Kate Harden-England

🤖 Vayu Robotics, founded in 2020 and having raised $12.7 million, launched the first on-road Delivery Robot using AI and passive sensors, eliminating costly lidar. The robot can carry 100 lbs at under 20mph, navigating autonomously without pre-mapping. Vayu recently signed a deal to deploy 2500 robots for a major e-commerce company, aiming to revolutionize goods transport and expand into other robotic forms.

🚀 Ashu Singhal, FREENOW’s chief product and technology officer, commits to enhancing urban mobility in Europe. Partnering with Incognia, they aim to bolster platform trust, focusing on fraud prevention without customer friction. Incognia's CEO André Ferraz emphasizes this collaboration's role in FREENOW's secure service delivery and customer satisfaction growth.

💸 Priceline and Cover Genius have partnered to offer enhanced travel protection for flights, hotels, rental cars, and packages. Cover Genius' XCover platform integration allows Priceline’s North American customers to access policy details, support, and instant payments for approved claims. The collaboration aims to improve insurance experiences and has already increased insurance attach rates for Priceline. XCover Protection is currently available to Priceline customers in the United States and Canada.

💳 French bank BNP Paribas and Chinese FinTech Ant International signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 3, 2024, in Zurich to enhance cross-border payment solutions in Europe. The partnership focuses on integrating BNP Paribas' acquiring service with Alipay+, enabling acceptance of payments from over 25 international mobile partners. Ant International's WorldFirst will increase its SEPA scheme participation, backed by BNP Paribas sponsorship, to streamline online payments within the SEPA Zone. Additionally, the collaboration will explore tokenised deposits for global treasury management using Ant International's Whale platform, incorporating blockchain and AI. The partnership builds on a relationship initiated in 2016 with the rollout of Alipay+ in Europe.

✈ Sabre Corporation launched Air Canada's full content via NDC in its travel marketplace, enabling travel agents to shop, book, and service Air Canada offers alongside other content. NDC is available in multiple markets, including Canada, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, and several European and Middle Eastern countries. Air Canada's EVP Mark Nasr emphasized the importance of travel trade partners and a smooth transition to NDC. Sabre VP Kathy Morgan highlighted the benefits of their technology in maintaining operational efficiency and workflow integrity for travel agencies.