News
Rochdale, Greater Manchester-based WCCTV is a leading Equipment-as-s-Service provider of redeployable wireless surveillance products. The company has three offices across the UK, with locations in Edinburgh and Luton alongside its Rochdale headquarters, with a fourth base in Texas, United States.
Now, WCCTV announced that it secured fresh funding of £30M in an investment round led by LDC. With this funding round, LDC will own a minority stake in the UK-based company. As a result of the partnership, LCD will accelerate WCCTV’s ambitious plans to expand into the domestic and international markets and support the launch of new products and services.
The round was led by LDC’s Head of the North West, Dale Alderson, alongside Investment Director Richard Ibbett and Grant Goodwin. Notably, Dale and Richard will also join the board as Non-Executive Directors as part of the deal.
The investment in WCCTV, follows the recent investments of LDC in digital learning provider Omniplex and the Cheshire-headquartered manufacturer of accessories for light commercial vehicles, Rhino Products.
To read the full article click here.
Skymind, a London UK-based open-source enterprise deep-learning software company, announced the first cohort of investments from its $800m AI fund.
The cohort comprise six startups that use AI to enhance the performance of different industries and sectors across the globe, from farming and medicine to policing and education.
These investments include:
- Nexent, a full service business intelligence dashboard provider.
- xpress.ai, an AI marketplace that focuses on delivering non-invasive plug and play AI modules for businesses that integrate with SAAS and PAAS, making AI adoption instant.
- Terra Sentinel, an AI consultancy that offers tailored AI innovations that can help create smart urban centres and sustainable, green cities.
- CertifAI, a provider of AI education with the aim to empower society with practical AI capabilities.
- Farmetrix, a provider of AI solutions for the agricultural sector, helping farmers to improve their efficiency in plantation management and offering alternatives to environmentally hostile farming practises.
- Skyfense, a provider of AI innovation to keep citizens safe and to improve policing.
Skymind’s AI fund backs promising new AI companies, training and academic research. The team plans to invest in more companies in 2021, particularly across Europe and specifically in the UK.
Led by Shawn Tan, CEO, Skymind is an open-source enterprise deep-learning software company and a dedicated AI ecosystem builder, enabling companies and organisations to launch their AI applications and bring their business cases to life. The company provides clients with supported access to Eclipse Deeplearning4j and other open source tools as well as global capital funding and talent development.
Skymind is headquartered in London, UK, with offices across Asia and Europe.
In a recent development, Klarna, an eCommerce payment solutions platform for merchants and shoppers, is expected to raise $1 billion (approx £705 million) at a $31 billion (approx £22 billion) valuation. To date, the company has raised $2.1 billion (approx £1.4 billion).
Tripling its valuation
This rumor comes six months after the Swedish fintech company secured $650 million (approx £458 million) in equity funding from investors led by Silver Lake, at a valuation of $10.65 billion (approx £7.5 billion). With the latest round, the company is tripling its valuation.
Funding round ahead of IPO
According to Bloomberg, the existing investors are participating ahead of a potential public listing next year, and the round could be announced in the coming days.
This funding will make Stockholm-headquartered fintech, Europe’s most valuable fintech startup after Checkout.com, which was valued at $15 billion (approx £10.5 billion).
On the other hand, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna CEO has indicated previously the company would go public in the near future but didn’t give any exact information.
Collaboration with Ingenico
A few days back, Klarna announced a strategic collaboration with Ingenico (part of Worldline, the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry, since late 2020) to make Klarna’s online payment solutions accessible to even more European merchants.
Mytheresa, the newly listed online luxury group, has posted Q2 sales up 32.9% year-on-year as it capitalised on the shift to digital brought about by the global pandemic.
The German-based and New York listed group achieved net sales of €158.6m in the quarter ending 31 December 2020, with an adjusted net income of €14.8m, as compared to €6.4m in the prior year period.
It also recorded a growth in active customers by 28.2% year-over-year to 569,000 and a record high of first-time buyers (over 100,000 new customers) during the period.
In the six months to the end of December it achieved a net sales increase of 30.4% year-on-year to €285m with an adjusted net income of €20.1m, compared to €10m in the prior year period.
Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger said: “Even considering clear tailwinds by the COVID pandemic, the strong results of the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 confirm once more our strategy and unique business model: Mytheresa is about inspiration not aggregation. It is about an unrivaled, highly curated offering, a focus on high-end luxury customers, sophisticated technologies and a first-class in-house managed service experience.”
Kliger continued: “Our full commitment to acquire and retain the best customer base in the market creates a reinforcing cycle of outstanding brand relationships that feed a superior customer value proposition to generate strong customer economics, which allows us to stay true to our strategic focus. Therefore, we will continue to deliver growth as well as profitability.”
The business, which carried out its $2.2bn float on NYSE in January, is forecasting met sales in the range of €565m to €580m, representing 26% to 29% growth, in the full year to the end of June 2021. Adjusted EBITDA should be in the range of €45m to €48m, representing 27% to 36% growth.
Buy now, pay later schemes are expected to account for 10 percent of all UK e-commerce sales by 2024, according to data compiled by Worldpay.
The UK’s e-commerce market, currently the third largest in the world, is predicted to be worth £264 billion by 2024, a 37% increase on 2020. This follows a 13% growth from 2019 to 2020, as total spending hit £192 billion.
The 2021 edition of The Global Payments Report by Worldpay - which surveyed 46,000 consumers globally - highlights the impact of the pandemic on UK e-commerce and the resulting shift in consumer payment preferences, with analysis showing it will lead to the rapid growth of the market over the next thre years. The data predicts that by 2024 over 20% of all purchases in the UK will be made online.
For the second year running the report found that BNPL services were the fastest-growing online payment method in the UK, a trend that is expected to continue for the next four years, despite the threat of regulatory intervnetion by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The data indicates that BNPL transactions in the UK will grow 29% year-on-year with this payment method being on course to double market share to 10% by 2024. The analysis shows that overall BNPL spending in the UK will rise from £9.6 billion in 2020 to £26.4 billion in 2024.
Pete Wickes, Worldpay general manager Emea, comments: “We predict that the BNPL sector will not slow down - with the UK market seeing double digit expansion over the next few years. As this happens, it’s important that the frameworks that govern and protect consumers and merchants also adapt to ensure that there continues to be trust and reliability in payments technology.”
ASOS, Boohoo, Gymshark and THG are among the founder members of a new business association designed to champion the UK e-commerce sector and support the efforts of physical retailers in their transition to a digital-first model.
Also forming part of the UK Digital Digital Business Association are AO World and Ocado, which was been set up by Boohoo and THG non-executive director Iain McDonald.
Appearing on Sky News today, McDonald said that the members of the new association are set to create 10,000 jobs in the UK this year and invest £1bn.
“By and large these are also highly paid and highly skilled jobs,” McDonald told the broadcaster adding that the e-commerce market could help support the “levelling up” of the UK economy with Gymshark creating jobs in the Midlands, Boohoo and THG based in Manchester and ASOS basing its warehouse in Barnsley, for instance.
While the news headlines in retail have been dominated by physical store closures and the buying up of traditional physical retailers by online players, McDonald said it was important to highlight the positive contribution that etailers make to the economy.
“We formed this organisation in the first place to cast a light on what is a very good news story for the UK economy and that is the growth of the online sector. The online sector has been contributing very positively to the UK economy for well over a decade now.
“It’s important to distinguish what we do from the US tech giants; there’s been a lot of disquiet about the fact that they’re not paying their fair share of corporation tax for example. All of our members of the UKDBA are proudly British and pay their taxes in the normal way,” he added.
McDonald conceded that the creation of 10,000 jobs did not come near to replacing the tens of thousands of jobs lost from the collapse of companies such as Arcadia and Debenhams, which employed 25,000 staff between them.
Arcadia’s brands were split between ASOS, Boohoo and City Chic Collective, while Debenhams went to Boohoo. No physical retail stores were saved in the deals.
McDonald added however that the jobs being created by e-commerce were well paid roles in the fields of technology, data and cyber security, for instance.
He also said that the demise of some big-name physical retailers could be tracked further back than the emergence of etail. “It’s a very complicated picture and if you look at the problems of the high street I think that it pre-dates the online sector and in fact you really need to go back to the growth of out of town retailing and food-based superstores in out of town parks,” he said.
In a statement marking the launch of the UKDBA, McDonald went on to say: “Our membership has helped underpin the UK as the most advanced e-commerce market in Europe.
