Finance

Top-rated Amazon retailer aims for eight-fold revenue increase by 2023 across €5bn marketplace

Crocket, Europe’s first digital native bathroom fittings retailer, is targeting major growth in the design-focused UK market and across key EU nations through a significant investment round. The company is seeking to raise €1m investment to help bolster B2C sales across Europe and grow its presence within the architecture and builder market.

Since launching in 2019, Crocket has expanded its offering to now include shower enclosures, bathroom fittings, counter tops, and mirrors. It has also developed an on-demand product sourcing model with multiple suppliers providing customers with 30,000 design combinations. In 2021, Crocket was ranked as the top bathroom fittings brand in the shower trays category on Amazon Europe where the company received more than one thousand 5-star reviews from verified purchases.

With the exception of the UK, where it holds stock via Amazon warehouses, Crocket outsources all of its production enabling it to operate on minimal overheads with customers paying upfront for their purchases. By selling directly to consumers and businesses and eliminating any middlemen in the process, the company is able to sell its high-quality Spanish-manufactured products at prices that are typically 20% lower than competitors.

The company was founded by Victor de Hita, a sales and digital eco-system specialist who spent two years at Amazon Marketplace Europe as strategic account manager working within the UK market. His brother and the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Xavier de Hita, is a successful entrepreneur who spent four years as CEO of a successful travel agency which he co-founded in Colombia. The senior management team also includes three vice presidents who are highly regarded in their specialist fields of design, operations and finance.

Crocket plans to use the investment round proceeds to build its team with 21 new hires planned in the next year. It will also invest in e-commerce and website business growth and in new product development. The company is forecasting revenues to more than double to over €2.6m in this financial year and then to increase to around €9.8m by 2023.

Along with its UK customer base, Crocket is also focused on Germany, France, Spain and Italy where the combined bathrooms market is valued at €5.24bn.

Crocket founder and CEO, Victor de Hita, said: “After establishing Crocket as an EU marketplace brand leader through our shower tray product offering and then diversifying our range, we now see a major opportunity to take the company to a significantly higher level.

“The bathroom market is booming across Europe and is currently worth more than €5bn in our five core national sales markets alone. Through D2C and trade sales, there is an opportunity to grow our market share across Europe, especially in the UK where design-focused consumers are looking for a unique, high-quality offering at a competitive price.

“This investment round will help support our growth ambitions by giving the business additional resources to invest in great people and build our e-commerce channels. While growing B2C sales, we will also channel additional funds into supporting the brand’s growth across the trade market by targeting architects and builders.”

VieDelayed handling of losses can destabilize financial systems, according to new research by Vienna University of Economics and Business.

The study, conducted by Professor Christian Laux and his co-authors, investigated the disclosure and accounting for credit risks and credit losses.

They found that late and incomplete information on losses and risk positions by banks exacerbated problems in the 2008 financial crisis.

“Our analyses shows that banks disclosed their critical positions and possible losses very late. The evidence fits the hypothesis that unreliable and incomplete disclosures can lead to a loss of confidence that poses a threat to financial systems,” says Professor Laux.

The researchers also found that regulation and accounting introduced to stabilize the financial system can actually have the opposite effect and have undesirable consequences.

“Politicians, regulators and commentators have criticized banks’ financial reporting as the cause of problems in the financial crisis. The results of the study do not confirm the widespread fear that loss disclosure was a major cause of problems for banks. Rather, it shows that many banks are actually hesitant to report losses,” says Professor Laux.

The researchers say that the results of the study are important for the recent debates on regulation and financial reporting of banks, for a sustainable and stable financial system.

Jannis Bischof, Christian Laux, and Christian Leuz: Accounting for financial stability: Bank disclosure and loss recognition in the financial crisis, Journal of Financial Economics 141(3), 2021, 1188-1217.

Air France-KLM loyalty program Flying Blue partners with Brim to launch their credit card offering and digital experience – to increase features and value for members

TORONTO– Brim Financial, one of the fastest growing fintechs and a licensed credit card issuer, today announced a partnership with Air France-KLM in Canada. The joint Air France and KLM’s loyalty program, Flying Blue, will leverage Brim’s end-to-end technology platform to launch a unique credit card product and platform in the Canadian market.

Air France-KLM is the first partner for Brim in the airline industry. Brim’s partnership with Air France-KLM will offer more targeted rewards to loyal Flying Blue customers and will be an enhancement to their customer and digital strategy in Canada.

“Brim’s modular state-of-the-art platform and card issuance capabilities will fuel Air France-KLM’s customer experiences and enable financial offerings by seamlessly merging commerce and a global footprint of loyalty and rewards,” said Rasha Katabi, Founder and CEO of Brim Financial.

