PayRetailers, a leader in cross-border payments for Latin America, has entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Super League of American Rugby (SLAR) for its 2022 season, becoming the first international payment provider to support South American rugby. The partnership aligns with the company’s vision to contribute towards financial inclusion in the region and support for the sport.

This alliance, along with specialised teams throughout the continent, consolidates PayRetailers' commitment to its customers in Latin America. The SLAR 2022 partnership adds to PayRetailers' ongoing support to promote financial literacy, equality, and accessibility in emerging markets.

The American Super Rugby League

A high-performance tournament for the six priority unions in the region, SLAR illustrates the increasing passion for the sport in LATAM. This offers PayRetailers the perfect platform to brand themselves during live broadcasts across international channels including ESPN and reaching millions of fans worldwide.

Heavily invested in the region, PayRetailers has a vision to impact the world positively. With this new sponsorship, the expert payments brand reinforces its commitment and shares the sponsorship with major brands such as LATAM Airlines, Gatorade, ESPN, and STIHL.

«As a multinational company, we believe that we have to go one step further in addition to the products we offer. PayRetailers is very much identified with the values of team sports and especially with those of Rugby. We believe in diversity as a critical factor for innovation in all areas, including sport», said Juan Pablo Jutgla, Founder & CEO of PayRetailers.

Through these sponsorships the company reaffirms its position as experts in the region by understanding the culture and passion of Latin Americans when it comes to top sports including Rugby.

A promising partnership

In addition to the sponsorship, PayRetailers will support the SLAR at all levels as an official partner, including ticket sales and merchandising. PayRetailers guarantees secure, reliable and straightforward ways to pay for everything supporters enjoy, as well as offering them unique experiences.

This historical development once again positions PayRetailers as a leader in promoting inclusion and diversity in the region.

Visit SLAR 2022's channel on YouTube.

Flutterwave, a leading technology company, announced today that it has raised USD $250 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at over $3 billion as the brand continues to transform the way Africans transact on the continent and worldwide.

Flutterwave has become the highest valued African start-up with this investment. It is a validation of African talent, innovation and its young inspiring people. It is also a huge endorsement in the growth of the business, innovation and technology landscape in Africa.

Flutterwave’s latest backers include some of the world’s most respected investors led by B Capital Group, and with participation from Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, Lux Capital, among others. Several existing investors who also participated in previous rounds also followed this round, including, Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital, Salesforce Ventures. The new funds will drive Flutterwave’s ambitious expansion plan to accelerate customer acquisition in existing markets and growth through M&A; and develop complementary products while encouraging new innovations in its products and services development. The Company will share more details during the Flutterwave 3.0 event. The virtual event is billed for 18th February 2022 and members of the public can RSVP here.

Since inception in 2016, the Flutterwave team has been on a mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. The Series D fundraise comes on the back of an impressive run of five years in which Flutterwave has processed over 200M transactions worth over USD $16B to date across 34 countries in Africa. It also follows a year of rapid growth for the brand which now serves over 900,000 businesses across the globe.

In 2021, Flutterwave launched a range of new products including Flutterwave Market for merchants to sell their goods via an online marketplace and, most recently, Send, a remittance service that empowers customers to seamlessly send money to recipients to and from Africa. Flutterwave has also partnered with leading global and pan-African technology and telecommunication companies such as PayPal, MTN, Airtel Africa to drive financial inclusion on the continent and create endless possibilities for customers who can build customisable payment applications through its APIs

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said “Our story is that of resilience and hard work. Our growth so far is due to the support of our customers, our partners, the banks, the public, the regulators, and importantly our people. The Central Bank of Nigeria, under the leadership of Dr. Godwin Emefiele, laid the vision of a transformational Payment System in Nigeria, provided the framework for innovation in this space, and has continued to create regulations that have enabled us to grow and thrive. We are grateful to them and to all the other Central Banks in all the countries where we operate. We set out to build a platform that simplifies payments for everyone and today, our solutions are used across the globe to connect Africans to the world and the world to Africans. We are delighted that investors believe in us and our story and are committing their resources to this belief. This latest funding demonstrates the conviction of some of the world's leading investors in both our business model, team and the Africa technology market. It gives Flutterwave the much-needed support to deliver on our plans to provide the best experience for our merchants and customers around the world.”

