Monthly Archives: February 2021

Splatoon 3 is sending you back into the ink on Nintendo Switch, and it looks like it's finally going to let us see more of the series' strange world.

Nintendo gave Splatoon 3 a surprise reveal as the capstone to its long-awaited Nintendo Direct presentation. The trailer starts with a lone Inkling resting with her pet salmonid smallfry - you can customize both of them, by the way - before they set out on a journey past what very much looks like the Eiffel Tower, flipped over and lodged deep into the ground. It looks kinda rough out there in the country, but they're still able to catch a train into the big city just fine.

There were always some deep lore hints that Splatoon takes place in a post-human version of Earth, and it's cool to see Nintendo embracing more of the setting for this latest installment. On top of teasing more of the world, the trailer confirms that we'll once again face off with rival Inklings in level-painting turf wars - and we'll be able to use new weapons to do it, including an ink-flinging bow and arrow set.

The Splatoon 3 release date is currently set for some time in 2022, so we'll have a while to wait before we can start living our best lives as squid-people teens again. Will there be a new pair of idols to narrate our Splatfests? Will Salmon Run return too, ideally without the weird scheduling? Will there be an even lil'er Judd? Hopefully Nintendo shares more Splatoon 3 details soon.

See what else is on the way with our guide to upcoming Switch games.

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Splatoon 3 is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2022 with a wasteland, salmon pets, and more - Gamesradar

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will meet this week for an Informal Virtual Session of the CBDs 24th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24), with a key agenda item being the post-2020 global biodiversity framework including the targets that will replace the current Aichi Biodiversity targets set for the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

The updated zero draft of the post-2020 framework published in August 2020 currently features a target that directly addresses the issue of wildlife trade, and commits Parties to "ensure that the harvesting, trade and use of wild species of fauna and flora is legal, at sustainable levels and safe" by 2030.

This is the first time since the Conventions entry into force in 1993 that a target specifically addressing wildlife trade is being considered. The current draft also includes a target that recognises the importance of considering the benefits to conservation and humans of sustainable use, with a target urging that "By 2030, ensure benefits, including nutrition, food security, livelihoods, health and well-being, for people, especially for the most vulnerable through sustainable management of wild species of fauna and flora".

TRAFFIC Director of Policy Sabri Zain warmly welcomes the new targets being discussed that are giving increased attention to the issue of sustainable use of biodiversity.

Inclusion of these targets reflects the importance of sustainable use of the components of biodiversity as one of the three goals of the Convention. It also represents the important role that the post-2020 framework will play in addressing the second biggest driver of negative impacts on nature.

Sabri Zain,TRAFFIC Director of Policy

In May 2020, a landmark report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provided overwhelming evidence that nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history, eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide. The report identified the direct exploitation of animal and plant species, including harvesting, hunting, fishing and logging as the second biggest driver of negative impacts on nature, after changes in land and sea use.

It is also important that, beyond these two Targets, Parties consider the other targets in the draft post-framework where it is important to recognise the contribution of sustainable wildlife use to halting the biodiversity loss, Zain added. These include targets related to access to and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, ensuring that biodiversity values are mainstreamed across all sectors; and ensuring production practices and supply chains are sustainable.

We encourage continued attention being given to sustainable use in deliberations on these targets, given its role as a durable and powerful incentive for conservation of wildlife and recognising the crucial contribution that sustainable wildlife management and use makes to the food security, health, income, jobs and well-being of humans, particularly Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

While the attention being given to these targets is welcomed, TRAFFIC believes that the adoption of strong indicators for these targets is essential for measuring progress on the effectiveness of their implementation.

Without robust indicators measuring the progress of effective target implementation, we will be doomed to repeat the results of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5) released last September, which suggests that none of the 20 Aichi biodiversity Targets will be fully met. An effective monitoring mechanism and robust indicators are absolutely essential if the post-2020 framework is to be implemented effectively and will indeed prompt the transformative changes needed to reverse the rapid decline in nature. TRAFFIC stands ready to assist Parties with the relevant research and information needed in order to develop and measure progress on these indicators, Zain added.

