Today In Data: Verifone Earnings, B2B Funding And Blockchain Growth

Today in PYMNTS data, Verifone’s first-quarter earnings largely met expectations, B2B FinTech firms are targeting millennials and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with digital financial services and blockchain appears to have real potential for market disruption. In addition, Walmart is offering meal kits without subscriptions, and cybercriminals are targeting call centers at alarming rates.

Here are the numbers:

$436.8 million | Verifone’s first-quarter revenues, which were off 3.8 percent but were roughly in line with consensus. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.23, and the company’s results largely met expectations. They were driven, in part, by a shift to services, while management pointed to execution on strategic priorities tied to the current fiscal year.

$206 million | Value of U.K.-based Atom Bank’s B2B funding round, a total which will be used to enhance its digital financial services targeted toward millennials and SMBs. Reports in TechCrunch said the deal has already secured regulatory approval, and the funding was led by Spanish bank BBVA, which now holds a 39 percent stake in Atom Bank.

$3.3 million | Value of blockchain startup Blockdaemon’s recent funding round, led by telecommunications firm Comcast Ventures and solidifying Comcast’s presence in the distributed ledger scene. Gil Beyda, managing director of Comcast Ventures, is among the growing list of investors convinced that it is bitcoin’s underlying distributed ledger technology — and not cryptocurrency itself — that has the real potential for market disruption.

250 | Number of brick-and-mortar Walmart stores at which “one-step” meal kits have been rolled out as part of the company’s mission to save families time and money. The retailer plans to sell the meals at 2,000 of its locations by the end of 2018. Unlike Blue Apron and HelloFresh, however, Walmart does not require customers to purchase subscriptions.

113 percent | Growth in cybercrime targeting contact centers from 2016 to 2017, representing a more than doubled prevalence. Call centers were particularly fatigued by attacks near the end of last year, according to software company IntraNext CEO Patrick Brown, as the holiday season brought with it a new wave of fraud.