Today In Payments: Uber India Lays Off 600 Amid COVID-19; With Startup Valuations Down, VC Firms Seek Deals

In today’s top news, Uber lays off 600 workers in India, venture capital firms seek acquisitions amid lower prices, and economists are beginning to forecast that the worst of the pandemic’s damage is over.

As Ride Demands Vanish Amid COVID-19 Uber India Layoffs 600

Uber is seeing a severe dropoff in demand for its services in India and will lay off about 600 workers. The move is part of a survival strategy amid the pandemic that will reduce Uber’s global workforce by 23 percent.

With Startup Valuations Down, VC Firms Seek Deals

With valuations sinking, startups are becoming reticent to fundraise like normal. But venture capital firms, seeing the lower prices, are becoming more aggressive on buying amid the weak markets right now.

The Flaw In Demonizing Big Tech

For years, opinion writers have attached labels to Big Tech like the Frightful Five or FAANG, making Big Tech synonymous with Bad Tech among some politicians, regulators and the media. Karen Webster says this group demonization has one big flaw — targeting these businesses not for necessarily doing something bad but for being part of that group. And that, she said, is bad for just about everyone.

What Banking’s ‘Wave Three’ Might Look Like

Daniel Eckert, Green Dot’s executive vice president and chief product, strategy and development officer, told Karen Webster that financial services has seen two big waves of change over the last decade and is on its way to a third. Wave One was the analog prepaid card for the un- and underserved, Wave Two was the rise of digital challenger banks. Wave Three? Eckert says that’s about presenting banking services in context. Here’s what that means.

US Economy Shows Signs Of Restart As Shutdowns End

Economists are beginning to forecast that the worst damage of the coronavirus pandemic is over, pending a second wave of the virus. Slow increases in activity in fields such as travel and shipping, which were previously at historic lows, are now showing some movement back to positive numbers.

Online Grocery Service JioMart Launches In India

Reliance Industries, aiming to compete in India with Walmart’s Flipkart and Amazon’s delivery services, has launched JioMart as a food delivery service for the country’s massive market. The new service will offer free express delivery from India’s local mom ‘n’ pop grocery stores and will service around 200 towns across India.

PPP Loan Demand Peters Out Amid SMB Confusion

After SMBs applied for the first $349 billion tranche of loans in less than two weeks, demand for the second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds has sharply dropped off. Roughly $149 billion of PPP money remains untapped.