Jobaaj Stories
A very warm welcome to yet another week of financial updates. With updates flowing in all parts of the financial system, please bear with me on this long read.
Story of the Week - The frenzy of Buy Now - Pay Later
Well, it has been a big talk of the week on how Buy Now - Pay Later is shaping new dimensions to short-term credit lending. Started with the motive to reduce the hassle of immediate payments, BNPL has recently emerged as a disruption in the fintech industry. Simpl payment in India is one of the BNPL platforms which has raised over 25Mn USD in the last three rounds.
In the past few weeks, the move from Stripe and Paypal has excited the investors about the future prospect of BNPL and its integration into conventional financial solutions. Recently, after Square acquired Afterpay for ~29Bn, Paypal announced its acquisition of Paidy, a Japanese install payment solution for ~2.7Bn.
Japan is one of the hottest eCommerce markets and this recent acquisition is supposed to help Paypal make a strong upgrade in the country. Paidy is already one of the most prominent payment options on Amazon Japan, providing options for no fee installment payments. Paidy's current user base and reach are expected to fuel PayPal's growth in the country.
On a side note - Addi, Bogota's buy now - pay later platform, announced that Greycroft led a $75 million Series B round of financing.
To summarize, everyone loves the flexibility to pay based on personal preference. BNPL bridges the gap by provisioning a number of options to “Buy Now & Pay Later”. But, it would be interesting to see how the governments would react to this growing buzz.
Still, wondering why we saw a recent decline in US employment numbers? Well, it looks more like a supply than a demand issue.
Based on the recent report, a recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant has raised concerns among workers while returning to work. Now this solves the puzzle of why we saw a declining employment report last week. But, the bigger question is -
Should government start tapering the monetary infusion?
Well, the answer is beyond the employment report. Inflation is alarming across the globe and it looks like that the change in supply would autotune employment and it is essential to control inflation before it reaches more harmful levels.
Global Market Updates -
Global Equity Market -
S&P 500 experienced a turbulent week ending in Red. The mixed feeling of the Inflation vs Delta variant is expected to drive the trend.
But, if you believe the market is overestimated, is shorting the share really an option?
It seems it's far riskier to short a stock than ever.
A recent trend is an uptick in meme stock of “Support.com” which indicates how Reditters reacted to the recent short trend in the stock.
Companies in Focus
- India's Leap, a platform for study abroad, has raised $55 million in Series C funding. With the support of Harvard Management Co., Sequoia Capital India, and Jungle Ventures, Owl Ventures led the round.
- Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) agreed to purchase Clipchamp, Australian video creation and editing software maker that raised US$15 million from firms like Tola Capital.
- Notion, a California-based workplace collaboration company valued at $2 billion by investors, has acquired Automate.io, an Indian company that pioneered workflow automation SaaS and was seeded by 50K Ventures.
- Among companies with operations in China, Wynn Resorts (-11%) and Las Vegas Sands (-10%) have suffered losses amid concerns about tighter regulations in Macau.
Thanks for Reading!
Shubham Agarwal (CFA L2 Candidate | Incoming MBA candidate at University of Cambridge, UK)
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