Matt Levinson, Partner at B Capital said, “At B Capital, we seek to back generational companies with broad platform potential. Flutterwave has a unique opportunity to accomplish this as the dominant payments’ infrastructure provider across Africa. In addition to their emergence as the leading enterprise payments processor for the continent, Flutterwave is innovating at breakneck speed with novel fintech solutions for large corporates, SMEs and consumers. I’ve had the pleasure of backing this world-class team since 2017 and couldn’t be more thrilled that B Capital is leading their Series D. Flutterwave may ultimately build one of the most consequential fintech business in the world, enabling hundreds of thousands of merchants to transact online and connect Africa to the global economy.”

David Glynn, Managing Partner of Glynn Capital, said: “We believe the digitization of payments globally is one of the largest and most important trends in technology. Having been investors in Flutterwave since 2017, we have had a front row seat in seeing Flutterwave establish itself as a leading payments company in Africa as it drives adoption of seamless digital payments experiences for merchants and consumers alike. We look forward to supporting the company as it addresses its significant growth opportunity in the years ahead.” This latest fundraising has seen Flutterwave’s valuation more than triple since its last funding round in March last year when it became one of Africa’s fastest growing Unicorn.

• £3bn lent to scale-ups and property entrepreneurs across the UK

Cynergy Bank, has reached a lending milestone having grown to £3bn by continuing to support SME’s, property entrepreneurs and homeowners. Cynergy Bank, the human digital bank, reached the milestone figure at the beginning of 2022 against a backdrop of two years of economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

The lending figure includes over £317m lent to SMEs through the British Business Bank’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) which supported businesses across the UK including many in the property, hospitality and healthcare sectors.  During the period, Cynergy Bank also developed an Asset Based Lending offering for SME businesses that want to scale up and grow providing between £200,000 and £20,000,000 to businesses. The Bank opened an office in Scotland too increasing its regional footprint that includes London, Birmingham, Manchester and Southern England.  

Nick Fahy, CEO of Cynergy Bank commented, “Lending over £3bn is a huge accomplishment and we are very proud of the progress we have made to date.  Although the pandemic has been challenging for many businesses, we have witnessed the resilience of UK SME’s as they continued to borrow to fund investment for the future of their businesses.  Cynergy Bank has gone from strength to strength, we have grown during a period of restricted risk appetite and our book has remained resilient through the economic uncertainty brought by the pandemic.  Our aim at Cynergy Bank is to create a human digital bank that provides a personalised service to our customers which is enhanced by the latest technology. I am proud of the support we have given and will continue to give to these businesses especially during a period that saw much uncertainty.”

Atom, the UK’s first app-based bank has raised more than £75m in new equity priced at 70p per share as it continues to grow its profitability and drive to IPO. The raise will be led by BBVA and by Toscafund with co-investors Infinity Investment Partners, and is now being opened to other existing shareholders. Today’s announcement follows a £40m raise in April 2021.  The Durham-based digital lender has now raised more than £115m in the last 12 months.

Atom’s focus on lending has really come to fruition in the last 9 months, with both mortgage and business loans having grown by 30%. In 2021 Atom passed £3bn of mortgage completions, with applications for its multi-award-winning digital loans peaking at £315m in Q3.  Atom’s on-balance sheet lending to small businesses also surpassed £1bn during 2021.

Fuelled by the quality of its lending and a steady reduction in the bank’s cost of funds, margins and revenues have also continued to grow. Year to date, Atom’s interest margin has risen to 1.28% versus 0.51% in FY21. The bank delivered its first monthly operating profit during Q2 and has continued to grow its revenues throughout the year while maintaining a tight control on its costs.

2021 saw total customer deposits grow by 16% to £2.5bn, with £1bn of savings held in Atom’s award-winning Instant Saver. With this latest boost from investors Atom will seek to grow deposits by a further £2bn in FY23, bringing more value and competition to a savings market that has taken too long to respond to base rate changes and the needs of savers. Based on its commitments to value, speed and simplicity, Atom continues to foster an excellent reputation with its customers and had a Trustpilot rating of 4.8/5, for the period October to December 2021, and an overall Net Promoter Score of +82.

