Tandem Bank takes in £15m from Convoy in Hong Kong expansion November 20, 2018 Fintech challenger bank Tandem has today closed a strategic partnership with Convoy Global Holdings, a Hong Kong-based financial services group which will make the London startup one of the first digital banks to launch in the city. Convoy is investing an initial £15m into Tandem Bank as part of the deal, which will provide Tandem with [...]
Twitter picks a man named John Lewis as the star of its new Christmas advert November 20, 2018 Every year, a man named John Lewis in Virginia receives over 50,000 tweets intended for UK department store John Lewis and Partners. This year, he's been made the star of Twitter's Christmas advert. Lewis secured the Twitter username @JohnLewis in 2007, and has become known for his witty responses to people who confuse him for [...]
European tech stocks slump in worst fall for seven years on Apple woes November 20, 2018 European technology stocks have been hit by their biggest quarterly drop since 2011, after production worries for Apple caused a global industry wobble. Stocks on the pan-European stoxx 600 tech index fell more than 1.8 per cent in trading this morning, hitting its lowest level since February 2017 and charting a quarterly loss of more than 14 [...]
All I want for Christmas… is for retailers to get real and rethink their festive ads November 20, 2018 TV has long been a staple of Christmas advertising, highlighted by the millions of people who look forward to the annual John Lewis spot. This year, the retailer reportedly spent millions of pounds on a cameo from Elton John, though it is being tight-lipped about exactly how much. However, while the department store’s festive offering [...]
Banks should watch out – the fintech era has barely begun November 20, 2018 The fintech sector makes a lot of noise in London. There’s an endless stream of news about open banking and challenger banks, while the traditional finance sector watches on with a mixture of admiration and suspicion. Banks have come under attack, not only from the hype-machine, but more meaningfully from startups. Traditional finance providers that assumed [...]
Google and DeepMind are playing fast and loose with society’s trust November 20, 2018 Last week, we were greeted by the disturbing news that DeepMind, an artificial intelligence subsidiary owned by Google’ s parent company Alphabet, is moving some of its healthcare activities into the newly formed Google Health. This isn’t the first time that one of the tech giants has been accused of making misrepresentations to consumers, using [...]
The UK’s technology startups are raising the bar in European venture capital November 20, 2018 The UK's share of the European venture capital industry has grown exponentially over the last decade, as investors turn towards larger and later-stage deals in a focus on the country’s growing startups. Data compiled by Octopus Ventures has today revealed that the UK now receives 42 per cent of all venture capital funding in Europe, [...]
Draper Esprit and Barclays back London fintech Form3 in $13m funding round November 20, 2018 Payments technology fintech startup Form3 will today reveal the close of a $13m (£10.1m) series B fundraising round, led by Graze and Perkbox-backer Draper Esprit. Existing investors Barclays Bank, Angel Cofund and several other individual backers also participated in the round. Established in 2016, the Monument-based startup builds payments-processing technology for banks and fintech firms [...]
Apple cuts production on all three new iPhone models November 19, 2018 Apple suppliers are yet again feeling the squeeze, after the tech giant is said to have cut production orders for a third time in recent weeks. Lower-than-expected demand for Apple's three new iPhone models, the XS, XS Max and XR, has made it difficult for the company to accurately anticipate how many phones to produce, according [...]
Lexus and IBM debut the world’s first TV advert entirely scripted by artificial intelligence November 19, 2018 Luxury carmaker Lexus has teamed up with IBM's Watson and several London agencies to make the world's first car advertisement entirely scripted by artificial intelligence. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, who is known for films such as The Last King of Scotland and this year's Whitney Houston biopic, the advert was created to showcase Lexus' [...]