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Matchesfashion.com, is marking its 30th year in business with an big announcement. The company has released its financial results for the first time this week and their full-year revenues for 2016 were a record £204m. They have made a 61 per cent growth year on year with online sales growing by 73 per cent and 55m visits to their website.
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On 14 November 2016 Ardent Advisors and Calibre One co-hosted The Online Grocery Leadership Dinner at The Lansdowne Club in Mayfair.
We were joined by 16 CEOs, chairmen and investors from the European Online Grocery sector such as; Deliveroo, Hello Fresh, MedicAnimal and William Jackson Food Group. There was an interesting roundtable discussion that began with the future of Online Grocery, and moved on to consider how consumer behaviour will impact their business.
The evening was a great success and to register your interest in attending our next event, please contact Georgia at georgia@ardentadvisors.com.
Ardent's client, Sky-Futures, and Flyability have joined forces to bring to market a fully integrated solution for drone-based industrial inspection. The two companies now provide clients with the Elios drone and Expanse software for a complete solution for data capture, processing and distribution to all stakeholders.
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UK department store group John Lewis Partnership is developing its sustainable FashionCycle scheme. The scheme now looks to reward the retailer’s customers who donate five or more pre-loved clothing items, which will either be resold or recycled, “encouraging customers to shop more sustainably and extending product life cycles”.
The retailer’s exclusive initiative is linked to its loyalty reward programme ‘MyJL’. When customers donate five or more items to their nearest John Lewis store they will be rewarded with a £5 offer to shop when they spend £20 or more across the fashion and homeware departments (excluding online).
The expanded scheme “follows our hugely successful introduction of our BeautyCycle reward scheme, which launched back in 2019", the retailer said.
“So far, more than 85,000 MyJL members have donated to BeautyCycle, saving an incredible 425,000 products from going to landfill”, it noted.
Caroline Pinnell, Partner & Circular Economy Specialist, said: "FashionCycle forms part of our commitment to ensure all John Lewis product categories have a 'buyback' or 'takeback' solution by 2025.
"In particular, this scheme will help our pledge to increasingly move away from a ‘make, take and dispose’ model to a ‘repair, reuse or recycle’ approach -- an evolution that will help our customers shop more responsibly and be key in eliminating unnecessary waste and extending product life cycles.”
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Berlin-based online travel booking firm GetYourGuide has raised $75 million to expand its offering that helps tourists book activities at their destinations ranging from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to shark diving in Cape Town.
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Lightful, a social media and campaign management tool for charities and social enterprises, has secured £4m in Series A funding.
The company drew investment from backers including Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and British racing driver Dario Franchitti.
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Published on Thursday, the Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 highlighted companies such as luxury yacht builder Princess Yachts and travel website Loveholidays.
Coming in second place was Gymshark, the fitness and gymwear brand with more than 20 million social media followers. Their annual profits have grown by an average of 152% over the past three years, with its latest profits hitting £18m on sales of £103.2m.
End., the online menswear destination, ranked 49th with an annual profit growth of 71% over the past three years. Backed by private equity firm Index Ventures, it saw profits rise to £23m in 2018 from £16m a year earlier.
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It’s official: Bitcoin has finally crossed the $10,000 mark. The price of the popular cryptocurrency currently stands at $10,032, according to stats from Coin Market Cap.
This milestone comes only days after the biggest cryptocurrency by market share hit $9,000 for the first time ever on November 26. It only took two more days to surge past $10,000.
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Europe is on track to end 2017 with a record $19 billion worth of tech investments, according to a report from VC firm Atomico, meanwhile the European tech industry is in the midst of a ‘Battle Royale’ for talent that is showing no signs of slowing down.
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Apple has confirmed its rumoured acquisition of London-based tech company Shazam.
The tech giant hasn’t disclosed the terms of the acquisition, but reports have previously pegged the price at £300m ($395m).
Shazam, set up 18 years ago, was once valued at $1bn. The firm raised $143.5m to date and backers include Kleiner Perkins and DN Capital.
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