Nobody makes Logan bleed his own blood

YouTuber boxing match rakes in over $8m this weekend… and it’s not over

Logan Paul and KSI are YouTubers -- internet celebrities who became famous by livestreaming outrageous jokes and vulgar video game narration.

But, over the weekend, the trash-talking rivals translated their e-stardom into a boxing match that packed historic Manchester Arena with 20k fans. And, thanks to 784k livestreamers, it pulled in more than $8.3m, making it one of the biggest British pay-per-view boxing matches in history.

From bloggers to boxers

While Paul (18.2m regular subscribers) and KSI (19.4m) may be amateurs when it comes to boxing, they are pros when it comes to monetizing their audiences.

KSI spun FIFA commentary into a career in comedy, acting, and rap, and Paul turned Vine stardom into work in acting, screenwriting, and rap (netting $12.5m in 2017).

For these online celebrities, building a personal brand with a loyal audience is only half the battle: To make money, they need to find creative ways to sell things to that audience.

As it turns out, boxing is an influencer’s ideal moneymaker

Amateur boxing offers a natural pricing tier (streaming access for $10, live tickets for hundreds) and easy cross-promotion (merch sales, sponsorships, product launches, social media smack talk).

Only half the online viewers paid YouTube’s $10 fee, but the exposure will still be worth millions for the fighters’ brands. Paul’s brother, Jake Paul, beat KSI’s brother in the night’s opening fight and used his victory speech to announce, while covered in blood, the launch of his new clothing line.

Oh, and if you’re wondering who won the main event? It ended in a draw. The rematch is scheduled for February, and you’ll be able to get your tickets soon.

Bungalow raises $14m to launch a roommate (and homeowner) matchmaking service

Bungalow, a startup to help renters find roommates and landlords find tenants, launched publicly on Friday with $14m in VC funding.

Khosla Ventures led the round, as the company also secured $50m debt facility from an unnamed lender to assist with maintenance costs as the company’s growth continues.

Roommate matchmaker you say?

Launched in stealth in 2017 by Andrew Collins and Uber vet Justin McCarty, the SF-based company manages several hundred apartments and homes, with close to 20% of its units in New York City.

Bungalow helps homeowners who are tired of finding new tenants rent out their properties by furnishing and subletting rooms to customers who are cool to share a home with strangers.

The firm will use the funding to build out its R&D and marketing teams, and to allow them to dive into new revenue streams.

Get you a partner the millennials love

According to The Real Deal, Bungalow’s average tenant age is between 26 and 27, which means the company will look to explore partnerships with companies that are popular among millennials -- like Casper and Blue Apron.

The company has placed around 750 roommates thus far with an 82% renewal rate, and it aims to be in 12 total markets by the end of the year.

Entrepreneurs are cooking up fresh businesses to reduce $1.2T of food waste

This past year, the world wasted 1.6B tons of food, resulting in a loss of $1.2T. Research by the Boston Consulting Group predicts that the amount of food waste will rise to 2.1B tons (and $1.5T) by 2030.

According to the research, there’s a $700B opportunity in the food supply chain due to 4 main problems: Crappy infrastructure, low efficiency, lack of incentive, and poor collaboration. But in the past month, several startups have raised money to address each of these issues:

Improving infrastructure (by solving the age-old avocado issue):

Apeel Sciences, which makes a plant-based second skin that keeps produce fresh 3x as long, raised a $70m Series C.

Increasing efficiency (because day-old pastries are a BARGAIN):

Karma, which provides chefs and grocers with a marketplace to sell unsold food at a discount, raised a $12m Series A.

Offering incentives (cuz even ugly cukes deserve love):

Imperfect Produce, which delivers unsellable but tasty ‘ugly’ veggies to consumers, is in the middle of a fundraising round authorized up to $30m.

Facilitating collaboration (because no juice is worth a $10 squeeze):

Full Harvest, which provides a B2B marketplace that links excess farm produce with businesses like juicers, raised an $8.5m Series A.

So far in 2018, VC firms have invested more than $2B in food tech

If all goes well, these startups could reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste and help feed the 870m undernourished people across the planet all while making their investors happy.

Landing International stock plummets after casino operation’s chairman goes missing

Landing International Development shares crashed 42% after the casino operator confirmed its chairman and majority stakeholder Yang Zhihui has been “unreachable” since Aug. 23.

Yang is the focus of investigators looking into ties with China Huarong Asset Management company -- a state-owned bad-debt manager whose former chairman, Lai Xiaomin, is under fire for alleged corruption.

Coincidence?? Many think not.

China’s president takes the ‘c-word’ very seriously

According to Bloomberg, since taking office in 2013, Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has “nabbed” more than 1.5m Communist Party members.

And they’ve since moved into the corporate world, cleaning house in boardrooms in an effort to slow the “debt fueled” expansion of China’s biggest businesses.

And it ain’t the first time a big chief has gone missing

The South China Morning Post reported in early 2017 that Financier Xiao Jianhua, leader of the Tomorrow Holding Co. empire, was abducted by Chinese authorities.

Mainland sources subsequently reported he was aiding investigations into “bribery” and “stock market manipulation,” though the Chinese government never gave a formal announcement on the matter.

This Landing International news comes just 2 weeks after the company’s $1.5B Philippine casino project was thrown under review and labeled “flawed” by the Philippine president.

The firm now has a market value of $1.4B, down from $1.6B in April. Meanwhile, the missing Yang still owns a 50.5% stake in the company.

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