In November Atom became the largest company in the UK to introduce a four-day working week, with no loss of pay, for all of its team. Atom has since seen a 500% increase in job applicants, and substantial increases in staff engagement.

Mark Mullen, Chief Executive Officer at Atom said:

“It has heen a year of excellent progress for Atom. We’ve achieved a number of important financial milestones, maintained our excellent reputation with our customers and with the introduction of our shorter 4-day working week (with no loss of pay), we’re pioneering the future of work.

“Our investors are now backing our continued growth.  This capital will allow Atom to build on the progress we have made, and to keep offering real competition for people who want to own their own home, grow their own businesses and - at a time of rapidly rising costs - save for the future.  It is also a fundamental next step on our journey toward IPO.”

Tinkoff is introducing a new line of business – digital mortgage loans. 

Tinkoff’s mortgage loan offering is the first of its kind in Russia: the process will take  place entirely online, from paperwork to credit issuance. Since Tinkoff has always been  branchless, customers will not need to visit a brick-and-mortar location at any stage of  the transaction, including when applying for electronic signatures. 

First, Tinkoff customers will be able to refinance mortgage loans extended by other  banks. Then, by the end of 2022, Tinkoff plans to launch mortgage loans for primary  and secondary housing. 

The refinancing and lending process will be extremely simple and 100% digital,  leveraging Tinkoff’s 15-year track record of providing products and services online. 

As part of its mortgage offering, Tinkoff provides full-service support at every stage of buying or refinancing a property, including making arrangements with Russia’s Federal  Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr). Customers do  not have to visit a Multifunctional Public Services Centre, which is normally standard  practice, as Tinkoff handles their mortgage registration while also ensuring that all  payments between the buyer and seller are carried out in a secure manner. 

All mortgage documents will be signed electronically, using an enhanced qualified  electronic signature, issued by the bank and delivered to customers by a Tinkoff  representative at the time and place of the customer’s choice. 

The benefits of refinancing a mortgage loan with Tinkoff include: 

• Easy application process: customers only need to provide the address  of the property in question; 

• Shortest approval period on the market; 

• No visit to the bank needed at any stage. A Tinkoff representative will  meet with the customer to issue an electronic signature (to be able to  execute deals remotely) at a time and place chosen by the customer; 

• No property valuation report needed as the bank does not inspect the  properties in question; 

• Low fixed interest rate for the entire refinancing period: the rate stays  unchanged during the time that customers repay their existing mortgage  loan; 

• New approach to insurance: there is no need to make a large lump sum  payment to have one’s apartment insured. The insurance fee (only 0.15%  per annum) will be charged monthly as part of the customer’s regular  payment. This offers more customer value compared to a single payment  for the entire year, and the insurance fee will decrease as customers  repay the outstanding amount;

• Fast response from the bank: Tinkoff will prepare any document that  customers may need quickly and free of charge; 

• Free Tinkoff Black card issued to mortgage customers, with no fee  charged throughout the mortgage period; 

• ESG compliance: Tinkoff promotes a responsible approach to resource  use by offering a paperless customer experience. 

Mortgage loan refinancing is currently available to select customers, and will be made  available to all Tinkoff customers by the end of Q1 2022. The refinancing rate starts at  8.9%, with a maximum loan amount of RUB 30 million and a refinancing period of up to  30 years. In the first stage of the project, refinancing options will cover the secondary  housing market only. 

Tinkoff started issuing its own mortgage loans in June 2021, when it unveiled a  programme for the Group’s employees and extended more than RUB 1 billion for the  purchase of completed properties. 

To launch its mortgage offering, Tinkoff leveraged its experience in extending secured digital loans (using real estate or cars as collateral), which the bank introduced in 2019.  These services are designed to spare customers the need to visit a bank. Tinkoff is  currently Russia’s leading bank in terms of the size of its secured loan portfolio and the  number of secured loans that it has provided. 

Stanislav Bliznyuk, Chairman of the Management Board at Tinkoff Bank, said: 

“Our customers are at the heart of the Tinkoff ecosystem. It is them we have in mind  when creating new products to meet their needs as fully as possible and help make  their lives easier and more comfortable. 

