Mercari, The Selling App, today announced the opening of engineering offices in Cambridge, MA, advised by two renowned professors at the adjacent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Mercari is the number-one marketplace in Japan. Since entering the U.S. in 2014, more than 45 million Americans have downloaded the app.

At the moment, Mercari’s team in Cambridge is focused on better understanding sellers and buyers, and predicting their intentions ahead of their actions. This helps Mercari deliver a more personalized experience using its recommendation engine. The team is applying machine learning on massive amounts of data to better personalize the user experience based on their preferences, history and interactions.

More broadly, this team is pursuing applied research projects in machine learning, computer vision and other emerging technologies that can help Mercari to make selling even easier than buying.

“Opening the Mercari engineering offices in Cambridge is an important addition to our global technology centers in Palo Alto and Tokyo,” said Dr. Mok Oh, chief technology officer for Mercari U.S. “The expectations of Mercari sellers and buyers are always evolving, so it’s vital that we harness emerging technologies to continuously improve our app and services.”

Advising the team are Dr. Frédo Durand and Dr. Wojciech Matusik of MIT.

Dr. Frédo Durand is a renowned researcher and professor in computer vision and computational photography. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Dr. Wojciech Matusik is widely-recognized professor and entrepreneur in machine learning, 3D vision, and 3D fabrications. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, where co-directs the Computer Graphics Group and teaches machine learning courses

Mercari is looking for talented people to join its technology teams in Palo Alto and Cambridge. A list of all current U.S. openings is here.

SOURCE Mercari

Chinsay, the leading provider of contract digitalisation solutions in the commodity and freight markets, is announcing today the completion of the first fully digitalised iron ore trade, through a trial achieved in partnership with Rio Tinto and Cargill‘s Metals business on Chinsay’s Intelligent Contract Platform (ICP).

In using ICP, Rio Tinto and Cargill collaborated on a single platform to dramatically reduce the time it takes to create, issue and approve commodity contracts from several days to under two hours. The digitalisation of this fundamental trade process creates the opportunity to automate and deliver post-trade efficiencies by linking front-, middle- and back-office functions.

Colin Hayward, Chinsay CEO, said: “This is a technological milestone for the industry, and we are delighted Rio Tinto and Cargill Metals chose to partner with us and use our ICP as the core technology to create this advance. We are constantly collaborating with clients, market participants, tech vendors and industry consortia to extend digitalisation further along the commodity trade lifecycle.”

“The Intelligent Contract Platform is a great tool that has the potential to benefit the entire ferrous industry,” said Lee Kirk, Managing Director for Cargill’s Metals business. “This is a great example of how we can leverage advancements in technology to benefit from increased speed, transparency and efficiencies that enable us to serve our customers and suppliers better.”

ICP is state-of-the-art technology which allows companies to digitalise pre-trade processes early in the deal lifecycle, creating an agreed contract dataset that can be seamlessly integrated with other operational systems, functions and processes, enabling transparency and traceability across the supply chain.  ICP prepares clients for the use of technologies such as blockchain, ML, AI and electronic trade documentation solutions.

SOURCE Chinsay