Wednesday, December 1st, 2021

Hello,?

A lot of great news here today, especially for all the finance innovation folks. No wonder why as the industry gets more and more crowded as we head towards 2022. Make sure to check out especially the highlights from AfterPay, Wise, SumUp, Currencycloud & BNP Paribas.

And cheers to the amazing team at Careem, 4.3 million rides in first 10 months of 2021 sound exciting.?

Enjoy the 1st day of December & stay safe, folks.?

Radek

?

Disrupting Retail

• One of Australia's largest and fastest growing retail brokers, Openmarkets, has gone live on GBST’s Retail Clearing Platform, which has been deployed via a Software as a Service model on the Amazon Web Services cloud. Ivan Tchourilov, CEO at OMG (Openmarkets Group), said, “We selected GBST’s Retail Clearing Platform due to its breadth of system capabilities, plus the fact that it is the choice of many ASX participants gave us greater confidence. It gives us a great foundation to grow faster with the forthcoming CHESS replacement being handled by GBST. The economies of scale it provides make it much more economic than running our own back-office technology. The platform will provide us with automation across the complete post-trade lifecycle for equities and options, client onboarding automation, and firm-wide risk management, that will allow us to focus on delivering leading-edge technology, and an expanded product offering that will benefit the more than 225,000 investors using our systems, holding in excess of $11 billion in assets.”

??https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/90510/openmarkets-goes-live-on-gbsts-australian-retail-clearing-platform?

• Allbirds has focused on its use of natural, environmentally friendly materials to set itself apart in the sneaker space from long-standing brands like Adidas, Nike and New Balance. Putting ESG efforts at the core of its business has also caught the eye of Wall Street ahead of Allbirds reporting financial results for its first time as a public company after the market closed on Tuesday.

??https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/30/what-wall-street-thinks-about-allbirds-and-buying-an-esg-branded-stock.html?

Finance & Tech

• Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Afterpay has released insights on consumer shopping that include a massive boost in Afterpay use, according to a Tuesday press release. BNPL spending in the U.S. has increased 230% in the past year, with a 34% increase this holiday season compared to last year, the release stated. “As we celebrate another holiday season in the pandemic, consumers were eager to gain a sense of normalcy and spend on gifts for themselves and loved ones,” said Afterpay General Manager of North America Zahir Khoja.

??https://www.pymnts.com/buy-now-pay-later/2021/afterpay-bnpl-purchases-up-34-percent/?

• The Wise card has landed in Canada, sending hidden fees and rate markups running. According to the official announcement, this step will change the Canadian way of travelling: “We’re excited to announce the launch of our card in Canada — to help customers save on every foreign transaction.”?

?? https://wise.com/ca/blog/card-launch-canada?

• Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform Unit is partnering with cross-border money transfer firm Currencycloud. Itai Damti, Unit CEO and co-founder, says the partnership will allow the company to “better align with our domestic banking providers”.?

??https://www.fintechfutures.com/2021/12/unit-adds-cross-border-payments-capabilities-with-currencycloud/

• BNP Paribas has partnered with Euro paytech SIA to launch co-branded cards with major commercial partners in France and other European countries. BNP Paribas will also leverage SIA’s digital on-boarding and Open Banking platforms to enrol new customers on mobile apps and access information pertaining to different bank accounts, in line with EU e-money regulation, the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). “The payment card market is undergoing a huge transformation, particularly in Europe, both functionally and technologically,” says Carlo Bovero, BNP Paribas’ global head of cards and innovative payments.

??https://www.fintechfutures.com/2021/11/bnp-paribas-partners-european-paytech-sia-to-launch-branded-corporate-cards/?

• SumUp's Europe CEO Michael Schrezenmaier discusses a cashless future with wearables, digital assets, and integrated solutions playing an increasingly important role in society. Michael believes the future of payments is about more than just technology. It's also about creating an interconnected ecosystem for customers to seamlessly pay for multiple services at once, whether they are physical or digital, without feeling like they are making payments.

??https://fintechmagazine.com/digital-payments/future-payments-predictions-sumups-europe-ceo?

• Expense management startup Jeeves tapped Mastercard to launch physical and virtual business cards in Mexico that let businesses pay in currencies from any country where Mastercard operates, per a press release. The card—which is tailored for startups and businesses operating in multiple countries—has no fees and lets users earn up to 4% cash back.