For example, conservation of flora species generally receives less attention compared to other areas of wild species use and trade. The FairWild Standard provides a valuable tool to measure progress towards the sustainable use of plant diversity, and is being used by a growing number of companies for products sourced in countries around the world.

TRAFFICs work implementing this standard can be a practical way which we can contribute data to measuring the progress on the conservation of worlds flora, Zain added. The FairWild Standard is recognized by the CBDs Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which on the agenda for discussion at SBSTTA 24.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has also put the spotlight on wildlife and its potential role in the transmission of zoonotic disease, highlighting the intimate link between human, animal and environmental health. A special virtual session was held in December on Biodiversity, One Health and COVID-19 in preparation for SBSTTA 24.

We are happy that Parties are taking this issue seriously and hope discussions this week will consider a balanced approach that will provide a strong role for the post-2020 framework in contributing to global efforts to prevent future outbreaks of zoonotic disease, while strengthening the conservation of wildlife and respecting livelihoods, food security and the culture of diverse groups of people Zain noted.

In October 2020, the members of the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW) published a joint statement setting out guiding principles aimed at reducing the risk of future pandemics originating from wild animals. The CPW is a voluntary partnership of 14 international organisations with substantive mandates and programmes for the sustainable use and conservation of wildlife resources, including the Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as well as NGOs such as TRAFFIC.

The Informal Virtual Session in preparation for SBSTTA 24 will take place during 17 - 19 February 2021 and 24 - 26 February 2021.

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Post-2020 global biodiversity framework must focus on sustainable use, strong indicators and the links with human health - Wildlife Trade News from...

To his critics, Craig Newmark the Craig of Craigslist is one of the tech pioneers who contributed to the financial demise of journalism with the invention of his classified advertising website.

To his supporters, he is the entrepreneur who has shunned serious Silicon Valley wealth to focus his time and money on saving the news industry and fighting disinformation.

Newmark a self-confessed over-thinker (when I tell him I live in Vancouver, Canada, he says: Please watch out for tsunamis!) admits that, for a while at least, he was concerned about what effect Craigslist might have had on journalism finances.

However, in an email exchange and then via a Zoom interview (highlights below), Newmark reveals his conscience is clear and not just because Craig Newmark Philanthropies has donated millions to the journalism industry in recent years.

Im very concerned about jobs for journalists, and the future of local journalism, and had always guessed that Craigslist might have an effect, he says.

[But] in the last two or three years, industry analysts have pointed out that when you take a good look, newspaper revenue began to fall after the introduction of television news in the early fifties [he points to Thomas Baekdals The Updated (and scary) Circulation and Revenue Figures for Newspapers].

They tell me that if Craigslist had an effect, they cant find it. But, regardless of that, Ive chosen to spend lots of resources supporting journalism.

Although Craigslist still bears his name, Newmarks involvement in the website he founded in 1995 is pretty minimal nowadays.

He remained a customer service representative for many years after standing down as chief executive in 2000. But today the 68-year-old has little time for Craigslist in between his 40 hours a week or more of philanthropic work.

Newmark a 1950s nerd who gets his news online and via the radio, rather than in print or on TV has long had an interest in journalism.

He started investing large amounts in trustworthy journalism in 2016 through his foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, which hands out grants to worthy news organisations.

Why start in 2016?

The trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy, he says. And even in my naivety, I could see that the immune system was failing pretty badly.

And instead of limiting or stopping this spread of disinformation, I could see that frequently the press was being gamed into spreading disinformation. And so intuitively I recognised that something was going very badly wrong.

One of the specific issues Newmark identified was the spread of Russian state disinformation. The Russians are not quite as good as they claim they might be, he says. But theyve been very, very busy in the US and Europe and elsewhere, and theyve successfully destabilised governments.

