News
Paypal, the online payments company, is buying iZettle, Europe’s answer to the mobile payments company Square, for about $2.2 billion.
iZettle, which was founded 8 years ago and is based in Stockholm, began as a maker of products like credit card readers. It has since expanded its offerings to include analytics software and small business loans, giving it a strong foothold among such companies in Europe and Latin America.
The purchase would enable PayPal to increase its international expansion, and help it compete with Square, which has focused on processing payments for small businesses. Both companies are trying to capitalize on the growing volume of purchases being made on mobile phones and the internet.
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According to a new report by One Click Retail, a marketing and analysis firm, high-end beauty sales at Amazon are on the rise.
As well as this Amazon are planning to open an Indie Beauty Shop in the US in June. For brands to qualify to be sold in store they will need to be at least 50% independently owned and not be sold at Ulta, Target or Walmart.
Although Amazon still face issues from counterfeit products, fake reviews and the fact customers can not test the product before purchase.
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The NHS is trialling the use of AI to try and improve the service it offers. Under a new partnership between University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Alan Turing Institute, doctors will be replaced by AI in some instances, in an attempt to build efficiency.
AI could be responsible for diagnosing cancer on CT scans and deciding which A&E patients get prioritised, among other things, at one of the UK’s largest hospitals.
Of course caution is needed, especially to avoid a repeat of the Royal Free Hospital where the personal data of over 1.6million patients was shared with AI developer DeepMind.
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Samsung, the global tech giant, is opening a new research centre in Cambridge in order to boost its AI capabilities and explore the technology’s user-centric potential.
Samsung has also said that it is looking to expand its R&D workforce in the UK, by increasing the number of employees from the current 250 to 400, sometime in the near future.
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Facial recognition is becoming a more prevalent form for companies to recognise their customers.
Live Nation Entertainment, the company behind the Ticketmaster brand, is developing a facial recognition system that they hope will replace gig tickets. The company has teamed up with Blink Identity, a company that builds face and iris biometric appliances, to develop tech which, it claims, can identify someone in less than a second as they walk past, by taking an image of their face and comparing it to a database.
HSBC tried to modernise its password access by creating voice ID recognition in 2017 in an attempt to counteract fraud. However a BBC investigation discovered the system could be tricked by twins. More recently HSBC have rolled out Face ID to 24 countries.
Main concerns with facial recognition are to do with privacy and security. The question of who can access the databases that biometric companies create is an important one. Another is whether such recognition can be tricked, either by family members or people with similar facial features or even with photos.
The best answer would perhaps be to create multi layered authentication, but then this would defy the point of simplifying the whole process.
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According to a study conducted by Ericsson people living in London are currently more reluctant to use digital shopping assistants than their global counterparts.
For example when making larger purchases, such as cars and furniture, only 27% of Londoners would use a digital shopping assistant compared to 39% in worldwide.
This figure was also lower for restocking products, 37% as opposed to 46%, and taking fashion advice, 32% to 47%.
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Amazon is planning on expanding its Amazon Go concept, offering cashierless grocery stores, and the first two shops will be located in Chicago and San Francisco.
Amazon Go was originally tested at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle in January. However no date has been provided for when the shops in Chicago and San Francisco will open.
The basic concept is that customers must first download the Amazon Go app, they can then walk around the shop adding items to their basket and then leave with their shopping without having to queue to pay.
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Instagram, the social media platform, has added a payments feature to its app for some users.
With users now able to add their payment details as part of their profile and products that can be brought direct through the app, Instagram is facilitating the purchasing process for its users.
This feature could change the ecommerce landscape and make retailers consider increasing their focus on Instagram marketing in order to appeal to more buyers.
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Some advice from Ritam Gandhi, director and founder of Studio Graphene, to help tech entrepreneurs safeguard the longevity of their businesses.
Keep focused on a specific audience
Startups can be tempted once they are developing their tech to start considering all the different kinds of people it could serve, but it is essential to focus on the original core group they wanted to target. This will allow them to create a strong foundation of support. Once they have created this then they can start building on this success and consider their future roadmap.
No entrepreneur is an island
One of the best things that has come from the recent boom in startup companies across the UK is that it has created an incredible network for newly evolving startups to tap into. In order for this to happen the new startups need to be able to acknowledge where their strengths lie and what their weak spots are. It may be they have the technical know-how but do not know how to market their brand or they have an amazing idea but don't know how to technically bring it to life. There are many ways to tap into the experience that is available, whether that is by attending talks, hiring new talent, working with agencies or using the wide source of information online.
Even the best laid plans…
However prepared a startup may feel, they must also be ready for failure. It is no easy task creating new technology and launching it to market and so even though a company is organised and done its due diligence something could always happen. The best way is to embrace this, to try to resist failure could have worse effects then something going wrong and quickly learning from it and improving the product or business model. The best preparation is to allow enough time and budget to be able to tackle any hurdles that might pop up.
In conclusion
What these three pieces of advice illustrate is that so much of making a success of a business comes down to an entrepreneur’s mindset. They must have the ability to remain focused on very specific goals without getting carried away; the modesty to seek help when it is required; and be adaptable enough to take failures – big or small – in their stride.
If an entrepreneur launches a tech startup with these things in mind their business will undoubtedly improve its chances of not just surviving, but thriving.
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Fuse Universal, an EdTech company, has raised £14.79m ($20m) in growth capital from Eight Roads Ventures to support workplace learning.
Fuse helps over 100 enterprises across the globe to facilitate learning, knowledge sharing and communication among employees. Such enterprises include Merck, EY, International Hotel Group, The Prince’s Trust, Spotify and Vodafone and more.
This latest funding will be used to continue advancing its work in areas such as machine learning and augmented reality. It will also be used to support global expansion and to accelerate FuseSchool, its charity arm which currently has over 140,000 subscribers and delivers free educational content to children around the world.
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