Thursday, 27th of January, 2022

Hello,

We are all working for money - that’s a strong statement. Is it true? I’m not sure.?

People remain motivated not only because of the end of the month's paycheck, but also because they may grow, connect, and form friendships. Of course, the bottom line for the company is money, but you can have both: a great culture and rapid growth.

?Too many businesses place their bets on a cutthroat, high-pressure, no-holds-barred culture. And, hate to report, people will eventually quit as a result of this.

Culture is crucial.

Make connections inside your organization.

Motivate your team.

Have fun while working.

You will succeed one day. Or maybe you already have?

Cheers,

Radek

Disrupting Retail

• Autonomous technology company, StreetDrone, has released new images of a solution that British high street chain wilko’s CEO, Jerome Saint-Marc, labels ‘guilt free’ direct-to-consumer shopping. “This form of technology will allow small independents to compete on a level playing field with large online retailers by reducing the cost of home delivery and giving communities more ways to access their neighborhood shops,” says Saint-Marc. Read more.?
• M&S makes AR wayfinding app trials public. The supermarket started staff trials of the app, called List&Go, before Christmas as part of its 10x digital stores programme. Read more.?
• Online food ordering app Deliverect has secured more than $150m (￡111m) in Series D funding to further its expansion. “As digitisation becomes more and more popular, we’ve seen how much not only restaurants but grocery and convenience stores need streamlined online ordering to meet customer satisfaction, especially among Millennials and Generation Z shoppers.” says Zhong Xu, Deliverect co-founder and CEO. Read more.?

Finance & Tech

• How to adapt the marketing strategy to the company's growth, why it is essential to growing the community, and how to make sure its offering is attractive to the market? All those questions and more (I'm sure about that) will be answered during the next Disruption Talk with Stephanie Bowker - Head of Marketing at Spendesk. I can't wait to see Ola Prejs - Head of Growth, running this episode. Read more.??
• CurveGlobal Markets closes its digital doors for the last time on Friday, 28 January – after over 5 years of service. “However, above all of those learning points is that ultimately even with great kit, great partners and with margin offsets at LCH that are very interesting (and of course a smashing CEO and team) this was not sufficient, and that all those benefits require deep, liquid, tight, two-way markets as a precursor to success.” wrote in a letter Andy Ross, CEO, CurveGlobal Markets. Read more.?
• Walmart's fintech startup Hazel is to acquire earned wage access firm Even and neobanking ONE as it prepares to emerge from stealth mode. “Consumers everywhere are being left behind by the world of financial services,” says Omer Ismail - CEO of ONE.. “Our vision is clear: build on Even and ONE’s success to offer a product that offers consumers the best way to spend, the best way to access their wages and helps millions save and grow their money. I’m looking forward to partnering with two stellar leaders in Brian and David to improve the financial lives of tens of millions of consumers.” Read more.?
• Citi is to undertake a $100 million refurbishment of its skyscraper in Canary Wharf, reflecting optimism about Britain's role in a post-Brexit future and a switch to more flexible working practices in the wake of the pandemic. “Our aim is to create an environmentally sustainable, innovative and exciting place to work, incorporating modern design, state-of-the-art technology, and best practices in employee and client spaces,” says David Livingstone, Citi’s Emea CEO. “Citi Tower is a significant investment in our people and our growing business in the UK and the broader Emea region.” Read more.?
• Facebook is reportedly mulling the sale of Diem assets as regulatory pressure mounts against Mark Zuckerberg's cryptocurrency project. Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg reports that The Diem Association is looking at selling its assets and intellectual property as a means to return capital to investors. Originally planned as a global private cryptocurrency, the project was scaled back following political and regulatory pressure and a new idea floated, pegging a rebranded Diem token to the US dollar. Read more.?
• Affirm, the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth, today announced the launch of two significant additions to its product suite: the Affirm SuperApp and Chrome browser extension. “We know that consumers want a one-stop shop to manage their finances. Affirm saw this firsthand when we added Savings to our app, which has since attracted more than $300 million in total deposits while driving meaningful engagement,” said Max Levchin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Affirm. Read more.?
• Zafin, the world’s leading SaaS cloud-native product and pricing platform for banks and credit unions, today announced it has acquired FINCAD, a global leader in pricing and risk analytics of financial derivatives and fixed income products. Al Karim Somji, Founder and Group CEO of Zafin, said: “As we look to further accelerate our global growth and enhance our end-to-end pricing and analytics offering to the marketplace, this move into the Capital Markets space is a key step. FINCAD naturally stood out to us given their impressive track record of being the leading provider of derivative analytics and pricing with a strong team that delivers for some of the world’s most trusted institutions.” Read more.?

Personal Changes

• Wayfair on Wednesday named Fiona Tan as its chief technology officer, effective March 1. Tan succeeds Jim Miller, who's held the role since 2019, first in the interim then transitioning to permanent CTO. Miller will remain with the company during a transition period before he retires June 30, according to a company press release. Tan, who came to Wayfair in 2020, has over 25 years of technology experience, including six years at Walmart overseeing technology and engineering. Read more.?
• Yesterday, the New York State Senate voted to confirm Adrienne A. Harris as Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). “I am honored to serve as the Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services. As the first African American woman to lead DFS, I am personally committed to working with all stakeholders to build a robust, fair and sustainable financial system, creating a better economic future for all New Yorkers." Read more.?

All Things Innovation?

• PortalOne, which is building an immersive gaming platform that describes itself as hybrid in more ways than one — it mixes games with a game show/talk show format, and it’s designed to work across various devices from mobile through to consoles and VR headsets — has picked up $60 million. The startup — based in Oslo but with a significant presence also in Los Angeles — plans to use the funding to continue building out its platform and operations en route to its first commercial launch: PortalOne Arcade, a journey into a retro “arcade” featuring multiple games. Read more.?

A Number to Remember

$98.3 billion?

• South Korea’s electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution made a successful market debut on Thursday. The market capitalization of LG Energy stood at $98.3 billion (118 trillion KRW) at the close of trading on local stock exchanges, making it the country’s second valuable firm after Samsung Electronics. Read more.?

Reader’s Corner

• You probably remember the times when a car’s sole purpose was transportation from point A to point B, and the only fancy that drivers could satisfy was to choose between sedan, hatchback, or estate. In the last decades, the automotive industry has undergone a transformation where these traditional segments evolved into new cross-segment, multi-purpose, and highly-customized vehicles. The banking sector is at the beginning of a similar evolution in which embedded banking boundaries between financial and non-financial products will start to fade. Read more.?