Highlights of the Week (June 18, 2021)

This Saturday is Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of the day a Union officer announced -- in Galveston, Texas in 1865 -- the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Yesterday, President Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth an official Federal holiday. 

Many corporations have already enacted a workplace Juneteenth closure in the wake of last summer’s protests of police brutality against Black people. But many Americans aren't satisfied and are demanding that corporations end the practice of hiring prison labor, a practice that is increasingly seen as the slavery loophole.

Here’s a look at this week’s top stories from PrivCo:

• Younger consumers who’ve been through the 2008 recession, Occupy Wall Street, and now the pandemic, are turning to the credit system of buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) rather than traditional bank credit cards. We looked at the startups offering retailers bigger checkouts through installment payments. Read about BNPL here.

• Lerer Hippeau has made early investments in some of the biggest D2C e-commerce brands of the last decade. We take a look at the firm's areas of interest, recent investments, and new SPAC. Get to know LH.

• Autonomous driving is high on the wish-list for the next scientific innovation. But as innovators in the field spend most of their time on passenger vehicles, self-driving cargo trucks are the next best thing, promising supply chain efficiencies that translate to some serious profit increases. Check out the road ahead.

• The pandemic exacerbated the trend towards e-commerce chipping away at established retailers. Yesterday, we looked at the success of Boxed and others in the wholesale space, taking a cut out of Costco. Find out more.