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UK fintech Atoa secures $2.2M as it kills Visa and Mastercard fees for businesses

Atoa Payments

There are more than 4 million small businesses in the UK which have no viable alternative to debit card payments and are reliant on Mastercard or Visa payment rails. Challenging this status quo, UK fintech Atoa Payments is announcing a $2.2M pre-seed funding round to reduce by 70% the payment fees and offer a new approach to making payments. The funding round was led by Leo Capital and Passion Capital and also included well regarded angel investors such as Matt Robinson (co-founder of GoCardless and Nested) alongside Moon Capital Ventures. Anil Stocker, Co-Founder & CEO of MarketFinance also serves as a company advisor. Mastercard and Visa payment rails have an effective duopoly in the market which enables them to get away with net margins as high as 51% at the expense of small merchants and their customers. On top of this, card machine providers charge small businesses up to 1.75%. Atoa is building a truly viable alternative for small businesses to accept payments at a fraction of those costs and to improve their cash flow meaningfully at the same time. Using Atoa is seamless. Businesses simply download the Atoa app and securely connect their merchant bank account. Set up takes less than 5 minutes, after which the merchant can accept payments via SMS, Pay-by Link or by displaying a QR code on their Atoa App or physical QR stand next to their till. At the same time, their customers do not need to download a separate app to pay which removes a substantial point of friction inhibiting merchant options until now. Any customer with a UK mobile banking app on their phone can securely pay a merchant who is using Atoa. Without requiring a separate consumer app, the customer simply scans the merchant’s QR code or clicks on the link sent by the merchant, selects their bank and then is redirected to their existing mobile bank app to approve the payment, meaning that the merchant receives the funds instantly. Sid Narayanan, Co-Founder of Atoa Payments said, “We are grateful to have the support and partnership of such strong investors validating our plans to break the card payment duopoly in the UK and to improve cash flows and economics for the country’s small merchants. At a time of record inflation and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the UK’s small and medium merchants are struggling to contain their costs, provide great service to the customers, and maintain profit margins. Atoa is here to empower merchants and to improve their cash flow and bottom line.” Atoa Instant Bank Pay allows small merchants to receive payments at a flat fee which is up to 70% cheaper than card machines provided by SumUp, Zettle or Square. The merchants then receive funds in their bank accounts instantly instead of having to wait 1-2 days as is the usual case with card machines and debit cards. Using Atoa involves no contracts (pay as you go), no hardware fees and no chargeback fraud risk (all payments are approved via bank app and have Strong Customer Authentication). By contrast, small retailers today are locked into contracts and typically have far from transparent fees to pay including authorisation fees, hardware fees, PCI compliance fees and more which all eat into their margins. Hardware fees can be as high as £29/month. Robert Dighero, Partner at Passion Capital, said “Atoa has come to the UK market at the right time to leverage open banking and bring to small and medium sized merchants a truly viable alternative to payment cards and card machines that can be deployed in-store within minutes. We’re delighted to work with the Atoa team after their first fintech success and look forward to partnering with them as they achieve even greater heights with Atoa. Shwetank Verma, Partner at Leo Capital, said “Leveling the playing field for independent, small and medium sized merchants is an obvious opportunity which benefits everyone, not least of which consumers. We have seen this business model succeed in India and SEA and we’re looking forward to working with the Atoa team to help them build another successful business in a massively growing market.” Since going live in June, the company has experienced more than 100% month on month growth in terms of both Total Payment Volume (TPV) and number of merchant customers. Over time, the founders’ ambitions are to become a mainstream small business friendly payment method replacing payment cards. About Atoa Payments Atoa was co-founded by Sid Narayanan, Cian O’Dowd and Arun Rajkumar, who all previously founded Singapore based fintech, KlearCard, which was acquired last year by Validus. Their first successful enterprise has motivated them to seek even greater heights and to have greater impact and to focus on one of the largest merchant retailer markets in the world, the UK. After securing their pre-seed funding round, the co-founders relocated to the UK and have achieved outstanding traction since summer 2022. About Passion Capital Passion Capital (passioncapital.com, @passioncapital) was established in 2011 to bring founder-friendly operationally-minded venture investing to the UK and Europe. Founded by former entrepreneurs instead of traditional asset fund managers, Passion was one of the first operator-led dedicated early-stage venture funds in Europe. Additionally, it was the first in the world to publish and use a plain English language term sheet and not to charge its portfolio companies any of its own legal or other fees, the first in Europe to publish fund infographics and to host joint office hours (for pitching sessions), and the first to manage a coworking office space. Over the last decade the team has invested in some of the strongest European founding teams including those from GoCardless, Monzo Bank, Lendable, Marshmallow, Tide Banking, Digital Shadows, Smarkets, Tray.io, urban, Spotahome, Butternut Box, Nested, PolyAI, Causal, Fertifa, Screenloop, Sequence, True Circle and many more. About Leo Capital Leo Capital is a Singapore based early stage venture fund, built by serial entrepreneurs with global experience. Leo Capital backs companies powering a software-enabled world and supports their founders on the journey from great founder to great CEO. We are excited about partnering with founders building the iconic companies of tomorrow. Please see http://www.leo.capital/ for more details. Contact Details Atoa Payments Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://paywithatoa.co.uk/

