News
Cybercriminals have stolen customer card details from over 4,000 UK online retailers by exploiting a vulnerability in popular ecommerce software Magento, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned.
The NCSC – a division of GCHQ – is urging ecommerce businesses to update Magento, an open source ecommerce platform that was acquired by Adobe in 2018 for $1.68bn.
Failing to update Magento and other ecommerce software could lead to an attack resulting in “financial and reputational damage”, the NCSC said.
Card skimming sees criminals intercept and make copies of debit or credit cards while they are being used at an ATM or at checkout online.
In total, the NCSC said it notified 4,151 ecommerce companies that they were running a vulnerable version of the software up until the end of September.
The card skimming warning comes in the build up to the annual Black Friday shopping event, which is regularly targeted by cybercriminals.
“We want small and medium-sized online retailers to know how to prevent their sites being exploited by opportunistic cyber criminals over the peak shopping period,” said Sarah Lyons, NCSC deputy director for economy and society. “Falling victim to cyber crime could leave you and your customers out of pocket and cause reputational damage.”
In October 2020 British Airways was fined £20m by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to protect 400,000 customers from a card skimming breach two years earlier. That fine was heavily reduced from the £183m initially proposed by the data regulator.
Infamous hacking group Magecart had successfully injected code to the airline’s website to steal personal and financial data.
Cybersecurity experts welcomed the NCSC’s card-skimming alert but said retailers should take extra precautions to protect both their business and consumers.
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Rapid grocery delivery company Getir is acquiring UK rival Weezy in a sign that the nascent market flush with investor cash is consolidating.
The definitive agreement will see Turkey-headquartered Getir absorb Weezy’s 700 staff and four UK fulfilment centres. The two firms did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Both Weezy and Getir offer grocery deliveries within 15 minutes ordered via a smartphone app.
Getir launched in 2015 and expanded into London in January 2021. It has since started operating in 15 towns and cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.
Getir said its acquisition of Weezy “further solidifies Getir’s long-term commitment to the UK market”.
In its most recent funding round Getir tripled its valuation to $7.6bn and has also expanded to the US.
“Teaming up with Weezy, which has quickly established itself across the UK, is an exciting opportunity and one that complements our people-first belief and business approach,” said Turancan Salur, Getir UK general manager. “We look forward to welcoming Weezy’s customers, employees and partners to the enlarged group.”
Weezy has raised a total of £19.2m in funding, with £15m of that coming in January this year. In March it expanded to Bristol, adding to its operations in London, Brighton and Manchester.
However, there were signs that Weezy was struggling financially. It reported revenue of £161,400 against losses of £676,000 in 2020 – despite the boom in home deliveries during the Covid-19 pandemic.
And last week Weezy closed five of its dark stores in an attempt to stem losses, despite its co-founders telling UKTN in March that it planned to open more than 40 UK sites by the end of 2021.
Kristof Van Beveren, CEO and co-founder of Weezy, said: “We are incredibly excited to continue our journey in disrupting the skyrocketing ultrafast grocery market. Getir has an unparalleled track record of achievements and experience with an equally ambitious team.”
The rapid grocery delivery market has attracted large amounts of investor cash that has effectively subsidised discounted or free delivery for consumers.
Analysts have warned that the number of companies offering rapid delivery is unsustainable given the majority run at a loss.
Last month Berlin-based rival Gorillas raised nearly $1bn in a sign that investors still have an appetite for the rapid grocery delivery market.
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Shield-IoT, an IoT cyber security, and analytics software solution provider announced that it has raised $7.4M (approx £5.5M) funding in the Series A round.
The funding round was led by NextLeap Ventures and Bloc Ventures, with the participation from Atlas Ventures, Akamai Technologies, Springtide
Ventures, DIVEdigital, and Janvest Capital Partners. The company will use the funding to streamline and secure mass-scale IoT networks.
Shield-IoT streamlines the implementation of mass-scale IoT and 5G networks with the world’s first Coreset-AI security platform. “Shield-IoT’s innovative approach to anomaly detection provides accurate analytics at mass-scale,” says Ramanath Mallikarjuna, Chief Strategist at Akamai Technologies.
