The past two years were pretty hard for traveling. We were stuck at home, with national quarantines and COVID-19 making sure that we were all safe. But all those risks and restrictions led to hundreds of innovative ideas, making it a great time for technology development. According to TechCrunch, the next step for the space industry is sending DevOps to space. Or at least their knowledge, because there is a need for some good work on spaceship software.??
Getting back to Earth and thinking about sustainability, you should get familiar with Sustain. Life. They had not only raised 7M in pre-Seed funding but also launched a beta version of the SaaS platform measuring carbon footprint. During the recent COP26, attendees from all over the world were trying to find a solution to fight climate change. Sustain.Life is more than worth observing and who knows maybe implementing?
So, will technology lead us to the green revolution??
?Disrupting Retail
- Rivian shares continued to rally less than a week after the company went public in one of the biggest IPOs of the year. The stock closed up more than 15% Tuesday. Amazon has already ordered 100,000 Rivian vehicles to be delivered by 2030 and plans to have 10,000 Rivian vehicles delivering packages as early as next year.
- The wearables market may soon be getting some serious competition from fashion brands like H&M and its smart clothes. Alan Boehme, H&M’s chief technology officer, is looking at smart clothing as an alternative to smartwatches and wearables.
- As consumers become more comfortable with social commerce, Meta announced the rollout of multiple features for shopping within its Facebook Groups aimed at helping users find recommended products and support the communities they're a part of.
Finance & Tech
- Online lender NewDay has launched an instant access digital credit account with flexible repayment terms.? Ian Corfield, chief commercial officer at NewDay, says: “Many unregulated Buy Now Pay Later providers offer products that require customers to make multiple payments across those plans each month. With Newpay, we wanted to offer customers the ability to choose payment plans and timeframes that suit them, with customers paying just one amount each month, even if they have multiple payment plans in place across their purchases."
- The rapid shift to digital by established banks in Apac is outpacing their capacity to adequately protect themselves from emergent cyber threats. "As digitalisation of financial services across the Asia Pacific region takes place at record speed, firms should be aware of the accompanying pitfalls and take steps to mitigate them," says Christophe Barel, managing director for Apac, FS-Isac.
- Switzerland-based expense management fintech Yokoy is partnering with bank UBS for digitalization in the financial sector. Together with UBS, Yokoy enables large companies to automate the processes of spend management. By integrating credit card transactions into the Yokoy app, clients can make use of automatic data reconciliation.
- Virgin Money has hiked rates on selected mortgages. The intermediary exclusive two-year fixed purchase product at 85 percent LTV has gone up to 1.63 per cent from 1.49 per cent.
- Global payments service provider SumUp is launching Business Accounts, a new solution for the company’s merchants in the U.K. and Europe that will enable them to send sales payments directly into their account. The SumUp Business Account is the latest solution that we’ve brought forward to help our U.K.-based merchants improve the daily running of their businesses,” Dimitri Gugunava, VP of Banking at SumUp, said.
- Amazon UK is to stop accepting credit cards from Visa, blaming the ban on the 'high cost of payments'. The move, which will take effect from 19 January, will exempt purchases made with Visa debit cards. A spokesperson told Sky News: "The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers. These costs should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise."?
All-Things-Innovation?
- The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today issued a public consultation on principles for the effective management and supervision of climate-related financial risks. This follows the publication of a series of analytical reports earlier this year. The Committee is taking a holistic approach to addressing climate-related financial risks to the global banking system. This includes the assessment and consideration of disclosure, supervisory and regulatory measures.
- Hydrogen has a key role to play in the years ahead, especially in industrial applications, according to the CEO of German power company RWE. “When you look long term, there is no way around hydrogen,” Markus Krebber, who was speaking to CNBC’s Annette Weisbach, said.
- The land rush into ticketing continues. Vivenu, the Dusseldorf based SAAS company has just completed its Series B financing round, raising $50 million (US) from investors such as Activant Capital, a US company that just opened an office in Berlin, and Balderton Capital of London. Their prior Series A round at the end of 2020 raised $15 million.?
- KAYAK, the pioneer in travel metasearch, announces two additional branded hotels in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. They join their sister property in Miami Beach as physical locations where KAYAK can build and test new accommodation software.?
- British VC firm Balderton Capital, known for backing companies such as Revolut and Depop, has raised its largest early-stage fund ever.? The firm says it will deploy the $600m into 25-30 new companies in the region and is sector agnostic. The average cheque size will be between $1m-$20m.
- Uber is bringing back shared rides with a new name: UberX Share. The revamped carpooling product is available first as a pilot in Miami. Uber suspended its Uber Pool carpooling feature in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company promised earlier this month that it planned to bring shared rides back. Uber prices have gone way up recently, so a carpooling option allows the company to offer cheaper costs that could make taking an Uber a more popular transportation option.??
A Number to Remember
- Ometria, completed a $40 million Series C round, led by InfraVia Growth, with participation from existing investors Octopus Ventures, Sonae IM, Summit Action, Adjuvo and Columbia Lake Partners, as well as several early investors, including Chairman Lance Batchelor. This brings its total funding to over $75 million.?
Reader’s Corner?
- Over the past two weeks, world leaders have been gathering in Glasgow to talk about how we can better tackle climate change and fintechs have been long ahead of the curve. In the last fortnight alone, we’ve seen fintechs continue to push the green fintech agenda. Starling Bank,? MoneyBox, Pension Bee - they are all looking for the best practises for a sustainable future.?
And let’s wrap up here! See you next time!