November 24, 2022 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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KLEVV Introduces Three New M.2 NVMe SSDs to the Market

KLEVV

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 23 November 2022 - KLEVV, an emerging memory brand introduced by Essencore, is excited to announce three new consumer-grade M.2 NVMe SSDs, the CRAS C930, C910, and C730. The new CRAS M.2 NVME SSD lineup aims to serve a wide range of users, enabling entry-level to top-tier enthusiasts with industry-leading storage technology. Both CRAS 930 and C910 come with an optional add-on heatsink for users to maximize their freedom in the setup. CRAS C930 – Get Ahead of the Curve With an impressive 1500 TBW endurance lifecycle and a significant emphasis on DRAM cache buffer, the CRAS C930 is built to withstand harsh workloads. Utilizing the latest PCIe Gen4 x4 interface supported by NVMe 1.4, it delivers break-neck sequential read/write speed of up to 7400/6800 MB/s at 2TB max capacity and 4K random read/write up to 1000K IOPS. Exceptional engineering and design elements make the CRAS C930 the crown jewel of KLEVV’s new M.2 NVME SSD lineup, capable of running on PCs, Laptops, and even PS5 consoles. Additionally, the flat fin heatsink addon is a great inclusion with up to 20% temperature reduction, giving users complete flexibility in their choice. CRAS C910 – Armored with Power, Cooler than Ever Adopting the PCIe Gen4 x4 interface with NVMe 1.4, the new CRAS C910 is the perfect solution for gaming and content creation. Leveraging strictly selected 3D TLC NAND Flash chips, the CRAS C910 dishes out up to 5000/4800 MB/s sequential read/write speed at 1TB capacity. Furthermore, the stylish black and white brushed aluminum heatsink included with the unit provides comprehensive utility capable of up to 10% passive heat dissipation. CRAS C730 – Go Above and Beyond Built around the PCIe Gen 3x4 interface supported by NVMe 1.3 technology, the CRAS C730 is a jack of all trades. Targeted at mainstream users, it outshines the competition by carrying top-shelf features and functionality way above its pay grade. DRAM cache buffering, Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), and Thermal Throttling Algorithm are a few worthy highlights to mention that make the CRAS C730 the best powerful, budget-friendly performance storage solution on the market. Users can choose from 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities with impressive sequential read rates reaching 3700MB/s at 2 TB capacity. PRODUCT AVAILABILITY The CRAS C930, C910, and C730 M.2 NVMe SSDs will be available from Q4 2022, KLEVV products are distributed by Integral Memory plc in the United Kingdom/ France/ Spain/ Germany. Consumers may visit Amazon sites for online purchase. INFORMATION Product page CRAS C930 CRAS C910 CRAS C730 Video CRAS C930 CRAS C910 CRAS C730 ABOUT ESSENCORE Established in 2014, Essencore Limited aims to become the world’s top vendor of DRAM modules and NAND flash application products. The company started with one goal: to “Change the world and be a leader in semiconductor distribution.” The business strategies of Essencore is to adopt the newest technologies to differentiate themselves from competitors, deliver dedicated Memory products, and offer various product portfolios for customer’s competition readiness. For more information, please visit www.essencore.com. ABOUT KLEVV KLEVV, is a premium brand of Essencore, the major Module and NAND Flash application product vendor. The KLEVV range focused on superior gaming memory modules and solid state drives. KLEVV is committed to delivering world-class products with first-rate quality, and all products are engineered for enthusiasts who are pursuing the best things in life. KLEVV memory/SSD have been recognized by Germany’s Red Dot Design Award for its innovative product design in 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2022. For more information, please visit www.klevv.com. Contact Details Yunly International Marketing Emily Lin emily@yunlymedia.com

November 24, 2022 03:05 AM Eastern Standard Time

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The Post-FTX Future of Financial Governance

