Highlights of the Week (Apr 16, 2021)

This week marked the start of Ramadan, so we wish Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim readers.

Despite a promising start toward normalcy in 2021, there have been setbacks this week. First, the administration halted the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to a rare blood-clotting disorder in a handful of patients, Then Minnesota saw another death of a black man by an active police officer, leading to days-long protests in Brooklyn Center, not far from an ongoing trial for another murder of a black man by a police officer. Meanwhile, crypto exchange company Coinbase’s direct listing on the Nasdaq marks a landmark moment for the cryptocurrency space, as the company soared to an $85.7BN valuation on its first day of trading.

• The success of Coinbase is another hint at the optimism of financial tech startups and the potential of the current most-valued US startup (aka Stripe) when it goes public. Read more.
• Even though the positive public listings of some of the recent buzzy startups mean we are excited to see the next highly valued startups such as Instacart, UiPath, and Robinhood go public, we also cannot ignore that valuing startups is a tricky business. Dive deeper into what we mean.
• In addition to cryptocurrency, blockchain has gathered newfound interest from new investors. Baseball cards are now being traded via NFTs, and the company that is pioneering them is finally going public, after operating privately for 80 years. Read more.
• Warehouse robotics is seeing newfound attention, from Softbank’s investment into Norwegian robotics company AutoStore to the SPAC of robotics development company Berkshire Grey. But perhaps to witness even more innovation, we need to look East at the advanced robotics development that has been fueling the growth of e-commerce. Dive deeper.