“The British online industry is one of the UK’s greatest success stories and the UKDBA is here to champion our members, their customers’ interests, providing them a voice in a rapidly evolving world.
“With the face of e-commerce reshaped, UKDBA members will be crucial in driving the UK’s economic recovery from Covid-19 putting customers at the heart of their ambitions, whilst supporting the current government’s efforts to create a technology driven global facing economy.”
The creation of the UKDBA comes amid a growing debate about whether etailers should be subject to a digital sales tax to level up the playing field with physical retailers, who bear an unfair burden when it comes to business rates.
Treasury officials are reported to be hosting secret meetings this week with business leaders on how an online sales tax could work. Tesco has led the call for an online sales tax of 1% saying that its introduction could lead to a 20% reduction in business rates.
Next chief, Lord Simon Wolfson, has suggested higher rates for warehouses from where online retailers fulfil their orders, along with a 35% reduction in business rates for physical retailers.
Wolfson is one of a number of retailers to speak out against an online sales tax, which many fear would just be passed on the consumer or simply add more cost to businesses who trade both on- and off-line.
Skyports is an urban air mobility infrastructure provider and drone delivery operator in London. The company designs, builds and operates take-off and landing infrastructure for air taxis. It has also partnered with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) passenger and cargo vehicle manufacturers.
Further, Skyports provides drone delivery through its logistics arm, Delivery by Skyports.
Now, the delivery drones operator has also come forward to help NHS carry COVID test samples and other medical materials between medical facilities in the Argyll & Bute region in Scotland in a first-of-its-kind move.
Argyll & Bute Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) started the UK’s first COVID test drone delivery service after a three-month proof-of-concept phase last year between Lorn & Islands Hospital and Mull & Iona Community Hospital. It aims to help improve COVID-19 related logistics to and from remote locations. Now, it has expanded its delivery service and is entirely operational.
Notably, Skyports has become the first operator to receive permission from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to carry diagnostic specimens by drone.
To read the full article, click here.
Deliveroo is poised to fire a formal starting gun on a blockbuster stock market flotation early next month, making it the first in a string of British technology "unicorns" to go public in 2021.
Sky News has learnt that the food delivery app and its advisers have pencilled in 8 March to publish an expected intention to float announcement, meaning shares in Deliveroo could start trading just weeks later.
Insiders at Deliveroo cautioned that 8 March was not yet a definitive date and the timetable for one of the year's most prominent listings remained subject to change.
Click here for the full article.
Online and physical bicycle retail giant Sigma Sports has sold a minority stake in its business to UK-based private equity group Primary Capital.
The latest in a string of bike industry equity deals, the investment group buys into Ian Whittingham and Jason Turner’s near 30-year old business, which has built a particularly strong online retail presence, but is also looked upon as having one of the country’s best showrooms.
As an aside to its large Hampton Wick showroom, Sigma doubled down on physical retail by opening a 4,000 square foot Oakham branch last year. A further collection point in Esher is available for click and collect services. Such has been the Sigma Sports’ growth trajectory in recent years the firm has featured in the Sunday Times International Track 200 list of the fastest growing companies in the UK.
To read the full article click here.
Bottlepay, a Bitcoin-based global payments app, has secured £11 million in a seed funding. The round was led by a range of investors including British fund manager and billionaire Alan Howard, present and former Goldman Sachs partners, FinTech Collective, NYDIG, and tech entrepreneur Phil Doye. The funding will be used to expand the team and develop the platform’s functionality and geographical reach.
Founded by Pete Cheyne and Peter O’Donoghue, Bottlepay facilitates instant payments, including micropayments, in conventional currencies and Bitcoin. The UK company’s open payment network aims to transform the digital economy by making digital micropayments and cross-border transactions viable by reducing excessive fees.
Furthermore, Bottlepay’s new app also enables seamless social payments with a single tweet, message, or social media post on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Discord. Bottlepay users can buy, store, send and withdraw Bitcoin with a single slide, unlike other digital payment platforms like PayPal and Revolut. Their users cannot currently spend or withdraw their Bitcoin. Built on Bitcoin protocols, the system gives consumers and retailers access to a new global market, including 65 million Bitcoin owners.
Click here to read more..