Founded in 2017 by Ohad Levin, and Udi Solomon, Shield-IoT delivers cybersecurity solutions that protect edge devices from security threats and operational risks.
“Coresets compress the data from n to log(n), or from 1 million to 20 data points, enabling context-free highly accurate anomaly detection in minutes instead of hours or days,” says Professor Dan Feldman, Chief Scientist at Shield-IoT.
With Shield-IoT, service providers and IoT brands can monitor and secure their mass-scale B2B IoT and IIoT networks, reduce operational costs, and generate new revenue streams with value-added services.
The company does it by offering a simple-to-deploy and easy-to-operate cloud-based software solution to protect any IoT device or application with no changes to end-customer networks.
Currently, the company’s solution is in use across multiple verticals, including telcos, utilities, transportation, manufacturing, smart cities, and government.
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According to the NHS Mental Health Organisation, 75 percent of children and young people who experience a mental health problem aren’t getting the help they need. Zinc, a London-based investor, kicks off a brand new venture building program to tackle the mental health crisis in children and young people.
Zinc VC will be investing in 70 founders and the ventures they will build during the programme. This will create better, more accessible and more effective solutions to ensure that every child and young person can grow to become a healthy adult, living a thriving and fulfilling life.
The company has carefully selected a highly diverse cohort of global founders who are fully committed to the same mission. They will build a set of brand new scalable businesses.
The group of founders in the new fund include senior professors, ex-Premier League footballer, high-flyers from giant tech companies like Facebook and Amazon, doctors, serial entrepreneurs who want to have a social impact, creatives from the performing arts, teachers, psychologists, and many others. The program will officially launch on November 24, 2021 in London by Nadhim Zahawi.
The founders will be backed by over 100 industry leaders in their domains including Mustafa Suleymen the co-founder of Google Deepmind, and Professor Peter Fonagy Chief Executive, Anna Freud National Centre for Children & Families UK Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi said: “Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people has never been more important. I am delighted to see 70 entrepreneurs stepping up to address this challenge at Zinc. As an entrepreneur myself, I know how exciting and challenging it is to create and scale a new business. I am looking forward to seeing the fruits of their hard work.”
“Zinc provides a unique platform for ambitious and driven entrepreneurs who want to build a new business that will solve one of the most pressing issues we’re facing today, which has exacerbated during the current pandemic. We’re hugely excited to be backing such an extraordinary cohort of diverse, passionate, skilled and experienced founders.” said Ella Goldner Co-Founder at Zinc VC.
Kevin George, former Premier League Footballer said: “I’m excited about the opportunity to harness my experience and passion for sports and psychology to change kids lives”
Alison Metcalfe, a professor and a former university Pro-Vice-Chancellor “Having spent over 20 years in Academia I am looking forward to working in a dynamic, experimental environment to turn my experience and knowledge into new innovative products”.
Mode Global, a London-based fintech company, has entered into a payments partnership with British luxury fashion retailer L.K.Bennett. The agreement would see L.K.Bennett offering Mode as an additional payment option for customers.
Darren Topp, CEO of L.K.Bennett comments: “L.K.Bennett is always looking for innovative solutions that provide our customers with more options to pay and cater to their evolving needs as modern, digital-driven shoppers. I look forward to working with Mode to ensure we give them a payment and loyalty experience they will love.”
Mode Global will use Open Banking so that L.K.Bennett customers can make instant payments and earn rewards all in one app.
The cardless solution allows customers to simply scan a QR code or click a button, to make payments via the Mode app, instead of entering their card details. Transactions will be authorised in real-time through biometric security and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
Ryan Moore, CEO of Mode, comments: “I am delighted to announce our next partnership just 3 weeks after our ahead-of-schedule public launch with THG. L.K.Bennett has been a staple of Luxury British Fashion for over 30 years, which demonstrates Mode’s appeal to all sectors. Today’s announcement is another step forward in allowing us to put our innovative payments and loyalty solution into the hands of millions of UK customers.
