Launched a tech startup crossword clue

It's a remarkable turnaround story. Just three years back, Vinted, Lithuanian tech's posterchild, was on the brink of collapse left with just €12 million ($13.2 million) in the bank. That's when one of the investors tapped Thomas Plantenga, a former executive at online marketplace OLX, to help salvage the 8-year-old startup. Plantenga called for a major overhaul that involved a change in the business model, including ditching mandatory sales fee, office closures and job cuts. The strategy worked. Vinted saw sales soar and investors pump much needed cash, making it to one of the biggest secondhand fashion marketplaces in the world. Just a few days back, the company raised €128 million in a funding round that valued the company at €1 billion and gave Lithuania its first tech unicorn. The funding was led by Silicon Valley venture capital fund Lightspeed Venture Partners. "We are very excited to get validation from external parties that we are on the right track … [Read more...] about Secondhand clothing retailer is Lithuania’s first tech unicorn

For Shoba Purushothaman, it was only logical for her to end up in Berlin. "Berlin is the best place to have access to talent and to engineers," she says enthusiastically, sitting in an open office building in the German capital. Born in Malaysia, she has worked in many cities, like London, Kuala Lumpur and New York. Now she is in Berlin. Hardskills is the name of the company with which she wants to conquer the world market for digital education. A startup with 12 employees, it is still small, but growing fast. The digital learning platform they are developing works with artificial intelligence and should enable companies to train their employees worldwide. It's not meant to teach mere technical skills, but rather something much more difficult — behavioral skills. The digital working world is full of constantly changing processes; there is less routine and predictability. This constant change leads to problems in operational processes and in dealing with each other. … [Read more...] about David and Goliath: Large firms working with tiny startups

Nehul Jagdish Kumar from India knows all too well how it feels to be rejected. He has been struggling for over a year to convince investors to back his novel project — a website catering to the information needs of farmers. India has been facing a growing agrarian crisis that has led to a rise in farmer suicides. Low prices for their produce, poor irrigation, absence of advanced technology and a lack of market knowledge are often cited as reasons for the plight of the farmers. Yet the agriculture sector seldom finds space in the mainstream media, which is obsessed with politics, crime, cricket and cinema. Kumar hopes to change that with his online AgriTimes portal. "The idea is to create a platform to provide news, information and eventually intelligence to farmers in the language they speak," Kumar told DW. "So that they can make informed decisions and eventually increase their incomes by not falling prey to middlemen." Kumar's is one of the 12 startups from across the world … [Read more...] about Media startups learn the art of selling ideas at DW boot camp

Translation giants like Google and Microsoft are faced with a powerful but small competitor. The startup from Cologne, DeepL, was founded by a former Google employee. It provides a translation tool that produces more naturally worded text than any of its big competitors. The service uses so called deep learning technology based on artificial neural networks. But how exactly does it work? From dictionary to translator Before the company launched the new translation tool in August 2017 it had been in the "language business" for quite some time. In 2009, they started a a dictionary called Linguee. What was special about it? Apart from various translation options, it offered samples of already translated pieces of text in chosen language pairs.  It gathered these text samples from the Internet using special Internet bots that help web indexing called web crawlers. Many text samples came from the documents of … [Read more...] about DeepL: Cologne-based startup outperforms Google Translate

High street giant Currys PC World is slashing the price of thousands of tech and electrical items over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The 'unmissable' deals will be available online at www.currys.co.uk and in stores until 28 August, giving customers lots of time to snap up a real bargain. Shoppers looking to upgrade their home with smart tech devices can pick up a great deal on the Philips Colour Ambiance E27 Starter Kit and Google Home Mini bundle. It's now on sale for £149 instead of the normal £204 price tag - that's a handy saving of £55. There's also £50 off Ring Video Doorbell 2 and Chime Pro WiFi Extender bundle, normally worth £219, but reduced to £169 in the sale too. Currys is also rolling out an extra 10% off selected items as part of the retailer's 'mega deals', with top offers on big brands like HP, Samsung and LG. Shoppers who may be shopping from the airport can also take advantage of summer savings that will be available at Dixons Travel … [Read more...] about Currys PC World launch mega August bank holiday sale with huge discounts on smart home tech devices