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 [...]
GSK takes over in the Ebola race: Experimental vaccine Sent to Liberia for main tests January 23, 2015 Trials of GSK's experimental vaccine to prevent Ebola are about to begin in west Africa. Some 300 doses will be transported to Monrovia, capital of Liberia, and the intention is to inject the first subject within the next few weeks. Ultimately, researchers plan to inoculate 30,000 volunteers, including health-workers. The vaccine was created [...]
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 [...]
Davos 2015 on Ebola: Private sector is key to saving the world from future epidemics January 22, 2015 The Ebola epidemic in west Africa has killed thousands of people since it broke out in Guinea in December 2013, and it continues to claim new lives on a daily basis. International efforts have been largely successful and preventing the virus from leaving the region and reaching a pandemic level, but the risk of [...]
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 [...]
More epidemics like Ebola will pose a threat to the Western world, scientist tells Davos January 21, 2015 The man who discovered the cause of Ebola in 1976 has warned there will be more major disease epidemics, and the Western world is not immune to them. Professor Peter Piot from Belgium issued his advice to global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, urging them to “take a long term view” [...]
SpaceX lands $1bn investment from Google and Fidelity January 20, 2015 SpaceX, the California-based rocket company, said it received a $1bn investment from Google and Fidelity. Google and Fidelity will together own just under 10 per cent of the company, which gives SpaceX a total valuation of $10bn. SpaceX, which is based by Tesla founder Elon Musk, said it will use the funding for innovation in [...]
Global internet users mapped: Google mulls SpaceX investment to bring developing world online January 20, 2015 Google is considering an investment in Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, as part of a plan to deliver internet by satellite to the developing world and other areas that lack coverage. The deal has not been finalised, but would value SpaceX at around the $10bn (£6.6bn) mark, and would be a significant boost to the aim [...]
Elon Musk’s space internet: How we could soon have Facebook friends on Mars January 19, 2015 Ten years from now, we could be exchanging Facebook messages and tweets with people on Mars. Billionaire investor and inventor Elon Musk has come up with an idea to take the world wide web to a galactic level by setting up a vast network of satellites far out in space. Some 4,000 of [...]