Is there a purpose to financial innovation? | Bruce Davis and Mark Davis


In his 2020 BBC Reith Lecture Series, Mark Carney, former Governor of the Banks of Canada (2008–2013) and England (2013–2020), opened with a challenge to the conventions and values of the mainstream finance system. Finance, Carney argued, could no longer rely on the automatic granting of its social licence, enabling it to profit in perpetuity from the professional management and safeguarding of other people’s’ money. Mainstream finance, Carney suggested, is fast running the risk of no longer being fit for purpose if it cannot be seen by the public as helping to solve what he identified as the ‘triple threat’ of Credit, COVID-19 and Climate.

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As PayPal announce that UK users will be able to buy/sell cryptocurrencies, we ask ‘Are we now seeing accelerated change in the financial system?’


The PayPal news is definitely one indicator of change. But much more radical shifts are already well underway. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has over $80bn locked in it, having started only a couple of years ago. DeFi lets you control your funds while accessing a global financial system that operates 24/7, is highly capital efficient, transparent and automated, and innovates at blistering speed due to the power of permissionless networks. DeFi is still tiny compared to traditional finance, but it will eventually win as surely as emails came to dominate the fax machine.

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Melinda Nicci’s latest project, MBody, is tackling Perimenopause which affects women between 38 and 50. We asked her to explain her latest mission and entrepreneurial journey!


Seven years ago, I had an idea for an app that would change the way women approach their health and wellness during pregnancy. Six years ago, that idea turned into my launching Baby2Body as a sole founder, and three years later, we brought out our first app. Today, Baby2Body is the award-winning health and wellness app that provides personalized coaching for women in their reproductive years. We have surpassed 2 million members from all over the world, and I could not be more proud of what we have created.

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As the Edtech market becomes increasingly borderless, Unibuddy has its sights on the US and APAC | Kimeshan Naidoo, CTO and Co-Founder


When I left my home country of South Africa for the UK in pursuit of a Computer Science Master’s Degree, I didn’t expect to embark on an entrepreneurial journey.

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Trials and tribulations of going against the grain | Dylan Bourguignon, CEO of SO-SURE


Investors’ and advisors’ mantra is “focus on only one segment of the value chain”. Those are wise words… Unfortunately, when you’ve seen up close-up the root causes of the insurance sector’s failure to gain the consumer’s trust, you realise it couldn’t be solved by addressing a single value chain segment. The entire value chain and proposition needed redesign. Daunting prospect when financial backers shy away from such an ambitious approach.

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Iggy Bassi, Founder and CEO, Cervest | Q&A


What was your vision for founding Cervest? Tell us more about how Climate Intelligence plays into this.
The idea for Cervest was conceived as I was operating my sustainable agribusiness company in Ghana. Although well-funded, we had no way to assess how climate change affected yields and processing assets.  This led me to team up with mathematicians to help quantify climate risk – and that’s where Climate Intelligence (CI) comes into play.

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Apple’s ‘Buy now pay later’ | Clever innovation or symptom of a developing fintech market?


Apple is typically ‘first’ in terms of category defining products and services. They know what the consumer wants and needs well before the consumer does. But in this case they are comfortable slotting in as a fast follower. Klarna and others have trailblazed their way into becoming an already developed fintech solution which, a business as large and powerful as Apple, is comfortable replicating and integrating into their own services. It is both a logical piece of innovation as well as a sign of a well developed fintech market.

Matt Cooper
Chief Commercial Officer of Crowdcube

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‘Is Age-Tech the next frontier for market disruption?’ Stuart Lewis, CEO of Rest Less explains!


The UK’s population of over 60s is set to increase by 3.1m over the next decade – an increase of 19% to 20 million individuals. All with their own sense of purpose, needs and wants. According to ONS estimates, the over 60s also account for 49% of the total household wealth in Great Britain, a whopping £7.2 trillion2.

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The importance of trade marks in your business | Jane Mutimear, Bird & Bird LLP


Intellectual property exists to enable you to protect the non-tangible assets of your company. In this article we take a brief look at trade marks. The name of your business and of its products and services are likely among your company’s key assets. They are the trade marks which you use to denote your company’s goods and services from those of any competitor. Ensuring you have protected them as best you can and that you choose them well in the first place are important in ensuring you minimise trouble ahead and to assist in demonstrating to investors that some of your core assets are on a secure footing.

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Starting a plant-based food revolution and applying venture capital turbo-engines to a B Corp mission | Jonathan Petrides, Founder and CEO of allplants


Every entrepreneur is hardwired to think we can innovate our way out of anything, let’s make this better, faster, or of course, more delicious… The climate crisis is, without a doubt, this generation of founders’ biggest opportunity to innovate. Across every industry, there is a unique, pressing and massive need to build a more sustainable future, and at the same time develop these new solutions into building high scale ventures with purpose.

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