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The Wallet Max team is starting the year off strong. From driving Startup Pitch Competition submissions to mentoring entrepreneurs and investors eager to make a difference, we are thrilled at the many opportunities to make an impact.

But there’s one evolution we’re particularly excited to talk about: Our Fundraising Mastermind. Launching on February 18th, this newest addition to our offerings will help founders streamline fundraising efforts within 3-months.

As you may already know, fundraising is a complex, stressful, and sometimes expensive process for founders. Without a guide, it can feel impossible. But consultants easily charge $300 per hour for advice, and this is simply cost-prohibitive for new entrepreneurs.

The Wallet Max Fundraising Mastermind aims to change that. So, if you know any founders looking to up their fundraising game this year, please send this email their way.

Beyond our upcoming launch, we also have exciting news for our Pitch Competition, a brief look comparing short-term and long-term risks in the recent World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026, more hiring/funding news, and an important lesson on balancing data and instinct in risk management.

Starting on February 18th, Wallet Max is launching a 12-week mastermind sprint to help founders work through a 12-step fundraising fast-track curriculum.

Our 12-week Fundraising Mastermind includes weekly 1-hour group sessions plus dedicated time with your mastermind group and two dedicated coaches every week. The primary requirement is time: You will need to invest 6-8 hours weekly toward your fundraising goals.

The weekly breakdown is simple:

If you’re ready to optimize your fundraising efforts for the 2026 market, sign up today or get more details on the Wallet Max website. You can also email the Wallet Max team at [email protected] for more information.

New York FinTech Week in April brings together an inclusive community of startup, investor, and corporate ecosystem builders, and we will be hosting our Startups Pitch Competition and Investors/Executives Panel on April 20th.

Our pitch event is just as much about the panel and networking as the competition. Attendees can learn from our experienced judges/speakers like:

We are also proud to highlight some of our pitching startups:

Don’t wait. Sign up today to attend & network: luma.com/FintechPitchWM26

We still have space for a few more judges/speakers and pitching startup spots. Deadline for startups to submit interest for pitching LIVE is February 28th.

As the Chief Ethics & Culture Officer at Women in AI, I interviewed Ayca Ariyoruk, Senior Fellow, Center for AI and Digital Policy in last month’s LinkedIn LIVE. We discussed ethics, culture, and security from an AI perspective.

Ayca brings a rare global lens on AI governance given her experience as a global policy strategist and cross-cultural ethics advisor. With a background in political and behavioral sciences, Ayca works at the intersection of foreign policy, education, and technology.

In our discussion, she highlights how:

Ayca masterfully and concisely links governance, technology, and power to show that early and fast adoption isn't the only indicator to judge AI-readiness. Governance matters just as much as innovation when determining what countries will have control over technology advancement.

“If you look at AI diffusion, research from Microsoft shows that adoption strongly correlates with GDP,” notes Ayca. “That’s no surprise in terms of infrastructure. But there is a question of whether governance can keep up with innovation. Technology companies can deploy systems overnight but building legitimate governance requires consultation, lawmaking, institution building, and investing in skills.”

This balance between governance and innovation reflects the importance of ethical and cultural controls in advancing AI usage across private and public sectors.

Watch the full replay of our interview below 👇

Last week, I spoke at the All Day Startup Bootcamp, an intensive one-day bootcamp designed to transform how founders approach fundraising. They spent the day with seasoned founders, investors, and fundraising experts who've been in the trenches, and come out the other side with term sheets in hand. I am grateful to have shared the virtual stage with leaders like Daniel Theobald, Sara Anderson, Bret Waters, Dr. David Kiewlich, and Arisa Chelsea Ueno of Draper Ventures.

In my session, I presented my 12-week roadmap fundraising structure to help founders streamline the entire process, from market fit to capturing investment.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026 highlights a paradox: Top risks in 10-years are deprioritized over the next two. Climate-based threats like extreme weather events and pollution dropped in the rankings of major short-term threats list. Biodiversity loss and changes to earth systems don’t even make the cut.