Mortgage lending is part of that approach. We aim to offer our customers a truly  convenient way to obtain a mortgage loan, refinance their debt, and reduce their regular  payments. As usual for Tinkoff, this requires no visit to the bank: we will take care of  everything, and if we need to meet with the customer to issue a digital signature, our  representative will arrive at any time and place that best fits the customer’s schedule. 

We are now beginning to extend mortgage refinancing options to our customers, with  more than 500,000 people already covered through our mobile app. In the first few days of offering this service, we have already received more than 2,000 applications, which is  a testament to the strong demand that we see for our fully digital and highly convenient  product. We plan to start issuing mortgage loans for housing in the primary and  secondary markets by the end of this year.” 

nCino, Inc., a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, will report financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, after the market close on Thursday, March 31, 2022. nCino will host a conference call and webcast that day at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss its financial results.

Event: nCino’s Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call
Date and Time: Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. ET
Webcast Link: https://investor.ncino.com/
Replay: A webcast replay will be available on the Investor Relations section of nCino’s website following the call. 

About nCino
nCino (NASDAQ: NCNO) is the worldwide leader in cloud banking. The nCino Bank Operating System^® empowers financial institutions with scalable technology to help them achieve revenue growth, greater efficiency, cost savings and regulatory compliance. In a digital-first world, nCino's single cloud-based platform enhances the employee and client experience to enable financial institutions to more effectively onboard clients, make loans and manage the entire loan life cycle, and open deposit and other accounts across lines of business and channels. Transforming how financial institutions operate through innovation, reputation and speed, nCino is partnered with more than 1,500 financial institutions of all types and sizes on a global basis. For more information, visit: www.ncino.com.

The world’s fastest growing fraud prevention business is on a mission to eradicate fraud in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) sector.

Online fraud fighters, SEON has secured partnership agreements with several leading companies in the global BNPL sector. The agreements speak to a growing trend within the emerging space, where SEON’s comprehensive digital footprint data enrichment service is used alongside know-your-customer (KYC) checks to effectively mitigate the risks of fraud. 

The BNPL industry continues to grow across all corners of the globe, with more people now choosing the alternative payment method when making daily purchases. Increasingly, many of these services are backed by online fraud prevention company SEON and its unique way of using additional data signals to help BNPL providers make more insightful decisions. With access to additional data points, businesses in the sector have been able to greatly reduce the risk of fraud, by ensuring that potential users are genuine. 

Highlighting its success in the sector, SEON recently announced new partnership agreements with two BNPL companies; ViaBill and Tamara. Prior to this, SEON has announced partnerships with other leaders in the BNPL space, including, but not limited to: Afterpay, Mokka, Sezzle. 

By combining comprehensive data enrichment using digital footprints and modernised device fingerprinting technology, SEON is delivering greater fraud protection to these BNPL businesses when dealing with fake users, fraud rings and bot attacks.      

More broadly, by providing this security, SEON is helping the BNPL industry to flourish in developing nations, where the risk of fraud is often higher. The company’s affordable solution is enabling fintech startups in high-growth countries to enact stringent fraud prevention protocols in a cost-effective manner. In doing so, SEON is helping to create a secure environment for businesses in the sector and democratising financial BNPL services across all regions of the world. 

SEON’s solution can be incorporated seamlessly within existing KYC check protocols, or used to formulate new systems entirely. At its core, the technology has been designed to have minimal impact on the customer experience and buyer journey. Similarly, as the company’s solution can be onboarded in a cost and time efficient manner, it’s ideal for any fintech startup working on a lean budget and facing an urgent need to get up and running quickly. 

Speaking on his company’s work in the BNPL sector, Jimmy Fong, Chief Commercial Officer at SEON commented: “We continue to make great strides in the BNPL sector and are delighted to see our innovative technology at the heart of so many leading fintech services. Across the world, people increasingly want access to flexible payment options, but this approach comes with inherent risks. By incorporating our suite of fraud prevention solutions, credit enablers in the field can mitigate this risk in a cost-effective, straightforward manner.”

