The sky’s the limit for Skyscanner November 25, 2016 | City Talk "Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still." This Chinese proverb strikes a chord more than ever with Skyscanner. Yesterday's news that the Scottish 'unicorn' was bought by Chinese firm CTrip for £1.4 billion, proves the Scottish tech industry is full of Eastern Promise. With over 161,000 people employed in more than 10,000 technology and engineering [...]
Five important things fintech was handed in the Autumn Statement November 23, 2016 The UK's fintech powerhouse was not forgotten in the chancellor's Autumn Statement with several measures aimed at boosting the sector unveiled. Fintech census The government will carry out what's being called a fintech census, designed to identify the key figures driving the industry for investors. "An accurate measurement of this evolving space will help policymakers, investors [...]
Goldman Sachs and Santander have left a major blockchain group November 22, 2016 Goldman Sachs and Santander have both exited one of tech's top blockchain consortiums which is backed by some of the world's biggest financial institutions. Both institutions have quit membership of the R3 group and will not be investing in its latest reported funding round. Santander did not comment on its decision to depart R3, however, it's understood it will [...]
Powa founder Dan Wagner paid £50,000 to another company before administrators were called in on fintech unicorn November 20, 2016 The former owner of collapsed fintech start-up Powa Technologies paid £50,000 to a company he owned in January this year, shortly before administrators were called in to break up the company. Dan Wagner, the charismatic founder of the London-based firm, paid the money to Bright Station Ventures in January of this year, as was first reported [...]
Stay calm: The Sword of Damocles is not hanging over Britain’s fintech sector post-Brexit November 18, 2016 In times of uncertainty, it helps to stay calm and focused on the job at hand. At Innovate Finance, we see ourselves as the rational voice of the UK global fintech community. A big part of our job is promoting our members and fintech – not in a cheerleading capacity, but through rational analysis and [...]
Global fintech venture capital soars to $15.2bn as UK market swings back into action post-Brexit vote November 16, 2016 Global fintech venture capital soared in the first three quarters of the year, as the UK market perks up again post-Brexit vote. Worldwide VC investment in the first three quarters of the year was up by 27 per cent year-on-year, with 839 deals completed in the first nine months of the year, with a combined [...]
Want to join Scotland’s £17bn data revolution? November 16, 2016 | City Talk Picture the scenario: you're located in a leading UK technology centre such as Scotland with a data sector worth a healthy £17bn. You need skilled and qualified data professionals – but where do you find 'em? The good news is that Scottish data innovation centre, Data Lab, is offering 90 MSc places for 2016/17 across seven Scottish universities, [...]
Why haven’t you invested in Scotland’s blockchain sector yet? November 16, 2016 | City Talk Can you hear it? That's the sound of the guys working on the chain. Blockchain to be precise. It's no longer a silent revolution in the UK financial world. It's moving fast. Really fast. In fact an amazing £634 per second fast. Or £70,000 by the time you've read this article. Scotland's rapidly-growing blockchain business is making a big noise in [...]
LendingCrowd thinks outside the bank using the power of the crowd November 16, 2016 | City Talk Peer-to-peer firm LendingCrowd was quick to attract investment to grow in Scotland's niche crowdfunding sector. The company also had the vision to appreciate the vast fintech potential here, which thrives on over 1,000 tech firms, together with 600 financial and business companies. It’s not hard to see why peer-to-peer lending has established such a strong foothold in just a handful of [...]
Metro Bank, Deloitte and Setl are testing a blockchain-based contactless card November 15, 2016 Metro Bank, Deloitte and blockchain startup Setl have created a card for making simple contactless payments such as buying a morning coffee, using the distributed ledger technology (DLT) in a trial that's understood to be the first of its kind. The card has been tested by 100 people as part of the City watchdog's fintech sandbox [...]