Today in the Connected Economy: PayPal, IMG Team to Remake MADE

Today in the connected economy, PayPal plans to help IMG launch its MADE platform as a place for fashion designers.

Also, Robinhood adds U.K. crypto platform Ziglu to its offerings, shipping and logistics platform Shipwell has launched its Shipper Mobile application, and payments services MYPINPAD and SmartPesa announce plans to merge.

PayPal Partners With IMG to Relaunch Fashion Platform MADE

PayPal has teamed up with sports, fashion, and media company IMG to relaunch IMG’s MADE as a platform for emerging fashion designers.

This revamped platform, known as MADE X PayPal and produced by IMG FOCUS, will offer much-needed support to new and diverse designers, creators, entrepreneurs, and retailers.

By collaborating with an up-and-coming fashion platform like IMG’s MADE, PayPal is extending its reach to new consumers and exposing itself to a new market for payments. The company says it hopes to elevate diverse designers and businesses while giving them the tools they need to help their brands flourish through MADE.

“At this critical moment of recovery from the inequitable impacts of the pandemic, MADE x PayPal will contribute to empowering the next generation of diverse designers and building a more inclusive digital economy,” said Amanda Miller, vice president of corporate affairs at PayPal.

Robinhood Adding Crypto Asset Platform Ziglu

Stock and cryptocurrency exchange Robinhood is set to acquire electronic money institution and cryptocurrency asset firm Ziglu Limited.

Based in the U.K., Ziglu lets British customers buy and sell 11 cryptocurrencies, earn yield via its Boost products, pay with a debit card and move and spend money worldwide with no fees.

“Like Robinhood, Ziglu believes that the new era of digital money brings a multitude of opportunities, and Ziglu exists to make those opportunities accessible to everyone,” Robinhood said on its blog. “Their talented team and technology will help us accelerate our international expansion, both in the UK and across Europe.”

Earlier this year, Robinhood said it plans to open its cryptocurrency platform to customers around the world.

Shipwell Unveils Mobile App With Transportation Management System and Visibility Access

Cloud-based shipping and logistics platform Shipwell has launched its Shipper Mobile application, which offers free access to a transportation management system (TMS) as well as a visibility solution.

Users of Shipper Mobile “can expect an increase in productivity, streamlined business functions and supply chain management, faster turnaround times, better communication between shipment partners, and improved customer service quality,” the firm said in a news release.

“COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how workforces operate these days,” said Jerry Holbus, Shipwell vice president of product. “Shipwell customers have told us that about three-quarters of their workforces frequently work remotely.”

Payments Firms MYPINPAD and SmartPesa Plan to Merge

Welsh mobile payments company MYPINPAD announced plans to merge with payments and banking solutions provider SmartPesa, based in Singapore.

“Customers will benefit from greater scale, a wider product offering, and the certainty of continued support as the industry moves towards the PCI Security Standards Council’s forthcoming Mobile Payments on COTS Standard,” the companies said in a news release.

The council says the goal of the standard is to “create a flexible mobile standard and program for payment solution development, allowing for both PIN entry and contactless payments through the COTS-native interfaces.”

The companies say the merger establishes MYPINPAD as a worldwide leader in the field of mobile payments acceptance and allows the combined company — which will do business under the MYPINPAD brand — to double its global footprint.

Fleet Tracking Boosts Small Business Fleets’ Efficiency, Safety, Service

For small businesses that need vehicles to do their work, GPS fleet tracking gives them more than just information about where to find their cars, vans, or trucks. It also tells them whether these vehicles are being operated safely and properly maintained and whether they’re following routes that most efficiently serve customers.

“I think of it as more than just vehicle tracking; it’s also trying to help the small business’s customer,” Kenny Hawk, CEO of Mojio and general manager of Force by Mojio, said in an interview with PYMNTS.

Hawk’s company offers GPS tracking that’s powered by a 4G LTE tracking device that plugs into a vehicle’s OBD-II port. The device then transmits data to a platform — available on mobile devices and desktops — that displays information about all the vehicles in the business’s fleet on a single screen.