??https://www.businessinsider.com/jeeves-partners-with-mastercard-to-launch-business-cards-in-mexico-2021-11?

• Miguel Armaza (the Fintech Leaders show) had a great talk with Kristy Kim, Co-Founder & CEO of TomoCredit, and Justin Howell, Co-Founder & CEO of Rize. They covered a few interesting topics together like: building a FICO-free underwriting model, the importance of providing the modern consumer with seamless interoperability across banking, brokerage, and crypto capabilities in a single platform.?

??https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/armaza_money2020-special-kristy-kim-co-founder-activity-6871466308546957312-Mjqu/

All Things- Innovation?

• Booksy, the leading beauty and wellness appointment booking app, announced the expansion of its EMEA footprint via its acquisition of Kiute, a leading provider of salon management and booking software in France. Booksy is also thrilled to announce and welcome Scot Gensler as the company's Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships and Corporate Development. "We are incredibly excited to expand in France through the acquisition of Kiute," said Stefan Batory, Booksy CEO and Co-Founder. "The French beauty industry continues to set global standards and Kiute represents the perfect match with Booksy's global leadership position. Kiute has built an incredible reputation in the market and we look forward to accelerating their digitization of the French beauty and wellness industry."

??https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/booksy-acquires-kiute-hires-proven-partnerships--corporate-development-leader-301433876.html?

• Ride-hailing company Careem, which registered more than 23 million rides in the UAE between 2015 and 2019, recorded 4.1 million rides last year and 4.3 million rides during the January-October period of this year.

??https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/2021/11/30/careem-records-43-million-rides-in-first-10-months-of-2021/?

• EarlyBird, the community investing app, generated $10,000 this year for participants in the company's ongoing 'Gifts for Good' campaign. Launched in March 2021, the program teaches young leaders, philanthropists, and changemakers across the U.S. and internationally about the power of investing not only through capital, but with the added value of community and love as well. "Our mission is to empower children to start investing in a way that's interactive and engaging so they can build funds for their future. The Gifts for Good program has brought to light so many amazing kids who are already making positive, productive changes in their local communities and around the world," said Jordan Wexler, CEO, and founder of EarlyBird.?

??https://finance.yahoo.com/news/earlybird-gifts-good-campaign-generates-181300463.html?

• At its annual re:Invent conference, AWS announced two new initiatives for the automotive industry. One is a new product, AWS FleetWise, a new service that makes it easier for automakers to collect and retrieve sensor and telemetry data from their vehicle fleets. The other is AWS Automotive, a broader, industry-specific initiative that brings together a range of the company’s products under a single umbrella, similar to AWS’s other industry solutions like AWS for Industrial.

??https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/30/aws-launches-new-services-for-the-automotive-industry/?

Personal Changes?

• David Marcus has quit as the boss of Facebook parent Meta's fintech unit after leading a frustrating effort to launch the Novi digital wallet and its associated stablecoin Diem. You can read my take on this here.?

??https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/39320/david-marcus-quits-facebook?

A Number to Remember

￡250,000

• ￡250,000, has been donated via RevolutApp to The Disasters Emergency Committee for the Coronavirus appeal. Well done!

?? https://twitter.com/RevolutApp/status/1465705026668548113?

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Reader’s Corner

• ?se Marthinsen, Innovation Manager in New Venture at DNB, shared her insights with our Maria Szepel about why a collaborative approach and ability to communicate benefits to all stakeholders are the main catalysts to leading innovation.?Check out the latest episode of the Everyday Innovation miniseries below.

??https://www.netguru.com/blog/everyday-innovation-4?

• Digital acceleration is not just about technology. Success involves far more than simply procuring competent vendors and doing some user training. These initiatives can no longer be left solely at the feet of technology leaders and IT staff, but must involve a diverse set of ecosystem stakeholders. We’re desperately in need of a shift in focus. We need to do more than just implement technology. Basic objectives such as cost optimization and process improvement can no longer be the ultimate aim. Leaders must inspire and empower their entire organization to boldly reimagine their work environment, customer needs, product offering, and even the purpose of the enterprise

??https://hbr.org/2021/11/4-principles-to-guide-your-digital-transformation?