Since 2016, Craig Newmark Philanthropies has awarded grants to ProPublica (whose president, Richard Tofel, was recently interviewed by Press Gazette), City University of New Yorks graduate journalism school (which is now named after Newmark), PEN America, the Poynter Institute and Wikipedia.

Why does Newmark use his money to donate rather than invest in journalism like fellow tech entrepreneursJeff Bezos and Marc Benioff, who own the Washington Post and Time magazine respectively?

My philanthropic model is to find people who are good at their job, and give power to them, in the form of influence and money, he says. Thats better with respect to news ethics, and, they really dont need me to be a pain in the butt.

And which journalism models does he expect to succeed in the future? I think well see a mix of models, with a diminishing role for advertising. My favourite, personally, is membership and subscription models.

Through his Twitter account, Newmark has recently shared several news and opinion articles that are critical of Facebooks handling of disinformation and misinformation. But he is hesitant to share his own opinions or insights too strongly.

For example, asked for his opinion on how tech companies handled the spread of misinformation on social media in 2020, he says: Perhaps they could enforce their terms of service better, and better combat disinformation.

Has Mark Zuckerberg done a good job of managing Facebook through disinformation issues?

I dont really know. And I guess again, do no harm I want to focus on things getting better rather than blame. That seems to be working The only way I get results is by gently nudging and just doing so relentlessly over a long period.

My horizon when it comes to acting is only 20 or 30 years, because Im 68. Im planning for action beyond that timeframe, and Ive started planning the Craigbot.

Whats that?

Mostly a joke. But it does indicate my intention that the actions Im taking now Im considering for the next two centuries.

Im guessing that at the end of two centuries, well either be extinct or post-human, so I dont want to think that far ahead. Because I really cant empathise [with] the needs of a post-human with gills living in the ocean.

Newmark really does appear to be thinking that far ahead.

I dont want to take any special credit for that, he says. The literature of my people you know, the nerds is science fiction. And contemporary science fiction heavily explores issues relating to media.

Back to the present day, does Newmark think social media companies like Facebook can be trusted to tackle the infodemic plaguing their platforms, or is regulatory action required?

Im focusing on this being an all-hands-on-deck situation, he says. Were in this together. My strength is in working with those people, across the US primarily although somewhat in Europe as well, to work together to move things ahead.

That includes people at think tanks, universities, individual researchers, and quietly people at the social media companies, to pull together. My instincts tell me that thats the way to make things happen.

Ill chat with people in government. But my intent is that no matter what people are required to do, its still fighting back against those who wish us harm means that we are all in this together. We do need to work together much like people worked together in World War Two.

Photo credit: Stephanie Canciello, Unali Artists

This article is part of a series running across our sister titles in the Monitor Network and the New Statesman, looking at the backlash against the big tech companies. If you enjoyed this article, you might like:

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Craig Newmark interview: Funding the disinformation fight - Press Gazette

Roaring Kitty, also known as u/DeepFuckingValue on Reddit and Keith Patrick Gill in real life, is now the target of a lawsuit (which you can view below) that claims he manipulated the market to increase GameStops stock price.

The lawsuit claims that he created a fake persona of an investment newbie, while actually having several financial certifications and working for an insurance company. That company, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, is also named as a defendant, with the case saying that it shouldve prevented Gill from talking about the stock.

Gill is well known on the WallStreetBets subreddit, where hes been posting for a year about GameStops stock, its value, and how much he has invested. He would also post hourslong videos on YouTube discussing the stock and why he thought it was undervalued. The videos are absolutely packed with financial jargon and discussion about GameStops business model and position in the market. He was even profiled by The Wall Street Journal as the stock began to soar, which reported that he was set to make tens of millions of dollars from his investment.

