Retail round-up: Online retailer Casper comes to the UK, Apple’s £153m purchase of machine-learning start-up and Burberry’s Pinterest partnership.

Online mattress firm Casper officially enters the UK market

Online mattress specialist Casper has launched in the UK after its success in the US, PR Newswire reported.

The retailer, backed by celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Ashton Kutcher and Adam Levine, reached sales of $100m (£76.49m) in its first full year of business.

Casper co-founder and CEO Philip Krim said, "Our incredible and sustained growth in the first two years has led to significant consumer demand from around the world. We're excited about the opportunity to bring our award-winning customer experience and thoughtful design to the UK.”

-Apple reportedly snaps up machine-learning start-up Turi for £153m

Apple has reportedly acquired Turi, a US-based machine-learning start-up, as the tech firm continues its investment in artificial intelligence.

The quiet deal is said to be valued at around $200m (£153m), according to Geekwire.

Turi, which uses the tagline “create intelligence”, allows developers and data scientists to incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence into their apps.

Its tools mostly use machine learning to help companies to understand data such as sentiment analysis on social media or customer segmentation.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple said in a statement.

Burberry chooses to team with Pinterest to launch new ‘Cat Lashes’ mascara

Burberry has partnered with Pinterest to launch its new ‘Cat Lashes’ mascara, The Drum reported.

The global campaign is set to offer up a personalised experience to customers based on their makeup preferences, allowing them to create their own ‘boards’ on Pinterest and save pictures containing product tips, look guides, how-tos and makeup inspiration.

Sephora and Burberry will also be collaborating on social media content around the campaign.

The first 5000 customers in the US to sign up can request a sample of the Cat Lashes mascara.

Topics