
Czechs Hold Rates With Price Risks Limiting Room for More Cuts
The Czech central bank held interest rates at the lowest level since 2021 as investors seek signals from policymakers on whether there's room for more policy easing.
The Czech National Bank kept the benchmark rate at 3.5% on Wednesday, as expected by all economists in a Bloomberg survey. The decision followed the stop-and-go pattern applied since December, which brought quarter-point reductions in February and May.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Bloomberg
36 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
The Big Differences Between Stuxnet and the US Airstrikes in Iran
Have a confidential tip for our reporters? Get in Touch Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal


Entrepreneur
an hour ago
- Entrepreneur
Miso Robotics Investment Window Is Open
Miso Robotics has officially entered the commercial era, and investors have a new window to join before scale takes off. Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you'll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. A recent Nasdaq report says, "The robotics industry is poised for unprecedented growth in 2025." As a first-mover in the space, few companies have more robotic know-how than Miso Robotics. Their AI-powered kitchen robot was honed in live kitchens for top brands like White Castle and Jack in the Box. Now, they're officially past the prototype phase and ready to begin scaling production of their recently released new generation of Flippy Fry Station, a robot twice as fast and half as big as before. Its first production run sold out in one week. Considering the fast-food industry is grappling with 144% labor turnover, that should come as no surprise. But it's Miso's entire business model that has people so excited about the company's newly opened investment opportunity (and chance to secure bonus shares). The Fast Food Industry Is in Crisis The $1 trillion U.S. fast food industry is at a breaking point. Operators are sounding alarms on rising labor costs, unprecedented employee turnover, and operational inefficiencies eating away at margins. 98% of operators say rising labor costs are hurting business say rising labor costs are hurting business $8B+ is lost annually across U.S. fast food due to labor inefficiencies, food waste, and slow service across U.S. fast food due to labor inefficiencies, food waste, and slow service Up to $4B of that loss comes from fry station inefficiencies alone Without automation, restaurants are burning money just trying to stay afloat. That's why brands are racing to adopt Flippy. Flippy Fry Station: The Scalable Fix Across more than 200,000 hours in real kitchens, Flippy's early prototypes learned from real-world operations, refining the product, building a massive proprietary data advantage, and mastering the intensity of quick-service restaurants. Now, Miso's first fully commercial robot, Flippy Fry Station, is here. And it's built for mass adoption. Developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and validated by third-party restaurant research leaders like WD Partners and validated by third-party restaurant research leaders like Can boost industry profits by up to $7.6 billion per year per year Can cut fry station labor time by 89% vs. human-operated stations It installs overnight, takes up half the footprint of previous models, and requires very little employee retraining. Just push a button and pick up perfect fries minutes later. This progression sets the stage for Miso's scalable business model to thrive. A Business Model Built to Scale With the newest Flippy Fry Station, Miso is introducing the foundation of a revenue engine built for rapid growth and long-term value. Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS): Restaurants lease Flippy through multi-year contracts that bundle hardware, software, support, and service into a single monthly fee, creating predictable, recurring revenue. Restaurants lease Flippy through multi-year contracts that bundle hardware, software, support, and service into a single monthly fee, creating predictable, recurring revenue. Service & Support: Each deployment includes installation, maintenance, software upgrades, and 24/7 support — strengthening margins and ensuring uptime for customers. Each deployment includes installation, maintenance, software upgrades, and 24/7 support — strengthening margins and ensuring uptime for customers. AI & Data Monetization: Flippy captures proprietary kitchen performance data, fueling future product improvements, predictive AI tools, and licensing opportunities for kitchen optimization and LLM training. Invest in the Future of Fast Food Customers like Jack in the Box and White Castle are already on board, and a new major national QSR partner is currently being finalized. That's part of what makes the company's current investment opportunity so enticing. As restaurants race to cut costs, improve quality, and stay competitive, Miso offers an automation model that grows with the industry and delivers returns as it does. There just so happens to be 100,000+ U.S. fast-food locations, and the race to automate them is underway. With new partners, real-world validation, and scaling in motion, this may be the last chance to join Miso before Flippy Fry Station is all over the country. Invest in Miso Robotics today at $5.22/share today and unlock up to 5% bonus shares. *Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Miso Robotics' Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at


Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Xero Melio Small business payments
POLAND - 2025/01/09: In this photo illustration, the Xero company logo is seen displayed on a ... More smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Piotr Swat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK Cloud accounting leader Xero announced a deal to acquire small business payments platform Melio for $2.5 billion (plus up to $500 million in earn-outs). The acquisition fills a gap in Xero's offerings by integrating accounting and bill payments. The Small Business Accounting Burden Small businesses have a lot of challenges to deal with and managing—and accounting for—money is a major pain for a lot of them. A Cornerstone Advisors study found that: Small businesses' use of technologies and tools for accounting What Melio Brings to Xero Three big strategic benefits Melio brings to Xero include: Bottom line: Xero will be able capture small businesses' payments flow—not just their accounting ledger–a powerful expansion of its fintech ecosystem. The New Competitive Landscape in Embedded Accounting Xero/Melio's path to growth will face stiff competition from Autobooks. Although the Detroit-based firm's primary focus is different than Melio's—accounts receivable vs. account payable, respectively—Autobooks has shown strong growth and momentum in the US small-business fintech space, focused on embedding solutions through banks and credit unions. Autobooks serves 60,000+ SMBs and, in 2024, and processed over $5 billion in payments through more than 500 financial institution partners. Recent developments include a(n): What It Means for Banks and Credit Unions Banks and credit unions take note: the Xero-Melio deal is another sign that fintech platforms are encroaching on traditional banking terrain in small business services. Platforms like Xero and QuickBooks increasingly offer things those small businesses used to rely on banks for—bill payment, cash management dashboards, and access to credit. With Xero embedding Melio, a business owner could handle accounting, pay all their suppliers, and manage receivables all within Xero, with the bank's role in the background reduced to moving funds and holding deposits. For banks and CUs that view fintech platforms as competitors, the pressure is mounting. Fintechs are attracting SMBs by solving pain points banks historically haven't addressed well. Many traditional banks still offer fairly basic online bill pay and siloed accounts, whereas fintech apps provide 'an all-in-one dashboard that combines banking, payments, borrowing and other financial details in a single place' to simplify money management. For banks and credit unions that partner with fintechs, this development has upsides. Melio has been offered as a white-label service via banking partners (e.g., Fiserv's CashFlow Central for community banks). Banks that embed or resell the Xero/Melio bill-pay capabilities can deliver a more seamless experience to their SMB customers without building it from scratch. Bottom line for financial institutions: Accounting/payments platforms are competitors—but they don't have to be. Instead, they can be new distribution channels for reaching small businesses. Banks and credit unions should explore partnerships with platforms like Autobooks and Xero post-Melio to offer joint solutions. For banks that choose to compete head-on, the focus should be on what fintechs can't easily replicate: personalized advice, access to human expertise, and specialized lending. Banks might also invest in their own digital tools like better cash flow forecasting or simple bookkeeping plugins. In any case, ignoring the trend is not an option. As fintech platforms become hubs for small businesses' financial activity, banks and credit unions must adapt or risk disintermediation.