Highlights of the Week (August 6, 2021)

It’s starting to feel like Groundhog’s Day or deja vous, with every day generating more anecdotal evidence as well as scientific data about the Delta variant. A friend of mine who was on last weekend’s girls trip just found out she's positive for COVID, and the group is now scrambling to get tested. My own experience of getting tested yesterday in Brooklyn was reminiscent of Spring 2020, with a long line of negative-result-hopefuls lining the block. My partner’s ENT doctor thinks the viral load of Delta as well as other new mutations is going to have us in COVID's grip for the next 3 years. Once again, we’re back to speculation and guesswork from our inner-circles, peripheral experts, and online sources.

As one TikTok creator put it, with a shake of his head: “the way we were so close to precedented times, so close.”

Here’s a recap of this week’s top stories from PrivCo:

• Robin Hood's disappointing IPO was meant to be a Meta-Moment for the investment app on a mission to democratize investment trading. The company has been getting side-eye from regulators who dislike the company’s business model of “deals for order flow," and a poorly-timed investigation might have played a part in the IPO's poor performance. But the stock has since rebounded, up nearly 100% from its debut but then fell again when insiders filed to sell nearly 98MM shares. Still, the stock is 46% above its debut as of the close of the markets on 8/5. Read more about HOOD here.

• Tuesday’s investor highlight focused on the Founders Fund. headed by Peter Theil of PayPal (and Trump-supporting) notoriety. The group has big ambitions for investing in future, world-shaking technologies. Learn more about the firm here.

• With pandemic-related car travel on the rise, the car rental industry has nearly buckled under consumer demand. Luckily for us as consumers, crisis begets innovation. Peer-to-peer car sharing is now the best new way to get from point A to point B. Find out about the companies lending us a ride here.

• Pop culture has its hits and misses for predicting the future of technology. Flying cars? Not quite. Video calling? Done & done. But what can investments tell us about the future of our devices? We look at the robust medical device landscape and peer into the future of HealthTech. Check it out here.