Who stated there are not any second acts in American lives?
It was F. Scott Fitzgerald should you actually wish to know, however the writer of “The Great Gatsby” and “The Last Tycoon” by no means crossed paths with Adam Neumann.
‘It’s A Big Idea’
Neumann, who made a reputation for himself along with his vertiginous rise and spectacular fall as co-founder and CEO of WeWork (WE) – Get WeWork Inc. Class A Report, is again within the information and this time he is going crypto.
The Israeli-American businessman and investor is backing Flowcarbon, a blockchain-enabled carbon credit score buying and selling platform, which has raised $70 million in its first main funding spherical.
“Huge thanks to our incredible investors for believing in our mission,” the agency said in a tweet. “We started Flowcarbon to scale the carbon market — the single most immediate solution to climate change. It’s a big idea but we have the best partners to help us get there @AriannaSimpson @cdixon @htaneja.”
The agency raised $32 million within the funding spherical led by Silicon Valley financiers Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz by their a16z crypto enterprise capital agency. Other buyers included General Catalyst and Samsung Next.
The stability was raised by the sale of the Goddess Nature Token, which is backed by licensed carbon credit from nature-based initiatives during the last 5 years.
The tokens may be retired as an offset, offered, used for borrowing and lending, or redeemed for an underlying real-world credit score.
‘A Brilliant Financing Mechanism’
Flowcarbon takes a 2% tokenization price, the corporate stated, in contrast with the 30% value of promoting carbon credit within the conventional method.
The agency at the moment has 35 staff with places of work in New York, Montana and Berlin, Germany.
“There are powerful economic incentives to destroy and degrade critical natural landscapes around the world, but the voluntary carbon market is a brilliant financial mechanism that creates a counterbalancing incentive to reforest, revitalize and protect nature,” Flowcarbon CEO Dana Gibber said in a statement.
Neumann got here to prominence in 2010 when he co-founded WeWork with Miguel McKelvey.
The company hit the road in 2019, looking to raise $47 billion and follow in the footsteps of other successful high-profile IPOs.
WeWork’s financial outlook immediately raised eyebrows, however.
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Though the company intended to expand into other areas such as education, its core business of selling memberships to its co-working spaces as well as founder and Neumann’s penchant for spending on lavish trips and real estate and his tastes for partying and marijuana ultimately forced the company to shelve its plans.
Neumann was ousted in 2019 and replaced by real estate veteran Sandeep Mathrani. WeWork finally began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in October following a $9 billion “clean examine” deal with BowX Acquisition.
‘The Frog and the Scorpion’
Neumann’s exploits inspired a documentary “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn,” and Apple TV+ scripted collection “WeCrashed.”
Reaction on to social media to Neumann’s return was swift, spirited, and for probably the most half, downright snarky.
“Please tell me this is Season 2 of WeWorked and not actually real life…. http://WHAT.IS.WRONG.WITH.YOU.PEOPLE!!!!?” one commenter tweeted.
Another individual recalled the story of the frog and the scorpion, the place the clueless amphibian offers the toxic arachnid a trip throughout a river solely to get a deadly sting that dooms each critters.
“People do not know how easy it is to generate funding if you know the right people and how to play the game,” one person tweeted.
“i dare any of my a16z followers to explain why they invested in this,” one other said.
‘A Depressing World’
“It’s such a depressing world to know that you can be a CEO that bring your company to a colossal collapse because of your ego, and then get millions for your next startup,” learn one tweet. “If Adam Neumann was a girl or another minority this could not occur.’
“This is why I rent double-ex-felons to child sit for me,” one other commenter remarked.
And nonetheless one other individual posted a clip from the Apple TV+ collection.
There had been some phrases of encouragement as properly, with one individual tweeting “Congratulations! So grateful to have you ever in our group. Can’t wait to see what comes from the GNT launch and every part that follows.”
Flowcarbon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Early this year, Neumann made headlines again when he began acquiring more than 4,000 apartments across the southern U.S. valued at more than $1 billion.
He purchased properties in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale, and other U.S. cities.
Source: www.thestreet.com