Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Technology

  • Gympass acquires Andjoy in Spain and 7Card in Romania

    Gympass acquires Andjoy in Spain and 7Card in Romania

    Gympass, the world’s largest corporate wellbeing platform, acquired Andjoy in Spain and 7Card in Romania to expand in Europe.

    7Card is a leader within the Romanian wellbeing market, with over 1,000 corporate clients and more than 600 wellbeing partners.

    Andjoy is a corporate wellbeing platform founded in Barcelona in 2013, that has grown to include 2,200 wellbeing partners

    Andjoy has more than 400 corporate clients, such as Glovo and Iberdrola and new partners, including CET10, Aiguajoc and many others in the Catalonia region.

    Andjoy was considered one of the first corporate wellness platforms in Spain.

    As part of the acquisitions, Gympass and Sodexo will also sign a commercial agreement.

    This will enable Sodexo to offer the Gympass platform to its clients across the globe, with an initial focus in Spain, Romania and the UK.

    Gympass secured a further USD 220m in funding in June 2021, with the latest acquisitions follow hot on the heels of the acquisition of Trainiac, a leader in 1-on-1 online personal training, in December 2021.

  • Swedish Furhat Robotics acquires US-based company Misty Robotics

    Swedish Furhat Robotics acquires US-based company Misty Robotics

    Furhat Robotics, the company behind the world’s most advanced social robot, Furhat, aquired Colorado-based social robotics startup Misty.

    The acquisition establishes an American base of operations for Furhat Robotics, and will enable further expansion and development of the next-generation of social robots.

    Misty Robotics, founded in 2017 by Ian Bernstein (the Co-Founder of consumer robotics company, Sphero) is the developer of Misty robot.

    They built Misty as an advanced platform to provide researchers and high-end developers with all the tools required to build and test prototypes of social robot applications

    Misty is an incredibly well designed and engineered robot that one falls in love with at first sight. Very likable and social, yet highly sophisticated in terms of hardware and software. There are more than 1000 Mistys out in the world, says CEO and Co-founder of Furhat Robotics, Samer Al Moubayed

    Furhat Robotics will continue to support the Misty Robotics brand, and help to develop and expand the product range.

    Also, they will gradually integrate Furhat and Misty technical features and SDK to bring the power of both platforms to all users.

  • Austrian start-up Creative Dock launches Fairo, an app for freelancers

    Austrian start-up Creative Dock launches Fairo, an app for freelancers

    Austrian start-up Creative Dock launches Fairo, the financial app helping freelancers realize more of their business goals by doing less paperwork.

    The innovative app, developed with the support of Raiffeisen Bank International, kicks off its journey by making invoicing features available to its users.

    Before the end of the year, users will be able to enjoy simplified bookkeeping assistance and tax functionalities, such as income tracking, followed by easy tax calculation and reports.

    The flagship feature that completes the mobile app is the Fairo bank account, which will be launched next year.

    Users will be able to get paid by clients directly to their Fairo bank account and easily track their income.

    They will also have access to cards, ATM withdrawals, local and international payments, currency exchange, a Fairo personal bank account and more.

    In 2022, through the app, users will pay their taxes directly from the bank account.

  • EmailTree AI, a solution to increase e-mail productivity, available on UiPath Marketplace

    EmailTree AI, a solution to increase e-mail productivity, available on UiPath Marketplace

    EmailTree AI, a Romanian end-to-end solution that automates e-mail composition and reduces the response time to e-mails, has been added to UiPath Marketplace.

    The e-mail technology was listed on the UiPath Marketplace in March 2021.

    EmailTree AI is an end-to-end solution launched in 2019 that increases e-mail (text requests) productivity, automates the composition of texts, and generates automatic actions in databases.

    EmailTree uses NLP (Natural Language Processing), NLU (Natural Language Understanding), AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) technologies.

    The company with offices in Luxembourg, Sibiu, Timisoara, and Paris has clients in various fields such as telecommunications, e-commerce, utilities, automotive.

    Some of the EmailTree AI clients are Orange Luxembourg, EDF, Webhelp.

    EmailTree AI can be used in many languages, including Romanian, English, German. The solution is mainly used by e-commerce platforms or customer service providers.

    UiPath Marketplace was launched in 2018 as an answer to the UiPath Community’s need for a space to share knowledge via an open exchange of reusable RPA components.

  • The pandemic will accelerate the adoption of telemedicine

    The pandemic will accelerate the adoption of telemedicine

    The percentage of video visits to doctors will rise to 5% of the total appointments globally in 2021, up from an estimated 1% in 2019, according to Deloitte.

