More tech companies are creeping into banking and lending, offering new lifelines to small businesses, Hope and Axios' Lucinda Shen report.

Why it matters: Tech’s stronghold on customer and sales data enables them to fine-tune support while businesses gain more options for borrowing. 

Driving the news: Delivery platform DoorDash last week became the latest tech giant to start offering banking services in the form of cash advances.

• It offers varying amounts to its partner restaurants depending on sales history, instead of a credit check.
• Restaurants can get the money in as little as one to two days, the company says, and repayment is based on a one-time fee and percentage of daily sales.

The big picture: Small businesses, 99.9% of all U.S. firms, have come to rely more on digital services to reach customers or to accept payment. 

• As a result, platforms like Square (now part of Block), Stripe, Toast and Shopify have real-time access to data on how a business is doing — unlike traditional banks.

What they're saying: Advances can increase loyalty to the tech platform itself — increasing the likelihood that DoorDash partner restaurants won't head to a competitor like Grubhub, said Vineet Goel, the co-founder of Parafin, the fintech startup that underwrites the risk of DoorDash's services

• Restaurants are also often rejected for loans due to common challenges within the industry, like thin profit margins and seasonality, Toast's senior vice president of fintech and employee/payroll Nick DeLeonardis tells Axios.

What to watch: Potential regulatory scrutiny.

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The pandemic has accelerated the usage of QR codes, taking them from niche status to an essential tool for businesses and marketers, Nathan writes.

• Look no further than Sunday's Super Bowl commercial of nothing but a floating QR code that sent users to the Coinbase website.

Yes, but: Law enforcement officials are sounding the alarm about the risks of QR codes.

• Threat level: The FBI issued an alert in January warning Americans that cyber criminals “are tampering with QR codes to redirect victims to malicious sites that steal login and financial information.”

The bottom line: QR codes can be helpful. But don’t click unless you’ve verified that the source is legitimate — and make sure the site is authentic once you reach your digital destination.

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🛒 Walmart says shoppers are focusing on inflation but not changing their habits yet. (CNBC)

🐷 Activist investor Carl Icahn is planning a proxy fight against McDonald's if the fast-food chain doesn't stop using suppliers that house pregnant pigs in small boxes. (Axios)

An airline, a tech giant and a defense contractor are the three "highest-rated companies for career opportunities" by Black workers, according to new survey data.

Why it matters: Black History Month reminds us that equality in the workplace is essential to economic advancement, Nathan writes.

Delta Air Lines, Microsoft and Northrop Grumman top Glassdoor’s list of the 10 companies that Black employees say are most committed to advancing their careers.

• The next seven, in order: Deloitte, FedEx, Bank of America, Capital One, Enterprise, EY and Chick-fil-A.
• “These companies offer various developmental opportunities for Black employees to advance their careers, including employer-sponsored education assistance plans and employee resource groups,” Glassdoor reports.

Yes, but: There's plenty of room for improvement. Black employees rate their companies lower when compared to all employees: 3.5 out of 5, compared with 3.8.

The plant-based movement has already pushed its way onto grocery store shelves and fast-food menus, and now it’s taken the next logical step — NASCAR.

Driving the news: Driver Natalie Decker, who competes part time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, has partnered with PlantFuel, a plant-based wellness company, Pete writes.

• Decker will drive the No. 33 “NO F***ING WHEY” car this weekend in The Daytona 300, the first race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
• The race is known this year, ironically, as the “Beef. It's What's for Dinner. 300.”

"The SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in evenhanded fashion."