RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail technology? Then this is the article for you.
$18.5 million…Egyptian digital payments provider, Paymob, has raised $15 million of new capital from existing investors in a second tranche of its Series A activity. It follows a first tranche of $3.5 million from July 2020.
£112.9 million…Asos reports that adjusted profit before tax hit £112.9 million in the six months ended 28th February, a £82.8 million increase on the previous half year.
As coronavirus lockdowns continued to see the closure of non-essential retailers and in turn boost the online shopping space, revenue was up 25% to £1.98 billion.
The fast fashion pureplay also added an extra 1.5 million new active customers, taking its total base to 24.9 million.
$640 million…Computer vision startup, Trax, has secured $640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 21 and BlackRock.
The round, the biggest in Trax’s history, also included new investors such as Canadian pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and VC firm Sony Innovation Fund.
10%…Morrisons has pulled a 10% discount for teachers and school staff that had been on offer as a thank you for their work during the coronavirus outbreak.
14%…High street retailers are hiring in earnest as non-essential stores prepare to reopen in England and Wales, according to research by job site Indeed.
Retail vacancies have climbed to within 14% of their pre-pandemic levels, and are outperforming the labour market as a whole, re-energised by the announcement in February of routes out of lockdown for all parts of the UK.
$12 million…US-based direct-to-consumer brand, PAIR Eyewear, has closed a $12 million Series A investment round.
50%…Ahead of its 480 stores in England re-opening on Monday, 12th April, EE is predicting a 50% increase in demand for in-person tech support after months of coronavirus lockdown.
2,500…Boots is set to deploy Yoobic’s task management platform across its 2,500 retail stores.
The solution is designed specifically for frontline teams. Yoobic provides a mobile application called MyHub, with the platform rolling out across the store network in November.
$290 billion...Total spend over conversational commerce channels will reach $290 billion by 2025; rising from $41 billion in 2021, according to Juniper Research.
$265 million and $900 million…Norwegian e-grocery business Kolonial has raised $265 million on a $900 million valuation. It has also rebranded as Oda.
€450 million…On-demand delivery venture, Glovo, has raised €450 million in what it calls the largest financing round secured by a Spanish startup.
$14.7 million…Amazon has acquired Perpule, an Indian startup, in a $14.7 million, all-cash deal.
The US e-commerce giant is expected to spend an additional $5 million or so to compensate Perpule’s employees.
The latter offers a mobile payments device to offline retailers to help them accept digital payments and also establish a presence on various mini-app stores including those run by Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay in India.
