The Globe is reporting that Wealthsimple is in talks with several US venture capital funds over raising a $100 milllion plus round that would value the company at over $1 billion.

The Backstory: The popular milennial financial company has grown significantly in the past five years:

Stocks Only Go Up: While Wealthsimple's main business, their robo advisory service, has grown to over $8.4 billion in assets under management, Silicon Valley is really excited about their Wealthsimple Trade product.

Wealthsimple Trade is the Canadian Robinhood, allowing you and I to trade without fees on an easy to use app. Similar to Robinhood, Wealthsimple's brokerage saw huge user growth over the pandemic and it's on pace to nearly triple in size this year.

Silicon Valley VCs who missed the Robinhood deal see a chance to get in on another fast growing online brokerage.

Why would they raise? Since Power Corp is worth nearly $17 billion and owns nearly 70% of the company, you wouldn't think Wealthsimple would need the cash...

But as we've talked about a lot over the past month, it's IPO szn. Wealthsimple is looking to go public and raising outside capital would give them external validation ahead of a public offering.

Hootsuite, the Vancouver-based social media management software company, has cancelled a contract with ICE (US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) after a employee revolt over the deal.

ICE What? US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the government agency responsible for enforcing cross-border crime and illegal immigration laws. Recently the agency has come under fire for the inhumane detention of illegal immigrants, including the forced sterilization of detainees.

How did Hootsuite get involved: Hootsuite sold ICE a contract worth of $500,000 USD which, according to ICE, would be used to educate the public about their work.

After learning of this deal Sam Anderson, a Product Trainer at Hootsuite, spoke out against it in a widely shared Twitter thread. Her thread forced the CEO of Hootsuite Tom Keiser to respond and announce that the company would no longer be participating in the deal.

Zoom out: An increasingly progressive tech workforce will continue to force companies to think twice about who they do business with.

President Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his pick to be the next US Supreme Court Justice.

Who is she? Amy Coney Barrett is a 48 year-old judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. She received her JD from Notre Dame and clerked under late Justice Antonin Scalia from 1998-1999.

Where does she stand on the issues: Barrett is a favourite among conservative activists and is expected to push the courts to the right if confirmed. Here's what you need to know:

What's next: Now that the President made the appointment, it's up for the Senate to confirm Barrett. In a controversial move, the Republican majority in the Senate is pushing to appoint Amy Coney Barrett before the Presidential election on November 3rd.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has said he plans to hold a vote on confirmation as early as October 22nd.

However, the Democrats are currently assessing their options on if and how they could delay the vote till after November 3rd. Some ideas being brought up are an impeachment vote either against Attorney General William Barr or another vote targeting President Trump, both would delay the Senate's confirmation process.

Between the challenges of voting during a global pandemic and President Trump's recent comments around a peaceful transition, invetors are betting that the outcome of the presidential contest will be far from clear on election day and they're looking for ways to profit on the uncertainty.

There's been a spike in financial product that are usually tied to uncertainty in the market. Here's a few examples:

Bottom Line: Investors know as much as much as we do about the outcome of the election (which isn't much). But that won't stop them from making bets...

Trump: An explosive New York Times investigation into President Trump's tax returns found years of losses and tax avoidance.

Tik Tok: A judge blocked President Trump's TikTok app store ban hours before it was expected to take effect.

COVID: Grocers are stockpiling goods in advance of a second wave of COVID-19.

Nova Scotia: Locals are clashing Mi’kmaq fisherman over their court granted right to fish in territorial waters.

Trains: Ottawa is close to making a decison on Via Rail's high-frequency train proposal between Toronto and Quebec City.