What's new: February 2019
Michala Gregorová
GLAMI took a look back at 2018 and released their plans for 2019. Twisto initiated Apple Pay. Sense Arena is conquering America, Grason is winning competitions, and Rohlik is expanding.
“There’s no going back once you make your plans public,” tweeted Tomáš Hodboď with a link to the report GLAMI goes to 2019. There you’ll learn that thanks to the fashion search engine, online fashion retailers earned 80 million Euro last year. The report covers a full range of GLAMI achievements in 2018 and provides information about trends and plans for 2019.
In the last issue we wrote about Bonami’s sales, which amounted to 40 million Euro in 2018. Here is the public report, which has a lot more detail.
Last week Twisto was at the centre of a media storm resulting in hundreds of mentions. Twisto was able to launch Apple Pay in the first wave, together with several standard banks. If your bank isn’t supporting Apple Pay, get yourself a Twisto account.
After CES, Sense Arena continues to capture America. It has three new installations in the US as well as a new Managing Director for North America, the former VP of Eurotel Garrison Macri. Sense Arena is also heading to Minnesota for their largest hockey exhibition
There are still too few women in startups, something the Women Startup Competition is working to change. This year’s winner – thanks to co-founder Jarmila Kowolowská – is Grason, part of the MITON family of companies.
Rohlik announced the addition of a new board member and expansion to Hungary. Their board of directors welcomed Martin Dlouhý, whose retail experience can be matched by very few in Czechia. Martin was the boss of Slovak Tesco, Indian Makro and Czech McDonald’s, so his responsibilities will naturally include Rohlik’s expansion to Hungary.
Our February guests were the brothers Jirka and Petr Královi who spoke about influencer marketing. This is how the friendly chat looked in photos. On March 6 we will welcome Seznam’s long-term CEO Pavel Zima. If you want to join, write to me at michala.gregorova@miton.cz – we’ll find a way to squeeze in a few outside guests.
Recommended reading and listening:
- Fjord has published a great summary of trends for 2019. These include quieting digital noise and sustainability. For some interesting reading, I recommend you download their pdf.
- Vašek recommends tips for “How to be successful” by Sam Altman, Y Combinator’s President.
- Ondra recommends this Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
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Of further interest
PangeAI emerges from stealth to democratize access to geospatial data
(press release) A startup founded by Johanna von der Leyen and Marek Miltner at Stanford is changing the way companies and public institutions work with geospatial data. Instead of needing to hire a team of GIS experts, PangeAI agents allow making complex analyses and decisions involving physical infrastructure as easy as typing a prompt. The goal is to make the physical world as searchable and understandable as the digital one.
Every company wants to become more efficient thanks to AI, and almost none succeed. Miton is investing €400k into a startup that wants to fix this.
(press release) Even though companies know very well that AI can significantly increase their efficiency, most never get further than paying for ChatGPT accounts for their employees. It’s not motivation they lack - most fail in the implementation phase. The problem lies in the approach companies take: they treat AI as if it were traditional software. And this is exactly where Bandits comes in, a new project by Jiří Štěpánek, Kryštof Mitka and Miton.
Building an AI startup: Discussion with Tomáš Gogár (Rossum) and Martin Schmid (Equilibre).
The guests of the Miton AI Times event were Tomáš Gogár (co-founder and CEO of Rossum) and Martin Schmid (co-founder and CEO of Equilibre), who joined to discuss the challenges of building an AI startup.