Moving forward, SEON will continue to sign new partnership agreements with businesses in the BNPL space as it looks to help the developing sector continue growing from strength to strength. The company’s solution may soon become a necessity in the field, with the alternative payment method beginning to receive more scrutiny from the media and regulatory bodies. Fortunately, SEON’s accessible, affordable and effective solution provides an ideal option for mainstream adoption. 

For more information about SEON, please visit: www.seon.io

End-to-end payment ecosystem provider Monneo has announced its exciting plans to launch Pixelpay, a stand-alone financial product designed specifically for the affiliate marketing industry.

By offering a closed-loop financial ecosystem, which removes the friction in payments between advertisers, networks and publishers, Pixelpay resolves a number of major issues currently affecting the affiliate marketing industry. The innovative solution has been built on the back of Monneo’s complete payment ecosystem and is connected to the company’s extensive network of European and International banks.

With Pixelpay, affiliate networks are able to receive multi-currency payments from advertisers and send payments to publishers around the world, either through a local or international bank transfer, or via a local payment method, such as the Pix platform in Brazil. Similarly, Pixelpay allows publishers to transact out globally. What’s more, through a dedicated mobile phone application, Pixelpay gives users constant overview of their respective account balances.

Pixelpay benefits all aspects of the affiliate marketing ecosystem. By adopting Pixelpay, advertisers can receive acquiring settlement funds in one, or multiple IBAN accounts provided to them by Monneo. Likewise, affiliate networks can obtain payment accounts from Monneo within the same ecosystem. In turn, this enables advertisers to pay for services instantly in over 20 available currencies.

Additionally, the innovative new product allows affiliate programs to create their own white-label mobile payment app. In doing so, affiliate programs can pay publishers directly, without the need to set up a third-party wallet system. With this solution, publishers can receive payments directly in multi-currency options, before sending these payments to their own bank accounts anywhere in the world.

Speaking on the new launch, Lili Metodieva, Managing Director of Monneo commented: “Pixelpay is a huge step forward for the affiliate marketing industry and will soon make the process of receiving and sending payments simpler than ever. The closed loop financial ecosystem brings all affiliate marketing payment needs under one roof and offers users a straightforward approach to settling financial transactions.”

For more information about Monneo’s launch of PixelPay, please visit: https://www.monneo.com/pixelpay/ 

Digital networks can enhance trade finance funding opportunities, particularly for SMEs, reveals new industry survey, and in turn play a key role in addressing the US$1.7 trillion global trade finance gap.

Fineon Exchange – the leading global marketplace for trade finance assets – has today published the findings from its new global trade finance survey. The report reveals that digital networks can deliver benefits for all trade finance stakeholders and facilitate access to working capital financing, particularly for underserved small- and medium-sized enterprises. Of the industry participants surveyed, 100% believe that digital networks would improve current trade finance transaction processes.

The paper, “Trade Finance Optimisation: Connecting the Right People at the Right Time”, explores the key challenges experienced in executing successful trade finance deals and discusses the findings from Fineon’s survey of trade finance brokers – including the disparities in the accessibility of trade finance for SMEs, when compared with larger, multinational companies. 

Notably, 50% of respondents stated that SMEs struggle to access trade finance because there is a shortage of well-structured deals in the market, yet 50% feel the reason is a shortage of funders to support good deals. This indicates that both funder appetite and quality deals do exist in the market. The issues SMEs face in securing funding could therefore instead be due to a lack of channels where compatible borrowers and funders can connect effectively.

Dominic Broom, CEO, Fineon Exchange, says: “Our survey suggests that access to trade finance could be significantly improved if the right counterparties are able to find each other. This problem can be addressed through cutting-edge digital networking platforms, which can use artificial intelligence to identify and connect borrowers and funders with those that match their borrowing or lending criteria.”

All of the survey participants acknowledged that a digital network connecting importers and exporters with corporates, funders and insurers could deliver significant benefits. Some of the benefits identified include: increased visibility of underling trade flows, improved access to funders willing to finance deals, and access to funders that have the appetite to do business in different regions – thereby reducing inefficiencies and ensuring a higher chance of successful transaction closure for all stakeholders.