But the legal complaint claims that Gills 10 years in the finance and investment industries, along with the financial licenses and qualifications he has, dont square with the amateur, everyday fellow persona he put out on his YouTube channel, Reddit account, and Twitter and that he used that persona to illegally manipulate the market by posting about it to his legion of fans.

However, that legion consisted of around 529 subscribers on YouTube, and 550 followers on Twitter, as of December 25th, 2020, according to Gills written testimony for the House Financial Services Committee, which was also released today. In it, he claims that he was very clear that his advice wasnt meant for most investors, and that he posted his analysis to social media to both share it and receive critiques on it.

Lawyers argue that his financial certifications also made it illegal for him to share claims about stocks that he knows are false or misleading, which the plaintiff claims he did.

The complaint also tries to paint Gill as something of a mastermind, claiming he personally incited a market frenzy on Reddit and actively recruited traders on YouTube and Twitter as part of a plan to profit while damaging others finances in the process. The plaintiff claims they lost money in the case after the stocks value shot up, allegedly due to Gills manipulation.

Even the plain clothing he wore in videos was part of Gills scheme to defraud, lawyers suggest.

Gill is slated to speak at a congressional hearing about GameStop trading on February 18th, along with the CEOs of Reddit and Robinhood. The hearing aims to determine if there was market manipulation involved in the rapid rise and fall of the GME stock. In his statements, which were released before the hearing, Gill claims that he did not belong to any groups trying to create movements in the stock price.

The plaintiff in the case hopes to turn it into a class action suit, and the law firm behind it, Hagens Berman, has set up a page for investors to send in their complaints. The firm has had success with class actions in the past; its won notable settlements from Apple, Visa-Mastercard, and Volkswagen.

Update February 17th, 4:13PM ET: Added statements from Gills written testimony, which was released before the hearing.

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Reddits lead GameStop hypebeast is being sued for his role in the stock surge - The Verge

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Mediatonics charming platformer battle royale title, is coming to Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One this summer, Microsoft announced in a blog post today. The news comes just one day after Mediatonic announced that the game was going to be ported to the Nintendo Switch sometime this summer as well. While no firm release date has been announced, both ports will likely launch within the same time frame.

Fall Guys originally released in 2020 on PC via Steam and PS4, where it was a free title for users with an active PlayStation Plus subscription. The game mixes battle royale with the platformer genre, where players compete in elimination-type challenges. The title draws inspiration from competitive game shows like Wipeout.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is currently available on PC and PS4 and is backward compatible on PS5. Fall Guys also received a mobile version, but it is only available in China.

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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is coming to Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One - The Verge

Nasscom chairman UB Pravin Rao

By Srinath Srinivasan

As the financial year 2020-2021 comes to an end, Indian tech industry has a lot going for it. The resiliency shown by both large technology firms and startups have made India one of the strongest digital markets despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The current quarter and the new year ahead present a host of opportunities for Indian tech industry.

According to a recent Nasscom report, Indian IT services revenue is set to touch $194 billion by end of FY 20-21, a 2.3% increase from the previous year. The commentary from the Indian IT giants, post their Q3 FY21 results, were all positive as they closed large deals and estimated a strong Q4.

For instance, Infosys raised its revenue guidance to 4.5-5% in constant currency terms from the earlier estimated number of 2-3%. When it comes to startups, Nasscom has earlier reported that more startups are raising their first round of funding in 2020 (nearly 42%) as compared to 2019 (around 29%). The first-time funded startups were in BFSI, ed-tech, agri-tech and gaming. In 2020, despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, over 12 unicorns were added to India Inc, as reported by Nasscom in its report.

As far as the large global brands in the IT industry in India, digital transformation will set the tone for the decade ahead. In one of the CEO surveys conducted by Nasscom with 100 key CEOs in the tech industry, it was found that 97% CEOs expect the global economic growth to be better than 2020, 71% CEOs expect global technology spend to be significantly higher than 2020 and 67% expect Indian tech industry to grow significantly higher than 2020. Says Nasscom chairman UB Pravin Rao, Our CEO survey for 2021 indicates almost 70% firms expect investment in global technology higher than the previous year.