Mode Global is a financial ecosystem for consumers and businesses with own payments solution using the open banking concept.
The company is on a mission to transition the world to a truly digital financial system that reduces frictions and costs for consumers and merchants and gives digital assets the place they deserve in today’s modern economy.
Mode is leveraging the power of Bitcoin and Open Banking to deliver on this mission and offer customers in the UK, a one-stop app to shop, earn and grow their Bitcoin, all in one place.
For businesses, Mode provides a cheaper, safer, and smarter alternative to card payments that reward shoppers with Bitcoin Cashback.
Mode recently launched its payments and rewards solution, ahead of schedule, in October across 30+ brands including ESPA, Myprotein, and Zavvi.
A healthtech startup B-Secur from Belfast represents the next generation of internal biometrics. In a recent development, the company has announced that it has completed a total raise of £8.8 million in 2021. The latest round was led by US-based First Capital Ventures and The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund NI, thereby increasing its investment level to £2.2 million with other existing investors also participating in the round.
The funding will be used to cement the company’s traction in the wearable space whilst accelerating entry into the medical device market. The company, which has offices within Belfast’s Innovation Centre, Catalyst, employs over 45 scientists and engineers and will look to hire additional staff in Belfast and the US.
“The world-class team at B-Secur has demonstrated that their patented and FDA cleared technology delivers insights and value to wellness and medical devices alike. Kernel Capital are pleased to continue our strong support of the company as it accelerates its growth.” said Siggi Saevarsson, Partner, Kernel Capital.
“We are delighted with the investment by First Capital Ventures and by the continued support from Kernel Capital and our other investors and we look forward to a transformational 2022 when our technology will be embedded across both consumer and medical devices.” said Alan Foreman, CEO, B-Secur.
B-Secur has developed the world’s first software technique that uses an individual’s unique heartbeat pattern, known as electrocardiogram (ECG) in everyday technologies to securely identify, and provide health and wellness insights at the same time. Medical grade ECG recording traditionally happens in the hospital environment using expensive equipment, but B-Secur are embedding this into latest smartwatches, cars and even clothing and are already selling to some of the world’s largest technology companies.
Last year, B-Secur was granted FDA clearance for its technology and has since signed its first contract with a US-based medical device manufacturer.
London-based JUMO is a fintech company that builds next-generation financial services for emerging market entrepreneurs. Today, the company has announced a successful raise of $120 million (nearly £89 million) funding from new and existing investors.
The investment round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC, and represents their first investment in emerging markets fintech. JUMO will use the fresh funds to support the scaling of its platform’s capacity, enabling the company to evolve its services and increase the number of financial products on offer to SMEs, and provide long-term lending options for merchants and bigger businesses. Also, the funds will support JUMO’s international expansion in new markets such as Nigeria and Cameroon. JUMO is set to grow its annual lending volume to $40 billion in 2022 with its launch in the new markets.
With the latest funding round, the total investment secured by JUMO accounts for $200 million (nearly £150 million). Prior investment rounds included Leapfrog, Goldman Sachs, Finnfund, Proparco, Vostok Emerging Finance and Brook Asset Management.
Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO Founder and CEO, said: “It’s exciting to be part of the wave of US capital being invested in payments and fintech on the continent – there are some great businesses being built and we are proud to play a role supporting capital providers to reach customers with great products. We are really grateful for the vote of confidence from our new investors and will continue to work hard to improve our products for our partners and customers.”
“JUMO’s lending platform is highly attractive in its ability to scale across markets and drive financial inclusion by creating access to credit for consumers and small businesses,” said Melissa McSherry, Global Head of Risk and Identity Services at Visa. “We are excited about our investment in JUMO and are looking forward to accelerating adoption of JUMO’s platform across markets and delivering on Visa’s mission of helping Individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.”
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London-based Lindus Health works with the mission to enable the next generation of healthcare. Now, the company has announced that it has announced a $5 million (nearly £3.7 million) in a seed funding round.
