Swag Kicks uses AI to automate thrift operations and cut emissions
Swag Kicks founder Nofal Khan built ThriftOps, an AI tool that automates sorting, pricing and listing of second‑hand fashion, cutting carbon footprint.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDStripe’s Bet on Pakistani Fintech Safepay Opens Door to Cash‑Dominant Market
Stripe’s seed investment in fintech Safepay aimed to tap Pakistan’s cash‑heavy economy by partnering with a startup to build digital payments infrastructure.
Read the caseCharles Schwab eliminates online trading commissions after Robinhood pressure
Faced with Robinhood’s zero‑commission app, Charles Schwab cut trading fees to zero, sparking sector-wide fee cuts and preserving its retail brokerage business.
Read the caseLVMH revives La Samaritaine: €750M, 16-year rebuild reopens Paris landmark in 2021
LVMH spent €750M and 16 years restoring the shuttered 1870 Paris department store, reopening La Samaritaine as an experiential luxury flagship in June 2021.
Read the caseReliance put Isha, Akash and Anant Ambani on the board in 2023, formalizing succession
Mukesh Ambani inducted all three children onto Reliance's board at the 2023 AGM, and investors approved.
Read the caseRakuten Mobile turned EBITDA positive in 2025 and the group followed into profit
After six years of group-level operating losses funding a fourth-network gamble, Rakuten Mobile posted EBITDA of ¥12.9bn and the group returned to profit.
Read the casePidilite's Parekh family gave the corner office to an outsider in 2015
The family behind Fevicol let ex-Cadbury chief Bharat Puri take the managing director's job — the first non-Parekh to run the adhesive maker.
Read the caseNoble Corp cut debt to under $400M in Chapter 11, then bought Diamond Offshore for $1.59B
Offshore driller Noble emerged from its 2020 bankruptcy lean and liquid, then consolidated rivals until it ran a 41-rig fleet with a $6.5B backlog.
Read the caseMy China Roots uses tech to restore Chinese-Indonesian ancestral names
After Suharto erased Chinese-Indonesian names, Huihan Lie built My China Roots to digitize genealogy books, letting diaspora reclaim heritage via family trees.
Read the caseIndia's first PSU privatisation sold Modern Food to Hindustan Lever for Rs 1.05bn in 2000
In 2000 the Government of India sold 74% of its loss-making bread maker Modern Food to Hindustan Lever — the country's first outright privatisation.
Read the caseMicrosoft unveiled Azure in the 2008 crash and rebuilt itself around cloud
Ozzie's 2005 services memo led to Azure, unveiled as the 2008 crisis hit; under Nadella the cloud bet drove Microsoft shares to 15-year highs.
Read the caseLanvin 2001: Wang buys dormant couture house, bets on Alber Elbaz, revives luxury icon
Shaw-Lan Wang bought France's oldest fashion house from L'Oréal in 2001 and gave Alber Elbaz creative control; he rebuilt it into a coveted luxury brand.
Read the caseCat Rock fought to free Just Eat from Grubhub; the drag ended in a €4.1B sale
An activist demanded a Grubhub exit in 2021; three years of resistance ended with a $650M sale and a 63%-premium buyout of the refocused company.
Read the caseJulphar survived recalls and a Saudi export ban to return to profit in 2021
Product recalls and a Saudi ban drove Julphar into losses; new leadership, a capital reset and a pharmacy acquisition brought a AED63.9m profit in 2021.
Read the caseSK rebuilt Vietnam's Imexpharm around EU-GMP lines, then sold it to Livzon for double
SK bought 24.9% of a stagnant Vietnamese generics maker in 2020, rebuilt it around EU-GMP production, and exited in 2026 at roughly twice its $100M investment.
Read the caseHawaya launches an Islamic‑compliant dating app in Egypt, gaining 1M downloads
Hawaya built an Islamic‑compliant dating app with modest photos, age ≥ 21, guardian oversight, reaching 1M downloads and 25 staff in three years.
Read the caseHarley-Davidson 1981: 13 executives buy the brand back from AMF for $81.5M
With AMF ready to abandon a quality-wrecked Harley, Vaughn Beals led 13 managers in a leveraged buyout that saved America's last motorcycle maker.
Read the caseGVK sold its crown jewel Mumbai airport to Adani in 2021 to escape a debt trap
Debt-laden GVK handed control of Mumbai airport to Adani in 2021 and repaid lenders instead of defaulting.
Read the caseGregory Rockson turned down Google to start mPharma in Ghana, scaling it to $40M+.
After college, Gregory Rockson rejected a Google offer to return to Ghana and launch mPharma in 2013, building a health‑tech that raised over $40 million.
Read the caseGol shed R$21bn of net debt via Chapter 11 and emerged in 17 months
Filing Chapter 11 in January 2024, Gol restructured R$21.16bn of net debt, raised $1.9bn of exit financing, and emerged in June 2025 with ~$900m liquidity.
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