🚀Robotics is ditching GPS, crypto's back in the funding spotlight, and OpenAI just gave ChatGPT eight personalities. Meanwhile, PepsiCo thinks minimalist Doritos will save snack culture.
Industry moves
Autonomous robotics startup Exwayz raises €1M to solve localisation challenges beyond GPS
Delivery robots, autonomous trucks, and warehouse machines still struggle in complex environments like ports, factories, tunnels, and dense urban areas where GPS signals drop or bounce. Exwayz, founded in 2021 by Hassan Bouchiba (CEO), Mathias Corsia (CTO), and Antoine Plat (COO), develops 3D perception and navigation software for autonomous systems.
What they built: Exwayz SLAM technology — a real-time mapping and localisation system that works with any LiDAR-equipped robot, delivering GPS-free, centimetre-level accuracy validated across thousands of operating hours on commercial robot fleets.
Why this matters: GPS dependency is a bottleneck for autonomous systems. When robots can navigate accurately without GPS, they can operate in environments that were previously impossible: underground tunnels, dense warehouses, indoor facilities. That unlocks entirely new use cases.
Oleksandr Koshytskyi, Lead Designer at Lazarev.agency: "Localisation without GPS is an infrastructure play. Once solved, it enables autonomous systems in every environment where GPS fails. For product teams building robotics UX, this means designing interfaces that work when connectivity is unreliable. Your navigation UI can't assume constant signal anymore."
AKA Foods grabs $17.2M to launch AI platform transforming food innovation
AKA Foods secured $17.2 million in seed funding led by AI specialists Alex and Michael Bronstein, enabling the official launch of AKA Studio — a platform that accelerates product formulation and optimization from years to weeks, improving productivity and profitability for food companies.
The opportunity: Food innovation has been stuck in analog workflows for decades. AI can model ingredient chemistry, predict taste profiles, and suggest optimizations without physical prototyping every iteration. If AKA Studio delivers on its promise, it could reshape how food companies bring products to market.
Kyrylo Lazariev, CEO and Founder at Lazarev.agency, an AI UX design agency: "Food innovation is ripe for AI disruption because it's traditionally been slow, expensive, and reliant on trial and error. If AKA Studio can reliably compress timelines without sacrificing quality, it changes the economics of the entire industry. But the UX challenge is making complex chemistry feel accessible to food scientists who aren't AI experts."
UK's fastest-growing fintech unicorn Zilch snaps $175M to redefine commerce with AI payments
Zilch, a UK-based fintech rapidly expanding across Europe, secured $175 million in a funding round led by KKCG, including an expanded credit facility from Deutsche Bank and participation from BNF Capital. Founded in 2018 and launched in 2020, Zilch's vision is to dismantle the costly and opaque consumer credit system by rewarding customers based on the value they create for retailers.
Why this matters: Consumer credit is still dominated by high fees and confusing terms. Zilch's approach, tying rewards to actual value creation, is a more user-aligned model. If it scales, it could force legacy credit providers to rethink their fee structures.
Danylo Dubrovsky, Senior UX/UI designer at Lazarev.agency: "Fintech wins when it removes friction and confusion. Traditional credit is opaque by design — fees hidden, terms complicated. Zilch's transparency is the UX advantage. If users understand exactly what they're paying and why, trust goes up. That's how you convert users in a crowded fintech market."
Top funding rounds
This week saw two $500 million rounds tied for the top spot: crypto unicorn Ripple and AI-enabled parking provider Metropolis. Multiple large biotech, cybersecurity, and enterprise software rounds followed.
Top 10 rounds:
- (tied) Ripple – $500M, cryptocurrency (San Francisco, $40B valuation, led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities)
- Metropolis – $500M, AI-powered parking (Los Angeles, $5B valuation, $1.6B total with debt, led by LionTree with $1.1B term loan from JP Morgan)
- Armis – $435M, cybersecurity (San Francisco, $6.1B valuation, pre-IPO round led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity)
- Synchron – $200M, neurotech (New York, brain-computer interface for paralysis, led by Double Point Ventures)
- Hippocratic AI – $126M, healthcare AI (Palo Alto, $3.4B valuation, led by Avenir)
- MoEngage – $100M, marketing automation (AI-enabled customer engagement, led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and A91 Partners)
- Infravision – $91M, aerial robotics (Austin, power line maintenance, led by GIC)
- Reevo – $80M, AI go-to-market tools (Santa Clara, co-led by Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins)
- Neok Bio – $75M, biotech (Palo Alto, antibody drug conjugates for cancer, backed by ABL Bio)
- Azalea Therapeutics – $65M, genomic medicines (Berkeley, emerged from stealth, led by Third Rock Ventures)
Crypto's back in big funding rounds, AI is everywhere (parking, healthcare, go-to-market tools), and biotech continues attracting serious capital. Neurotech's gaining traction with Synchron's $200M raise focused on brain-computer interfaces.
