Golden year for startups: London may be heading for a post-pandemic unicorn boom September 15, 2021 The last 15 months has provided every aspect of society with an unprecedented challenge, not least to small firms and founders. The response of this section of business, however, has been nothing short of inspiring, with nearly 800,000 new firms incorporated in 2020. The response of the investors who back them has been equally stirring, [...]
Exclusive: ‘I felt sorry for the people of Belgium,’ says Estonia’s Prime Minister September 14, 2021 An artificial intelligence assistant for every citizen? AI to help unemployed people back into work or to suggest a career change? Bots telling you when to visit your GP? All this may sound a tad futuristic, but not for the government of the tiny Baltic state of Estonia. In fact, the country has grand ambitions [...]
Beijing turns up heat on data holding firms, seeking to divide Ant Group’s Alipay September 13, 2021 Beijing regulators, who are acting increasingly hawkish around sensitive data firms, are reportedly seeking to break up Ant Group’s loans business Alipay to form a separate app instead. Under the proposal, Jack Ma’s Ant Group will hand over its user data to a new credit scoring joint venture with state-backed firms, the Financial Times first [...]
Creaking Cairo cedes to new high-tech capital with smart cards and AI-driven apps September 3, 2021 Egypt’s new administrative capital will be hi-tech. Residents will use smart cards and apps to get about, under the watchful eye of a far-reaching surveillance system. Watch the full report.
SEC double hit: Robinhood comes under scrutiny for key revenue stream and share sale filing September 1, 2021 Trading platform Robinhood has told investors that the US financial watchdog is reviewing a filing of a share sale by a group of its shareholders, a day after its share price sank on two other bouts of bad news. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review prevents any sales being made off the filing [...]
Bucking the trend: Revolut sets no vaccination requirement for US staff September 1, 2021 Bucking the Wall Street trend, Revolut will not require its US staff to be vaccinated in order to get into the office. The US boss of the tech darling told Financial News Revolut had chosen not to make vaccination against Covid-19 a requirement of returning to work in its offices in New York, San Francisco [...]
Exclusive: City’s venture capital guru on Brexit, ESG fundraising and impact investing August 31, 2021 With Brexit just behind us, and the pandemic gradually being brought under control, it seemed like a good time to measure the temperature of London’s venture capital investment space. City A.M. sat down with David Hall, for his first major interview as chairman of the Venture Capital Trust Association, since succeeding Stuart Veale in January [...]
Prosus to pay $4.7bn for rival Indian payments firm in largest buyout yet August 31, 2021 European technology giant Prosus has reportedly put forward $4.7bn for its largest ever deal, to buy Indian payments platform BillDesk, in yet another foreign investment in the country’s blossoming tech sector. BillDesk currently competes with Prosus’s payments firm PayU in India which means the deal will open up a fair portion of the growing payments [...]
Toshiba in talks with private equity giants KKR and Blackstone to revise strategy August 26, 2021 Toshiba is in talks with at least four global private equity firms including KKR & Co and Blackstone to seek their ideas for a new strategy, three sources with knowledge of the matter have said. Watch the full report.
Brazil’s Buffett-backed Nubank eyes $55bn valuation ahead of US IPO August 26, 2021 Brazil’s digital bank Nubank is reportedly eyeing a $55.4bn valuation ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), as Brazilians look beyond traditional lenders. If Brazil’s most prominent digital bank is listed at a market cap greater than its largest tradition bank Itau Unibanco, Nubank would shoot up the ranks towards international high flyers like the [...]