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This spring will see H&M opening its first UK store in an outlet destination with a debut at Affinity, Staffordshire this spring.
It will cover 7,000 sq ft and comes as outlet shopping remains one of the most buoyant sectors of UK retail with Affinity continuing to attract new brands to the location.
But the company clearly wants to distance itself from the idea of a store that’s all about price and overcrowded clothing rails as it said it’s aiming for “a lower volume of products, which will be displayed in an inspirational way”.
The firm’s long-running Garment Collection and Recycling service that guarantees nothing goes to landfill will also be part of the new store.
Outlet shopping is increasingly appealing for lower-priced retailers as well as the mid-and high-priced names we usually associate with the sector and this year, New Look has also made a move into the segment.
Nicky Lovell, who heads outlets and business development at Global Mutual, which secured H&M for the centre, said: “As the retail market continues to reposition itself post-pandemic, it is becoming clearer that the outlet environment is increasingly sought after for both consumers and brands offering convenience, value and quality within a welcoming and accessible setting.”
Amazon Web Services claims it is to invest upwards of £1.8bn ($2.36bn) over the next two years in building and operating data centers in the UK, meet the ever growing demand for cloudy tech.
The cash burn includes spending on infrastructure, renewable energy, and skills and training, the megacorp said.
AWS opened its London region in December 2016, before which the company's UK customers had to rely on servers and services delivered from Dublin, Frankfurt or US East Coast data centers. Amazon said that the latest estimated budget splash would more than double its total AWS investment in the UK to date.
In those intervening five and a bit years, AWS has expanded its footprint, adding a third Availability Zone to the London Region in 2018. Availability Zones provide for redundancy and fault-tolerance in applications by allowing AWS customers to spread operations across multiple sites within the same region.
Amazon did not reveal whereabouts it would build out its data center capacity in the UK, but as The Register detailed in an article earlier this year, the firm is understood to be constructing at least three new data center sites in England: one is at Bracknell in the southeast, another at Burderop near Swindon in the southwest, and the third is at the site of the former Didcot, a power station in Oxfordshire, also in the southeast of the country.
It also isn't clear how much of the £1.8bn is actually going into building new data centers or expanding existing facilities. Rival cloud operator Microsoft disclosed last year that it was constructing up to five colocation buildings at a site in San Antonio, Texas, that were projected to cost over $200m, according to reports.
Rene Buest, Gartner senior director and analyst for cloud & cloud IT services, said all the hyperscale providers are now spending on local delivery to meet rising demand.
He added that in the UK, Gartner's Cloud End-User Buying Behavior Survey found 73 percent of respondents involved in purchasing decisions expect their organization to increase spending on cloud services in the next 12 months.
Amazon declined to comment for this article.
But in its announcement, Amazon does not hold back from congratulating itself on its contribution to the UK economy, stating that 41 percent of companies in its AWS Partner Network (APN) said their business would not be possible without AWS, and 58 percent that AWS had helped them to win more customers.
"We are proud of the contributions we are making to the UK economy," said AWS VP & General Manager for UK and Ireland, Darren Hardman, in a canned statement as part of the announcement.
"Looking ahead, we know that the UK remains full of opportunity and we continue to be excited by the potential to continue supporting our customers, partners, and citizens across the UK over the years to come," he added.
Amazon also states that its "dedication to delivering value in the UK" extends beyond infrastructure investments, pointing to research that estimates that AWS is generating £8.7bn ($11.4bn) in economic value for businesses across the country.
The company has, of late, been pressured to be more transparent about how and where it pays tax around the world, with its last set of accounts in the UK showing a tax payment of £9.2m (once £9.1m of deferred tax had been applied) on profits of £127.8m for the year ended 31 December 2020, while turnover stood at £4.8bn.
Hoxton Ventures, which is today announcing that it has closed its second fund at just under $100m, is a little different from other European VC firms.
For starters, its team is tiny. Until recently, it was a two-man band; partners Hussein Kanji and Rob Kniaz had to set up payroll for the first time only recently when chief operating officer Rob Ludwig joined the show. There are no PAs or principals.
It also has an impressive unicorn herd — its first $40m fund invested in food delivery giant Deliveroo, digital health company Babylon and cyber security firm Darktrace, all now valued at more than one billion dollars. 75% of its portfolio has also gone on to raise from leading US funds.
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Turkish urban delivery startup Getir has hit a valuation of $11.8bn (£9bn) following a $768m (£585m) round of funding.
The latest valuation makes it Europe’s first rapid delivery decacorn – a private company valued at $10bn or more.
Getir exploded onto the UK market after an aggressive expansion plan that saw it snap up UK delivery rival Weezy in November 2021.