The main driver behind this is the need for digital transformation. While the large IT services brands continue to bag large deals abroad, startups in India have opportunities within the country as well by working closely with large companies and by offering services/ products to MSMEs. For instance, the demand for deep-tech startups and their services is increasing. In the last five years, 2100 deep-tech startups have come up focused on specific technologies.

Nasscom estimates that this pool is expanding at 5-Year CAGR of 41%, faster than overall ecosystem growth rate. AI, IoT, Big Data, Blockchain, AR/VR and 3D printing are some of the technologies that the startups specialise in. Fintech and health tech startups saw a surge in the demand for their services such as digital contactless payments and telemedicine. Similarly, retail tech startups benefited from the demand for e-commerce, digital payments from the small businesses and kirana stores. According to Paynearby, since the back-to-back lockdowns in 2020, around 30,000-40,000 kirana stores are being added every month onto its platform. It expects this trend to grow in the period ahead.

In this hyper-digital economy, trust with the four cornerstones of competence, reliability, integrity, and empathy, will be the single-most-important currency, leading the industry growth towards a better normal, says Rao.

The focus of technology will become more experience centric. Salil Parekh, MD and CEO, Infosys, at the Q3 FY21 results announcement, said the company will focus on keeping the momentum going by delivering on client centric strategies. The CEO survey also mentions an estimate of nearly ~20% increase in tech spending on digitising the core, enhancing customer experience and redesigning product portfolios. The survey mentions that 60% CEOs expect larger digitisation deals and recovery of investments in core markets such as BFSI, manufacturing and retail.

New-age digital skills will be priority for talent in large IT firms as well as growing startups, especially in the areas of blockchain, AI, IoT, security, AR/VR and data analytics. Nasscom predicts that digital skills demand will outstrip supply by FY24. Encouraging tech and domain specific professional skills among the talent will be priority in the next decade for making India a talent nation, says Debjani Ghosh, president, Nasscom.

KEY PRIORITIES FOR INDIAN ITBuild digital talent, make India a talent nationGet used to a hybrid working modelAccelerate new markets in India and abroad, form new partnershipsIncrease spend on cybersecurity, threat awarenessBecome more customer-centric, improve customer experience in products and services

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Tech industry leading Indias recovery post Covid - The Financial Express

To state the blindingly obvious, the chief economist of the Bank of England, Andrew Haldane, is an intelligent man. No boilerplate praise, this: his speeches on subjects as varied as how to reform economics and the importance of the voluntary sector have been model interventions both serious and ever-so-slightly subversive. Yet when Mr Haldane writes a newspaper op-ed that claims the post-Covid economy is poised like a coiled spring, as he did last week, he risks looking not only silly but, worse, choking the debate over the future of the UK.

To be sure, his argument rests on firm logic. Many workers have spent the past year still employed but with few outlets to spend their incomes, so have built up around 125bn in household savings. Get those jabs, fling open the pubs, allow the football terraces to fill and let the good economic times roll! And indeed the recent economic news from the UK and elsewhere has been better than hoped.

Yet this is not your normal recession. Too much rests on factors completely out of the hands of chief executives, finance ministers and, yes, central bankers. Mr Haldane has already sat this class. Last summer, he forecast the UK would swiftly rebound from its lows, in a recovery shaped like a V. Not long after, the country went into its second lockdown. That V turned into, at best, a W. The unknowns about this virus, its mutations and their propensity to spread suggest a need for caution and openness to a wide range of outcomes, rather than tabloid tiggerishness.