Ink Finance

Crypto CeFi, the Original Sin The spectacular and scandalous collapse of FTX showed the colossal damage that a centrally organized, opaquely disclosed, and recklessly managed financial agent can do to the entire industry and society at large. That centralized organizations can dominate the assets originating from decentralized networks is a sad irony, a disease that has plagued crypto since the day when there was crypto trading. The narrative of the “crypto natives” is that blockchain technology was supposed to replace centralized entities, the likes of the Federal Reserve or other monetary authorities. Whereas in reality, cryptocurrency has handed itself to the shady and sketchy organizations that primarily use them to loot and raid. The irony is so sharp that it hurts. It has never been more evident than now that decentralized, transparent, rigorous, and professional management of Web3 finance must take the center stage. Now isn’t just a watershed moment; it is an existential one. The infrastructures needed to enable and sustain a crypto-powered Web3 go far beyond the DeFi in its current form, as facilities in this category are merely independent functional units - MUCH better units than their counterparts in centralized systems. What we regard as the absolute necessity is the operational and control layer on top of these functional units, capable of enforcing responsibility & accountability imposed upon the operators of these functional units, while demonstrating their competence & credibility. These operators should ideally be elected and monitored by the communities (organized as DAOs) they serve, and are regulatory compliant to perform their professional tasks, if necessary. Throughout 2021 and the better part of 2022, prior to the fallout of FTX, the number of DAO participants has already grown from 13,000 to a whopping 1.7 million people worldwide. The records speak for themselves; decentralization is the heart and soul of Web3. The damages done by the likes of FTX, 3AC, Celsius, etc. will only serve to show the advantage of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), as they are built on blockchains and promise transparent and democratic governance. Yet such lofty promises will disappoint if the operations of the DAOs are built on leaky or shaky foundations, particularly regarding their finance. Integrated Financial Management in a DAO Most DAOs today are built hastily with incoherent and fragmented management components that have resulted in plutocratic governance schemes, Sybil-infested incentive structures, and the proliferation of useless “utility tokens” (as fundraising vehicles). While these integrity and economic issues are already threatening the viability of DAO as an important augment to the traditional corporate framework, the lack of professional fiscal and finance tooling makes the matter even worse. There have been numerous DAO treasury tools in the market, and more are coming. Most of them are multi-sign wallets in one form or another. Participants in the Web3 financial management sector need to urgently understand that the robustness of individual parts of a machine is not the same as a well-designed and well-run machine itself. How these parts are put together is entirely a different thing of its own merit. A Multi-sig wallet can be regarded similarly to a DeFi lending protocol or a DEX as an independent functional part (we can’t emphasize enough that they all are MUCH better than their counterparts in the centrally managed regime). Yet, what makes up a financial management framework is the processes and procedures governing the usage of these parts, which must also be built on-chain to be verifiable and enforceable. A quick review of the evolution of the Web1 economy to the Web2 economy may shed light on our vision of the DAO financial management in the Web3 era. There were once numerous companies of various sizes who were all building their own online business systems. There were abundant independent solutions available to them (front end browser tools, back end server tools, middleware, payment, etc.), and yet what made Web2 an ultimate success isn’t the abundance or individual qualities of these solutions; it is rather the emergence of cloud service and SaaS. Specialized, customizable, integrated, and off-the-shelf software suites that are capable of providing end-to-end solutions for a certain domain of business have won the day. This is what Ink Finance is delivering to DAOs who treat their fiscal management and financing seriously. What Financial DAOs Look Like in the Future While progress in recognizing DAOs as legal entities is underway in places such as Wyoming and the Marshal Islands, or that the Colorado co-op scheme is being revised to embody DAOs, the underlying technical infrastructures that carry them must be built to address at least