards becoming an international digital assets hub. It also offers the opportunity for family offices and private wealth investors to directly interact with founders of leading digital asset companies, funds and products.

Typically, summits and conferences in the sector have been crypto-native, so the Web 3 Investment Summit serves an investor base that is increasingly keen to learn and understand the investment climate from a traditional investment approach. It is especially important to facilitate in-depth exploration of the growing digital asset ecosystem with an institutional tone, as Hong Kong embraces blockchain technology through development around the Virtual Asset Service Providers licensing frameworks and the rise of ETFs and STOs.”

The Web 3 Investment Summit will feature a hybrid full-day program in the Main Conference and Breakout Room across English and Mandarin Chinese panel discussions in the morning. VIP ticket holders will have access to the VIP lounge, cocktail reception and fireside chats in the evening with top companies’ CEOs at the Poolhouse of Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

Other partners of the Summit include the Family Office Association of Hong Kong (FOAHK), Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, Qianhai, Galaxy Digital, Everest Ventures Group, TTB Partners and Token Bay Capital.

About Aspen Digital

Aspen’s Digital is a full-service digital asset management platform backed by Everest Ventures Group, TTB Partners and RIT Capital Partners (formerly Rothschild Investment Trust). Aspen Digital operates across both digital assets and private markets, and offers a broad range of digital asset products and tailored services. On private equity investments, Aspen Digital helps secure allocations for clients across a number of landmark transactions, for example Asia’s most high-profile digital asset unicorns, Animoca Brands and Dunamu (the parent company of the biggest South Korean digital asset exchange Upbit).

The company has launched, with its own trading & research team, automated digital asset strategies such as Market Neutral Arbitrage and DeFi strategies. In addition, Aspen Digital has launched a line of attractive fixed yield digital asset products and thematic smart beta digital asset products including Metaverse, DeFi, Blockchain, Smart Contract and Frontier trackers. The company’s team of expert traders and researchers vets the best performing strategies and managers, as Aspen Digital becomes a key distribution partner for them. All of this is housed in a single end-to-end platform that includes trading, yield and strategy products, market intelligence and client portfolio management capabilities.

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Climate tech Startup Bio-Logical raises $1m Seed round: Kenya’s Agricultural Sector to Get a Boost from Bio-Logicals Landmark Biochar Carbon Removal Facility

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Climate tech

Climate tech company Bio-Logical has raised a $1m seed round to scale up its operations in Kenya, facilitating its mission to build climate resilient communities of smallholder farmers around the world.

Smallholder farmers are facing a dire outlook with faltering harvests, increasingly extreme weather and skyrocketing fertiliser prices becoming increasingly common due to climate change. Bio-Logical addresses this challenge through a circular economy, transforming waste into biochar, a super material that sequesters carbon for millenia and regenerates degraded soil. Their biochar is then incorporated into an organic fertiliser which is distributed to smallholder farmers in the region, regenerating land, increasing crop drought resistance and boosting yields by over 50%.

“Bio-Logical was founded on the belief that Smallholder farmers should not suffer at the hands of a climate crisis they have played no part in. At present, soil degradation and changing weather patterns due to climate change is directly threatening the livelihoods of 500 million smallholder farmers around the world.” Rory Buckworth, Co-Founder

Utilising its innovative technology, Bio-Logical’s first site will be the largest biochar production facility in Africa. It will transform over 30,000 tonnes of agricultural waste a year into biochar, sequestering 25,000 tonnes of CO2. This process will generate carbon credits, the revenue from which will be used to subsidise its resilience building fertiliser for smallholder farmers, boosting yields and reducing fertiliser costs.

We believe carbon credits should do more than simply remove carbon from the atmosphere and instead should be used to build the resilience of climate vulnerable communities” Philip Hunter, Co-Founder

The funding round is led by the Steyn Group alongside Angel Investors Rob Konterman, Luke Calcott-Stevens and Jochem Wieringa. The round will go towards the development of Bio-Logical’s first Kenya site which will pave the way for its expansion throughout the region that will see the company scale to support 1 million smallholders and sequester 1 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030.

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According to setscale, More than 50% of US Small Businesses are Unaware of Federal Government Contracts, Losing $84 Billion a Year in Valuable Deals

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Setscale, a purchase order financing company, reports on small business financing, highlighting the lack of access to US government contracts

Setscale, the purchase order financing company, released today its first-ever report on US small business financing. The report surveyed US small business owners to better understand some of the financial barriers to small business ownership, including their awareness of federal government contracts for small businesses.

69% of US small businesses struggle with cash flow, preventing them from meeting the demand of government contracts.

More than half (52%) of all surveyed small business owners revealed that they aren’t aware of the specific contracts the US federal government awards to small businesses each year, missing out on approximately $84 billion* per year.

