News
Body positivity has never been more on-trend – and this week it’s British retailer Missguided that’s flying the flag for fashion.
The Manchester-based business has just launched a new season of online fashion sported by models with stretch-marks.
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Chris Boos, the creator of a bot that can play FreeCiv, a Civilization clone. His solution demonstrates the power of machine learning and, wildly, has beaten multiple humans at the game.
Boos’ company, Arago, specializes in building tools that build themselves. Humans can show his bots how to do something – manage a piece of software, for example – and the bots can write scripts automatically. He is bullish on AI on the whole but still thinks we have a long way to go before we hit a truly intelligent future.
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Here are Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ tips about inspiration, work-life balance, and how to be an inventor. Oh, and how it felt getting doused with champagne at his rocket landing. The world’s richest person displayed an unprecedented level of candor during an interview at invite-only getaway Summit Series in Los Angeles this weekend.
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Yoox Net-a-Porter has continued to achieve positive growth throughout its third quarter thanks to the success of its UK market.
In the three months to September 30, net revenues rose 17.7 per cent to £427.23 million (€481.8 million) on an organic basis.
Growth was seen across all of its business lines, with multi-brand in and off season revenues growing 16.8 per cent to £209.1 million (€235.9 million) and 17.4 per cent to £180.50 million (€203.6 million) respectively.
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Revolut, the London-based financial technology startup that’s raised more than $86 million in venture capital, said it’s applying for a European banking license to broaden the portfolio of services it offers customers.
It’s joining a growing roster of neobanks in Europe, which are seeking to entice clients away from traditional retail banks with slick mobile apps, budgeting tools and low-fee or no-fee services. Contenders include Germany’s Fidor Bank and N26, which recently expanded to the U.K., and London-based Monzo, along with more than a dozen others.
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More than half (55%) of online shoppers in China bought items from British brands over a three month period, a new survey has found.
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Robotics and artificial intelligence are emerging as a new investment theme among family-backed investors as tech advances in both areas begin to make a big difference to their viability.
The theme of companies making a difference in the future obviously fits well with the robotics and AI sectors - and family investment groups also like the long-term potential of the sector. “Family offices are looking to get into ‘deeptech’ types of opportunities,” says Ilian Iliev, managing director of EcoMachines Ventures, an investment group specialising in the two sectors.
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Airbnb continues to be an ecosystem in its own right, with a number of startups building a business by making the lives of hosts easier and potentially more lucrative. One such company is London-based Hostmaker, an upmarket Airbnb management service, which today is announcing $15 million in Series B funding.
The round is led by Sansiri, one of Thailand’s largest premium real estate developers, and Gaw Capital, a Hong Kong-based global hospitality real estate investor. Existing backers DN Capital, Ventech, and DSGCP also participated.
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To read Yoox Net-A-Porter's trading statement for 2017, click here.
A driverless shuttle set free in downtown Las Vegas was involved in a minor accident less than an hour after it hit the streets, reported the local NBC affiliate KSNV. Not really the kind of publicity you want, or that self-driving cars need.
The shuttle, an egglike 8-seater Navya, is operated by the AAA and Keolis. It was a test deployment along half a mile of the Fremont East “Innovation District,” so this thing wasn’t cruising the strip. Probably a good thing.
Now, it must be said that technically the robo-car was not at fault. It was struck by a semi that was backing up, and really just grazed — none of the passengers was hurt.
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