London’s demand for emerging tech skills could create a North–South divide August 22, 2019 London has more demand for those with emerging technology skills than ten other UK cities combined, new research has found. The UK currently has 422,000 professionals with skills in emerging technologies including data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing. Of those professionals, 37 per cent (155,000) are based in London, according to research by [...]
Wework rival Knotel secures unicorn status with $400m funding August 21, 2019 Knotel, the flexible workspace rival to Wework, today said it has achieved “unicorn” status after securing a fresh round of funding worth $400m (£329m). The New York-based startup bagged the bumper cash injection in a round led by Wafra, the investment arm of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund. Read more: Wework lost $700m in first half, [...]
Citigroup and BNP Paribas named in case against Huawei finance boss August 21, 2019 Citigroup and BNP Paribas have been dragged into an ongoing US court case against the chief financial officer of Chinese tech firm Huawei. The banks have been named in documents published by a Canadian court as part of extradition proceedings against Meng Wanzhou, who is currently under house arrest in the country. Read more: US [...]
Softbank-backed startup Uhuru to list in London August 21, 2019 Japanese software startup Uhuru is to go public in London later this year, after opening an office in the city in 2018. The company raised $4.5m from Softbank last year, and also counts Salesforce, Dentsu and Mitsui & Co as investors. Uhuru, an IoT startup which helps connect products to the cloud, said it will [...]
Tech startups attract record $6.7bn in foreign investment August 21, 2019 British tech companies have attracted more foreign investment in the past seven months than in the whole of 2018, racking up $6.7bn (£5.5bn) in funding. More than half of that amount came from US and Asian investors. As such, the UK is now receiving more non-domestic capital, per capita, than the US, according to data [...]
Apple reportedly hikes streaming budget as it eyes November launch date August 20, 2019 Apple is said to be planning a November launch date for its eagerly-awaited streaming service, as it ramps up its spending on new films and TV shows. Apple TV Plus is considering a monthly subscription fee of $9.99 (£8.25) following a free trial period, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Read more: Apple’s [...]
Facebook risks hit to advertising revenue as it unveils new privacy feature August 20, 2019 Facebook has unveiled a new feature that gives users greater control over their personal data, in a move that could impact the social media firm’s advertising revenue. The tech giant said it will allow users to prevent information about their browsing activity from being passed on to third parties for advertising. Read more: Twitter and [...]
Whatsapp in talks to launch mobile payments service in Indonesia August 20, 2019 Whatsapp is said to be in discussions with several digital payments firms in Indonesia over plans to offer mobile transactions over its platform. If a deal were reached, it would make Indonesia only the second country worldwide where Whatsapp offers the service. Read more: NSO denies Whatsapp spyware can hack data The firm is currently [...]
Shares in Kin and Carta slide as investment eats into profit August 20, 2019 Shares in Kin and Carta dropped roughly 13 per cent after the digital transformation company warned on profits for the full year. The London-headquartered firm said its pre-tax profit would be marginally lower than expectations after it upped its annual investment from £2m to £3m. Read more: AI software market posts huge growth amid digital [...]
Robot delivery service Starship Technologies targets students in $40m raise August 20, 2019 Starship Technologies, a US tech firm headed by former Airbnb exec Lex Bayer, has raised $40m (£33.1m) in a series A funding round. The investment was led by Morpheus Ventures with participation from Shasta Ventures, Matrix Partners, Metaplanet Holdings, TDK Ventures, Qu Ventures and others. Starship’s autonomous robot delivery fleet operates in cities across the [...]