Take the most recent unemployment reports, which suggest wages are rising strongly even as joblessness goes up. Sounds like good news while also making zero sense. Another explanation might be that low-paid workers are dropping out of the labour market, skewing the data towards high earners. That would be terrible news, but we cant be sure either way. Or look at the latest study from University College London, showing that this pandemic and its lockdowns have left Britons feeling glum. No surprise there, except the usual life-satisfaction score is 7.7 out of 10, while it is now around 5.5 a worryingly large drop. Some may come bouncing out of lockdown ready to socialise, but others may feel lasting isolation.

The economic establishment has got it badly wrong in the quite recent past. In 2010, as George Osborne began cutting spending, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted the UK would soon return to the levels of productivity it enjoyed before the crash. This was an important projection from the body relied upon by the Treasury. The rebound didnt happen but, undaunted, the OBR saw it coming just a little later. When it still didnt turn up, the OBR pushed the recovery further back. Again: nothing. This happened 17 times before the OBR published a mea culpa. Far too late, it was tacitly accepted that austerity had killed productivity. As the former Bank of England rate setter David Blanchflower writes in Not Working: The elites got it wrong but took no responsibility Nobody fired the forecasters.

Today, just as the new US government turns against austerity, key economic policymakers in the UK are preparing for a big retrenchment in spending. Overconfident projections such as Mr Haldanes only encourage that outcome. And consider the recovery that even this self-confessed optimist promises: the well-off spending like billy-o, while the less fortunate face unemployment or struggle with the fallout from a lack of schooling and badly squeezed public services. No lessons learned from the Oxford vaccine of the value of developing an industrial base that can build on cutting-edge research. Is this the best we can do?

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The Guardian view on economic predictions: no time to bank on a recovery - The Guardian

A POST office worker drove over a man who a witness mistakenly thought was a discarded black bin bag.

William Hicks, 39, struck Brian Shields who was lying on the road having earlier fallen off his bike.

Mr Shields ended up in hospital for three weeks after suffering a serious back injury.

READ MORE:Woman caught smuggling cocaine into Barlinnie prison

Hicks has been fined 715 after he admitted to careless driving in connection with the incident in Glasgow's Fulton Street in Anniesland on February 6 2019.

Hicks was on his way to work in his black Volvo at the time.

Prosecutor Mark Allan told Glasgow Sheriff Court: He failed to see Mr Shields lying on the road and drove over him.

Mr Shields body passed underneath Hicks' car. He then stopped after the collision.

Hicks alerted police before the victim - who had been drinking that day - was taken to hospital.

Mr Allan said: He sustained a number of fractures on his vertebrae, bruised ribs and cuts and was released from hospital after 20 days.

The court was told Hicks, of the city's Knightswood, was a first offender.

READ MORE:Thief was caught on CCTV raiding neighbour's house near Glasgow

His lawyer Paul Nelson said: "The driver on the opposite side of the road suspected Mr Shields was a black bin bag, but it turned out to be a person.

"No one thought that it was a human being."

Sheriff Alan MacKenzie also put eight points on Hicks' licence.

He told him: There was someone on the road and you drove over that person.

I recognise that it was not obvious to you or anyone there that day that he was a human being.

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'No one thought that it was a human being': Post office worker drove over man in Glasgow - Glasgow Times

Gravy, a startup helping subscription-based businesses recover failed payments, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding for its specialized combination of technology and a human workspace that works to reacquire customers lost to whats known as involuntary churn. That means the customer didnt choose to end their subscription, but for any one of hundreds of possible reasons their credit card payment failed.

Typically, subscription-powered businesses attempt to correct this issue with technology like sending automated emails, for example. Gravy, however, has developed a different solution that pairs its U.S.-based retention specialists with technology that alerts them to the failed payments. It then sells this whole system as a package to clients who use Gravy as an extension of their own workforce.

The new funding round Gravys first institutional money was led by Birmingham-based Arlington Family Partners, one of the few family offices in the southeast. Its also one with a personal connection to Gravy co-founders, CEO Casey Graham and Chief of Staff, Renee Weber, as it managed their earnings from a prior acquisition.