the following three critical aspects of on-chain finance: 1. This is the easiest to understand: open-source DeFi protocols that carry out financial transactions such as spot trading, derivatives, lending, cross-chain asset swaps, and payment solutions. These facilities have never been short of innovation since DeFi took root in 2019, and will certainly attract more talents and investments after the fallout of FTX; 2. The operational and control layer on top of the above mentioned DeFi facilities. It is very much underappreciated why the aforementioned facilities are not enough to mitigate financial risks by themselves alone. Let’s use Aave and Uniswap, the two prominent DeFi protocols, as examples. If an asset manager spends $1M to acquire token X from Uniswap and then pledges it on Aave to get a $700k loan, and then uses the proceeds to acquire more token X from Uniswap, and then pledges it again on Aave, and repeats the process indefinitely, neither Aave nor Uniswap can stop his egregious leveraging. The guardrail curbing this asset manager’s action is the key, which leads to the inevitable process of rulemaking and enforcement - the process of financial governance, itself being a part of a more general governance framework. What makes this process challenging is that the domain of finance is widespread, requiring profound financial knowledge and the proper engineering that delivers rigor as well as flexibility. This is the sector that I nk Finance is specialized in, one that we expect to see more competition in, as its critical importance becomes more and more clear to the institutions and large ecosystems. We regard this sector as the financial SaaS of Web3. 3. Last but not least, the integration with global regulations. The FTX debacle has shown the harm of regulation arbitrage. If the advanced leading countries do not step up on the regulatory effort, the shady organizations will simply base themselves in jurisdictions with poor or no regulation, yet the nature of cryptocurrencies assures that the harm will be felt globally. Encouragingly, various decentralized protocols have made major inroads in this domain, paving the way for on-chain organizations to be regulatory compliant if they choose to. Ink Finance has dedicated critical efforts to integrating these technologies to its own stack, partnered with industry leaders such as Astra a nd Humanode. To sum up, the financial DAOs of the future will need to use open source DeFi facilities as their transactional backbone, manage its fiscal and financial process with a transparent and on-chain executable financial control framework, and make themselves regulatory compliant when required. Conclusion The ingredients to the long-term legitimacy of on-chain finance are customizable, flexible, and specialized products that can be picked off-shelf and ready for end-to-end deployment, which brings professionalism, security, transparency, and adaptivity to regulatory oversight. Only when the crypto industry can deliver such sound financial management solutions, will it then be able to persuade and incentivize traditional institutions to shake off the carnage brought by the centralized agents operating under the banner of crypto. Only then can institutions such as auction houses, VC & angel investors, alternative asset managers, and web2 metaverse companies adopt DAO as an augment to their corporate structure in order to achieve high efficiency of their businesses, which is the promise of the Web3 world. At Ink Finance, we will keep delivering the most comprehensive and professional solutions to financially minded DAOs. We might be facing the longest and coldest crypto winter, but we are ready to chew glass and work with other determined builders to accelerate the adoption of TRUE decentralized finance. About the author: Tony Tang is the CEO of Ink Finance, a multi-chain financial governance toolset for on-chain organizations to manage all aspects of their fiscal and financing activities. Tony is a financial industry veteran with an engineering background who previously served as managing directors at several top financial institutions and fintech VC. Ink Finance is a DAO governance toolset, enabling all kinds of ecosystems to establish governance economy, manage internal finance, and connect with DeFi investors everywhere, through a no-code user experience. As a Financial SaaS built on blockchain, Ink Finance has the most comprehensive financial engineering tools to support on-chain issuance, settlement, clearing, and analysis of Non-Fungible Financial Products.Ink Finance is backed by heavy weight eco builders such as Republic Crypto and DeFi Alliance, partnered with cutting-edge solution providers such as Humanode, Astra, SolvFinance, Polytrade and deBridge, etc. This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Camille Zhang camille.zhang@ufit.live

