This Week in 30 Minutes
October 24th, 2020
Hi there! We are two economists-to-be + one Business & Law major sharing with you, every Saturday, what we believe are the most relevant and interesting news of the week. The newsletter will be divided between all of our LinkedIn profiles. Please share, like, and comment all your thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy!
Legal news
E.U. Tells Cyprus and Malta to Abandon ‘Golden Passports’
The two countries have raised billions of euros by selling thousands of coveted travel documents, even in some cases granting citizenship to foreigners fleeing arrest warrants. Cyprus and Malta will face European Union penalties if they do not abandon lucrative programs that sell “golden passports” to foreigners, the bloc says, a long-anticipated crackdown on a practice that in certain cases furnished foreigners — some accused of crimes in their home countries — with travel documents. The European Commission, the bloc’s administrative branch, has for years had the two nations in its cross hairs over the practice, and its hand was forced by recent revelations of highly placed politicians being involved in the programs. Read more here.
McDonald's urges dismissal of Black former franchisees' discrimination lawsuit
McDonald's Corp MCD.N on Friday urged a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit by dozens of Black former franchise owners who accused the fast-food giant of racial discrimination for selling them underperforming stores, saying it did not want them to fail and never promised success. In a filing in the federal court in Chicago, McDonald’s said its franchise agreements made clear the obligations and risks of owning restaurants, which was “fatal” to the claim it defrauded the 52 plaintiffs, who operated more than 200 stores and have been seeking as much as $1 billion in damages. McDonald’s has also denied discrimination claims in a separate lawsuit filed by two Black executives in January in the Chicago court. Read more here.
Google must respond to U.S. antitrust lawsuit by Dec. 19
Alphabet Inc’s Google must respond to the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit by Dec. 19, according to a court filing on Friday. The Justice Department on Tuesday sued the $1 trillion company and accused it of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech in decades. Google called the lawsuit “deeply flawed.” Read more here.
'We're Through the Worst of It': KPMG's Global Head Sees Promising Future
Stuart Fuller says that the Asia-Pacific region, in particular, is strong and that legal work in Europe and in the Americas has been increasing. KPMG Law has done well over the past year despite the COVID-19 pandemic and is optimistic about the future, according to Stuart Fuller, the firm’s global head of legal services. Read more here.
Start-up & Tech news
Facebook and Twitter CEOs to testify before Congress in November on how they handled the election
Shortly after voting to move forward with a pair of subpoenas, the Senate Judiciary Committee has reached an agreement that will see the CEOs of two major social platforms testify voluntarily in November. The hearing will be the second major congressional appearance by tech CEOs arranged this month. According to a new press release from the committee, lawmakers also plan to use the proceedings as a high-profile port-mortem on how Twitter and Facebook fared on and after election day — an issue that lawmakers on both sides will undoubtedly be happy to dig into. Read more here.
India’s Flipkart buys $204 million stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail
Flipkart is acquiring a 7.8% stake in Aditya Birla Fashion as the Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce firm makes a further push into the apparel category in one of the world’s largest retail markets. The e-commerce group will pay $203.8 million for its stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, a conglomerate that operates over 3,000 stores, including the Pantaloons clothing chain. As part of the “landmark” strategic partnership, Flipkart will also sell and distribute various brands of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. (The Indian fashion retail giant owns rights to sell Forever 21 merchandise in India, for instance.). Friday’s announcement is the latest development in the intense battle among Flipkart, Amazon and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail to command how Indians shop. While Flipkart and Amazon are racing to expand their share in India’s growing e-commerce market, Ambani’s Reliance Retail is slowly expanding to the digital space. Read more here.
Nordic challenger bank Lunar raises €40M Series C, plans to enter the ‘buy now, pay later’ space
Lunar, the Nordic challenger bank that started out life as a personal finance manager app (PFM) but acquired a full banking license in 2019, has raised €40 million in Series C funding from existing investors. The injection of capital follows a €20 million Series B disclosed in April this year and comes on the back of Lunar rolling out Pro paid-for subscriptions — similar to a number of other challenger banks in Europe — personal consumer loans, and the launch of business bank accounts in August. The latter appears to have been an instant success, perhaps proof there is — like in the U.K. — pent up demand for more accessible banking for sole traders. Just months since launching in Denmark, Lunar Business claims to have signed up more than 50% of all newly founded sole trader businesses in the country. Read more here.
Financial institutions can support COVID-19 crowdfunding campaigns
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the financial outlook for millions of people, and continues to cause significant fiscal distress to millions more, but such challenging times have also wrought a more resilient and resourceful financial system. With the ingenuity of crowdfunding, considered to be one of the last decade’s greatest “success stories,” and such desperate times calling for bold new ways to finance a wide variety of COVID-19 relief efforts, we are now seeing an excellent opportunity for banks and other financial institutions to partner with crowdfunding platforms and campaigns, bolstering their efforts and impact. Read more here.
Render raises $4.5M for its DevOps platform
Render, the winner of our Disrupt SF 2019 Startup Battlefield, today announced that it has added another $4.5 million onto its existing seed funding round, bringing total investment into the company to $6.75 million. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from previous investors South Park Commons Fund and a group of angels that includes Lee Fixel, Elad Gil and GitHub CTO (and former VP of Engineering at Heroku) Jason Warner. Read more here.
See you next week!