Gravy, in fact, actually got its start at that earlier business, The Rocket Company, a coaching and resource provider for churches, which exited to a private equity group, Ministry Brands.

We spent two years fixing [the problem of failed payments] in the last company and created a tech-enabled solution where we leveraged actual human beings to win back failed payments for subscriptions. And by doing that, we got a 5x offer higher than the initial offer because we fixed the failed payment problem, Graham notes.

He first assumed other subscription businesses were doing the same, but later discovered that many were not. Instead, they tended to use automated means to address the problem, which would only recoup about 15% to 20% of the failed payments.

These tech-only solutions dont work as well because customers often dismiss automated emails from companies, Graham says. However, customers do respond to personal outreach but thats something many new and fast-growing businesses cant afford as theyre investing more heavily in growth and scale.

Gravy offers them a middle ground between automation and hiring in-house. Companies contract with Gravy on a subscription basis by paying a flat fee, tiered based upon transaction volume. This fee ranges from $997 on the low end to $8,000 on the high end. Gravy then integrates with the clients own payment products and processor, their subscription manager and any other solutions they may use for managing subscriptions like Stripe, Braintree, Recurly, Keap (Infusionsoft) and others. It even sets up a Gravy channel on the companys Slack in order to better communicate with company staff.

The end result is that Gravys team feels like a part of the business itself, not some contract workforce.

Once established, Gravys team will use email and text, per the clients preferences, to personally reach out to customers with failed payments to try to get their card information updated. Because its operating closely with the client, the specialists can also offer things like stay bonuses and other deals that could help bring back a customer who may not have otherwise bothered to return. During COVID, for example, Gravy also offered additional options, like the ability for the customer to skip several months along with other more personalized options to meet the customers specific needs.

When were onboarding [a client], we create an empathetic script of three different responses, or opportunities for us to negotiate with the customer to win that customer back, Graham explains.This works because of the human component people know when theyre talking to a real person and not an automated script, he says.

Image Credits: Gravy

Since its founding in 2017, Gravy has scaled to over 300 clients, whose businesses may be as small as $200,000-$250,000 in revenue up to $100 million in annual revenue from subscriptions. These clients either operate in the B2B space like B2B content subscriptions or tech education and certification, for example or in the B2C space. In particular, Gravy is leveraged by a number of box subscription services (which offer to ship a box of products to a customers home) and B2C education and online courses.

To date, Gravy has processed over 6 million failed payments and has won back $175 million in failed payment subscriptions. The company is now on a mission to return $1 billion in failed payments by 2023. Gravy is also expected to pass $1 million in MRR this year, Graham says.

Notably, Gravys retention specialists arent gig workers or contractors theyre full-time employees with benefits. And they can be employed from anywhere, which Graham says is a competitive advantage.

Though technically an Atlanta-area startup, Graham and Weber live 50 miles north of downtown Atlanta.

I live on a farm, and we were told we were at a disadvantage because we werent in the middle of the Atlanta tech scene, Graham says. But the reality is, it became a huge advantage for us because our strategy has been to recruit the best people in small towns across the United States. Besides, he adds, Slack is our headquarters.

This strategy has allowed Gravy to also employ several military family members, who often have a hard time finding consistent work because they have to move regularly. That leads them to often take gig work instead of full-time jobs.

Image Credits: Gravy

The gig economy those companies are not committed to those people. They dont care about them, or if they work or not. Its a gig, Graham says. Gravy is committed to them on salaries, benefits thats something were super proud of. He says Gravys salaries start at $55,000.

With the new funding, Gravy plans to expand its team of 83 to about 150 by year-end, expand its client acquisition efforts and further invest into its product. Longer term, he believes Gravy could also help businesses with other needs, including voluntary churn, for starters, and even customer service and customer success in the future.

