R|T: The Retail Times – NFTs are evolving

Plus: Shopify's 48% slump proves that it's no Amazon.

The Retail Times is a weekly newsletter covering retail tech news from Canada and around the globe.

Subscribe to R|T using the form at the bottom of this page to ensure you don’t miss out on the most important retail tech news every week!


Amid NFT boom, Liquid MarketPlace aims to turn physical sports and Pokémon cards into tokens (BETAKIT)

While Dapper is partnering with sports leagues across the world to create digital collectibles, other companies are looking to leverage the same underlying tech to offer fractional equity stakes in actual sports trading cards and other rare physical assets.


POWERED BY ELECTRONIC RECYCLING ASSOCIATION:

100% Secure Data Destruction With ERA

Addressing data security represents a core element of the Electronic Recycling Association’s value proposition and service offering. We possess robust data wiping and physical destruction capabilities, and have employed these capabilities in partnership with Canadian Law Enforcement agencies as part of our efforts to raise awareness of the dangers associated with inadequate diligence around personal computing devices.

Learn more about secure data descruction.


Fashion startup Shein raising Funds at $100 billion value (BNN BLOOMBERG)

Chinese fast fashion e-commerce startup Shein is weighing a funding round at a valuation of about $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.


Federal #Budget2022 surprisingly heavy on innovation policy (BETAKIT)

Much desired commitments to innovation clusters, intellectual property (IP), and more have been made. Rather than large cash commitments, many of the promises are program or policy-driven.


Meal-kit pioneer Goodfood goes through another round of staff cuts amid struggles with supply chain, inflation (THE LOGIC)

Meal-kit and grocery-delivery company Goodfood laid off 70 staff members this week and is shuttering its Ontario distribution centre.


New report shares stories of the biases women entrepreneurs face raising capital (BETAKIT)

That women technology entrepreneurs must travel longer routes from startup to scale-up is a fact that resonates with Sampler founder and CEO Marie Chevrier Schwartz.


Shopify’s 48% slump proves that it’s no Amazon (BNN BLOOMBERG)

Shopify Inc. has been called “Amazon Junior.” Those shoes are proving too big to fill. Both companies are seen as bellwethers for the e-commerce sector and they are index heavyweights, too: Shopify is 3.1 per cent of Canada’s benchmark stock index and Amazon.com Inc. is 3.7 per cent of the S&P 500. Unfortunately for Shopify investors, that’s where the similarities end.


Walmart’s Flipkart raises IPO valuation target to $60-70 bln, eyes 2023 listing-sources (REUTERS)

Walmart’s Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60-70 billion, and now plans a U.S. listing in 2023 instead of this year, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.


Fill out the Sage Intacct x BetaKit Survey for SaaS startups (BETAKIT)

BetaKit has teamed up with Sage Intacct to conduct a brief survey to find out what pain points SaaS startups are running into on a day-to-day basis. Understanding the time it takes to complete financial reporting is critical on the journey to scale and secure their next round of funding. The survey takes less than 3 minutes to complete.


Amazon has spent years fighting Ontario delivery drivers’ bid to form a union. Newly released documents reveal the company’s strategy (THE LOGIC)

In October 2017, Amazon warehouses in the Toronto area were buzzing. The company was bracing for its busiest season, the “peak” months leading up to Christmas. Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the company’s biggest sales days of the year – were still weeks away, but package volumes had been ticking up for months, and the drivers hired to deliver them were feeling pinched.


Fast shuts doors after slow growth, high burn precluded fundraising options (TECHCRUNCH)

The Information first reported the company’s conclusion. In a statement, the company said that in the wake of “making great strides on our mission of making buying and selling frictionless for everyone, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors.”


theScore is ready for mobile sports betting to come to Ontario (BETAKIT)

Today, theScore is betting that its decades-long history with Ontario sports fans will give it a home-field advantage as the province opens up single-game sports betting to licensed private operators on April 4. The move, which will create the fifth-largest sports betting market in the U.S. and Canada, comes less than a year after the federal government passed legislation to legalize single-event sports betting.


Fanatics reveals NFL was biggest backer in $1.5B round announced last month at $27B valuation (TECHCRUNCH)

Fanatics, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based sports merchandising giant, revealed today that the NFL was the “single biggest investor” in the latest round announced by the company, a $1.5 billion round at a whopping $27 billion valuation that reportedly closed last month. The deal marked a 50% increase from the $18 billion valuation assigned to Fanatics during its previous raise last August.


Bonsai closes $21 million to scale embedded commerce solution for publishers like BuzzFeed, Vox (BETAKIT)

Launched in 2016 as a men’s streetwear shopping and news app, Bonsai shifted into a commerce tech company for media publishers in 2020. Bonsai founder and CEO Saad Siddiqui called the startup’s latest financing “evidence that the pivot worked.”stores.


Bolt Is Buying Crypto Startup Wyre For $1.5 Billion (THE INFORMATION)

Checkout software firm Bolt on Thursday announced it will acquire Wyre to enable crypto payments through its checkout technology. Bolt is slated to pay $1.5 billion for the startup, which offers blockchain software that lets merchants accept cryptocurrency, in a cash and stock deal, according to people familiar with the matter.


Subscribe to The Retail Times

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Retail Times using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!

Avatar

Cameron Chaddad

Cameron is a fourth-year journalism student at Carleton University, with a minor in business. Originally from Ottawa, ON, his family roots are both Italian and Lebanese.

0 replies on “R|T: The Retail Times – NFTs are evolving”