The Istanbul-based startup also bought Spanish competitor BLOK in July 2021, allowing further European expansion.
It comes just over a year after Istanbul-headquartered Getir launched in London. It has since expanded across the UK to more than 15 cities, including Birmingham and Manchester.
The Series E round was led by Mubadala Investment Company, which contributed $250m to the company.
Other participants in the latest round of funding include Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Alpha Wave Global, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.
The new funds will go towards Getir’s goal of beating its rivals in the highly competitive rapid delivery industry.
Rapid delivery, which sees consumers order grocery goods via an app to arrive in 20 minutes or less, has attracted a surge in investments over the last few years. The popularity of the service was boosted by the pandemic’s stay at home restrictions, and now investors are throwing billions of dollars at grocery delivery startups in the hope of future returns.
Getir’s latest valuation puts it above the £6.11bn market capitalisation of Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second-largest supermarket chain.
Getir does not publicise its financials, but its CEO Nazim Salur has said the business is not yet profitable overall. Its revenues are reportedly about $1bn (£760m). Sainsbury’s most recent annual revenues stood at £28.8bn.
Whether or not rapid grocery delivery startups can sustain the enormous level of growth they have enjoyed during the pandemic remains to be seen. However, at least for now, the investments continue to pour in.
The market is incredibly competitive right now, but Getir is proving to be up for the fight with a massive new valuation and a network of over 1,000 dark store locations globally.
Dark stores are retail outlets that exist exclusively for the purpose of online delivery. Getir’s large network of ‘G-stores’ is part of what allows it to deliver so quickly, as is the case for most of the rapid delivery market.
“In such an exciting and competitive market, we cannot afford to stand still. This investment will enable us to further develop our proposition and technology, as well as invest in our employees to continue to attract the best talent,” said Getir founder and CEO Nazim Salur.
U.S. apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch announced on Wednesday the launch of an all-new activewear sub-brand.
Dubbed 'YPB', which is an acronym for 'Your Personal Best', the brand aims to empower customers for activities ranging from sprinting to stretching, and lifting to lounging.
It launches with a collection of fashion-forward, yet functional activewear and accessories for men and women. It features squat-proof and breathable bottoms, performance tops with four-way stretch, sweat-wicking and anti-odor elements, studio outer layers with fashion detailing like cutouts and straps. YPB’s styles are available in XXS-XXL with additional options for long and short lengths.
To create the collection, designers spent hundreds of hours conducting fit research on models across genders, sizes, shapes and heights to ensure fit. Additionally, YPB’s team held focus groups with customers and key fitness and lifestyle influencers to gain their perspective on what they and their followers were missing from the activewear world, to refine design and details like pocket angles and drawstrings.
“We’ve been dedicated to outfitting our millennial consumers for every part of their lives, whether they’re traveling, brunching with friends or celebrating a wedding, for example. Being active is another key part of that lifestyle, and now, with the launch of YPB, we can meet those specific needs,” said Kristin Scott, global brand president at Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
“We’re laser-focused on listening to our customers, and they were clear: They're looking for fashion-forward activewear that actually performs, looks good and combines quality with value. YPB delivers on all of that, while also providing the comfort and attention to detail that our customers expect from us.”
The collection is now available at www.abercrombie.com and in most North American Abercrombie & Fitch stores.
Lifestyle fashion brand Crew clothing is targeting rapid physical store expansion with plans to open up to 12 new locations this year alone in Britain and Ireland.
CEO David Butler said three of the shops will open as soon as mid-April with two of them being in the south-east of England and one in Ireland.
The company has been testing store expansion ideas and will open between eight and 12 shops this year with a focus on market towns and coastal areas. That's an interesting approach that perhaps reflects the changing priorities of consumers post-pandemic with more local shopping and consumers clearly keen to get away from it all on the UK coast.
But it possibly also reflects the high costs associated with prime city centre stores, particularly business rates that are still a bugbear for many retail chains.
Butler also stressed that the company isn't focusing on city expansion, but it's not ignoring cities altogether as it will look at third-party link ups for its city centre business.
The company currently has around 100 stores in the British Isles.
Amplience, a “commerce experience” platform for online retailers, has closed a $100m (£76.5m) Series D funding round.
Investment came from Fairview Equity Partners, Sixth Street and previous backer Octopus Ventures.
London-based Amplience will use the capital injection for product development and to increase its US and global expansion.
“We are doubling-down on product investment, and in scaling our global go-to market, customer success and expert services teams,” said James Brooke, founder and CEO at Amplience.
Amplience provides the underlying technology for B2B and B2C commerce businesses to create bespoke omnichannel experiences, without requiring coding knowledge.
It was founded in 2008 by Brooke and Rory Dennis. Amplience counts the likes of Argos, Currys, Ulta Beauty and Very Group among its customers.