Brim provides a feature rich platform including instant approvals, embedded buy now pay later, interactive spend monitoring, full mobile wallet functionality, and a robust loyalty rewards that sets the Brim platform apart globally. To learn more about Brim’s Partner Platform, visit https://brimfinancial.com.

About Brim Financial
Brim Financial, one the fastest growing fintechs, is a market-leading provider of an omni-channel, financial technology Platform as a Service (PaaS) for financial institutions, large commercial and fintech partners. Brim is uniquely positioned with a vertically integrated stack and a fully configurable digital platform that delivers a broad product suite of payment solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and consumers, credit cards, integrated buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions, mobile and digital banking, rewards and loyalty, behavior-driven analytics, as well as integrated enterprise workflow platforms. To learn more, visit www.brimfinancial.com.

About Flying Blue
Flying Blue is the Air France-KLM Group’s frequent flyer programme. Created in 2005, it now has 17 million members worldwide, who have access to a multitude of awards and benefits, and can earn and spend miles with a wide selection of airline, retail and financial partners.

Finn AI’s state-of-the-art Conversational AI solution and deep financial services expertise complement Glia’s industry-leading DCS platform 

NEW YORK and VANCOUVER, BC, JUNE 23, 2022—Glia, the leading provider of Digital Customer Service, has acquired Finn AI, the premier AI-powered chatbot platform for banks and credit unions. The deal aims to mainstream virtual assistants for financial services companies by making Finn AI’s proven conversational AI solutions an integral part of Glia’s industry-leading Digital Customer Service (DCS) platform. 

 This unified solution will enable financial institutions to provide customers with a seamless digital experience across both virtual and human assistants, boosting customer satisfaction while driving new operational efficiencies. The unparalleled expertise of Glia and Finn AI, combined with Glia’s broad scale and industry reach, provide the foundation for delivering the financial industry’s most effective chatbot solution at scale. 

 “This marks a new chapter for Virtual Assistants: Verticalization with Scale. Generic ‘one-size-fits-all’ bot providers have largely failed to meet the full potential of conversational AI, leading to the emergence of vendors focusing on specific industry verticals. Until now, none of the financial services bot vendors have been able to achieve widespread adoption on their own,” said Dan Michaeli, co-founder and CEO of Glia.

 “Glia’s large and rapidly growing customer base, combined with solid financial backing to accelerate the pace of innovation, immediately brings that scale. Finn AI is a strong fit for Glia based on its technology, market approach and company culture. We are thrilled to welcome the Finn AI team to Glia,” Michaeli continued.  

 It was apparent when Finn AI first launched its banking-focused virtual assistant for Glia’s DCS platform in 2020 that the two companies shared a vision.

 “Our vertical approach and tight integration with Glia helps financial institutions reduce the costs, extensive training and development time typically required for general AI platforms. Now as part of Glia, we will have the scale to deliver automation solutions to the market as part of a seamless Digital Customer Service platform that delivers the best of both self-service and human assistance when and where it is most convenient for customers. With our existing integration and satisfied joint customers, we will hit the ground running. This is an exciting next step in our journey and we couldn’t be happier to be a part of Glia” said Jake Tyler, co-founder and CEO of Finn AI. 

 Glia will maintain and expand the presence in the Finn AI Canada office, establishing a “Conversational AI Center of Excellence.” The strong presence in Canada aligns with Glia’s global expansion strategy. The Finn AI leadership team will assume leadership positions within Glia to further develop AI automation and virtual assistant solutions for the Glia DCS platform.

Reduced regulation around banking activities creates shareholder value and positive stock returns, new research from Nyenrode Business University and Erasmus School of Economics reveals.

Dr. Michael Erkens, Professor of Corporate Reporting at Nyenrode and Erasmus School of Economics, and Prof. Dr. Ying Gan from Erasmus School of Economics studied the responses of US-based banks and shareholders to rollbacks of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

The Act subjected the banking sector to greater federal oversight with an aim to ensure financial stability following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.

According to the authors, deregulatory measures coincided with positive abnormal stock returns, improvements in capital strength and accounting performance, and an expansion in external financing and lending activity.

This is because steep compliance costs limited banks’ business activities and disincentivised growth, the authors say. They suggest that banks slowed their asset growth to stay below the two thresholds ($10 billion and $50 billion) that determine the extent of regulations under Dodd-Frank.