November 23, 2022 09:25 AM Eastern Standard Time

Venus Protocol Says the v4 Release of Its DeFi Lending Protocol Is a Game Changer for User Experience — Here’s What Users Can Expect

Venus Protocol

Venus Protocol, a leading lending protocol on BNB Chain, is getting ready to launch a suite of new upgrades in the latest version of its popular crypto lending platform. The many upgrades are aimed at giving users more security, more trading options, and more opportunities to generate yield on their assets. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the biggest changes users can expect in Venus v4. A New Risk Dashboard One of the biggest upgrades that will come with v4 is the dynamic risk-management system being developed in partnership with Gauntlet, a simulation platform for on-chain risk management. Users will gain access to a new Risk Dashboard that will display three risk metrics: value at risk (VaR), liquidation at risk (LaR) and Borrow Usage. VaR is a measure of capital at risk because of insolvency — when a borrower is unable to pay their debt. LaR is a measure of capital at risk because of liquidations — when large-scale selloffs make it harder to find buyers for a particular currency. Finally, Borrow Usage is a measure of how aggressively depositors are borrowing against the collateral supplied. These metrics will be shown for each asset as well as aggregated into a system-level measure for all assets in Venus. The hope is that the Venus community can use that asset-level and system-level risk data both to make better-informed lending and borrowing decisions and to see the impact of the new parameters recommended via the testing done with Gauntlet. A Large Pool Of New Tokens Will Be Available To Venus Protocol Users Another exciting feature of the v4 upgrade in development is the introduction of Isolated Markets. Under the current common collateral pool model, users are limited to a handful of the least risky assets. This is because, in a common pool, every asset in the pool is vulnerable to bankruptcies in any other asset in that same pool. So common pools tend to skew conservative as a way to reduce risk. For those interested in trading newer or riskier tokens, there aren’t as many options available. Venus Protocol’s upcoming isolated lending pools would provide segregated risk by separating those riskier tokens into their own pools. That segregated risk protects the common pool from the risk of those assets inside Isolated Markets. This will create independent lending environments that shield the common pool from exposure to those riskier tokens while giving users the ability to choose which pools to participate in based on their own personal risk profiles. The Venus team expects this update to gradually bring most of the more liquid tokens on BNB Chain into the lending protocol, where they will then be separated into pools based on shared risk profiles. Each pool will also be given a risk rating so users can easily compare the performance and risk of each pool. The PancakeSwap Integration Will Offer A Built-In DEX The integration of PancakeSwap, a popular decentralized exchange on BNB Chain, will add a swap page to the Venus dashboard where users can swap tokens they already hold and supply to Venus without leaving the Venus user interface (UI) they’re familiar with. The upgrade is a big deal for Venus users and a huge leap in the DeFi space as a whole because no other app supports that kind of swap functionality inside a lending protocol. As the crypto landscape continues to expand with new tokens being added, decentralized exchanges (DEXes) have been a key means of trading those tokens directly between crypto traders. A standalone DEX establishes the prices of various cryptocurrencies algorithmically and uses liquidity pools to facilitate trades so that traders can quickly exchange crypto. The Venus team is excited to finally offer a more seamless alternative. With v4, Venus would become the very first protocol to provide both crypto borrowing and lending and the ability to swap tokens in the same UI. An Adjustable Stability Fee For VAI VAI is Venus’ stablecoin, a coin whose value is pegged to another asset like a fiat currency, a commodity, or another cryptocurrency. In 2021, VAI lost its peg because the stablecoin was oversupplied in the market. Since then, the team has been looking for a way to solve this off-peg problem. The solution: a modified form of the Stability Fee, in which users pay interest for minting new VAI. When the market is oversupplied, the interest rate on minting VAI will increase. When supply is too low, the rate will drop to encourage new VAI minting. The income generated from that interest will go into the Venus Treasury as a new source of income for users. Stable Rate Venus’ Stable Rate enhancement will allow users to borrow and lend with more confidence. Users will face less uncertainty, especially under volatile market conditions. This will allow for better investment forecasting. Stable rates will also allow users to manage account health more easily. Suppliers will not face the frustration of declining APY. Venus’s Stable Rate solution is expected to be more affordable than others on the market, and that edge should bring more users to Venus Protocol. Venus Tokenomics 3.0 Venus’ latest upgrade to its tokenomics — or the overarching structure of a cryptocurrency’s economy, including mining and staking, supply limits, and yields — has been hotly anticipated by its community for a long time. The v4 (Tokenomics 3.0) upgrade will finally mark the end of that long wait. The biggest changes in Venus Tokenomics 3.0 are all aimed at incentivizing protocol retention, reinvesting value, creating flywheels and embedding better shortfall defense. That includes the introduction of the Venus Prime Soulbound Token (SBT), a new mechanism for incentivizing loyalty. The non-transferrable Venus Prime tokens are earned by staking XVS in the vault for 90 days and maintaining a minimum stake of 1,000 tokens. Once earned, the SBTs give users access to variable boosted yield across selected markets, which will be paid out in the currency being borrowed or supplied. Venus Protocol (“Venus”) is an algorithmic-based money market system designed to bring a complete decentralized finance-based lending and credit system onto Binance Smart Chain. Venus enables users to utilize their cryptocurrencies by supplying collateral to the network that may be borrowed by pledging over-collateralized cryptocurrencies. This creates a secure lending environment where the lender receives a compounded interest rate annually (APY) paid per block, while the borrower pays interest on the cryptocurrency borrowed. These interest rates are set by the protocol in a curve yield, where the rates are automated based on the demand of the specific market, such as Bitcoin. The difference of Venus from other money market protocols is the ability to use the collateral supplied to the market not only to borrow other assets but also to mint synthetic stablecoins with over-collateralized positions that protect the protocol. These synthetic stablecoins are not backed by a basket of fiat currencies but by a basket of cryptocurrencies. Venus utilizes the Binance Smart chain for fast, low-cost transactions while accessing a deep network of wrapped tokens and liquidity This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Venus Protocol contact@Venus.io Company Website https://venus.io/

November 23, 2022 08:15 AM Eastern Standard Time

A Look At The Growing Beauty And Wellness Space — And Some Companies To Keep Your Eye On