But the long-term forecast reflects a different reality. Five out of the top 10 risks over the next decade will be climate-based. The conundrum? Combating climate threats requires action and international collaboration in the short-term.

Yet, rising priorities in the changing nature of work, rising inequality, and ethical AI usage beat out short-term concerns. Yet, these risks are interconnected.

BDO’s Key Trends for Artificial Intelligence Report for 2026 include an emphasis on ethical AI education and use in the years to come. Proper use of technology isn’t just about increasing profits. It’s about balancing profit with long-term sustainability. When we look at the water AI data centers require and that this tech spearheads changes to employment, it’s clear that ethical AI should become a focal point for both the short- and long-term action plans to mitigate global risks.

After all, AI factors into climate concerns. Large data centers cycle through enough water for up to 50,000 people on a daily basis. Ethical AI isn’t just about balancing employment and efficiency to prevent widening wealth inequality. Ethical AI is about ensuring we continue to innovate renewable sources of energy for these new tools. Finding ways to reduce the resource requirements for these centers is one way business leaders can positively influence the future.

When juggling this dichotomy in short-term and long-term goals, it’s important to remember that while they differ they are still connected. Rather than focusing on the shorter event horizon, leveraging the long-view of global risks can help us develop tools to solve today’s problems.

In the November edition of our Planet Positive Podcast, I interviewed Emma Leavy, Principal at Gratitude Railroad, where she leads the direct investing team for Gratitude Ventures Fund II. She has led 10+ transactions and sits on the boards of Cofertility and Climax Foods and invests at the Seed / Series A level.

Emma began her career as a management consultant, and realized very quickly she wanted to move into international development. She applied for and was awarded a scholarship called the Ransom Scholarship for a postgraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

This experience enabled her to work at nonprofits for six years at the Clinton Foundation and Comic Relief. Her desire to create systemic change eventually led her to obtaining her MBA at UC Berkeley Haas and going all in on venture capital.

Impact investing is central to Emma’s portfolio despite market volatility, with a focus on the intersection between climate, human health, and financial inclusion.

“Challenges to investing in renewables and social well-being are here to stay, they aren’t going away,” notes Emma. “But I think there are incredible opportunities right now in climate investing because of a needed valuation correction in the industry. When others are fearful, investors should try to be bold.”

In our interview, Emma touches on helping startups get to the next stage of growth, due diligence, and more key insights into impact investing today. Watch the replay below 👇

The podcast is hosted by Wallet Max Founder &  CEO Bhuva Shakti, and is for anyone interested in learning from investors and founders shaping thoughtful, practical solutions.

Want more than advice from investors? Check out our full podcast library, updated at the end of the month, every month.

With funding shrinking and rapidly changing policies, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and advocacy groups benefit from a community eager to change the world. We firmly believe that we build stronger, together. Nonprofits, PBCs (Public Benefit Corporations), and Policymakers provide real-world insight for entrepreneurs, investors, and professors, creating opportunities for collaboration.

Wallet Max brings these likeminded people together, from NGOs to investors and business leaders. Through a Wallet Max Membership, NGOs, PBCs, and Policy experts can:

✅ Tap into mentorship and funding opportunities
✅ Leverage our network of business leaders, academic experts, investors, and other professionals
✅ Access virtual and in person event recordings on topics on the latest technologies in AI, climate, and more
✅ Engage in forward-thinking conversations with leaders in your niche and beyond

Get involved in our upcoming Emerald Summit 2026 here: getwalletmax.com/summit

🎯 Discover all of our events and how you can get involved with the virtual and in-person community initiatives: getwalletmax.com/events

Bound lands $24.5m Series A

UK fintech Bound has secured $24.5 million in a Series A funding round led by AlbionVC with participation from Norton Capital, GoHub Ventures, and other investors. Founded in 2020 by CEO Seth Phillips and CTO Dan Kindle, Bound offers an FX risk management platform that enables finance teams to set up automated hedging strategies that run continuously in the background. The new funding will be used to further develop its perpetual FX hedging solution and pursue European regulatory authorization for expansion.

