Affirm, a fintech company that lets online retailers provide pay-later options for customers, has filed to go public.
Why it matters: The company, founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, is the latest Silicon Valley "unicorn" to file for an IPO as the year draws to a close. A number of tech companies are rushing to go public before the end of the year, including Airbnb and DoorDash, with Roblox and others also rumored to be in the pipeline.
President-elect Biden this week endorsed a proposal to immediately forgive up to $10,000 in student debt, with some experts arguing he could do so via executive action.
Axios Re:Cap speaks with Mike Pierce, policy director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, about Biden's plan, why it matters and what comes next.
U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is quietly purchasing access to vast troves of real-time location and user data from commercial apps that focus on everything from dating services for Muslims to weather reports, according to a new Vice investigation.
Why it matters: Though legal, the purchase of these data tracking services by the U.S. military raises serious civil liberties and privacy questions — as well as questions about just how the military is employing this data.
Plenty of garbage startups have been funded over the past decade, including a couple of outright frauds — and tech innovation doesn't always move as linearly as we'd like, or replicate the future as imagined by TV scriptwriters.
Yes, but: While startups and their investors were being bashed on social media, at least a few of them were laying the building blocks for technologies that could help let humanity recover its ability to work, play and spend time with loved ones.
Headway, a New York-based software platform that helps therapists accept insurance and helps patients find those therapists, raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Thrive Capital.
Why it matters: Many therapists don't take insurance because of low reimbursement rates, which has built a colossal barrier to mental health access. Headway's software doesn't quite make up the difference, but narrows it significantly by automating administrative tasks like looking up benefits, credentialing, and appointment booking. The cost is paid by insurers, not by patients or providers.
Growing amounts of cash are pouring into electric vehicle development that is underway via startups and legacy players.
What's new: A report out this morning indicates GM will be announcing an expanded strategy to take on Tesla, plus the U.K. electric van and bus company Arrival announced it is going public.
The consumer-spending pullback whacked businesses that were already struggling to recover from the initial hit from the pandemic, data from the U.S. Census Bureau show.
Why it matters: This month’s lockdowns (or people curbing their own activity for safety reasons) will be a bigger setback for these same shops in the weeks to come.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday cleared Boeing's 737 MAX to fly again in the U.S. — 20 months after the plane’s worldwide grounding.
Why it matters: A pair of fatal planecrashes laid bare the gross oversight and safety lapses on the part of Boeing and the FAA. The fallout led to the resignation of top executives — including Boeing's CEO — a criminal investigation, and the company’s biggest financial hit in its centurylong history.
The cash value of President-elect Biden's normality will be tested next year with a bookstore battle among Washington journalists who are competing to capture 46's backstory, inside skinny and cast of characters.
What's new: Axios has learned that Ben Schreckinger, a long-form writer who works the "Biden Inc." beat at Politico, has signed a deal with prestige publisher Twelve to write a Biden family book aimed for the second half of 2021.
Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are at new peaks, cities and states are weighing second lockdowns, and flu season is upon us — but we're all looking the other way.
Why it matters: Pandemic fatigue has set in and the nation has collectively stopped caring just in time for the holiday season. This Thanksgiving could be catastrophic for public health.
Americans are again stockpiling cleaning supplies and toilet paper as the U.S. experiences another surge of coronavirus, according to AP.
Why it matters: More than half of the counties across the country — 58% of them — have seen the peak of their coronavirus infections this month, and 76% of counties have peaked at some point so far this fall, causing people to stockpile supplies like they did at the start of the pandemic.