The findings also suggest small banks (with assets under $10bn) and large banks (with assets over $50bn) are affected by and respond differently to deregulation. For small banks, rollbacks mainly included the repeal of stricter trading rules and an easing of mortgage underwriting standards. Large banks mainly received exemptions from capital requirements and stress tests. Thus, positive asset growth following the easing of restrictive measures was only noticed in small banks.

“Eased regulation for large banks likely makes small banks more willing to grow again and cross the $10 billion threshold. We find that shareholders of small banks react more favourably to deregulation. The difference in reaction suggests that investors of small banks expect stronger shareholder value creation through less restrictive financial oversight,” Dr. Erkens says. Dr. Gan adds that “the positive firm outcomes for small banks demonstrate the potential practical relevance of a meaningful reduction in regulatory burden and compliance costs.”

The research studied the reactions of US-based banks and shareholders to 25 events involved in rolling back parts of the Dodd-Frank Act between 2016 and 2018.

Today, London-based ethical lender Plend released its first Financial Inclusion Report, created in collaboration with Nationwide Building Society and the Nationwide Incubator, Responsible Finance and StepChange, to highlight the UK’s financial exclusion crisis and those most at risk in society.

Research, conducted by Opinium from over 4,500 respondents shows that 1 in 5 Brits say they feel locked out of the financial system, nearly 11 million people. Access to affordable credit is vital for an individual’s financial stability and resilience but the report findings exposes that some sections of the UK population are repeatedly being badly let down by the financial services industry; 38% of people from a black ethnic group and 32% from all ethnic groups combined feel that they can’t access financial services.

Without fair financial products available to those in vulnerable positions it means that those who need support the most, especially during the current cost of living crisis, are faced with paying significantly more for financial services and are ultimately excluded from affordable options. This creates a poverty premium meaning that things become more expensive for people who need help the most and they can become dependent on unreliable financial support.

The research also revealed that Covid has exacerbated the problem of financial exclusion; more than a quarter (28%) of all Brits say they are now in a worse financial position as a result of the pandemic.

The report from Plend, authored by financial campaigner and Plend advisor, Alice Tapper, explores the UK credit landscape and current trends. 62% of respondents are using a form of credit: the average amount borrowed via a loan was £8,200, with men borrowing significantly larger amounts (£9,952.32) than women (£6,346.57).

Markedly, loans are the form of credit that people struggle with the most to pay off, with 50% (4.7 million people across the general population) stating that they had found it a struggle, compared to 37% of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) users and 38% of people with credit cards. Those from an ethnic minority group also fared poorly against the national average with 69% struggling with repayments.

Interest rates for loans were on average 16.3% according to the respondents, this rose to 21.6% for the under 34s, but shockingly nearly 20% don’t know the interest rate they are currently paying on their loans.

The report data also found that nearly half (47%) of those with a high cost loan simply pay back the minimum payments each month with 10% unable to manage even the minimum payments.

Compounding issues of financial exclusion is the limited comprehension of the credit scoring system in the UK, the report found that just 41% of adults know their credit score and 60% reported not knowing how credit scores are calculated.

The flaws in the UK credit referencing system have long been recognised and traditional credit scoring methods often give an incomplete and outdated picture of an individual’s financial life, holding back over 20.3 million people in the UK from affordable financial services*.

There is mounting evidence that Open Banking** technology offers a more accurate picture of an individual’s financial position and thus is an important tool in efforts towards a more financially inclusive society.

Rob Pasco, CEO and Co-founder of Plend, said: “It’s outrageous to find that financial discrimination and exclusion is on the rise, which has a detrimental effect across society as whole and widens the poverty gap. Having a thin or invisible credit file is just one of the reasons many people are financially excluded from accessing affordable credit products and basic financial services – the lending industry has failed to address this problem at time when the need has never been greater due to the cost of living crisis”

The report also has the support of StepChange, the UK’s leading debt charity:

Richard Lane, Director of External Affairs at StepChange, said: “The credit information system is not keeping millions of people away from harmful unsustainable credit, can discourage people from accessing support and may be encouraging people to borrow more (including high cost credit) that can make debt problems more harmful in the end.”

Andrew Jackson, Chief Credit Officer, Nationwide Building Society, said: ““Lifestyles today typically demand quick and easy access to products and services, and this applies just as much to credit products as it does to anything else. The rising cost of living is squeezing households and driving down affordability for credit. It’s the responsibility of lenders to get the balance right, meeting the needs of consumers in a sustainable way.”

Plend has created a more financially inclusive way to lend built from their proprietary open banking technology, the PLEND Score®, that looks beyond traditional credit histories in order to give an accurate picture of a person’s financial position. Plend is the UK’s first Pending B Corp consumer lender and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

A study by KIS Finance, has revealed that 2 out of 3 cryptocurrency investors borrowed money to make their purchase, rather than using income and/or savings.

