TransferWise hits $1bn milestone as London FinTech startups attract more cash January 26, 2015 Confidence in London’s financial technology (FinTech) startup community, and indeed its wider startup sector, was understandably at an all time high yesterday as another of the City’s rising tech stars completed a funding round reaching a $1bn (£663m) valuation. Raising growth-stage capital is often cited as a challenge for tech businesses with global ambitions in [...]
Transferwise attracts $58m in new funding: Money transfer startup backed by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz January 26, 2015 US tech magnates Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have become the latest high profile names to throw their weight behind London money transfer startup Transferwise after leading a $58m (£38.7m) round of funding. Transferwise was set up three years ago by early employees of Skype with the aim of disrupting the transfer market by cutting [...]
London FinTech heads for NYC with Boris Johnson trade mission January 22, 2015 A delegation of London’s financial technology startups are joining Mayor Boris Johnson on a trade mission to New York next month. Digital Shadows, a cybersecurity firm whose clients include the Bank of England, and Azimo, a money transfer business which raised $10m (£6.6m) in funding last March, will go on the trip to showcase London’s [...]
Is London FinTech recession-proof? January 21, 2015 The global financial tech capital faces few challenges. London's financial technology (FinTech) sector is booming. In the last few weeks alone consulting services giant Accenture opened its third London FinTech accelerator programme – whose alumni includes one of the capital’s most promising FinTech startups Digital Shadows. And last week the Canary Wharf Group added [...]
Canary Wharf Group expands Level39 tech startup space for fintech, retail and smart city entrepreneurs January 19, 2015 Canary Wharf’s tech startup space, Level 39, is taking on additional space at One Canada Square to house entrepreneurs focused on developing technology in the fintech, retail and smart city sector. Accenture’s 2015 Fintech Innovation Lab is the first to be housed in the new space and will be joined by another 36 companies taking [...]
London technology sector booms: Start-ups receive twice as much venture capital funding in 2014 December 30, 2014 The amount of venture capital funding given to technology start-ups in London hit a record high this year. According to research group CB Insights for London & Partners, investors put $1.4bn (£0.9bn) into the capital’s young companies over the last 12 months. This is twice as high as last year and 20 times higher than [...]
10 times London was awesome in 2014 December 23, 2014 As if we didn’t already know how awesome London was, in 2014 it proved itself better than any other city (especially New York) in almost every way. 1. Best city in the world London is an economic powerhouse, technologically ready and a city gateway making it a transport and tourism hub. Basically, that makes London the [...]
Let’s empower London’s fintech innovators to banish rip-off remittance fees December 18, 2014 HUNDREDS of thousands of Londoners will work extra hours this Christmas in difficult and low paid jobs so they can send money to relatives living abroad. Remittances like these now outstrip the amount sent in donor aid to sub-Saharan Africa. But these remittances will be reduced in value by money transfer charges as high as [...]
Alibaba moves London tech headquarters to Canary Wharf December 14, 2014 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has moved its London headquarters from Mayfair to Canary Wharf as the Docklands continues to develop as a rival tech hub to Old Street. Alibaba, which raised a record $25bn (£15.9bn) when it went public in September, is now based on Level 28 of the iconic One Canada Square, just below [...]
London FinTech stars join Tech City UK’s Future Fifty scheme as booming digital finance sector steals the spotlight December 10, 2014 The capital's crown as the financial technology epicentre of the world will be reaffirmed today as seven of London’s rising FinTech stars will join the government-backed Future Fifty scheme. TransferWise, Go Cardless and Algomi are among the group of 12 companies joining Future Fifty – run by Tech City UK, part of UK Trade & [...]