    This translates into more than 400 million video visits with a total worth of about US$25 billion only in the 36 countries members of the OECD.

    In addition, Deloitte estimates that the market focused exclusively on telehealth virtual visit solutions will reach US$8 billion in 2021.

    Also, the sales of medical health care technology such as therapeutic and monitoring solutions, which can include medically approved consumer products such as smart watches, will hit more than US$33 billion in 2021, up almost 20% over 2019.

  • 97% of Romanians use a smartphone. Samsung is their favourite brand

    97% of Romanians use a smartphone. Samsung is their favourite brand

    In Romania there are over 26M mobile connections, 135.6% compared to the country’s population, and 97% of Romanians use a smartphone, according to Telekom.

    Samsung is the mobile phones brand used by the majority of the Telekom’s customers, which registered over half of the total options expressed (58.5%).

    In second place is Huawei, with a percentage of 20.9%, followed by Apple with 9.7% of preferences and Xiaomi with 4.2% of votes.

    Others use Nokia phones, Motorola, Oppo, HTC, LG, Allview, Asus, iHunt, Sony, Alcatel, Lenovo.

    When it comes to the period they use the mobile devices, over 40% of respondents said they have owned the current phone for two years or more.

  • DRUID teams up with Mobinology to enable AI-driven conversational capabilities

    DRUID teams up with Mobinology to enable AI-driven conversational capabilities

    Mobinology teams up with DRUID to enable AI-driven conversational capabilities in large digital transformation projects across the APAC region. 

    The collaboration aims to facilitate the implementation of conversational RPAs across a variety of industries, such as retail, utilities, tourism, and other services.

    DRUID conversational technology offers bi-directional communication between humans and machines and can be deployed in any scenario – cloud, hybrid, or on-premises.

    The power and simplicity of DRUID chatbots lie in the revolutionary proprietary NLP engine that natively supports over 45 languages, while over 500 pre-built conversational skills.

    Moreover, the award-winning native connector with UiPath adds conversational capabilities to the industry’s first hyper-automation platform.

    Mobinology Asia is a major business software solution provider, specialized in delivering innovative solutions for data-driven marketing and customer engagement.

  • Czech PropTech in 2020: acquisitions, investments and skyscrapers in NYC

    Czech PropTech in 2020: acquisitions, investments and skyscrapers in NYC

    Despite the difficulties caused by COVID-19, 2020 was a turning point, in a positive sense, for most Czech PropTech companies.

    Thus, many companies have expanded to foreign markets, where Czech solutions for residential and commercial development are receiving positive responses.

    It was the epidemiological situation that created strong pressure to automate and digitize processes using modern technologies.

    These technologies include machine reading, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things.

    The Czech-Slovak Association of PropTech Companies made a top of the most 5 progressive companies in this field.

    Sharry

    The company has more than doubled its turnover in 2020, even though many of its projects have slowed down due to the pandemic.

    Sharry also won a contract to implement software and mobile applications in 23 skyscrapers in New York (including the iconic One Vanderbilt).

    “We are registering an enormous demand from our customers for contactless solutions, such as mobile access or our product innovation – the ability to call an elevator directly from a smartphone avoiding the need to touch shared surfaces. More and more clients are also in demand for our data analysis tools to help them strengthen the tenant’s confidence in office comeback,” says Vlad Mašinský, Strategic Partnership & Business Development Lead.

    Also, last year, Sharry became the global technology partner of HID Origo.

    Realpad

    The software provider for residential developers operating in 12 European markets after it entered Romania, Lithuania, and Estonia in 2020.

    Despite the covid-19 pandemic, Realpad expects year-on-year sales growth of 80%.

    They are working on the first coliving project and have information on the development of real estate prices.

    According to Realpad, the share of buyers increased to 40% for investment reasons.

    ”During this year, in cooperation with the development company Corwin, we managed to implement a pilot project to digitize the handover of apartments. It was the onset of the digitization of the covid-19 pandemic that accelerated significantly, and we are registering increased demand for the product from foreign and local developers,” says Marián Škvarek on behalf of Realpad.

    Spaceflow

    Integrating data, technology, and people, Spaceflow helps landlords to go through digital transformation to finally connect buildings with their occupiers.

    Spaceflow delivers an operating system that integrates both physical and digital aspects, and community engagement to create an elevated experience for occupants in residential and commercial buildings in 17 markets.

