This week at Social Leverage...

The Social Leverage Letter | Issue #217

Author

Ethan Berk
December 28, 2025

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Punchup (Fund IV) had a breakout 2025 marked by major talent additions, exclusive releases, and platform expansion—including acquiring ticketing provider Tixologi and launching a mobile app. The company surpassed 750,000 monthly users, processed major live-event ticketing demand, and closed a $2.3M seed round to fuel continued growth heading into 2026.

Punchup Live Wraps Breakout Year of Growth and Platform Expansion

Top talent additions, exclusive comedy releases, major live-event partnerships, and a $2.3M seed round fuel momentum heading into 2026 Creators want ownership, transparency, and real connection with their fans.”— Danny Frenkel, CEO of Punchup

Kraken is deepening its partnership with Alpaca (Fund III) to integrate xStocks—its tokenized equities product—directly into Alpaca’s brokerage-as-a-service platform, making Alpaca the preferred custodian for the underlying equities. With over $10B in trading volume since launching in 2025, the move aims to accelerate institutional access to tokenized assets outside the U.S. and strengthen Kraken’s position as it prepares for a 2026 public listing.

Kraken Taps Alpaca for xStocks After Backed Finance Acquisition

Kraken’s xStocks, which tokenizes real-world equities, is expanding its partnership with Alpaca. The acquisition follows recent announcement by the crypto exchange that it had agreed to acquire Bac...

FINNY raised a $17M Series A led by Venrock to scale its AI-driven platform that helps financial advisors find and convert clients more efficiently, reducing manual prospecting and improving personalized outreach. The round included participation from Activant, Altruist’s Jason Wenk, Y Combinator, Maple VC, and Crossbeam Ventures (SLAF), which continued its support as an existing investor.

FINNY raises a $17M Series A to help great advisors help more people – FINNY

To Our FINNY Community, Less than two years ago, we quit our jobs to solve a problem that had been hiding in plain sight. Financial advisors are some of the mos

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