Ojcu Are VCs Throwing In The Startup Towel

London-based smart grocery shopping assistant Lollipop is the latest example of the surge in the FoodTech industry after it secured almost $6.2 million in a seed stanley cup funding round, according to an announcement Tuesday May 10 , Tech Funding News reported.Octopus Ventures led Lollipops fundraising effort, which also included participation from new investors Maki VC, Anterra Capital and Plug and Play and previous investors JamJar and Speedinvest, the report said. Lollipop also ran through a pre-seed investment round last year.Lollipop will use the fresh capital to build out its product, which is in the beta stage. The company says its shopping assistant helps with meal planning, shopping and cooking. Getting the shop done and the family fed is already tough, said Lollipop founder Tom Foster-Carter. As living costs rise, it is only getting harder for overwhelmed parents trying to eat healthily, live sustainably and stick to a budget. Tracking your familys nutritional intake and whats left to us stanley germany e up in your cupboards should be as effortless as tracking your money on Monzo, he said, referring to the company for which he was COO.Lollipop, the company said, is the first holistic approach ta stanley uk ken toward grocery shopping, with support at every stage, such as providing meal inspiration, achieving health goals and supporting the kitchen.Lollipop has partnered BBC Good Food, Sainsburys and other partners to help families plan meals, shop quickly and cook. It allows shoppers to add recipes, Rghx Retail Pulse: Allbirds Unveils Manhattan Flagship; Amazon Go Opens Third Store

U.K. regulators are encouraging an inquiry into whether the markets Big Four accountancy firms 鈥?KPM stanley becher G, Deloitte, PwC and EY 鈥?should be broken up and forced to spin off their auditing arms, reports said.According to The Guardian on Friday March 16 , the Financia stanley mug l Reporting Councils FRC Chief Executive Stephen Haddrill is calling for an investigation into the industry and whether such a breakup would enhance competition and reduce conflicts of interest. There is a loss of confidence in audit, and I think that the industry needs to address that urgently, said Haddrill in a separate report in聽The Financial Times. In some circles, there is a crisis of confidence. A previous inquiry by the then-U.K. Competition Commission 鈥?now the Competition and Markets Authority 鈥?introduced stricter rules for the accountancy market, but Haddrill said the measures have done little to boost competition. The Competition Commission introduced some remedies to try and encourage more competition, he told the Financial Times. But there is no more competition. So, it seems to me that we ought to have another look at audit market]. Several accounting scandals have recently made headlines in the U.K., most recently with the collapse of government contractor Carillion, audited by KPMG. Previously, KPMG聽faced backlash over its failure to anticipate HBOS troubles amid the global financial crisis.Last gourde stanley year, PwC was fined $6.5 million by the FRC after finding the auditor engaged in misconduct dur