Kyrylo Lazariev, CEO and Founder at Lazarev.agency: "When AI-powered parking raises the same amount as a crypto unicorn, you know AI's eating every vertical. The winners in every category will be the ones who make complex tech invisible to users."
Product reality check
OpenAI launches GPT-5.1 with new personalities and two modes
OpenAI rolled out GPT-5.1 – two upgraded GPT-5 variants (Instant and Thinking) designed to be warmer, more conversational, and easier to customize. The update introduces eight personality presets, finer style controls, and adaptive reasoning that allocates "thinking time" based on task complexity.
Why it matters: Making AI feel more human and adaptable increases adoption. But personality presets raise questions – are users getting consistent outputs, or does personalization create reliability issues? The balance between customization and consistency is tricky.
Oleksandr Koshytskyi, Lead Designer at Lazarev.agency, an AI product design agency: "Personality presets are smart UX. Most users want AI to match their workflow tone immediately. But the risk is fragmentation. If different personalities give different quality outputs, users will waste time testing which preset works best. Consistency still beats customization in professional use cases."
TikTok launches holiday hub to assist with Christmas campaigns
TikTok published a new holiday marketing guide as part of its holiday hub, which includes tips and pointers to optimize TikTok ads this season. The hub includes guides for TikTok sellers and various learning resources.
The reality: Every platform releases a holiday marketing guide. TikTok's differentiator is that its users discover products organically through content.
Facebook adds AI tools to Marketplace
Facebook announced new updates for Marketplace designed to make shopping user listings easier, including item collections, collaborative messaging, AI suggestions for queries, and more. The updates could create headaches for sellers, who now have to contend with AI expertise on their second-hand item listings.
Kyrylo Lazariev, CEO and Founder at Lazarev.agency: "AI tools in marketplaces need to assist. If Facebook's AI starts telling sellers their listing is wrong or buyers that a price is inflated, it disrupts the peer-to-peer trust that makes Marketplace work. The line between helpful and intrusive is thin, and Facebook has a history of crossing it."
TikTok officially launches its Bulletin Boards feature
TikTok officially announced the launch of its broadcast messaging "Bulletin Boards" option for creators, providing another way to engage with audiences. It's been available on some profiles for a few months, but now it's rolling out widely.
Why creators might use it: It gives them a direct line to engaged followers without relying on algorithmic feeds. For updates, announcements, or exclusive content, it's a more reliable communication channel than hoping posts get seen.
Oleksandr Koshytskyi, Lead Designer at Lazarev.agency: "Bulletin Boards solve the discoverability problem for creators who've already built an audience. Algorithmic feeds bury even popular creators' content sometimes. A direct broadcast channel ensures your core followers see important updates. It's a smart retention tool, but only if creators use it sparingly. Overuse turns it into spam."
Design wins
Lazarev.agency transforms Blockbeat
Isaac Horowitz, founder of Blockbeat, envisioned creating the ultimate crypto news aggregator and terminal. His aim was to provide traders with the insights and tools needed to confidently navigate the dynamic crypto market. He approached Lazarev.agency, an AI design agency, with screen designs, seeking assistance in enhancing the user experience with a focus on user-centricity.
The challenge: Crypto markets generate massive volumes of financial data and news content. Traders need to process information quickly, but overwhelming interfaces slow decision-making.
Our approach: We maintained a focus on structuring the substantial volume of data and news to ensure ease of comprehension, even for enthusiasts. Our UX designers introduced a well-crafted block layout and incorporated visualizations with visual accents to guide attention and reduce cognitive load.
The result: A terminal that delivers real-time insights without overwhelming users – clarity in chaos.
