Winners and Losers of the Week: Online Used-Car Retailer Vroom Is This Week’s Winner

This week’s winners are:

New York-based online used-car retailer Vroom for raising $254 million. The round, bringing the company’s total raised to date to $694 million, was led by Duranle Capital Partners with participation from PICO Venture Partners. Read more

Israeli crypto company Saga Monetary Technologies for launching its new digital currency, SGA. According to Ido Sadeh Man, the founder and chairman of Saga, the new token will function as a stable coin backed by the SDR currency basket, the value of which is based on the dollar, euro, renminbi, yen, and British pound. Read more

This week’s losers are:

Israel’s citizens and economy following the parliament’s decision to hold elections for the third time in under a year. The political vacuum created by this situation means almost no laws are being passed or amended and no budgets are being allocated, leaving many of the state’s arms to run on fumes. Read more

Construction site app developer Buildup for being on the brink of shutting down. The Palo Alto, California-based company has notified some of its employees that it will no longer be able to pay them as of next month. Read more

This week’s data point: 22%

According to a report published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, 22% of Israeli households live in a perpetual overdraft for 10 months or more a year. Of all Israeli households that have a bank account, 42% have been in overdraft for at least one month during the past year. Read more