Hey bb! The Hunger Games-like series “Squid Game” has investors hungry 🍔 for shares, snagging stocks of two companies related to Netflix's latest thriller. 📺

In other news…Looking for bear hugs 🧸 as we weather surges in oil prices, Paypal launches a super app, and Astera Labs has us plugged into semi-conductors. 🔌

Netflix’s Trending ‘Squid Game’ Sparks Korean Media Stock Surge 🦑

The latest Netflix hit from the Korean entertainment world, “Squid Game,” is poppin' with investors 🍿. The dramatized survival game brings us back to the days of the “Hunger Games.” 🏹 The show currently tops the global rankings on Netflix, and is the first Korean drama to claim the No.1 spot in the US on the streaming platform.Investors have been snagging shares of two companies related to the thriller series, Bucket Studio Co. and Showbox ✌️KOSDAQ-listed. According to Bloomberg, Bucket Studio, which holds a stake in the agency representing Squid Game’s lead actor Lee Jung-Jae, climbed 70% in the three trading sessions from September 17th to 24th 📈. Korea holds “serious competitive threat” to Hollywood powerhouses 🎥 as Korean movie and TV production stocks could outperform over the next 2 to 3 years on global demand for America's entertainment content 🌏, according to analyst Douglas Kim on Smartkarma.

Meet the founder, Leigh Cuen, who is launching a women's magazine later this year. Join the next Twitter Spaces on October 1st to learn more about hybrid business models. Be sure to also catch Des Femmes Mag community on Cheres soon. Their NFT chats are always a fun time.

Quick News Bites

U.S. natural gas surges 11% to 7-year high on global shortage shock 🌲

Speed up, gas pedal, now 🤭…U.S. natural gas prices soared earlier this week to their highest in more than seven and a half years 😢. Traders cited contagious fears (it's a thing…) as gas and other energy shortages sweep Europe and Asia 🔋. This has led to heavier demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas ⏩, the highest closing price since February 2014 and the contract's biggest daily percentage gain since this February's Texas freeze. 🪗"The market is starting to wake up to the fact that we have a potential structural shortage for natural gas," Price Futures' Phil Flynn says. Traders also were closing out bearish positions ahead of the expiration of October options and futures this week 🐻. Can anyone send us a bear hug, cuz we are feeling the cool air, the downturn and in this lonely ‘steal their hoodie season’, it's hard to find support. Including all you nice-hoodie owning wearing peeps.

PayPal ‘super app’ launches! Combining payments, savings, bill pay, shopping, crypto, and more 🛍️

The first version of the PayPal “super app” is officially being introduced, with financial tools for dayz 💵 direct deposit, a digital wallet, bill pay, peer-to-peer payments, shopping tools, crypto capabilities…PayPal’s new Shopping hub ties in messaging to include personalized deals and exclusive rewards that can be saved to the wallet for future access. Seems like the 2019 $4B Honey acquisition is being put to good use 🍯. Talking about good… Also new in the updated app is PayPal’s crowdsourced fundraising platform, the Generosity Network, PayPal’s answer to GoFundMe or Facebook Fundraisers which allows individuals to raise money for themselves, others in need or small businesses and charities 💚.

Astera Labs nabs $50M at a $950M valuation to remove bottlenecks in cloud apps 🌤️

With an increase in WFH/study from home and relying on cloud-based SaaS/PaaS applications, the deployment of scalable hardware infrastructure has accelerated 🙅‍♀️💾. More enterprises are migrating to cloud-based architectures, taking on more apps and, as a result of that, more complex workloads and storage needs ☁️. Enter Astera Labs, a fabless semiconductor company that builds connectivity solutions that help remove bottlenecks around high-bandwidth applications and help better allocate resources around enterprise data, has raised $50 million. Fabless 💃: designs microchips but contracts out their production rather than owning its own factory.The Series C values the company at $950 million post-money, the company confirmed. Fidelity Management and Research is leading the round with Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners, and more 💰.

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