Happy hump day, Flux fam!

Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories:

🍔 Mr Yum raises a huge $89 million

👋 Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down

🚨 Westpac cops a $113 million fine for dodgy practices

Oh and get this...

A crypto token called Omicron that launched at the start of November has surged more than 900% since Saturday...after a new COVID variant with the same name emerged. Don't ya just love crypto.

Melb-based mobile ordering platform Mr Yum just raised a yummy $89 million

Background: Mr Yum are a mobile ordering and payments platform founded back in 2018. Their QR codes took off during COVID when no-one wanted to touch grotty menus at restaurants.

What happened: Mr Yum have just raised a further $89 million, led by investment firm Tiger Global (which has investments in Amazon, Peloton and even Microsoft).

What else: This Series A investment brings the company's total cash injection in 2021 to around $103 million. ‍

So what's the key learning?

💡When it comes to startup funding, there are often a few terms that get thrown around.  

💡To start with the basics, we've got:

1. The Seed Round - Generally, the funding received before a company actually produces a finished project (i.e. it's a seed that needs money to grow)
2. The Series A Round - The funding received when there's a product and clear evidence of traction.
3. The Series B Round - The funding a business received to help meet new levels of demand (i.e. to take it to the next level).

💡There's a Series C, D and E as well, which is when companies want more capital to help develop new products, expand into markets...or even acquire new companies. But it looks like Mr Yum is on its way to big things!‍

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey yeets away from the company to pursue Square..and other things

Background: Jack Dorsey is the American tech entrepreneur famous for founding two massive companies: social network platform Twitter and payments platform Square.

What happened: Jacky D's been the CEO of both companies since he founded them...and that's been a bit of a running problem for both companies. Twitter's share price is the same as it was in 2014. Compare that to Google who has 5x'ed since then. Or Facebook, which has 6x'ed.

What else: Now, he's stepped down from his role as CEO at Twitter. He reckons the company is ready to move on from its founders.

So what's the key learning?

💡Founder-led companies are generally those whose founder is the CEO, president or board member (think: Elon Musk with Tesla, Mark Zuckerberg with Meta...or Sarah Blakely with Spanx).

💡Many investors are attracted to founder-led companies because:

• Founders generally look to the long-term rather than focusing on the next earnings report
• They have a large chunk of their wealth tied to the company's success, so they've got skin in the game
• Founders know every last detail of the biz, 'cos they were once the head of marketing...sales...product...ya get the gist.

💡But it's fair to say the founder (Jacky D), who's also the founder of another business (Square) is probs not the right person for the job. So now, Jack can pursue other projects like Square, crypto...and probably the metaverse.

YIKES: Westpac admits to charging dead people fees and cops a huge $113 million fine

Background: Westpac are one of Australia's biggest banks...and one of the banks to be heavily scrutinised in the 2019 Banking Royal Commission.

What happened: To this day, we're still seeing the fallout from that Royal Commission. Now, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (aka ASIC, the corporate regulator) has launched 6 lawsuits against Westpac.

What else: Among the claims, ASIC claim Westpac charged more than $10 million in financial advice fees to over 11,000 customers...who had actually died (i.e. they charged fees for no service). Westpac's agreed to the claims, and will cop $113 million in fines.

So what's the key learning?

💡Fees for service is a payment model where services are provided in exchange for a fee. Sounds simple, right? But fee-for-service contracts can roll over year after year...even when you're no longer using that service (like ya gym membership).

💡But what the Banking Royal Commission uncovered was that banks were charging fees for no service. As a result, banks like AMP, NAB, ANZ, CommBank and Westpac have returned nearly $2 billion to customers for financial advice they never received.

💡Now, Westpac will be hoping to pay the fines...and move on. Nothin' to see here, folks.