Tech stands up to COVID-19
India's $13B economic package, WeWork takes on Softbank, and how India startups are standing up to COVID-19
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Hello 👋 and hope you were in on the Sensex up rally for the past couple days. If not, its always a good time to start an SIP. Anyway, jumping right in:
Stock market summary:
US - S&P 500 up 3.41% 📈
India - Sensex down 0.58% 📈
Inside scoops 👇
$13 Billion (1 lakh crore) package is coming
The central government announced its second stimulus package to primarily support small and medium businesses during to cushion the shocks from coronavirus induced lockdown.
Last month the government had announced a similar relief effort of 1.7lakh crore or nearly $22 Billion to help the poor and marginalized get through the crisis. With its resolute response the Modi government has made clear of its resolve to limit economic damage and take extreme measures to sail India through these tough times.
Startups rally to help India fight COVID-19
Multiple young companies and projects by independent developers are catching wind as India is leveraging its wide digital penetration to stay connected with news and updates.
Below are a few projects we called out that are stealing all the limelight
Coronatracker.in - a web app that shows you how far the nearest coronavirus case is from your current location.
CovidMaps.in - Built in Vancouver for India, this platform helps you find stores around you that are selling essential goods (available in Bengaluru and Vancouver, with more cities coming soon).
OxyGarden - a hardware startup that’s building air purifiers to eliminate indoor contamination.
Outside scoops 👇
US based Sila Money raises a $7.7M seed round
A Portland, Oregon based startup Sila raised a large seed round to take on Stripe and other as an alternative to ACH payments (an architecture for payments in the US). You may read about it here.
Consumer finance company SoFi buys Galileo
Why a consumer finance company would pay up to buy a payment processing and banking as a service platform is baffling fintech pundits around the globe.
SoFi, a digital banking and investing company bought Galileo technologies, a leading payment processing and banking infrastructure provider for $1.2B yesterday. While SoFi’s intentions are still unclear, you may read more on the deal here. Fintech remains hot despite the current economic crisis.
WeWork and Softbank’s ugly marriage
When the WeWork (global co-working company) botched its IPO in 2019, its largest investor SoftBank promised a $3 Billion funding follow up to buy stock from employees and the CEO and help the company stay afloat.
But now as coronavirus ravishes the the real estate industry, Softbank is pulling its offer and WeWork is now suing the investing behemoth for breach of agreement. Talk about a sour marriage.
WTF news 👇
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has committed $1 Billion of his net worth to help small businesses in America fight economic slowdown due to coronavirus. Like WHAT??
Seriously though, props to Jack and hope more Billionaires follow his lead.
Reading of the day -
We’re huge fans of Farnam Street, a popular investing blog. This article highlighting mental models is a gem.
We’ll be back with more cool stuff, meanwhile consider signing up.