Benzinga

The beauty and wellness industry is currently experiencing a renaissance according to many, and companies can thank the younger generations and TikTok. TikTok has become a hub for all things beauty and wellness and in turn, could be the next big marketing gold mine. TikTok and other social media apps are allowing customers to view and experience products like never before. A potential customer can watch a video of someone unboxing a product, applying it and even see how the product survives a busy day. Social media has become the premier beauty destination, and products or companies that go viral on TikTok see massive success. Products that go viral, like the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Contour Wand, are often sold out for months. The numbers are impressive, too. The #beauty hashtag on TikTok currently exceeds 100 billion views. Studies show that most social media users access the app 12 times per day, with an average of 52 minutes per day. The organic and word-of-mouth nature of apps like TikTok is deeply impacting the wellness and beauty world. The growth in the beauty industry isn’t limited to certain brands doing well. Asian skincare and beauty products are witnessing massive growth in European and North American markets. In 2022, revenue in the beauty and personal care market in Asia amounts to $210.9 billion and is expected to grow annually by 6.39%. Between brands going viral on social media apps and Asian beauty interest being piqued by K-Drama and K-Pop pop-culture sensations. It is clear that the beauty and wellness industry is on the path to continued growth and could be worth market investors keeping their eyes on going into 2023. Beauty And Health Companies To Watch In 2023 L’Oreal S.A. (OTC: LRLCY ) saw some supply chain obstacles in the years past primarily due to COVID-19 but expects to bounce back completely in 2023. The company has recently invested in research and development (R&D) as well as hired additional employees to assist with its ramp-up in 2023. Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) is one of the leading cosmetic suppliers in the United States. Ulta may have performed relatively well in 2022. Its most recent financial report saw the company increase net income by 17.8%. The growing interest in the wellness and beauty space is a contributor to Ulta’s increased performance. Yoshitsu Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: TKLF) is a Tokyo-based provider of health, wellness, beauty products, home goods and food. Asian Market is the company’s primary focus but it is expanding retail locations into cities in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom. Yoshitsu is also considering opening a distribution center in the U.S. to help with fulfillment times. In China (Hong Kong), the company has a growing number of retail locations and has expanded its brick-and-mortar roots into a successful e-commerce company. Yoshitsu could be poised for expanded growth as the supply chain returns to normal following the pandemic. The growing interest in Asian beauty companies also positions Yoshitsu to potentially perform well in 2023. This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Benzinga +1 877-440-9464 info@benzinga.com Company Website http://www.benzinga.com

November 23, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Samsara Luggage Takes Charge of Travel Tech

Benzinga

The holiday travel outlook is shaping up well for Samsara Luggage as the travel brand reports celebrating unprecedented growth after the launch of its smart luggage and travel accessories — products that are made to ease the travel experience as the industry continues its recovery after a 2-year upheaval due to the pandemic. Holiday travel is kicking off this week with many wondering what to expect after a turbulent summer season where staffing was short and lost luggage made the headlines. Air travel is expected to increase beyond pre-pandemic numbers according to PwC’s annual Holiday Outlook report. Air travel has picked up again, with almost half of travelers — 46% — planning to fly, up from 40% in 2021 and 33% in 2020. The last peak in travel was marked with complications, with overbooked planes, long wait times, canceled flights and over a million lost bags in the U.S. between January and June 2022. The percentage of lost bags, when compared to 2019, is 30% more. As the travel industry’s recovery continues, Samsara Luggage Inc says they are well-positioned to help improve the traveler experience. Samsara Luggage Inc has come up with a clever way to ease stress among travelers and provide customers with a seamless and easy traveling experience. Awarded Special Mention in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022 list, Samsara Luggage has designed a line of suitcases with an embedded Apple AirTag. The suitcase can be tracked using the Find My app on the iPhone. Now, travelers can stay a step ahead by accessing information about their lost or stolen luggage using their personal mobile device. Samsara Luggage’s Tag Smart suitcase is designed with a durable aluminum frame and TSA-approved combination locks that keep the AirTag protected. The Tag Smart technology is meant to help change the game for travelers by creating a lower-stress experience by letting travelers know where their valuables are at all times. Samsara Luggage Is Partnering With Big Brands To Bring Its Tech Luggage To More Consumers In October, Samsara Luggage made its debut at Tommy Bahama retail stores around the country. "Samsara's presence in a fleet of Tommy Bahama retail stores is a milestone for the company," says Atara Dzikowski, Co-founder & CEO, Samsara Luggage. "The exemplary customer experience and hospitality that the Tommy Bahama stores are known for made the decision to come out of the web and into the brick-and-mortar space an easy one. We are thrilled to give everyone curious about Samsara the opportunity to see the quality of our products in-person for the first time." Click here for more information about Samsara Luggage’s recent partnerships with Tommy Bahama and other notable companies. It may be exciting to see how Samsara Luggage continues to innovate in the travel technology industry. This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Benzinga +1 877-440-9464 info@benzinga.com Company Website http://www.benzinga.com