Overall, more than two thirds (64%) of those who have invested in cryptos, used one or more credit facilities to do so. Due to the previous huge increases in the value of crypto currencies, this may have seemed like a good investment strategy at the time. However, the crypto market has now seen a dramatic fall in value to below $1 trillion, compared to its peak of almost $3 trillion only 7 months ago. This will have left many facing huge losses, whilst still saddled with the cost of repaying their original borrowing, along with the added interest payments.

Massive crypto losses over the last few days

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and a risky investment strategy. There was a massive increase in crypto prices in November last year, with Bitcoin hitting its highest ever price. But since then, cryptos have been on the decline.

The latest price crash appears to have been triggered by recent inflation data in the US, which saw a run of investors move out of risky crypto currencies into safer, more traditional investments. Alongside this, the news that crypto lending platform Celsius was stopping customers from withdrawing funds due to “extreme market conditions” contributed to Bitcoin losing 15% of its value in 24 hours.

Other leading crypto currencies have been hit with even larger losses, with Ethereum, Cardano, Solana and Dogecoin experiencing massive falls of between 15 – 25% in just 24 hours

The huge hype over crypto investments creating billionaires has led to many people, particularly young adults, looking to jump on the band wagon and make their own fortunes. However, these success stories can fail to highlight how much of a risk cryptocurrencies are as an investment product and the dangers of placing yourself in debt to fund your investment.

Has the crypto currency bubble burst?

If you invested in Bitcoin in February 2011 or Ethereum in 2016 when they were worth just $1 and sold now then you would be laughing.

An investment of $1000 in Bitcoin in 2011 would now be worth $21,985,000, even with the current huge falls in the market. But if you invested $1000 in Bitcoin at the end of last year you would have lost around half of your investment if you exited the market now.

Some investors may hold on, but many might start to panic seeing their investment drop by so much and sell to cut their losses, fearing that they will lose everything.

For those who have borrowed to make their initial purchase the risk is that they will now not only lose their investment, but will be left struggling to pay for the credit they used to purchase it in the first place.

The table below shows of how seven of the largest currencies have plummeted in value over just the last week.

Bitcoin – Down 21.86%
Ethereum – Down 30.64%
Litecoin – Down 25.06%
Ripple (XRP) – Down 17.13%
Dodge Coin – Down 27.36%
Cardano – Down 13.75%
Solana – Down 23.08%

Percentage of crypto investors who used one or more credit facilities to fund purchase, by age

18 – 24: 70%
25 – 34: 64%
35 – 44: 68.9%
45 – 54: 62.5%
55 – 64: 45%
65+: 25%

As the table shows, those aged between 18 and 24 were the age group most likely to use borrowed funds to make their investment, with a significant drop of borrowers in the two highest age groups. Therefore, it is young people, at the start of their adult lives, who are at the greatest risk of being saddled with high levels of additional unwelcome debt.

The appeal of crypto currencies seems to be particularly strong with Generation Z (those currently under the age of 25), who are attracted by the decentralised nature of the market. But the fact that these markets are unregulated leaves investors with little protection. There is also concern that this generation is more at risk from Crypto influencers, with get rich quick stories that may encourage younger investors to borrow money in the hope of generating large returns.

What type of credit facilities have people used to fund cryptocurrency investments?

When we break down what kinds of credit facilities people have used to purchase cryptocurrencies, over a third (35.5%) made their investment using a credit card. Almost a fifth (19.3%) funded the purchase out of their overdraft.


Credit card – 35.5%
Overdraft – 19.3%
Personal loan – 14.6%
Secured loan – 9%
Payday loan – 7.6%
Re-mortgage – 3.3%

“Get rich quick” schemes with lasting consequences

The fact that so many turned to short term, high-cost finance facilities to fund their crypto purchases, suggests that they expected their investment to be short term, with quick profits. However, the subsequent dramatic fall in crypto values has left many saddled with expensive debts that they will now struggle to repay.

Holly Andrews, Managing Director at KIS Finance, comments on the findings.

“In recent years, the cryptocurrency industry has grown rapidly and cryptos are becoming a more mainstream product every single day. Even tech giant PayPal has now introduced a cryptocurrency trading platform, making it accessible to everyone.

Although cryptos, and specifically Bitcoin, have seen people make thousands or even millions in profit; the last few months have shown that they are incredibly volatile and can see investors losing large percentages, or all, of what they put in very quickly.