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Gravy raises $4.5M for its service that helps subscription businesses recover failed payments - TechCrunch

Producing garments with timeless appeal is only one part of Fast Retailings mission. The parent company of Uniqlo, J Brand, Theory and six more brands, recently released its 2021 sustainability report documenting 20 years of environmentally focused milestones.

The need for transparency was even greater as a result of the global pandemic, which made many re-examine their commitments to the people and planet.

Considering its scaleUniqlo alone is the second-largest retailer in the world, according to data provided by retail data and analytics firm EditedFast Retailing understands it has an incredible responsibility to lead sustainably.

How are we going to leave behind a positive world for the next generation? What kind of economic activity will create a path to a positive world? Tadashi Yanai, chairman, president and CEO of the Fast Retailing Group, stated in the report. We must think wholeheartedly about these questions and act. With our latest sustainability report, we hope to reaffirm our commitment to be the kind of business that finds and implements answers to such questions.

Despite the unexpected events of 2020, the company didnt hold back on making new sustainability commitments or innovating its products. Last year, the company signed the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, an initiative formed by fashion stakeholders to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World Index, and recognized as a water security A List company by CDP.

Uniqlo, a brand known for mainstreaming textile technologies like its moisture-wicking DRY-EX fabric worn by athletes and its water-saving BlueCycle finishing process, was the source for many of these environmental wins. In November, the company debuted the Uniqlo Recycled Down Jacket, the first product born from the brands recycling program, which has collected and donated gently worn Uniqlo clothing to people in need since 2006.

Uniqlo recently evolved this program to include product-to-product recycling, thanks in part to new technology that extracts down and feathers efficiently. The jacket is completely filled with reclaimed down and feathers taken from 620,000 pieces of down products collected in Japan since the start of 2019.

The brand also increased its use of recycled polyester from post-consumer PET bottles. Recycled polyester comprises 32-75 percent of the high-performance, quick-drying DRY-EX Polo Shirt, and 30 percent of the Fluffy Yarn Fleece Full-Zip Jacket and Fluffy Yarn Fleece Pullover Shirt.

At Fast Retailings Jeans Innovation Center (JIC) in Los Angeles, the company reports that it has managed to reduce water consumption by up to 99 percent in the finishing processand it plans to promote this technology across all of its brands.

The new method requires just a fraction of the water we previously used, without compromising product quality. We do this by using special washing machines with ozone gas cleaning and nano-bubble cleaning functions. In addition, the introduction of eco-stoneslong-lasting, artificial stones that do not wear downhas eliminated the need for crushed natural stones and reduced the amount of water required for cleaning, the report states.

J Brand garnered attention in 2020 when it was announced that Fast Retailing would eliminate the premium denim brands wholesale business, but it also made headway in traceability. Last year, the brand launched a mid-rise super skinny style, which features traceable cotton and recycled polyester and is produced with water-saving technology in the finishing process.

In 2001, Fast Retailing formed its Social Contribution Office to focus on supporting its communities. Since then, it has launched a clothing donation program to support refugee camps and victims of natural disasters around the world, and developed initiatives to improve work environments and protect workers throughout its supply chain.

It established human rights initiatives in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and created a committee that ensures the policies are being followed.

In 2020, the company conducted training for 489 factories in 22 countries and regions to ensure that partner factories understand the Code of Conduct and the latest labor standards.

It also has initiatives in place to make sure there are equal opportunities for women, refugees, members of the LGBTQI+ community and those with disabilities. Currently, more than 1,000 employees with disabilities work at Uniqlo and GU stores around the world, and as of August 2020, women made up 39.2 percent of total management positions within the Fast Retailing Group, and 121 refugees were working at Uniqlo stores all over the world.

Fast Retailing was one of many throughout the industry to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. It donated a total of 16.73 million masks and 1.43 million isolation gowns to clinical workers around the world, and made monetary and other donations in 26 countries and regions.

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Fast Retailing's New Report Tracks 20 Years of Sustainability - Sourcing Journal