Evening Read: Investors sit on record levels of dry powder, says Silicon Valley Bank’s UK boss May 12, 2021 In recent months we have glimpsed potential opportunities for the post-Covid economy: the huge acceleration in technology adoption, both corporate and personal. And that’s good news for London’s technology and innovation space. But to get startups’ ambitious growth plans off the ground and put the pandemic recovery into motion, sources of capital are needed: financing [...]
Curve follows Series C with crowdfunding round to pursue global expansion May 11, 2021 London fintech Curve has launched a new crowdfunding campaign five months after closing its £72.5m Series C round. Founded in 2015, the company allows users to consolidate all their credit and debit cards into one smart card and app and now boasts more than 2m customers. Its Crowdcube campaign is set to go live later [...]
Exclusive: The City’s hunger for success and willingness to push boundaries is infectious, says tech guru May 10, 2021 Since the start of the pandemic, the entire economy and its workforce have moved online, with technology and digital tools keeping many businesses going. Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult, a digital technology innovation firm based in Camden Town, has helped UK businesses small and large and across various industries to be more competitive online [...]
AI is growing: How do we create fair technology we can trust in, and minimise the risks of gender bias? May 7, 2021 | City Talk This year marks 20 years since Spielberg’s sci-fi / drama movie came to our screens: A.I. Artificial Intelligence – and in 2021, AI is no longer the work of science fiction. In the last 20 years, AI uses have been explored for human benefits in numerous industries. AI has played a key role in developing vaccines against [...]
Travel finance start-up raises £10m to build up US operations May 5, 2021 A new fintech firm offering users the chance to split the cost of travel over 12 months has raised another £10m in funding, it was announced today. Start-up Fly Now Pay Later has now raised a total of £45m in funding following the close of its latest round, co-led by asset management firms Revenio Capital and [...]
Exclusive: A heavy metal drummer working to infuse rhythmic harmony into the payments space May 3, 2021 Meet Tom Cregan, a heavy metal drummer and martial arts enthusiast who is on a mission to infuse rhythmic harmony into the world of global payments. The managing director and CEO of digital payments giant EML’s favourite part of any day as chief executive is, what he calls, finding a ”1+1=5 moment” by thinking and [...]
Darktrace races out of the blocks: A boost for London’s IPO market after Deliveroo’s flop April 30, 2021 In a welcome boost for the London IPO market after the Deliveroo flop, UK cybersecurity company Darktrace launched this morning well above its initial price of 250p per share, jumping sharply to 350p in opening trade. There were early indications that the initial valuation might be higher than this, at around £3bn, however it appears that [...]
Pandemic-resilient companies employ higher-paid, higher educated staff April 26, 2021 Companies that coped better through the pandemic were more likely to employ people who were paid better, had higher education and were born in Poland or India. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that workers in industries classed as “resilient” to the pandemic were paid £628.89 per week on average, compared with [...]
Yougov acquires open banking start-up Lean App April 26, 2021 Data analytics firm Yougov has acquired open banking start-up Lean App to help improve its services with financial transaction data. Lean App has been acquired by Yougov on a three year earn-out, tied to enriching and expanding the research company’s data in the UK and the US. Lean App’s founders – Luke Dugdale, Tom Stuart, [...]
Pensionbee valued at £365m ahead of London IPO April 21, 2021 Pensionbee has priced its IPO at 165 pence per share valuing the company at £365m ahead of its listing this month. The pension consolidation business is set to join the high growth segment of the London Stock Exchange. Last week it announced an offer price range of between 155p and 175p per share. The offer [...]