The investment round was led by leading technology and healthcare investors including Firstminute Capital, Presight Capital, Seedcamp, Hambro Perks, Amino Collective, Calm/Storm Ventures. Angel investors include Mehdi Ghissassi (Deepmind), Alex Zhavoronkov (Insilico Medicine), Marc Warner (Faculty AI), James Dacombe (CoMind), Henry de Zoete (Look After My Bills), and Vishal Gulati (healthtech.vc).
The proceeds of this round will be used to scale the Lindus Health team. They are building the world’s first full stack clinical trial platform, to conduct faster, safer clinical trials, improving health outcomes for everyone.
Commenting Meri Beckwith (co-founder) said: “Traditional clinical research companies are dinosaurs. Taking part in a COVID vaccine trial was like stepping into a time machine. This was one of the best funded trials in history but research was done on pen and paper and participants had to go into hospital at the height of the pandemic to fill out forms. We founded Lindus Health to make it easier for patients to participate in research, and accelerate the development of new treatments.”
Commenting Michael Young (co-founder) said: “During my time in government I heard time and time again that the way clinical trials are conducted is broken. This means that patients are missing out on lifesaving treatments. To fix this requires a totally new business model for clinical trials. So we founded Lindus Health to do just that and to enable the next generation of healthcare companies.
Commenting, Lindus Health advisor, Tamsin Berry (Population Health Partners and formerly Director of the UK Office for Life Sciences) said: “The cost of conducting clinical trials has ballooned over the last decade. This stifles innovation and means fewer new treatments for patients. Lindus Health is tackling the root causes of this, reimagining how trials are conducted from first principles. This has the capacity to revolutionise drug development.”
Lindus Health was founded in March 2021 by Michael Young and Meri Beckwith. Michael and Meri both saw the huge problems healthcare companies had conducting clinical research, and trials with endemic delays and astronomical costs. Lindus Health is focused on working with start-ups and growth companies to deliver trials better, faster, and cheaper. They do this using an innovative business model, centralising delivery to allow efficiency gains, while leveraging technology to bring research into the 21st century.
JD Sports must sell Footasylum after the competitions watchdog found serious concerns that competition would be reduced following an in-depth investigation, but JD has asserted the decision "defies logic".
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said JD Sports is “by far and away” the closest alternative for shoppers at Footasylum and ordered JD Sports to sell it.
It follows a second investigation by the agency after JD Sports appealed against a previous ruling, saying investigators failed to take into account online sales through Nike and Adidas in the UK.
But the CMA said it expects JD Sports’ £90 million takeover of Footasylum would continue reducing competition even after taking into account the growth in online shopping.
According to the watchdog, 50% of online shoppers surveyed said they would go to JD Sports if they were unable to shop at Footasylum for clothing.
A further 43% said they would the make the switch if they could no longer buy footwear from Footasylum.
The CMA said these figures were substantially higher than for any other retailer and that another survey of in-store shoppers showed similar results.
Investigators added that they believed Footasylum would remain in robust health even if no longer owned by JD Sports, which bought the brand in April 2019, despite the pandemic and increased competition from other brands.
They pointed out that total revenues for last year were £232 million with underlying pre-tax profits of £29.3 million – up from £25.5 million a year earlier.
The CMA added: “Requiring JD Sports to sell Footasylum is the only way to address its competition concerns and protect consumers.
“It will oversee the sale and approve the purchaser, in order to ensure that Footasylum will be run as a fully independent competitor.”
Kip Meek, chair of the CMA inquiry group, said: “The UK boasts a thriving sports fashion market and today’s decision reflects our commitment to keeping it that way.
“We strongly believe shoppers could suffer if Footasylum stopped having to compete with JD Sports. It is likely they would pay more for less choice, worse service and lower quality.
“The pandemic may have altered the way we shop but innovative businesses, driven by healthy competition, will rise to the challenge and successfully cater to changing tastes and habits."
