The retail technology week in numbers

3-4…US PayTech venture Square is recruiting crypto staff and is offering to pay them in Bitcoin, according to a tweet by CEO Jack Dorsey.

In the tweet, Dorsey announced that “Square is hiring 3–4 crypto engineers and one designer to work full-time on open source contributions to the Bitcoin/crypto ecosystem. Work from anywhere, report directly to me, and we can even pay you in Bitcoin! Introducing @SqCrypto.”

45%…UK e-commerce retailers massively lag behind their US and German counterparts, dogged, as they are, by slow website speeds, frustrating checkout processes and poor search relevancies.

That’s according to research from Applause carried out during the period from Black Friday through to 31st December 2018 and involving over 50 retail e-commerce sites. The UK generated the highest total software bug count, accounting for 45% of all bugs found, followed by the US at 32%, and Germany at 23%.

Each country was given a score based on the user experience provided and overall functional maturity of the websites analysed. The US led the way scoring 7.8, Germany followed with 7.4, while the UK came in with just 6.6.

$100 million…Starbucks has invested $100 million in Valor Siren Ventures (VSV).

Managed by Valor Equity Partners, which has previously invested in Tesla and SpaceX, the new fund will identify and back companies that are developing technologies, products and solutions relating to food or retail. It will seek to raise an additional $300 million in the coming months from other parties.

5…Here at RTIH, we’re big fans of Twitter and LinkedIn and are busy building an amazing social media community of retail tech enthusiasts. These are the five articles that are currently generating the most clicks, shares and comments.

9.4%…After a sluggish end to 2018 and start to 2019, the UK online retail space bounced back in February, thanks to unexpectedly warm weather.

The industry recorded its strongest growth (+9.4% YoY) in six months, according to the IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index. This did, however, fall below the five-year average of +10.6% YoY for February.

$42.3 million…Online retailer Overstock reported Q4 revenue of $452.5 million, down from $456.3 million a year earlier. It racked up a loss of $42.3 million, compared with $95.7 million in Q4 2017.

£2 million…European VC firm Octopus Ventures and retail and consumer sector investor, True, have participated in a £2 million funding round for ThirdEye, an AI-driven security platform for retailers. Original seed investor Episode 1 Ventures also took part in the round.

$35 billion…UK payment processing firm Worldpay has been bought by US-based FinTech giant Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) for $35 billion in cash and shares, plus WorldPay's debt.

4…Kroger Co. and Nuro have launched their autonomous grocery delivery service in Houston. This will be available through two Kroger stores, reaching customers in four local zip codes. It builds on a pilot in Scottsdale, Arizona, further info on which can be found here.

£500,000…Peckham, London-based snack brand Serious Pig has hit its crowdfunding target of £350,000 and says that it will now extend its Crowdcube campaign until 7th April, with the aim of pulling in £500,000.