Monzo needs a dose of Spotify boldness to go from UK unicorn to Silicon Valley titan November 15, 2018 The end of October saw startup bank Monzo confirmed as the latest British unicorn, hitting a valuation of $1.2bn three years after launching. This isn’t London’s first unicorn by any means, with Deliveroo and Funding Circle leading the way. But so far none have come close to the achieving the global domination or $100bn valuations [...]
New iPad Pro 12.9 inch review: The best tablet money can buy but can it replace your laptop? November 15, 2018 I’ve been writing about iPads for years, and each iteration comes with the promise that this is the one that will replace your laptop or desktop PC. And it’s always been true… for a small number of people. The iPad has been the only connected device my mother has used since she picked one up [...]
Uber posts $1bn loss as it hurtles towards an IPO in 2019 November 15, 2018 Ride-hailing giant Uber reported a quarterly loss of $1bn (£780.3m) late last night, as growth in its bookings slow ahead of its upcoming listing. The company said bookings for its private hire and food delivery services rose six per cent in the three months to the end of September, which is the third consecutive quarter of single-digit [...]
This Dyson Award-winning turbine harnesses big city winds to generate power November 15, 2018 Victims of the Walkie Talkie wind-tunnel rejoice: engineering boffins may have found a way to turn architectural oversights into eco-friendly power generation. Nicholas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani, two master’s students at Lancaster University, have won the prestigious international James Dyson Award for their O-Wind Turbine – a sphere with geometric vents that spins when hit by [...]
Chinese tech giant Tencent beats expectations on quarterly profit, but gets hurt by slowed revenue growth November 14, 2018 Tencent has trounced consensus estimates on profits in its third quarter, as gains from its investments helped to offset weaker results in its core gaming business hit by legal woes. Its share price was down 0.8 per cent as markets closed in Hong Kong this morning. The figures Net profit in the three months to September [...]
Transferwise repackages its business banking with a debit card November 14, 2018 Fintech unicorn Transferwise is today relaunching its business banking effort to include a debit card, integration with accounting platform Xero and an open access developer channel. The newly-revised business product will provide a Transferwise Business debit card for spending both online and in-store in 45 currencies, in addition to its previous offering of local bank details [...]
Snap’s IPO to be probed by US authorities over weakened share price November 14, 2018 The initial public offering (IPO) of social media giant Snap is to be probed by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following on ongoing lawsuit against the firm. Snap confirmed it had responded to requests for information from the two US authorities in a statement this morning, after the [...]
Move over Facebook and Apple, the next generation of customers has other ideas November 14, 2018 A visit to Rochdale Sixth Form College was a cheering experience last week. This year, 55 per cent of A-levels were at grades A* to B. True, Eton and Winchester do better. But this track record shows that even poor boroughs – and Rochdale is one of the poorest – have the capacity to deliver high-quality [...]
Top UK tech firms fall behind on racial and gender board diversity November 14, 2018 The UK’s top 500 technology firms are failing to represent women and ethnic minorities at senior levels, with women making up just 12.6 per cent of board director positions at tech companies. This is in comparison to performance in other industries, where 30 per cent of board members in the FTSE 100 are women. New figures released today [...]
Wework bags $3bn in additional funding from Softbank November 13, 2018 Flexible workspace provider Wework has secured an additional $3bn (£2.3bn) in funding from Softbank, as it pushes ahead with its global expansion plans despite continuing to report losses across the board. The new funding builds on the $1bn that Wework received from the Japanese mega-investor in the form of a convertible bond earlier this year. Today's investment will be granted [...]