Airbnb has recently agreed to acquire HotelTonight, a last-minute online hotel booking platform, for a reported price near the company’s most recent valuation of $463 million (Bloomberg, NY Times). This marks the largest acquisition to date for Airbnb since the high-end travel website Luxury Retreats that occurred at $300 million in February of 2017.

Fall of 2018 marked the beginning of huge advancements in Venture Capital funding for the emerging “FemTech” sector. In my November article, I covered the funding expected to enter this sector within the next 6 years. This week, FemTech came $42 M closer to its $50 B goal. Elvie, a London-based women’s healthcare start-up secured $42 M in its third private financing round.

People lose money in the stock market when they follow their emotions and ignore the data. Similarly, the public tends to lose money when they place bets rooting for their home team rather than what the actual numbers suggest. The growth of sports betting means that the entire environment of watching sports and entertainment has changed

On March 4th, private equity firm KKR & Co. (NYSE: KRR) announced an agreement with NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) to buy an equity stake in a newly formed partnership between the companies that owns ten United States wind and solar power farms. KKR will provide $900 million for NEP to buy the portfolio of plants for about $1.02 billion.

On March 20th, 2019, the Federal Reserve announced what markets had for the most part been expecting: no interest rate hikes for the remainder of 2019. Currently sitting at 2.5%, the Fed’s target for the federal funds rate impacts the global economy and influences the rates at which all debt can be issued at. A lower interest rate means that money is “cheaper”, and capital is more readily available in financial markets. While the most recent announcement was expected immediately before its release, it was very different from what many expected only a few months ago.

Traditional automotive manufacturers are being forced to innovate and compete against new entrants. Many startups secured seed and early round funding from Venture Capital firms between 2007-2011 before the influx of Private Equity investors. However, several of the company’s successful in raising capital, such as Lucid Motors and Coda Automotive, eventually found themselves facing financial struggles, and, in some cases, bankruptcy. Although the electric automotive market is experiencing rapid growth with sales expected to exceed 4.5 million units per year by 2020, the potential varies drastically across regions.