    ”We are monitoring the increased interest in technologies enabling contactless access, whether it is building entrance and contactless door opening, cashless payments, monitoring energy consumption, air quality, occupancy or contactless reservations – all with connection to the building from one mobile application we provide,” says Petr Bořuta, who is responsible for marketing at Spaceflow.

    Flatio

    Flatio provides medium-term housing rentals in 17 markets. This year, they bought NOMADX’s activities in the Portuguese market, where it now offers 2,000 housing opportunities.

    Due to Covid-19, it faced a spring income halt, yet it is growing at a double-digit rate compared to last year.

    But, it appears that a large number of residential property owners are abandoning the format of short-term leases and looking for medium-term ones.

    Upvest

    In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, Upvest managed to achieve two significant milestones in 2020, gradually strengthening its position within the Czech market.

    With an increase of 98 %, the company has doubled the volume of invested projects on its platform, exceeding a total of 3 574 investments secured.

    Secondly, Upvest partnered with Komerční bank through its subsidiary KB Smart Solutions in July 2020. KB Smart Solutions entered the company by acquiring an 18,9 % share. B

    The capital is now being implemented so as to further advance growth and improve the services offered.

  • Amazon launched a local website in Poland

    Amazon launched a local website in Poland

    Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, launched a website on Tuesday for customers in Poland, Reuters reports.

    Polish online commerce market has been stimulated by online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic, and Allegro, the largest local online commerce platform, has enjoyed a great debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

    Following Amazon’s announcement, Allegro shares rose 2.4%.

    We are delighted with the launch of Amazon.pl. We will be able to offer Polish customers a selection of over 100 million products, including tens of thousands of products from local businesses, said Alex Ootes, Amazon’s vice president for expansion in Europe.

    Amazon has been active in Poland since 2014, with nine logistics centers, but customers were diverted to the German-language site.

    This move is likely to change and stimulate the growth of the Polish online commerce market, which is expected to reach $ 25.25 billion in 2024.

  • 61% of Europeans don’t trust public authorities with their personal data

    61% of Europeans don’t trust public authorities with their personal data

    European Commission latest data, analysed by Reboot Online, show which European citizens trust the public authorities in their country with personal data the least.

    This show that citizens in Spain (78%) trust the public authorities with their personal data the least.

    In second position is Ireland, where 73% of people are skeptical about how public authorities in the country handle their personal data.

    Belgium, France and the United Kingdom are in joint third place as 68% of citizens in each country lack confidence in the public authorities’ ability to oversee their personal data in a secure and diligent manner.

    In fourth spot is Bulgaria, where 67% of citizens do not have full faith in the management of their personal data by public authorities.

    Latvia and Romania are among the European countries where 60% of citizens mistrust the way public authorities keep and utilise their personal data, respectively ranking joint ninth.

    On the other end in 19th place, it seems individuals in Finland are most assured by public authorities’ supervision of their personal data, with only 29% of Finns questioning the security of their personal data with public authorities.

    Just above Finland is Estonia in 18th position, where 2 in 5 citizens are not entirely convinced if public authorities in the country are competently looking after their personal data.

    Interestingly, on average from all the assessed countries, 61% of Europeans don’t trust public authorities with their personal data. 

  • Aurachain is the new technology partner for the Bucharest Stock Exchange

    Aurachain is the new technology partner for the Bucharest Stock Exchange

    Aurachain is the new technology partner for the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and the Central Securities Depository in Romania.

    Two innovative solutions developed using the low-code Aurachain platform will be implemented to accelerate and optimize the shareholder voting process at exchange listed companies using blockchain technology, and to facilitate access to the capital market by digitizing investor enrollment. 

    The first solution is the digitization of the voting process in the Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and the Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs).

    The Intervote digital platform, developed on the Aurachain platform, automates safe voting mechanisms, and ensures through the use of blockchain the transparency and traceability compliance required by the current regulatory framework. 

    The solution will be available to all companies listed on BVB Regulated Market and the AeRO market, part of BVB’s Multilateral Trading System, to streamline the voting process.

    The second solution is the digitization of the online process of opening trading accounts by individual investors, through a standardized service that the Central Securities Depository will provide as a new entry point for all new individual investors.

    The technology solution developed on the Aurachain platform has the role of facilitating the investors access to the Romanian capital market in a completely automated and fully secure manner.

    Actions such as registration, identity verification, facial recognition and Know Your Client (KYC) processes will be performed exclusively in a digital environment and will be automated. 

    Through the new partnership with Aurachain, BVB takes another important step towards the modernization and development of the Romanian capital market.