Intro

Good morning and happy Tuesday! 😎

Today’s update has 359 words, less than 2.0 minutes.

Snippets

Secure crypto assets: Have you ever wondered how to store your crypto assets securely at home? D’CENT is one of the most advanced crypto hardware wallets on the market. It ushers in a new era of secure cold storage that is improved by biometric authentication. Deep Dive here →

E-commerce fraud: According to a Juniper Research report, the volume of losses caused by e-commerce fraud will rise this year, from $17.5 billion in 2020 to over $20 billion in 2021, an increase of 18 percent in a single year. Merchants need to strengthen their fraud prevention strategies. Deep Dive here →

Fake meat: JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, has increased its plant-based meat footprint once more, paying $530 million for Europe’s third largest ‘fake meat’ maker Vivera. Meat alternatives are on the rise. Deep Dive here →

Startup of the Day

Ryu Games, San Francisco (USA)

Source: Techcrunch

What’s the deal: San Francisco-based mobile gaming platform company Ryu Games, has raised $2.3M in a seed round, and will use the funds to accelerate the growth of its mobile cash tournament gaming platform.

Any gaming startup can use their software development kit to add cash tournaments to their mobile games.

The money setup is similar to that of a poker tournament. You place a bet and then proceed to play. Ryu charges a fee for hosting, and then the game begins.

Why is this relevant: Ryu is betting on a combination of 3 trends: mobile games + eSports + betting.

The pandemic has kept most of the world indoors, leading the online gaming industry to a massive surge over the last few months.

Our take: As with most start-ups in the seed stage, Ryu Games is more about the future than proof of a solid trend. It will be interesting to see how far they get with the initial capital, especially as vaccines take longer and bigger bites out of this pandemic.

But, mobile gaming is certainly here to stay, and, bigger players like Skillz are showing the way forward.