Wealthsimple hits 2M Canadian users amid neobanking push: The Canadian fintech reached a user threshold as it hit a CAD$5 billion valuation from its latest funding round—positive signs that it could become a significant player despite the challenges in its home market.

A key UK pandemic SMB loan program turns 1: The Bounce Bank Loan Scheme provided £46.53 billion ($59.67 billion) to strapped businesses and offered neobanks a chance to grow their books—but lenders now have to deal with repayments and keeping the borrowers.

Employers are drowning in healthcare costs—digitized benefits packages can help

SPACs and bankers have reportedly approached Omada about making a public debut—underscoring how rapidly the digital therapeutics space has transformed over the past year as companies test international waters.

Twitter boosts local news, promotes Spaces: The platform is running a massive national ad campaign encouraging people to pay more attention to local news and local journalists—and it's facilitating the use of the new Spaces feature, among others, to further spur interest.

Connected TV (CTV) advertisers have a new major player: Magnite has officially acquired SpotX, and it plans to commit two-thirds of its business to digital video advertising, with 50% of that going to CTV.

Social audio for Instagram: The social platform is implementing a new user capability to go Live with audio only.

eMarketer was pleased to moderate a Tech-Talk Webinar featuring Litmus' Cynthia Price, vice president of marketing, along with Epsilon’s Nicole Eaton, vice president, group accounts, and Proactiv’s Dave Sims, head of customer experience. They discussed tried and tested strategies for creating high-performing email onboarding programs.

On today's episode, we discuss how LinkedIn is evolving, how successful its creator initiative can be, whether its upcoming social audio platform can compete with Clubhouse, and how user growth and ad revenues are performing. We then talk about whether we can expect nearly all events this year to be virtual, making B2B events more appealing, and how robots can make our lives easier in the office. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jillian Ryan.

Older consumers may recall the iconic Bounty TV commercials featuring “Rosie.” But to attract Gen Z, Procter & Gamble is taking its messaging to digital channels. Watch Industry Voices Spotlight on CPG with Janette Yauch, brand vice president of Bounty and Puffs at P&G, to learn how it’s leveraging Twitch and TikTok.

Extended reality (XR) technologies are still mostly related to gaming, entertainment, and social media, but their applications are evolving quickly as more consumers and businesses test out immersive experiences.

Latino-focused Fortú rolls out with support from SoFi, LendingClub: Fortú will serve un- and underbanked US Latinos—and it has the opportunity to gain traction by initially targeting underserved consumers within a market of around 60 million Latinos.

Google’s update to Google Pay includes enhancements to its Google Plex bank account—as big tech companies dive into banking, it jeopardizes the value proposition of digital-only banks like Chime and Varo.