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• Facebook is merging Messenger with Instagram Direct Messages in a new update. The tech giant announced plans to unify messaging systems across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in 2019. The new chat system will allow emoji reactions to messages, swipe to reply, and chat with Facebook friends in the Instagram app, though some of these features are not fully functional yet.
   

• Uber and Lyft could shut down in California this week. As part of an ongoing lawsuit, a San Francisco court ordered the ride-hailing cos to reclassify their drivers as employees by this Thursday. Uber responded by threatening to pull out of the state until November, when California residents vote on Prop 22 — a measure that would classify drivers as independent contractors. We examine Uber’s business model in this report.
   

• A number of retail earnings are slated for this week, including Walmart, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Target, and L Brands. Eyes will be on Walmart and Target, which both reported stellar results in Q1 as consumers stocked up on essential goods. We take a look at how Covid-19 impacted retail and retail tech investment trends in our just-released State Of Retail Tech report here. Other tech earnings include Nvidia and Alibaba, which are both expected to report strong results. 

Confessions of a shopaholic 

E-commerce startups are driving big deals and valuations in retail tech amid the pandemic as retailers scramble to make up for lost in-store revenue. 

From text-based commerce to virtual try-ons to efficient last-mile delivery, we unveil the tech helping retailers adapt to changing shopper habits in our latest State Of Retail report.

Our senior lead retail analyst will also be walking through the highlights of the quarter in an upcoming webinar. Sign up here.

Lend me a hand

AmEx is reportedly buying Kabbage in a deal worth as much as $850M. 

Fintech startups addressing the financial needs of underserved SMBs are gaining traction — read about this trend and more in our quarterly fintech report, or dive deeper into the data and the trends with our fintech analyst in Thursday's briefing. 

All in one

Last week we unveiled the Digital Health 150. As promised, we’ve rounded up several of the winners to give 8-minute presentations at the Future of Health (September 23-25). This is your chance to discover the most promising digital health companies all in 1 place.
 

Our presenters include:

• CEO, ProteinQure

• CEO & co-founder, Carrot Fertility

• CEO & co-founder Wellth

• CEO & co-founder, League

• CEO & founder, Firefly Health

• CEO & co-founder, Protenus

• CEO, Aetion

• CEO & founder, Kindbody

Check out the full list of speakers here. Save $300 off your ticket with code DHPRESOS.

Health-conscious

Healthcare is the most well-represented category on our market map of the top-funded AI startups, including companies like Babylon Health and HeartFlow. 

Clients can check out the rest of the 90+ top-funded companies using AI to develop autonomous vehicles, preempt cyber attacks, and more here. 

I love you.

P.S. We're looking for a director of sales development. Check out the role here.