State Of Retail Tech H2’20 Report: Investment & Sector Trends To Watch

Our retail tech report takes a data-driven look at global retail technology investment trends and top deals, highlighting areas of interest across the retail landscape.

The State of Retail Tech report takes a data-driven look at global retail technology investment trends and top deals, featuring insights from our emerging tech insights platform. The data in this report covers H2’20 (as of November 30).

In a tumultuous year for retail, total financing and deals in retail tech in 2020 will still likely trail 2019 totals, by about 5% in funding and 8% in deals. But urgent needs to make stores safer, more efficient, and more productive, as well as continued investment in e-commerce infrastructure, drove significant growth in funding across key sectors in the second half of the year.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:

1. The shift to e-commerce has driven investment and valuations for 15 new retail tech unicorns: E-commerce enablement companies, as well as specialized selling platforms (such as online pharmacies and resale sites) have won investor interest as well as higher valuations.

2. M&A deals have focused on driving convenience and omnichannel connection: In addition to deals among online fulfillment providers, particularly food and grocery delivery, acquisitions highlighted the ongoing need to connect digital and physical retail. This includes omnichannel retail company Tulip Retail, which recently acquired Blueday, a store performance management system, and TimeKit, an advanced scheduling system.

3. Big tech firms’ retail advances have aimed to make shopping easier: Amazon, Facebook, and Google have all continued to invest in partnerships, platform expansions, and delivery and fulfillment capabilities that are making it possible for consumers to shop anywhere.

4. Europe and Africa have garnered more interest from retail tech investors: Year to date (YTD), both continents have seen their highest share of deals in the last 5 years: Europe has accounted for 22% of retail tech deals so far in 2020, while 3% of deals have been in Africa.

5. In-store retail tech, e-commerce, and supply chain and logistics tech have all seen increased funding in H2’20: In the second half of the year to date, financing to in-store retail tech companies has jumped 152%; e-commerce funding has grown by 68%; and supply chain tech financing has increased 15%. While only in-store retail tech funding is likely to match 2019’s totals, investment continues to flow in all 3 areas as retailers and their partners rush to boost conversion and improve operations.

By Germany Trade & Invest

Scientists Without Borders

How Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine breakthrough was achieved together with a previously obscure Mainz-based firm, BioNTech, which is now worth over a billion euros

Özlem Türeci is a Turkish-German physician and immunologist who teaches at the University of Mainz. Together with her husband Uğur Şahin, she founded two companies in the field of biotechnology, including BioNTech.

In November 2020, in the midst of rising coronavirus cases across Europe and Germany’s second lockdown, there was a ray of light: the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, in collaboration with German biotech firm BioNTech, announced preliminary test results for a vaccine that was 95 percent effective.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement at the time. He also paid tribute to his German partner. BioNTech is a billion-dollar husband-and-wife team consisting of CEO Uğur Şahin and his spouse and chief medical officer Özlem Türeci, both highly accomplished scientists and experts in immunology and immunotherapy. Şahin was born in Turkey and studied medicine at the University of Cologne before meeting Türeci at the Saarland University Medical Center. Their company usually specializes in cancer research, developing ways to harness the body’s natural ability to defend itself from bacteria and viruses.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced in March – when the pandemic was still in its infancy – that they were pooling their resources to accelerate their vaccine development program called Project Lightspeed. It was a logical step, since the two companies had already been working together on the research and development of mRNA flu vaccines since 2018.

Lightspeed turned out to be an appropriate name. BioNTech was able to bring its first vaccine candidates to clinical development within less than three months. “Safety, speed and flexibility are of the utmost importance in reacting to the current pandemic,” the company said in a statement.

The two companies began manufacturing tens of millions of doses at the end of 2020 and expect to produce more than 1.3 billion by the end of 2021. In part, this is thanks to the financial support of the German government, which in September invested EUR 375 million into BioNTech from its special coronavirus research fund. the cooperation between the two companies has provided an ideal platform for the development of the vaccine. “We’re happy that the successful relationship between Pfizer and BioNTech made it possible for both companies to mobilize our resources in the face of this global challenge,” he said.

For Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer and president of Worldwide Research, Development & Medical, Source : https://www.marketsgermany.com/scientistswithout-borders/

By Germany Trade & Invest

The ABCs of CBD

One hot start-up sector in Germany at the moment is products made from the cannabis derivative cannabidiol or CBD. Evidence suggests that CBD can alleviate disorders ranging from anxiety and insomnia to epilepsy without creating dependence or having intoxicating effects.

The World Health Organization has declared that there is no evidence of CBD causing any public health problems, which led the European Court of Justice to clear the way for its legal use with a ruling in November 2020. That’s served as a signal to start-ups. Forbes magazine has described the CBD market as “booming.”

“This judgement was an important step toward getting rid of uncertainties about whether CDB products pose a health risk and are illegal,” Finn Hänsel, the head of Berlin start-up Sanity Group, told business newspaper Wirtschaftswoche.

Sanity Group concluded EUR 20 million in series A financing last February, and its investors include 2014 Football World Cup winner Mario Götze. Its brand name Vaay is doing around a million a year in turnover, according to Hänsel.

CBD products include bath salts, oils, sprays, lozenges and teas and are sold both online and in perfumery outlets.

Source : https://www.marketsgermany.com/the-abcsofcbd-vaay/