In a statement JD Sports pointed out that the CMA had acknowledged in its investigation that the biggest competition JD Sports faced was from direct to consumer sales by the sports giants, such as Nike and Adidas, stocked by JD. It pointed out that Footasylum's market share was less than 5%.
Given this was the case, JD said there was no incentive for it to raise prices or lessen its offer to consumers.
"This is the first time ever that the CMA (including its predecessors) has decided to block or remedy a deal between competitors where it found that there will be no 'substantial lessening of competition' in relation to the acquiring business.
"Prior to this, in every other case under the UK merger regime between competitors, including its first review of this merger with Footasylum, the CMA has justified its intervention on the basis that the merger eliminated important rivalry for both the acquiring and the target business.
"Given the critical areas in which the CMA agrees with JD and the fundamental change in its conclusion between the two inquiries, the decision to prohibit the acquisition defies logic."
The CMA was ordered to carry out a second inquiry into JD's acquisition of Footasylum after the sports giant won an appeal pointing out that its first inquiry contained "irrational errors".
JD's key argument was that the CMA misunderstood market dynamics and did not take digital competition, such as Nike and Adidas's online stores and international rivals such as Foot Locker, into consideration when defining competitors.
The company described the outcome of the second investigation as "extreme and unprecedented", given the small market share that Footasylum held and said it would no longer be able to invest in Footasylum to improve its business, as it had intended.
Peter Cowgill, Executive Chairman of JD Sports, commented: "The CMA rightly concludes that, following the acquisition of Footasylum, JD would have no incentive to raise prices or worsen its offer as its most important competitors are the DTC operations of the international brands themselves.
"However, the CMA has then somehow concluded that the competitive threat from DTC does not extend to Footasylum and that JD would have an incentive to worsen the offer in Footasylum to the detriment of both consumers and suppliers. We would suggest that the CMA is in a minority of one in reaching this conclusion.
"Overall, the CMA's decision today continues to be inexplicable to anyone who understands what difference the pandemic has made to UK retail and how competition and the supply chain in our markets actually work. It is deeply troubling at a time when the UK high street has been seriously damaged already and is vulnerable to further closures."
London-based Closed Loop Medicine is one of the UK’s leading pioneers in digital/therapeutic medicine. The company just announced that it has closed £13 million in a new Series A investment round that came from a slew of top UK and European VC investors.
The oversubscribed funding round was led by Ananda Impact Ventures and BGF, joined by a strong syndicate of investors including LifeArc, Longwall, Meltwind, IQ Capital, Downing Ventures and Cambridge Angels. With this round, the total investment raised by the company accounts for over £22 million.
The proceeds from the round has been raised to finance its personalised drug plus digital therapy (DTx) combination products that are being developed to enhance outcomes for patients and clinicians via precision dosing. Furthermore, the investment will fund further platform and product development. Also, the financing will accelerate the development, registration and commercialisation of its platform and precision dosing products.
Hakim Yadi, CEO and co-founder at Closed Loop Medicine, said: ‘‘This financing enables Closed Loop Medicine to take the next step towards creating a new standard for the future of care for patients with long term conditions. Until now, precision medicine has only been applied to a handful of medical conditions. However, the ability to combine ‘Software as a Medical Device’, as a DTx, delivering behavioural therapy integrated with drug therapy, as a single prescription, is ushering in a new chapter in tailored medicine and care.”
Lennart Hergel, Ananda Impact Ventures, commented “Closed Loop Medicine’s models of care will generate significant impact for individuals, who would have otherwise received standardised treatment, through better outcomes and addition to quality of life. At a systemic impact level, this approach promises to radically and impactfully change the capacity and performance of healthcare systems for the whole population’s benefit.”
Tim Rea, investor at BGF, commented: “We have backed Closed Loop Medicine since February 2020 and are delighted to be supporting the next stage of the company’s growth journey. The team have pioneered a revolutionary approach to combining drug and digital therapies to offer more personalised care pathways for patients and clinicians. We look forward to continuing to work with the management team, as they respond to the growing market need for new digital models of healthcare.”
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