It’s concerning to see that so many people have turned to borrowed funds to purchase cryptocurrencies as they are extremely unpredictable and offer no guarantees that the money invested will be returned. So, if people are investing money that isn’t theirs and subsequently losing it, this could cause some serious financial challenges later down the line.

The biggest concern is those who don’t have the means to pay the money back, especially if their original plan was to repay their loans with the profits made from their investment. With a very strong possibility of losing the money for good, people may be left severely out of pocket and racking up interest on their credit cards and overdrafts. Also, some credit card providers will view this type of transaction as a cash advance, meaning a cash advance fee and higher interest rate will be applied.

So, if you are thinking of making an investment into cryptocurrencies, you should only invest an amount of money that you can afford to lose and it should be funded through income and/or savings rather than a credit facility.

Borrowing money to invest in cryptos can become a very vicious cycle that’s difficult to break. Once you start losing money, it can be very tempting to invest more to make the money back; especially if you don’t have other means of repaying the funds.

Great care should be taken when you invest money anywhere, but especially when it’s something as volatile as cryptocurrencies. If you can, seek some professional financial advice first and never invest more than you can afford. Buying cryptocurrencies should also not be your only form of investment or savings as there is very little stability – spread your investments out and treat cryptocurrencies as a smaller, fun investment.”

Platform Markets Group Ltd

London, 10 June 2022 – Investment over the past five months has shown a demonstrable increase of 46% compared to the same period in 2021 reports Headwind Consultants in a market briefing for Platform Markets Group.

Research reveals that total investment for the period is close to tipping USD100 bn.

Across May, the USD11 bn acquisition by DigitalBridge Group Inc of Las-Vegas based Switch represented the majority all deal values across the month. Only 16% of deals by value were outside of the USA primarily in Asia and Europe and several smaller investments in Africa.

The report comments that joint venture deals have increased in popularity particularly where new build data centres have been accompanied by adjacent energy supply stations. Similarly a joint approach to cable landing stations and data centres is fostering a new business model in Europe and underway around the coast of Africa.

“It will be possible to test the real strength of overall sustained investment by the end of June, which last year (for the month) broke all records at more than USD30 bn” commented Philip Low, director at Headwind Consultants.

Platform Markets Group will host a discussion about market shifts, valuations, M&A, forecasts, energy and thought leaders will offer clarity about the investment outlook for datacenters in the year ahead at the forthcoming Platform 2022 taking place in Antibes, France September 14-16. Sponsors include Schneider Electric, Engie, RED and Eversheds Sutherland.

By Magnus Meretric

Thirty-five percent of graduates are ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ fearful of the climate crisis today due to record temperatures of fourty-nine degrees Celsius, in cities like Delhi and the climate crisis. The Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy are finding that just over three-quarters of UK households are worried about climate change in March 2020, and there is a genuine need for the successful Web.3 companies to be green or greener.

Kaloscope, the world’s first registered “Social Media Metaverse”, a 3-D digital platform which incorporates Extended Reality, metaverse, blockchain, and cryptocurrency technology, has partnered with Serious Shea to support the Great Wall Project of the Sahara and the Sahel. This project is dedicated to planting trees, improving methods of water harvesting, habitat preservation, and maintaining food security. To this end, Kaloscope has launched a novel kind of NFT named “NFTrees”. These are more than digital art objects or metaverse decorations, they correspond to a physical tree that has been planted, and has its geolocation fixed to the respective NFTree. This is an NFT perk that is designed for positive environmental action. 

On the status of many tree-planting projects today, Kirck Allen, Kaloscope’s CEO and Founder, says, “You buy something and people plant a tree. The majority of the time you get a thank you email or a promise to say that a tree will be planted, and it will remove X amount of CO2 from the atmosphere, but there is little in the way of traceability.” NFTrees, on the other hand, because of the blockchain foundation and interactive nature, make positive climate action “more personal, traceable, and guarantees results.” 

Unlike other programs, which fail to encourage or inspire donors, or make verifying that the tree has been planted very difficult, Kaloscope’s efforts are geared towards making a clean world an engaging, more effective, and more rewarding experience.

Allen, himself, has been in the sustainability space for around five years, looking at “sustainable housing, food, construction, clothing, and bio-plastics”, so it was crucial to him that Kaloscope be an ecologically healthy metaverse platform. Thus under Allen’s creative direction, Kaloscope is incorporating emerging technology, like Layer 2 solutions with the transition to Proof-of-Stake blockchain validation, to become more energy efficient, and actively offsetting climate risks through assets like the NFTtrees. 

Kaloscope’s metaverse shows that the future of technology is one wedded to Nature. It is encouraging to see that the cutting-edge of Business and Fintech is mature, prudent, and innovative.