November 23, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

discoverIE Group profits jump in "very strong first half"

discoverIE Group PLC

Contact Details Proactive Proactive UK Ltd +44 20 7989 0813 uk@proactiveinvestors.com

November 23, 2022 07:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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RedBrick AI raises US$4.6M to accelerate the development of healthcare AI

Redbrick AI

Health-tech AI platform RedBrick AI is today announcing a US$4.6M seed funding round to accelerate the development and adoption of artificial intelligence in clinical settings, through rapid data annotation on medical imagery. The round was led by Surge, Sequoia Capital India, and Southeast Asia’s rapid scale-up program, with participation from Y Combinator and angels. Medical imagery is an essential source of truth in clinical diagnosis and comprises about 90% of all healthcare data. AI systems can dramatically shorten the time to diagnosis, improve clinician productivity by triaging high-importance cases, and act as the first line of defense in under-staffed clinical environments. Researchers and healthcare institutions are increasingly investing in AI solutions to improve diagnostics, treatment and patient quality of care. The use of AI in healthcare stands to transform patient care by boosting clinician productivity and automating clinical diagnosis. In 2021 alone, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 115 AI algorithms for use in medical environments, an 83% increase from 2018. However, researchers cannot use medical images to train AI systems until they are cleaned and expertly annotated. Training an AI system also requires hundreds of annotated medical images and thousands of hours of annotation by clinicians. Due to the complexity, size, and unique nature of medical images, clinicians have to resort to traditional and difficult-to-use clinical tools to perform annotations. RedBrick AI is thus laser focused on solving the first key challenge to healthcare AI adoption – providing clinicians high-quality data annotation tools that accelerate the preparation of training datasets. RedBrick AI CEO and co-founder Shivam Sharma commented: “Working with leading healthcare AI teams over the past year has been an incredible journey and learning opportunity. With the rapid growth of artificial intelligence in clinical settings, researchers need excellent tools to build high-quality datasets and models at scale. Our customers are in the vanguard of this growth, pioneering everything from surgical robots to automated detection of cancers. We are incredibly excited to use the funds we’ve raised to power the next generation of researchers in building AI for clinical settings.” RedBrick AI’s tools address several challenges unique to medical data annotation, such as the complexity of existing annotation tools, quality control and machine learning integration. The platform's specialized annotation tools can be accessed through the browser and are designed to be used without prior training. RedBrick AI also offers semi-automated tools to annotate complex 3D medical images. RedBrick has a robust quality control process to ensure the quality of annotations, which are crucial to securing AI algorithm certifications from regulators. It involves efficient quality control workflows on the platform that can compile the opinions of several clinicians per annotation case, all while dramatically reducing time spent on project management. Its API also helps machine learning engineers integrate with their cloud and clinical data stores, for example, AWS or hospital enterprise PACS servers. The APIs are used to build ML data pipelines. RedBrick AI launched in 2021 by CEO and co-founder Shivam Sharma, and CTO and co-founder Derek Lukacs. Both Shivam and Derek previously worked on SpaceX’s Hyperloop technology, and participated in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. Shivam has a background in aerospace engineering and computer science from University of Michigan, while Derek holds a Bachelors and Masters in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. About RedBrick AI Teams building medical imaging AI use RedBrick AI to rapidly and collaboratively build high-quality training datasets. The RedBrick AI SaaS platform offers high-performance web annotation tools for 2D and 3D data to give experts access to specialized tooling right from their browsers. The RedBrick configurable workflow system helps teams build robust and scalable quality assurance processes. RedBrick AI offers a suite of APIs to help developers consume the annotations being created, and integrate with MLOps. For more information on RedBrick AI, visit https://redbrickai.com/ About Surge Surge is Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia’s rapid-scale up program. Surge combines up to USD 3 Mn of seed capital with company-building workshops, a global curriculum and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders. The program’s goal is to supercharge early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia and give founders an unfair advantage, right out of the gate. For more information on Surge, visit www.surgeahead.com. About Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia Sequoia helps daring founders build legendary companies, from idea to IPO to beyond. Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia actively partner with founders from a wide range of companies, across categories, including BYJUs, CRED, Druva, Five Star Finance, Freshworks, GoTo, Groww, Kopi Kenangan, Mamaearth, Pine Labs, Polygon, Razorpay, Truecaller, Zomato and more. We spur founders to push the boundaries of what's possible. In partnering with Sequoia, startups benefit with over 50 years of tribal knowledge and lessons learned working with companies like Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Dropbox, Google, LinkedIn and Stripe early on. From the beginning universities, endowments, and other non profits have been the backbone of our investor base which means founders' accomplishments make a meaningful difference. For more information on Sequoia's work in India and Southeast Asia visit sequoiacap.com/India and sequoiacap.com/sea. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://redbrickai.com/

