Even though still recovering from the NYE Party and Holiday break, we are entering 2022 with good energy and intense focus. Health - mental and physical - should be our primary goal. Speaking of that, did you see the Apple ad about the new Apple Watch? Long story short, this is a video with 3 ER recordings from people who used an Apple Watch to reach an emergency. I am not convinced about the message behind: “without the Apple Watch, you will die,” but medical tracking will indeed be one of the main innovations in 2022.?
Besides the main preoccupation of the tech industry, the upcoming year will be about accessibility. I am looking forward to seeing all the innovations in tech that will help people in their struggle with the digital divide.?
Did you make your New Year Resolutions??
What are your plans for 2022?
- German food delivery group Delivery Hero (DHER.DE) said on Friday it had signed an agreement to acquire about a 39.4% stake in Spanish delivery app Glovo. The company currently holds about 43.8% in Glovo shares on a non-diluted basis. Read more.?
- While the new area of digital life is rapidly expanding into the metaverse, the clothing and fashion industry has already begun to take its place here. Major brands such as Adidas, Nike, and Zara have started to open their stores in the metaverse and the first signals were given that H&M, the strong brand of fashion retail, could come to CEEK City. CEEK VR shared the following from its official Twitter account; “Shopping in the metaverse with $CEEK Concept VR store presented to H&M by CEEK creates mainstream use cases for $CEEK + scaling Virtualreality beyond games”. Read more.?
- Jumbo Supermarkets and instant on-demand delivery company Gorillas have reached an agreement on a strategic partnership in the Netherlands and in the Flanders region in Belgium. The partnership focuses on the rapidly growing market for instant groceries deliveries ordered online in larger cities. Gorillas CEO and Founder, Kagan Sümer: “Less than a year after the launch of Gorillas in the Netherlands and in Belgium, I’m extremely proud to debut this strategic partnership with such a trusted household name. Jumbo and Gorillas share many common values; we are entrepreneurs at heart dedicated to offer the best possible experience to our customers while continuously innovating. This collaboration will bring unprecedented value to Jumbo and Gorillas’ customers. They will get access to Jumbo's extensive range of quality products through the Gorillas' app and Jumbo's online customers will soon have the opportunity to have their groceries delivered to their homes in no time. I’m convinced that we can learn a lot from each other's strengths and I’m really looking forward to establishing together a faster, higher quality grocery offering for consumers in the Netherlands and in Belgium." Read more.?
- Digital fundraising company, GoodBox, has announced a partnership with Mulberry, to supply contactless donation devices to stores across the UK. “The Felix Project is such an important cause and a vital lifeline for so many especially at this time of the year,” said GoodBox’s co-founder and managing director, Francesca Hodgson. “We are delighted to be able to support them with our devices across Mulberry stores. Offering a simple contactless donation point has been proven to raise more funds as so many potential donors don’t have cash available.” Read more.?
- “Buy now, pay later” online loans are getting attention from both regulators and the credit industry as consumers increasingly turn to them, and they may soon play a bigger role in credit scores. Loans from financial technology companies, including Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna, offer an updated version of layaway plans, once a common option for shoppers to pay for big-ticket items in installments. The new offerings, widely available online or via mobile apps, are generally used for smaller purchases, like shoes, apparel and concert tickets, and allow the buyer to get the items right away. Read more.?
- Cross-border payments have expanded significantly from businesses to individual consumers in recent years, with payment card giant Visa reporting that cross-border payment volumes on its service grew by 38% in Q4 2021, for example. This trend has been driven by individuals shopping online as brick-and-mortar sales stagnated due to the ongoing pandemic. Read more.?
- Chinese gaming and social media company Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) has taken a small stake in Britain's Monzo as part of a fundraising, the digital bank said on Friday, just weeks after it fetched a valuation of $4.5 billion. Monzo did not disclose details of Tencent's stake, but Sky News earlier on Friday reported that the Chinese firm was investing a minority of a $100 million capital injection, citing a source close to the process. Read more.?
- When American Banker’s editors huddled to assemble a slide show of executives to watch this year, one major theme emerged: crypto. Four of the 10 people who landed on the list lead companies that are placing big bets on cryptocurrency, underscoring the fact that digital currencies have rapidly become a central part of the financial system. Read more.?
- BlackBerry will discontinue service for its classic devices on Tuesday, the company reminded users in a statement. "As a reminder, the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions, will no longer be available after January 4, 2022," the statement reads.The shutdown means the phones will no longer reliably function for "data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality," BlackBerry said. Read more.?
- Our tech columnists look ahead to electric cars that don’t break the bank, earbuds that gauge your health, a fix for social media’s harms, package deliveries from above and more. Read more.?
- According to The Telegraph, Santander is attempting to claw back from its competitors a sum of ￡130 million, which was erroneously sent to 75,000 accounts on Christmas day, as the result of a payments duplication. Read more. ?
- Businesses were often forced to pivot to new digital business models, putting pressure on development teams to deliver innovative digital products and services as quickly as possible. Check Mateusz Czajka’s - Chief Delivery Officer at Netguru - predictions for trends in software development. Read more.?
- Forbes deems this “the greatest market democratization of our times,” bearing the promise of greater accessibility and lasting change within the investment space. However, while diversification of the world investor base and decreased gatekeeping are undoubtedly something worth celebrating, the phenomenon raises an important question — or two. Will this trend cause a seismic shift within the field of finance, or are we still lightyears away from overturning the status quo supported by traditional wealth management institutions? Also, what are the potential implications of the rise of these new investment opportunities for those who were previously denied access? - A piece by Grzegorz Kosiński Senior Innovation Consultant at Netguru. Read more.?
