Good morning & happy Wednesday! Today's issue is really hot as we're diving into Kalshi, which just showed arguably the most aggressive valution jump in FinTech history (latest $1 billion fundraise & what it indicates, what to expect next + bonus deep dive into Robinhood and how it's building the Nasdaq of Reality), and Stripe's another M&A that signals its strategic bet on becoming the financial backbone of the AI economy (what the acquisition of Metronome is all about & how it stacks into Stripe's bigger strategy, why the FinTech giant wants to own the full AI stack of financial services + bonus dives into Agentic Payments/Finance & the ultimate list of M&A resources to save you $$$). So let's just jump straight into the finnovative stuff '' Led by Paradigm with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and CapitalG, the raise represents one of the most aggressive funding trajectories in recent FinTech history and further validates prediction markets both as a valid vertical and as an emerging asset class....

November was another outsized month for venture funding as investors poured $39.6 billion into startups globally. The funding total was on par with October and up 28% year over year from $31 billion, according to Crunchbase data. Capital continued to concentrate into the largest companies. A stunning 43% of venture funding last month went to just 14 companies that raised rounds of $500 million or more each. That marked the largest number of such megarounds raised in a single month in the past three years. The U.S. raised just over 70% of global venture capital in November, up from 60% in October. China was the next-largest market with $2.4 billion in total funding. The U.K. and Canada were the third- and fourth-largest, respectively, with $1 billion or more raised by startups in each country last month. Hardware was another leading sector with funding going to startups working on data centers, computer vision, robotics and defense technologies, among others. Financial services was the third-largest sector for venture funding in November, with large rounds in crypto, financial operations, compliance and payments....

Families trying to guide and support these students at the juncture of a major life transition likely also feel nervous about the open-ended possibilities, from starting at a standard four-year college to not attending college at all. Full-time students can pay anywhere from about US$4,000 for in-state tuition at a public state school per semester to just shy of $50,000 per semester at a private college or university. The average annual cost of tuition alone at a public college or university in 2025 is $10,340, while the average cost of a private school is $39,307. Concerns about affording college often come up with clients who are deciding on whether or not to get a degree. Research has shown that financial stress and debt load are leading to an increase in students dropping out of college. It can be helpful for some students to look at tuition costs and project what their monthly student loan payments would be like after graduation, given the expected salary range in particular careers. Financial planning could also help students consider the benefits and drawbacks of public, private, community colleges or vocational schools....

The Department of Homeland Security launched a $200 million advertising campaign this past spring that urged migrants to 'self-deport,' dangling an offer that sounded like a darker version of a credit-card promotion. By formalizing their departure through a government app, CBP Home, participants could receive a free plane ticket and a $1,000 cash bonus. Nearly nine months later, about 35,000 people have used CBP Home to leave the country, according to figures I obtained from two DHS officials who track the program. Given the cost of the advertising blitz, as well as the airfare and cash payments, it works out to about $7,500 per self-deportation. The DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote to me that the program, called Project Homecoming, has created 'a smooth, efficient process for illegal aliens to return home' and that 'tens of thousands' of participants have used CBP Home to depart. McLaughlin declined to say what DHS spends per self-deportation, but the department has estimated the cost of having ICE officers arrest, detain, and deport someone to be more than $17,000 per deportee....