Hello innovative leaders, I hope you're moving forward and getting inspired!

In this week's edition, you will find some insightful facts on how influencers are helping brands drive sales, a global benchmark on incubators and accelerators, and how successful retailers are thriving by using AI to stand out from the crowd.

Keep Innovating 🚀 

Market Analysis

Digital listening research reveals top three drivers of innovation. Listening focused on conversations about emerging technologies and use cases associated with innovation, such as artificial intelligence, metaverse, blockchain, robotics, Web 3.0 and tokenization.

Influencers help brands drive sales through retail media networks Results from a recent study conducted by influencer marketing platform LTK reveal that Generation Z and millennials trust creators more than ads and celebrities. Furthermore, the study revealed that all demographics are now buying products online from creator affiliate links. Gen Z and millennials lead with 75% and 67% respectively.

Research reveals differences among Gen Z and millennial shoppers Whether in domestic or travel retail, millennials represent a higher proportion of the overall consumer spend.

Consumers Go Out More, Buy Less. A recent study by Circana (formerly IRI and The NPD Group) shows that even if consumers aren't staying home as much as they used to, they are keeping their physical and digital wallets.

Five Ways to Prepare for AI Regulation Regulation of artificial intelligence is gathering momentum around the globe, with more than 800 measures under consideration in 60-plus countries and territories, as well as the EU. The push doesn’t come as a surprise.

Who’s Innovating

#UnexpectedJobs: BNP Paribas Gives 190,000 Employees a Voice. BNP Paribas’ latest campaign #UnexpectedJobs gives 190,000 employees a voice to reveal the reality of daily life within the bank, portraying the diversity of profiles that make up the group today.

Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence just launches a training program to bridge the gender gap in the tech industry

The board’s role in driving innovation. Now more than ever, boards of directors are essential to innovation, writes Rod McNaughton.

The world’s most comprehensive study and benchmark of Business Incubators and Accelerators. This comparative study provides a comprehensive analysis of incubator and accelerator performance in different sectors, including academic, public, private, and corporate. Full report

 The number

Only 15%

of tech startups founders are female, much progress remains to be done to attract more qualified women to executive positions and to retain the ones they already have.

Startup Stories

“Growth Capital as a Sevice" This Singapore-based Y Combinator graduate just raised $6.6 million in a pre-series B round led by Headline Asia.

10 exceptionally promising French startups to watch in 2023 and beyond. French Tech counts 20 unicorns like Qonto, Backmarket and BlaBlaCar, proving its ability to produce innovative and competitive startups on a global scale.

12 female-founded startups to watch, according to VCs. Based on the PitchBook data, by the end of February, just under €1 billion (about $1.1 billion) had been invested in 269 deals involving companies founded or co-founded by women. Further evidence that the gender gap in the corporate world and venture capital investment remains low.

Learn about the 19 venture capitalists who invest in AI and machine learning startups, including Hugging Face, Databricks, and Intel Capital. 

Microsoft unveils its Microsoft Pegasus program for startups which connects growth-stage startups with thousands of Microsoft's top customers.

The startup that made e-commerce Search Relevance obsolete. This tech solution makes product search and discovery more intuitive for retailers and e-commerce providers.

Featured podcasts

Best Practices

Amazon to launch ‘interactive conversational’ search with ChatGPT-style features. Amazon is set to bring a ChatGPT-style product search to its online platform, rivalling efforts by Google and Microsoft to feature generative artificial intelligence (AI) into their search engines.

Tommy's Express Car Wash is launching a referral program that allows its members to become its best ambassadors and be rewarded for it.

Meta tests members-only features in Horizon Worlds, despite criticism. features are available only in Horizon Worlds, its social virtual reality (VR) experience, in which selected creators can develop and moderate their own communities

How Kellogg is unlocking the power of cross-domain data and retailer relationships. The opportunities for collaboration between FMCG companies and their retail partners are evolving. That's why Kellogg is taking a strategic approach to planning its next move using data

Persado introduces its motivation AI technology. With Persado Dynamic Motivation, AI is used to reduce shopping cart abandonment and boost e-commerce sales by 3-5%.

How Authentic Brands Group transforms brands with ‘broken business models’ Speaking at ShopTalk Europe last week, Stupp explained how they transformed their brands by offering powerful storytelling, compelling content, innovative business models and immersive experiences 

A practical guide to building AI & Analytics maturity. AI and analytics maturity warrants a centralised knowledge group or team that oversees conceptualization and implementation of organisation-wide analytics and AI projects. Learn more about the AWS Flywheel Effect.

Top Tech News

Crypto - Singapore-based Crypto.com has launched Amy an AI-powered chatbot designed to help users learn about digital assets. Read more

AI - The latest version of Midjourney is already here and it's a huge step forward in AI. Read more

Marketplace - SHEIN, the global online fast fashion retailer just announced the launch of its online integrated global marketplace. Read more

Alibaba reveals 200,000 enterprises interested in testing its ChatGPT rival "Tongyi Qianwen". Read more

Tech - TikTok is launching an ad service that will provide premium content creators with a 50% discount. Read more

Events