Government contracts are well-valued and often serve as a gateway to a steady source of income and small business growth. More than 70% (71%) of surveyed US small businesses say that they’re aware of lucrative and reliable government contracts, but more than half (52%) say they don’t know what specific contracts are available to them. And over a quarter of US small businesses (29%) are completely unaware that the federal government awards contracts to small businesses.

This report highlights that the federal government is investing in small businesses in record-high amounts, but business owners are still struggling to fill open government purchase orders. Almost 70% (69%) of US small businesses struggle with cash flow and working capital, preventing them from meeting the demand of a government contract. Many businesses pursue lines of credit from a bank or financial institution to fulfill purchase orders, but these are costly and hard to obtain. Alternative finance like purchase order financing can help these businesses secure and fulfill valuable government contracts.

Moreover, US small business owners say that a lack of cash flow and working capital prevents them from securing government contracts. At 22%, a lack of cash flow or capital is the second most popular reason that prevents US small business owners from securing a government contract. The most popular reason they aren’t securing government contracts is due to a lack of time and resources (25%).

“Our small business financing report sheds light on an issue that more than half of surveyed business owners know all too well – that even though the US federal government is awarding a record number of contracts to our small businesses, they’re still struggling financially to fulfill open purchase orders, potentially losing out on more than $80 billion each fiscal year,” comments Daniel Fine, Founder and CEO of Setscale.

“Government contracts are fierce competition for US small business owners for a reason. They’re reliable, well-valued, and often lead to steady sources of income. However, due to a lack of knowledge of the specific government contract awarding process, business owners are unsure if they can fulfill the government’s open purchase orders without pursuing a line of credit from a bank or financial institution,” elaborates Fine. “With interest rates at an all-time high, it’s an incredibly bad time to be a borrower. PO financing allows a small business to quickly bid on a contract, finance the full transaction, and scale operations to meet the size of the order.”

*In Fiscal Year 2022, the US federal government awarded $162.9B in federal contracting opportunities to small businesses. 52% of surveyed US small business owners reported that they aren’t aware of the specific contracts the US federal government awards to small businesses * $162.9B = $84B in lost opportunities.

Survey Methodology
Setscale designed and executed research for this report in collaboration with Censuswide. 251 US small business owners in companies with less than 50 employees (aged 18+) were surveyed online in October 2023. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles.

About Setscale
Setscale is a fintech startup solving the trade financing dilemma for small businesses. Small businesses frequently get purchase orders, but don’t have the money to fill them. Through its PO financing technology, Setscale finances the cost of those goods, allowing small businesses to focus on product and sales, enabling them to scale. Setscale is an ideal partner for SMBs, coming in where traditional financial institutions won’t, enabling SMB’s to finance their growth. Setscale funds supply. You meet demand.

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Monsha'at leads delegation of Saudi startups at Web Summit 2023

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As part of its work to showcase the growth of the Kingdom’s SME sector, Monsha’at, the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, took part in Web Summit 2023: one of the world’s leading technology conferences.

Held from 13 to 16 November 2023 — in Lisbon, Portugal — the event provided Monsha’at the opportunity to spotlight Saudi Arabia’s most innovative SMEs. The authority led a delegation of Saudi start-ups, calling attention to their success and contributions to the national economy. Moreover, the event provided a platform for industry leaders, including policymakers, heads of state, and tech CEOs and founders, to address global challenges.

Sami Al Hussaini, Governor of Monsha’at, said: “2023 has been a landmark year for Monsha’at and the Saudi SME sector, with the number of start-ups in the Kingdom growing to over 1.2 million. While we have made a great deal of progress, we can achieve more. Launching innovative partnerships with businesses and entities around the world is essential. Events such as Web Summit 2023 enable us to do that, immersing some of our leading start-ups in an energized environment conducive to collaboration, innovation and growth.”

Saudi Arabia’s start-up ecosystem is currently undergoing a period of rapid growth. Amid the continued expansion of its non-oil sector, the Kingdom achieved one of the highest economic growth rates in the world last year and has been recognized as one of the best-performing countries in terms of leveraging reforms to improve its business environment. In Q2 2023, the Kingdom led the region in VC funding and capital raised, accounting for 42% of MENA funding at a value of $446 million.

Among the Saudi start-ups participating in Web Summit 2023 were: Zid, Lendo, Nuqtah, Syarah, Asasat Advanced Systems, Wosul, Kabi, Master Works, resal, WhiteHelmet, Mustadem, and Tachyon.

Monsha’at’s participation at WebSummit follows its recent participation in other world-class conferences, including SWITCH Singapore, and ComeUp Korea, where it has helped connect some of the Kingdom’s leading start-ups with the international business and investment communities.

About Monsha’at:

Monsha’at was established in 2016 with the aim of regulating, supporting, developing, and sponsoring the SME sector in the Kingdom in accordance with global best practices, in order to increase the productivity of SMEs and their contribution to GDP.

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