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Hospitality operators often face chaos, juggling spreadsheets, outdated tools, and last-minute shift changes. In a secto...
13/05/2025

Hospitality operators often face chaos, juggling spreadsheets, outdated tools, and last-minute shift changes. In a sector where staff shortages and scheduling mistakes hurt service, good tech matters.

S4labour, a UK-based software company, offers a digital solution that makes rota planning, payroll, and HR simpler. Its goal: help managers focus on delivering great guest experiences, not admin work.

In early 2024, the hospitality industry faced over 107,000 job vacancies. With rising pressure and wages making up 40% of turnover for many, S4labour’s platform is more vital than ever. Now, the company has secured £4 million in growth capital from YFM Equity Partners.

The investment will help S4labour expand across the UK. It plans to improve its platform, scale operations, and reach more pubs, restaurants, and hospitality chains.Founded in 2011 by hospitality veteran Alastair Scott, S4labour started as a consultancy. Today, it serves over 250 clients, including JKS and Oakman Inns.

With new leadership and a major platform upgrade called Project EVO, S4labour is making its system faster and easier to use. Features like Gantt chart rotas, real-time data, and better multi-site tools are built to meet operators’ daily needs.

Mark Jensen, formerly of Fourth, joins as the new growth leader. Backed by fresh funding, S4labour aims to help more businesses run smoothly, even in a tough market.

In 2018, a scientist at the University of Maryland figured out how to make wood stronger than steel. It sounded like a l...
12/05/2025

In 2018, a scientist at the University of Maryland figured out how to make wood stronger than steel. It sounded like a lab curiosity , until it wasn’t. Now, that material is heading to market as “Superwood.”

Liangbing Hu refined the process over several years, cutting production time from a week to just hours. He licensed the tech to InventWood, a startup led by CEO Alex Lau.

InventWood will begin producing Superwood this summer. Backed by $15M in Series A funding, the company is targeting construction: “90% of building carbon impact is from concrete and steel,” Lau told TechCrunch.

Doubleword raises $12M to make AI easier for businessesDoubleword (prev. TitanML) is a UK-based company that helps busin...
09/05/2025

Doubleword raises $12M to make AI easier for businesses

Doubleword (prev. TitanML) is a UK-based company that helps businesses run AI models easily on their own systems. You don’t need special hardware or a big team. You can focus on building AI apps, not managing servers.

Doubleword announced it raised $12 million in Series A funding, led by Dawn Capital. The company, founded by Meryem Arik, Jamie Dborin, and Fergus Finn, started in the research world.

They used their knowledge in physics and AI to make AI run faster and cheaper for real businesses. Doubleword used to be called TitanML. Now, it’s helping companies around the world deploy and manage AI models, cutting costs by up to 90% and improving speed by up to 20x.

The AI market is growing fast. And the hardest part is inference, getting AI models to work in real life. Doubleword solves this problem.

Tripledot Studios, a company from London, is buying games from AppLovin for $800 million.Tripledot will pay $400 million...
08/05/2025

Tripledot Studios, a company from London, is buying games from AppLovin for $800 million.

Tripledot will pay $400 million in cash and give AppLovin 20% of its company. This makes Tripledot worth $2 billion. The deal is still waiting for approval from governments in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. It could take until summer 2025.

Tripledot started in 2017 and grew fast. It makes puzzle and casual games using data and AI. This new deal gives Tripledot 10 more studios and 2,500 new workers. Now, it has 25 million players every day.

Tripledot wants to grow even more, not just in mobile, but also in PC gaming.

AppLovin is not leaving games forever. It wants to focus on ads and AI. Its ad business is doing very well, making over $1 billion in early 2025.

South Africa’s card payments market is experiencing strong growth, with projections showing it will reach ZAR2.9 trillio...
07/05/2025

South Africa’s card payments market is experiencing strong growth, with projections showing it will reach ZAR2.9 trillion ($158.8 billion) in 2025.

This growth is driven by a nationwide shift toward digital payments, supported by greater financial inclusion, improved payment infrastructure, and consumers’ increasing preference for fast, safe, and convenient transactions.

In 2024, the market grew by 10.3% to reach ZAR2.7 trillion ($149.4 billion), boosted by rising consumer spending and wider merchant acceptance of card payments.

According to GlobalData, South Africans are also using their cards more frequently than their African peers, averaging 118.1 payments per card in 2024, more than double the rate in Nigeria and far ahead of countries like Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya.

In 2024, debit cards made up 74% of South Africa’s card payments, driven by everyday use and growing bank access, while credit cards held 26%, boosted by rewards and a rising middle class.

Contactless payments, used by over 68% of consumers, are expanding rapidly, especially in transport, with full rollout expected by mid-2025, pushing the market toward $206.2 billion by 2029.

