Multiverse raises $44m to fuel apprenticeship scheme expansion January 19, 2021 A London startup founded by Tony Blair’s son has raised $44m (£32m) to help fuel expansion of its tech and leadership apprenticeship schemes. Multiverse, whose training programmes are billed as an alternative to traditional university education, has pursued rapid growth over the last year, tripling its number of apprentices to more than 2,000. The company [...]
NHS hospitals use blockchain technology to track and monitor vaccines January 19, 2021 Two NHS hospitals are utilising blockchain technology to track Covid-19 vaccines in a ‘world’s first’ initiative revealed this morning. Monitoring the storage and supply of the temperature-sensitive vaccine, Everyware and Hedera Hashgraph are working to strengthen record-keeping and data-sharing across the supply chains. The hospitals, based in Stratford-upon Avon and Warwick, expanded their use of [...]
Lotus owner Geely to develop smart car technology with Tencent January 19, 2021 Lotus and Volvo owner Geely announced this morning it has signed an agreement with Tencent to develop smart vehicle technology. The company said it aims to transform car cockpits to enable more mobility service applications, alongside testing autonomous driving. The Geely and Tencent partnership is the latest in a series of tech and auto companies [...]
Blockchain and XBRL: the myth January 19, 2021 | City Talk Currently, many jurisdictions around the world require public companies to produce financial reports using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). The myth that blockchain could replace XBRL in the production of financial information is incorrect. Blockchain is not a data standard. And XBRL is not a distributed ledger system. Replacing one with the other would be [...]
Deliveroo appoints Next boss Simon Wolfson to board January 19, 2021 Deliveroo has appointed Next chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson to its board as a non-executive director. Wolfson, who has led the high street fashion chain since 2001, took up the role this week. It comes as the food delivery platform gears up for what could be the largest initial public offering of the year. Deliveroo [...]
Fintech firms top list of best London startups to work for January 19, 2021 Fintech firms dominate the list of best startups to work for in London as investment in the sector picks up and expands aggressively. Some 50 startups and scaleups appear on Otta’s Rocket List, which has been curated by Tech Nation and a handful of VC firms including Atomico and Seedcamp. The experts considered a firm’s [...]
Patient admitted to hospital ‘every 30 seconds’ as Covid hospitalisations hit record January 18, 2021 “Someone is admitted to hospital with coronavirus every 30 seconds,” the health secretary has said, as hospitalisations continue to hit fresh heights amid the rapid spread of new Covid mutations. There are currently 37,475 people in UK hospitals with coronavirus, with more than a tenth on ventilators. “That is the highest that it’s been throughout [...]
Drones and robots may get their big breakthrough in 2021, says what3words CEO January 18, 2021 2020 was a volatile and unpredictable year for businesses large and small. In a sink-or-swim situation, the swimmers were those who responded fairly quickly to the pandemic and managed to come up with creative and innovative solutions. This often involved pivoting to an entirely new model, according to Shoreditch-based Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of [...]
Exclusive: UK tech still needs the EU, says TechUK boss January 18, 2021 As thousands of businesses breathe a sigh of relief now the Brexit deal has been agreed, one leading tech figure thinks the EU remains important for the UK. Julian David, chief executive of TechUK, spoke to City A.M. about his thoughts on the Brexit deal for the tech sector and the future for the industry [...]
Edge computing – what to look out for in 2021 January 18, 2021 | City Talk Businesses will be familiar with cloud computing, with many having moved their IT to colocation facilities or to cloud-based applications such as Office 365, Salesforce and Slack. The networks required to deliver these services transfer huge amounts of data to central hubs where it is processed and stored. This can result in data congestion and [...]