Week of February 11th, 2019 — This Week in the Gig Economy
In this publication of This Week in the Gig Economy, we’re covering topics ranging from the large trends in the Global Labour Market and the latest developments with large gig economy companies. Without further ado:
Gig Economy Development
Uber, Lyft Get IPO Feedback
Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have received initial feedback from the Securities and Exchange Commission about their confidential IPO filings, according to people familiar with the matter, according to Bloomberg.
The move by the regulator — which was shuttered for 35 days during the partial U.S. government shutdown — puts the ball back in the companies’ court to submit new drafts for review, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the back-and-forth is private.
Both Uber and Lyft are closely watching whether another shutdown will go ahead at the end of this week as they prepare for initial public offerings later this year.
Money laundering in the gig economy — Swift is here to help
Reports in CNBC last week shed light on ways criminals’ money laundering tactics are evolving with the help of the gig economy.
Cybercriminals are turning to new technologies to launder their ill-gotten gains, including recruiting fake Uber drivers, shady Airbnb hosts, and crypto conversion specialists via the underground dark web.
One of the major challenges for companies and banks face when it comes to tackling money laundering issues is the ability to share data among them. This is due to the one of the largest pain points of Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance for businesses and their financial institutions (FIs): the complexity linked to corporations that use multiple banks across multiple jurisdictions.
Payments messaging firm SWIFT announced on Tuesday (Feb. 12) that it will now allow corporates to join its KYC Registry in an effort to facilitate the sharing of data between companies and their banks.
“Corporate treasurers cite KYC as one of the top three challenges they face in their bank relationships,” said SWIFT’s Head of KYC Compliance Services Marie-Charlotte Henseval in a statement, noting that the addition of corporates to the KYC Registry “will extend them the same advantages, with a standard agreed [upon] by the community and a secure platform enabling efficient data sharing.”
Rapyd nabs $40M led by Stripe and GC
Rapyd — a startup that is building a “Swiss army knife of financial services” — from payments to currency transfers, ID verifications and card issuing for companies to use by way of a single API — is announcing funding.
According to its CEO, the company has raised 40M and its plans to use the funds to continue to add more functions to its platform, more staff to build them and to expand its customer base.
This Series B is notable because it is being co-led by Stripe, the payments giant that is now valued at $22 billion, as well as General Catalyst, one of Stripe’s biggest backers, which has for years also co-invested with it in strategic startups. Others in this round include Target Global (a previous investor) IGNIA and other strategic payments and fintech companies that Rapyd is not disclosing.
Labour trends in the gig economy
The rise of Greypreneurs
Age discrimination, much like any other form of discrimination, has no place in a professional setting. Yet 60% of workers aged 45 and up have said they’ve seen or even experiences ageism first hand. Starting in 2013, the IBM corporation has shifted over 20,000 employees, aged 40 and up, out of their workforce.
“Greyprenuers,” a term describing the increase of older professionals pursuing their passions with entrepreneurship, gives us interesting insight and challenges the image of what an entrepreneur looks like. Though we may think of Silicon Valley millennials developing apps or gimmicky gadgets, the truth that nearly 60% of small business owners are over the age of 50 and nearly 50% of all self-employed workers are Baby Boomers. So what makes them so special when it comes to entrepreneurship?
To answer this question, check out this cool infographic by Best Masters Program.
Thank you for reading :)
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