November 23, 2022 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Interview with David Ginsburg, Investment Director at SolidusX

SolidusX

In light of the growing inflation in the UK, our team sat down with David Ginsburg, Investment Director at SolidusX, to discuss the importance of taking advantage of the situation and investing now. Q: Thanks for joining us, David. Let's start things off. Prices are skyrocketing in the UK right now. What's been the reasoning behind that? A: Thanks for having me! Well, where to begin? It's hard to narrow it down to one single factor. Obviously, one of the most significant geopolitical events in the past few decades, Russia's war on Ukraine, is a huge reason why. Energy prices are soaring because of a newfound surge in demand after COVID. On top of that, Ukraine provides a monumental amount of wheat and other resources. Naturally, this leads to an increase in food prices across the board. Countries were in lockdown during Covid, which affected economic activity. Someone needs to pay the bill. Regarding the balance between saving human lives and minimizing the economic impact, I think there was a better path. Yet, I would want to be off the decision-making desk. Q: Talk us through the problems with supply chains as well. A: The supply chains have been an issue for several years. The debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains around the world. With countries around the world imposing strict lockdowns and closing borders, eCommerce boomed in demand while supplies diminished heavily. Even now, China still has stringent restrictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The culmination of the Russian war and supply chain issues don't bode well for inflation. Q: So, you've got a British population depressed and scared of the rising prices. What does their future look like? A: I know things are less than ideal right now. The instability of the UK government changes in recent times has yet to fill people with much certainty. We are in a tense geopolitical situation, but this won't last forever. European energy ministers reached an agreement to put a halt to the rising electricity prices. Yes, we're in for a more brutal winter than most, and we need to brace for it. I truly hope the new government will help with economic stability and, together with the BoE, lead a responsible approach to curb inflation. In our line of work, we always talk about inflation as if it is a living organism, a beast trying to eat up the middle class. In the last couple of years, we've witnessed a change in how most people think about money and what they do with it. Brexit, then Covid, and now rising inflation led to a liquidity crisis amongst UK banks. Smart Britons looking to maintain and create value for their money voted for off-shore accounts and Crypto related investments. Moving away from the British Pound and towards return on investment. Noticing this multi-billion dollar shift in where money is stored, UK banks began to focus on protecting their liquidity, restricting clients' money movements and discouraging them from making any investments. But you can count on them offering you a loan every chance they get. Oddly enough, Britons are left with a choice between protecting their bank's bottom line or protecting their financial future. My responsibility is for the individuals we work with and not for the well-being of the British banking system. Seeing the connection between Crypto and financial independence, I urge people to open a crypto wallet and have more control over their money.. Q: You've been a proponent of investing during these difficult times. Could you give us some more information on that? What's your reasoning behind that? A: Most people today are so engulfed in current events that they simply cannot think far ahead. Let me be clear, this is by no means criticism. It's almost impossible to disconnect from all the problems around the world. Especially with social media constantly bombarding us with new information. Economically, the average person is feeling the brunt of increasing living expenses. However, the markets are still there. All markets. We emphasize to clients that they should stay dynamic while we help provide information about exciting market opportunities. Climate change and ESG are long-term factors we consider as well. Inflation and volatility are similar to rising sea levels; you need to sink or swim. If your strategy is keeping money passive in ISAs, Cash, or traditional investments, you should be prepared to watch your hard-earned money drown. With the current market atmosphere, you should ensure your money stays active and honed in on short-term trading opportunities. There's plenty of money to be made, given that you know what strategies to follow and what to look out for. Q: You're an Investment Director at SolidusX. Can you give our readers some insight into what SolidusX does precisely? A: We operate from London and provide financial services to our clients worldwide. Put simply, we connect people to global financial markets and guide them through it by explaining the platform and how to invest and providing general information about market events. We deal with traditional forex, CFDs, and commodities, but we've also managed to offer our clients access to cryptocurrencies. We offer Tier 1 liquidity, multiple state-of-the-art trading platforms, and our algorithmic analysis tool, Solidifyre. If you care about your financial future, you should worry about your money losing value to inflation or not doing anything because it is not invested properly. You want to embrace volatility. You can't go surfing when there are no waves, and surfing is fun, especially when you got someone to teach you how to do it and when catching a wave (in this metaphor) means collecting a nice profit. Contact Details SolidusX SolidusX Team +44 20 8154 3483 investors@solidusx.com Company Website https://solidusx.com/

November 22, 2022 05:20 PM Eastern Standard Time

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