Cerebras Systems raises $1 billion

AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems announced that it raised $1 billion in fresh capital at a valuation of $23 billion under Benchmark’s lead. Benchmark raised two separate vehicles, both called ‘Benchmark Infrastructure,’ according to regulatory filings, to meet the fundraising goal. Based in Sunnyvale, California, Cerebras recently signed an agreement to provide 750 megawatts of computing power to OpenAI until 2028.

Seven Organizations Awarded Sports Tourism Capital Investment Funding

The Delaware Tourism Office (DTO) announced awards to seven Delaware sports facilities through the Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund. Winners include: Chase Fieldhouse, Dave Marshall Tennis & Pickleball, DE Turf, Dover Motor Speedway, Game on Sports Complex, Georgetown Speedway, and River Soccer Club.

Investment Manager, Enterprise Software – Amex Ventures

Amex Ventures is seeking a highly motivated individual to help develop investment theses, source and execute investments for the Enterprise Software team. This is a NYC or San Francisco opportunity with a salary of $104K to $174K annually, plus benefits.

Senior Investor Relations Associate with Greycroft

Greycroft is seeking an experienced individual to support the investor relations and fundraising processes and is open to candidates residing in New York City, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. The salary range is listed as $160K - $180K.

Investment Analysis by Fin Capital

Fin Capital is looking for an investment analyst to conduct market analysis and opportunity identification via academic research, customer interviews, conferences, incubator and University demo days, and peers (Angels/VCs), develop relationships with companies, and manage the investment pipeline process. This is a full-time position within the United States.

Discover more funding and hiring opportunities in our online member-only community.

Your instinct is not a backup system. It’s part of your intelligence.

My background in engineering taught me to anticipate failure, to debug early and often, and to listen when the system “felt off.” Those skills became survival tools. Risk is rarely loud. It whispers. And instinct helps you hear it before the fallout begins.

I remember one project during the early years leading up to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). On the surface, everything looked clean. The housing market data was strong. Models showed low exposure. Yet something felt off. I had no smoking gun, but I had a pattern memory from years of debugging systems.

So, I spoke up. We escalated the issue. And months later, those same bling spots turned into real losses.

This doesn’t mean that instinct replaces data. It means instinct completes it.

In my upcoming book on risk, Everyday Risk Wisdom: Your Risk Management Guide to Thrive in a Complex World as an Overlooked Business Leader, I cover a variety of lessons from my career.

In “Risk is Data + Instinct” of my book, I delve into how to balance hard data and gut feelings.

Explore my book website below and get notified when this lesson is available for free!

In this reflection quiz, I wanted to highlight some potential strategies for combining reflections with risk management and hard data.

There are ways to manage track your instincts and integrate them into your data stream. What would you use to keep a pulse on gut feelings:

Read the lesson for my “Risk is Data + Instinct” action steps. Explore my book website below and get notified when this framework is available for free!

Community-building isn’t just about joining a network. It’s about showing up. We can only build together when we are all present. While there are many opportunities this year, I hope that you will join us in our Fintech Week Pitch Competition or Fundraising Mastermind.

And the deadlines to participate are nearly here:

⚡ Pitch Competition Deadline: February 28th

⚡ Fundraising Mastermind Deadline: February 17th

Wallet Max team and I look forward to building great things with you this year. If you have any questions about our offerings, feel free to respond to this email or message me at [email protected].

Finally, I’d like to thank you for joining the Wallet Max team on this journey. Every newsletter you read, comment you make, and event you attend makes a difference in the lives of our members. I’m grateful for the ethical and active community we are building together.

Thanks for supporting us to build a better world!

Bhuva Shakti, Founder of Wallet Max and Bhuva’s Impact Global.