The existential question of crypto “utility” continues to roil the tech community, pitting some Web 2.0 icons against their web3 cousins. Enter into the buzz a recent New York Times feature about Helium, a crypto company whose business is centered on a real-world, non-financial application. Driving the news: Helium recently

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Celanese (NYSE: CE) agreed to buy most of DuPont’s (NYSE: DD) mobility and materials business for $11 billion in cash, reportedly beating out private equity firms like Apollo Global Management and Carlyle. Why it matters: This is the chemical industry’s largest merger in two years, and the richest ever for

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What’s old is new again. Even if it shouldn’t be. Driving the news: Bolt Financial, led by “Silicon Valley mob” foe Ryan Breslow, has begun offering loans to employees who want to buy their vested stock options. The laudable goal is to start the capital gains tax clock, so that

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A new report on January retail sales showed consumer spending was much better than expected early this year. Driving the news: Last month’s retail sales trounced expectations, rising 3.8%. (Economists expected a 1.8% bump in January.) They dropped 2.5% in December. Yes, but: Part of the jump is just because

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The Chernin Group and talent management company Night Media are setting up a new growth equity vehicle named “NightCap” that will aim to acquire businesses and team them up with content creators, Axios has learned. Why it matters: It’s yet another testament to the influence and commercial power of social

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Better Tomorrow Ventures, a fintech-focused early stage venture firm headed by NerdWallet co-founder Jake Gibson and ex-500 Startups partner Sheel Mohnot, has raised $150 million for a sophomore fund, and $75 million for an opportunity fund. Why it matters: Fintech has been a hot sector over the past couple of

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Peter Thiel is injecting $1.5 million into a seed round for a new conservative dating app called “The Right Stuff,” a source familiar with the funding tells Axios. The big picture: Conservatives have been aggressively building their own apps, phones, cryptocurrencies and publishing houses in an attempt to circumvent what

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WSC Sports, a B2B sports video company, has raised $100 million in a series D funding round, led by ION Crossover Partners, to expand into new verticals and countries. Why it matters: The Israel-based company’s growth reflects the changes rapidly disrupting the sports media industry. WSC Sports licenses artificial intelligence

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The Financial Times will soon reach 1 million digital-only subscribers, a source familiar with the numbers confirms to Axios. Why it matters: The FT has had a digital paywall since 2002. It was one of the first publishers to introduced a metered paywall in 2007, before transitioning over to paid

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Crypto went mainstream on Sunday, via a series of hyped Super Bowl ads that featured everything from LeBron to Larry David to a bouncing, technicolor QR code. Be smart: This was a new customer land-grab, with crypto companies reaching to the edges of TAM. But new tech has a very

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