Hussein Al Amine, Head of Business Development and Global Strategic Alliances, Fineon Exchange comments: “For trade finance brokers – the key participants in our survey – leveraging a digital matchmaking ecosystem means they can quickly assess the bankability of their clients’ transactions and access a wide and varied pool of investors from across the globe. We are essentially positioning our broker partners to digitise a major aspect of their business that will help them successfully source and carry out trade finance transactions for their clients more effectively and efficiently.”

By increasing access to finance, digital networks could be pivotal in helping to narrow the global trade finance gap, which represents the shortfall in funding for trade finance transactions and which affects SMEs in particular. Not only is the gap at a record level of US$1.7trillion, according to the Asian Development Bank*, the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates it could reach US$2.5 trillion by 2025**. Investing in robust, targeted solutions that address specific industry challenges and enhance trade finance processes are therefore particularly important for supporting those businesses whose growth and prospects are affected by the gap.

• 93% of business owners said Covid-19 has made them reassess their relationship with their business
• A quarter of entrepreneurs started their business in order to create jobs, a legacy or a desire to give back to the community
• 86% of business owners state that a favourable capital gains tax rate is an important factor in their decision to build their current business, or any future one

Despite the overwhelming majority of business owners (93%) saying that the pandemic has led them to re-assess their relationship with their own business, they would still choose to build their businesses even at the risk of compromising their own health, according to the latest Heart of the Deal research from Arrowpoint Advisory, the dedicated mid-market team of Rothschild & Co in the UK.

The research found that 89% of business owners would delay selling their business if it would generate a greater financial return, even if it was at the detriment of their health. Of this cohort, 35% strongly agree that they would delay the sale of their business.

As such, it’s clear that building value is a key motivator for entrepreneurs when it comes to making decisions about the future of their business. Adding fuel to this, only 9% of owners would consider their energy level, enthusiasm or health when it comes to considering when to sell their business.

Jeremy Furniss, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory, commented:

“While the pandemic has led many business owners to question the relationship that they have with their businesses, there is a clear determination from entrepreneurs that having survived the pandemic, they must now put their efforts into building their businesses, and the resulting value despite this coming potentially at a personal cost.”

The Heart of the Deal report surveyed over 350 business owners with businesses valued between £10m and £200m across financial services, business services, FMCG, manufacturing, media, technology, and healthcare sectors on the impact of Covid-19 and its influence on their motivations, perspectives on business ownership, hopes, concerns and plans for the future.

Drivers behind starting a business

Whilst creation of wealth is clearly a motivator for entrepreneurs, this isn’t the biggest driver behind why entrepreneurs chose to start their business. In fact, a quarter of entrepreneurs (24%) said the desire to create jobs, a legacy or desire to give back to the community was the main motivator for starting their business. This was followed by competitiveness with family, friends or peers (18%), a desire to create wealth (17%) and entrepreneurial spirit (15%).

This is a significant shift from the 2018 Heart of the Deal report, where only 8% stated that the desire to start their business was to create jobs and a legacy within the local community. In 2018, the number one motivator, deemed by 36% of business owners, was entrepreneurial spirit.

It’s not just health that must be considered when it comes to selling their business, 90% of owners also stated that they would bring forward the sale of their business should there be an increase in capital gains tax (CGT).

An increase in CGT would also see entrepreneurs re-think their motivation for creating new ventures as they might no longer be able to achieve an acceptable financial return – in the light of the personal sacrifices that they may have to make - at the point of sale. With this in mind, 86% of business owners state that a favourable CGT rate is an important factor in their decision to build their current business, or any future one.

The pandemic has also impacted entrepreneurs’ sale plans, with the majority of those who planned to sell their business before Covid-19 having to delay sale timings. As such, 64% of owners delayed sale plans by between six to eleven months. Whilst just over one in ten (11%) have delayed plans by a year to two. This may well play a part in sustaining the high levels of mergers and acquisitions activity seen in 2021 into 2022 and beyond.

Jeremy Furniss continues:

“Perhaps unsurprisingly, for many owners the decision to sell their business is driven by the desire to achieve personal financial security. However, since our last report, it’s clear that more entrepreneurs are determined to build businesses to create opportunity for those around them. Since the pandemic, contributing to the wider community has become increasingly important and businesses that have been able to articulate and deliver these brand values to their customers have prospered. In the years ahead, we expect more and more entrepreneurs will build businesses that have purpose.”