OpenAI has announced its largest acquisition to date: the $3 billion purchase of Windsurf, an AI-powered coding assistan...
06/05/2025

OpenAI has announced its largest acquisition to date: the $3 billion purchase of Windsurf, an AI-powered coding assistant formerly known as Codeium.

Founded in 2021 by MIT graduates Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen, Windsurf has grown rapidly, with over 800,000 developers and 1,000 enterprise customers using its AI-integrated IDE, a fork of Visual Studio Code.

There js an intensifying competition in AI software development tools, particularly from GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q Developer, and OpenAI is looking to expand its influence beyond its consumer-facing ChatGPT platform.

The acquisition positions OpenAI to gain tighter control over the developer experience and enhance its enterprise offerings, especially in environments requiring secure and customizable deployments.

Windsurf’s infrastructure and privacy-focused capabilities will hopefully help OpenAI’s plan to serve more enterprise clients and improve the integration of AI models in real-world coding workflows.

On May 6, 2025, DoorDash (a US based food delivery company), said it will buy Deliveroo, a UK-based food delivery app, f...
06/05/2025

On May 6, 2025, DoorDash (a US based food delivery company), said it will buy Deliveroo, a UK-based food delivery app, for ÂŁ2.9 billion.

DoorDash will pay 180p per share, 44% more than Deliveroo’s share price on April 4. But this is much less than Deliveroo’s 2021 IPO price of 390p. At that time, Deliveroo was worth £7.6 billion.

The deal is expected to finish by the end of 2025. It still needs approval from shareholders and UK regulators. Deliveroo will keep its London office. But up to 830 jobs could be cut. Both companies say they will try to reduce layoffs.

Deliveroo’s founder, Will Shu, will get about £172 million from the deal and will stay involved. The two companies will join to serve more than 50 million users in around 40 countries. DoorDash hopes this will help it grow in Europe.

The merger could change the UK food delivery market, which is now led by Just Eat, Uber Eats, and Deliveroo.

Google has started a new film and TV production project. The project is called "100 Zeros." It is working with a company...
05/05/2025

Google has started a new film and TV production project.

The project is called "100 Zeros." It is working with a company called Range Media Partners. They help make movies and manage talent. This is a big step for Google as it enters the entertainment world.

The goal of the project is to find, fund, or co-produce new movies and shows. Google wants to support creative ideas, especially ones that use new technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and spatial computing. These tools mix the real and digital worlds.

Last year, "100 Zeros" helped with the marketing of an indie horror film called "Cuckoo." It was one of the first films supported by the project. Two new films are already planned "Sweetwater" and "LUCID." These will be about AI and are expected to be released later this year.

Even though Google owns YouTube, it is not using it to show these new films. Instead, the company wants to sell the films to big studios and streaming platforms like Netflix. Google hopes this will help them reach more people and earn more money.

This is not Google’s first try at making shows. Years ago, it started YouTube Originals, but that project stopped in 2022. Now, with "100 Zeros," Google is trying something new, but this time, for the big screen.

Uber has a new partner for self-driving cars: Chinese startup Momenta.On Friday, Uber said it will work with Momenta to ...
02/05/2025

Uber has a new partner for self-driving cars: Chinese startup Momenta.

On Friday, Uber said it will work with Momenta to add robotaxis to its app.

These cars will first appear in Europe in early 2026. A safety driver will still be in the car.

Momenta’s CEO said this deal helps grow self-driving tech around the world.

This comes just one day after Uber teamed up with another company, May Mobility.

Uber already works with several others like Waymo, Volkswagen, and WeRide.

Leather production hurts the environment. Most fake leather is made with plastic, which also causes pollution. A London ...
30/04/2025

Leather production hurts the environment. Most fake leather is made with plastic, which also causes pollution.

A London company called Arda Biomaterials is doing something different. They turn used barley from beer and whisky factories into a leather-like material. It’s called New Grain™. It has no plastic, no animal parts, and it breaks down naturally.

Arda just raised $5.25 million to grow their business. The money came from investors in Germany and the UK. The company is now worth tens of millions. They will use the money to build a bigger facility in London, where they will make more of their material using a new, faster method.

Founders Brett Cotten and Dr. TJ Mitchell met in 2022. They wanted to stop the use of animals and plastics in products. They use plant proteins from beer grain and mix science with brewery tools to make a new kind of leather.

Soon, Arda will work with big brands and breweries to create fashion items, car interiors, and more all from waste. They’ve even made a small product already: a cardholder with a beer logo.

Arda is also joining a major accelerator program with big companies like Coca-Cola and Unilever. They hope to make over 1 million square meters of New Grain a year and help the planet at the same time.

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