“At Amplience, our vision has always been to empower commerce, marketing and technology teams to create digital experiences without limits. We give them the freedom to do more through better tools, more powerful APIs and performant content delivery at commerce scale,” added Brooke.
The latest investment brings Amplience’s total funding to $180m (£137.7m). It previously raised $37m during a Series C round in April 2018.
Fairview Equity Partners invest in European growth-oriented enterprise technology businesses, with a focus on SaaS and fintechs.
Meanwhile Fairview, founded in 2019, invests between €15 and €50m into companies, with previous investments including Spotify, believe Distribution services and WorldRemit.
“Amplience’s mission to reimagine the commerce experience technology stack and user experience using a MACH approach aligns completely with our determination to invest in companies that are disrupting incumbent vendors and re-making the market,” commented Guy Sochovsky, partner and co-founder of Farview Equity Partners.
H&M Group reported its Q1 sales on Tuesday and — as is usual for the Swedish fashion giant’s quarterly preliminary sales data — it was distinctly low on detail.
But we do know that the company saw net sales in local currencies increasing by 18% in the period from December up to the end of February, on a year on year basis.
Converted to Sweden’s currency, net sales increased by 23% to SEK49.166 billion (4.6bn/£3.9bn/$5.1bn). However, that’s a provisional figure and could change by the time the full three-month report is published at the end of this month.
The quarterly sales performance was in line with analysts’ expectations.
The company added no commentary to the figures but it’s clear that it’s continuing its recovery, although the comparison with last year is relatively easy given the widespread lockdowns that were in place during the period. That said, Q1 this time still had its challenges given the onset of the Omicron variant at the beginning of the period and the massive supply chain issues that fashion retailers had to face.
Only two months ago, the group reported buoyant Q4 and full-year results for the 12 months to the end of November. It said it was back to pre-pandemic levels and fully focused on growth with ambitious plans to double its sales by the end of the decade.
But it’s likely to be facing ongoing challenges in the current quarter as Covid cases surge in China and the company’s business in parts of Eastern Europe being devastated by the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine.
Delio, a London, UK-based fintech company with a mission to enable financial institutions of all sizes to create investor access to alternative assets such as private equity, private debt, and real estate, raised $8.3M in Growth funding.
The round was led by Octopus Ventures. Additional investment from early-backers Maven Capital Partners brings the total equity funding raised by Delio to $15.5m.
The company intends to use the funds to further enhance international operations.
Led by CEO Gareth Lewis, Delio digitises the private markets strategies of banks, wealth managers and other financial firms, enabling them to offer unlisted investment opportunities to their clients. It currently serves more than 90 financial institutions worldwide, including the likes of Barclays, UBS and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
Identity verification (IDV) provider Veriff, has raised a $100 million Series C round co-led by Tiger Global and Alkeon. They were joined by existing investors IVP and Accel, bringing Veriff’s total funding to date to $200 million. The new funding means the company is now valued at $1.5 billion. The new financing will be used for growing the workforce, R&D, sales and marketing.
The Estonia-based startup’s “special sauce” is using AI-powered video to verify identifies. To date, the biggest startups in the space include OnFido and Jumio, but so far these rely on still photographs rather than video.
Veriff claims its video approach makes online IDV “more accurate” than physical face-to-face authentication and prevents fraud more often.
It also claims that last year it grew verification volumes by more than 8x, and by 20x in the U.S., with its financial services operation growing by 10x, while customer growth had grown by 150%.
Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and founder of Veriff, said: “Organizations and consumers needed to verify identities online more than ever before in 2021 — from onboarding remote employees, to creating a safe space for gaming in the metaverse, and conducting business fully online — which makes the establishment of digital trust and transparency incredibly critical.”
John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global said: “A reliable IDV solution for today’s digital businesses and consumers has been exacerbated over the past two years as all operations moved online to conduct business. Veriff has created an industry-leading product to ensure trust and safety online. Based on our research and customer calls, Veriff’s product performance leaves others far behind and should be used more widely by companies out there.”
Speaking to Kotkas, I asked what else is going on that helps increase the accuracy of Veriff’s platform. He told me: “We factor in user behavior. Instead of basing an IDV decision on three pictures alone, we are analyzing over 1,000 other data points. So this gives us an automation advantage and very accurate decisions on ID.”
He also said he thinks the future of IDV is being driven by the fact that it’s not just essential for financial services companies, but that it’s also now requisite for just about every service online. Because of the pandemic, there are now remote examinations at universities which require IDV, for instance.
“There are 5 billion people online today and when they all start to verify their identity, there is going to be 50 billion verifications happening on an annual basis. We are moving towards a world where we need to make trust reliable and scalable online,” he said.