Danylo Dubrovsky, Senior UX/UI designer at Lazarev.agency: "Crypto traders operate under time pressure. Every second counts. We designed Blockbeat to surface critical information instantly while keeping secondary data accessible but not distracting. The visual hierarchy had to be ruthless, what matters most is always in focus."
Singapore's ArtScience Museum launch their new identity
Singapore's ArtScience Museum, famous for its lotus-shaped building at Marina Bay Sands, unveiled a brand-new identity ahead of its 15th anniversary. Since opening in 2011, the venue has hosted world-class exhibitions spanning Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dalí, TeamLab, big data, particle physics, paleontology, and space exploration.
The rebrand: Timed to coincide with a major exhibition called "Another World Is Possible," the rebrand is more than cosmetic. It's a statement about the role museums can play in shaping the future.
Kyrylo Lazariev, CEO and Founder at Lazarev.agency: "Rebranding a museum is tricky because you're balancing heritage with innovation. ArtScience Museum's rebrand works because it amplifies their mission. When a rebrand strengthens identity instead of diluting it, it resonates."
PepsiCo is betting on minimalist design with Simply NKD Doritos
PepsiCo is giving Doritos and Cheetos a minimalist makeover with the launch of the Simply NKD line. These stripped-back, dye-free versions come in plain white packaging and promise "no artificial flavours or colours."
The strategy: Minimalism signals purity and transparency. PepsiCo's betting that consumers want simpler ingredients and packaging that reflects that simplicity.
Oleksandr Koshytskyi, Lead Designer at Lazarev.agency: "Minimalist packaging is a bold bet in snack aisles dominated by visual noise. It works if the product delivers on the promise – cleaner ingredients, better taste. But if it's just repackaging the same product with white bags, consumers see through it fast. Minimalism only works when substance matches style."
This week's reality check
UI design principles: key rules behind interfaces that win customers
Every founder wants a sleek website or app. But success boils down to how predictable your product is. Most assume user interface design is about making things "look good." Yet the interfaces that drive conversions, retention, and trust behave exactly how users expect them to.
That's where UI design principles come in. They're the invisible scaffolding that makes digital products feel natural, effortless, and reliable. Ignore them, and your product looks like a maze.
Key takeaways:
- UI design principles aren't cosmetic. They drive conversions, retention, and trust.
- Seven core rules matter most: Clarity, familiarity, user control, visual hierarchy, consistency, simplicity, and real-time feedback.
- Business growth is tied to design discipline. Strong UI cuts drop-offs, speeds up onboarding, and raises conversions.
- A usable interface is invisible. Done right, users don't notice the design.
Kyrylo Lazariev, CEO and Founder at Lazarev.agency: "The best UI is the one users never think about. When design is predictable, users move through flows effortlessly. When it's unpredictable, they stop, question, and leave. Every abandoned cart, every incomplete onboarding, every confused click is a UI principle violation. Fix the principles, fix the conversion rate."
How to turn UX audit findings into product wins
Teams usually ask for a UX audit to fix what slows users down. This guide unpacks the deliverables that matter, shows how we rank issues by impact, and outlines a 30/90/180-day plan.
Case study: The project management platform GoPingu's audit by Lazarev.agency gave concrete evidence: inconsistent UI controls, missing alerts, and dozens of small fixes that, together, improve critical user flows and satisfaction.
Key takeaways:
- A strong UX audit process yields a compact executive summary, an annotated report, and a prioritized backlog tied to metrics.
- Fixing how users interact with core flows beats adding features. Notifications, dialogs/snackbars, and consistent UI states reduce effort and errors.
- Treat every recommendation as a hypothesis backed by qualitative and quantitative data from analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics) and usability audits.
- A well-sequenced 30/90/180-day plan converts audit insights into UX improvements that lift activation and retention.
Oleksandr Koshytskyi, Lead Designer at Lazarev.agency: "UX audits fail when they're just lists of problems. GoPingu's audit worked because we prioritized business impact and user pain. We sequenced fixes into quick wins (30 days), medium-term improvements (90 days), and strategic overhauls (180 days). That's how you turn findings into shipped improvements instead of ignored documents."
What's coming next week
More funding rounds, more AI features nobody asked for, and probably another rebrand that sparks debate. We'll separate the signal from the spectacle as always.
🔥 Stay sharp. Stay with Lazarev.agency, your AI UX design agency.
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