Welcome to the Five at Five, your late look at the payments and commerce news of the day. Coverage includes a digital coin push involving IBM, along with Walmart’s latest efforts involving healthcare and Microsoft. In addition, it’s a big day for food delivery news, with Alibaba and IHOP activity in that area.
IBM And Stronghold Back Stable Digital Coin Stronghold USD
The digital token, dubbed Stronghold USD, launched on the Stellar blockchain platform. Buyers of the digital token deposit U.S. dollars with Prime Trust, Stronghold’s partner, and are issued the tokens on a one-to-one ratio.
Walmart Names New VP For Health And Wellness Unit
Sean Slovenski will start his role August 1 and will work to implement Walmart’s plan to focus more on the health and wellness unit, with the aim of making healthcare cheaper and more easily accessible.
Walmart Teams Up With Microsoft For Cloud Technology
With the partnership, engineers from both Microsoft and Walmart will collaborate to bring a large portion of Samsclub.com and Walmart.com to Microsoft Azure.
Alibaba Food Delivery Service Seeks $2B For Expansion
Ele.me, the food delivery platform acquired by Alibaba, is looking for new financing to help it take on rival Meituan Dianping.
IHOP: Back On Brand And Embracing Delivery
The addition of delivery services comes as an extension of the restaurant’s IHOP ‘N Go platform, which is centered on speeding up consumers’ pancake experience.