AI deployment rockets as businesses seek competitive edge January 21, 2019 The number of organisations using AI has rocketed 270 per cent since 2015, a survey out today reveals. Firms across all industries are increasingly using artificial intelligence as they seek to gain an edge over competitors, research firm Gartner's 2019 CIO Survey found. Read more: Automation and AI are leading the UK into a new industrial [...]
Monica Vinader-backer Beringea leads £6.5m round for data startup Exonar January 21, 2019 London-based venture capital firm Beringea has led a £6.5m funding round into UK data privacy and cybersecurity startup Exonar. The round was completed by Beringea alongside Downing Ventures, and existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners and Winton Ventures. Exonar aims to help firms comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and other legislation by creating an overview [...]
UK tech sector growth cools to slowest pace since 2015 amid political uncertainty January 21, 2019 Growth in the UK tech sector cooled to its slowest pace in three years in the final quarter of 2018 as political uncertainty and global trade frictions dented industry confidence. Tech companies also reported the sharpest fall for seven years in backlogs of work, suggesting a lack of new work to replace completed projects at [...]
London fintech Marketinvoice lands £56m in funding from Barclays and Santander January 21, 2019 London-based fintech business lender Marketinvoice has today closed a £56m round made up of equity and debt funding, led by Barclays and Santander's venture arm Innoventures. The series B-stage equity funding, which amounted to £26m, also received significant participation from European venture capital firm Northzone, which has previously backed the likes of Spotify, Trustpilot and fellow fintech lender Zopa. [...]
Former SSE boss Ian Marchant invests in London smart home startup January 21, 2019 A London-based smart home technology startup, backed by the former chief of SSE Ian Marchant, today announced that it has raised £2m in a new funding round. Den, which has now raised a total of £5m, is also backed by Mark Davies, a founder of Betfair. Read more: Stay on top of your resolutions with the [...]
Hacking Wall Street: Are tech unicorns about to disrupt stock market flotations? January 21, 2019 Tech companies have changed the way we chat, bank, travel and date. Are they about to disrupt capital markets too? “In [Silicon] Valley there’s always been that mentality: how do we hack Wall Street?” says Rob Kniaz, a founder of tech-focused venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures. Two weeks ago reports broke that Slack, the workplace [...]
EU digital tax could be agreed by March, says French finance minister Bruno Le Maire January 20, 2019 The European Union could reach an agreement on details of a digital tax by the end of March, the French finance minister has said. Talks among EU ministers aimed at aligning the taxation of online businesses broke down in December. A number of smaller member states, including Ireland, Sweden and Denmark, opposed the plan and [...]
Chinese tech firm Tencent is considering a bid for Nexon’s holding company January 19, 2019 Chinese tech firm Tencent is weighing up a bid for the holding company that controls South Korean gaming company Nexon. Tencent is looking to enlist co-investors as it considers making a move to acquire the company, according to Reuters. Private equity firms are looking at options for a potential deal, including taking the company private. [...]
Tech giants accused of data protection breaches by Austrian activist January 19, 2019 Tech giants Apple and Amazon have been named in a complaint filed by Noyb, claiming they are still failing to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The company, chaired by data privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, filed a complaint in Austria also naming Netflix, Spotify and Youtube after it tested the [...]
Lloyds Bank suffers IT outage as customers struggle to send and receive money January 18, 2019 Thousands of Lloyds Bank customers were unable to make payments this afternoon after the bank experienced an IT outage. Customers complained of difficulties transferring money from their accounts due to issues related to the lender's Faster Payments system, which allows customers to send and receive payments by internet or phone. "We are aware that some customers [...]