The mattress startup battle’s heating up in the UK as Simba gets in bed with top City investors February 13, 2017 The battle to bring you the best night's sleep is heating up as one of several mattress startups spearheading innovation, in an industry apparently ripe for disruption, has landed new funding. Simba Sleep has tempted several top City investors into bed in a fresh £9m funding round, bringing total investment in the one-year-old startup to £17.5m. Henderson [...]
Now Santander lets you make payments using just your voice February 13, 2017 More proof that voice control is the future… Santander is now letting customers make payments just by asking their phone, along with several other new functions that work in a similar way to Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa Users of the bank's SmartBank app can use their voice to check their account balance, report a lost [...]
New hub to help grow UK’s £6 billion fintech sector February 13, 2017 | City Talk A new specialist fintech hub, backed by the UK and Scottish governments, will open its doors to entrepreneurs in May 2017. The hub will be the first of its kind in Scotland and will be based in Entrepreneurial Spark at Royal Bank of Scotland’s base in Edinburgh. It will launch one year on from the [...]
A lack of guidance over the EU’s GDPR could cripple British businesses February 13, 2017 There is no denying that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) marks a great step forward for data protection in the UK and across Europe. But with less than 16 months until it comes into force, it is critical for UK businesses to start preparing now. However, despite being the most powerful piece of data [...]
This is why a Silicon Valley entrepreneur believes London could produce the next Facebook February 12, 2017 By the time Clara Shih turned 30, she was a Starbucks board member, had raised $21m (£16.7m) for her social media startup and had become a bestselling author. A Stanford and Oxford graduate, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur founded software company Hearsay Social [now Hearsay Systems] in 2009 to make financial giants look slick on social media [...]
UK has a future as a cannabis hub, says biotech company February 12, 2017 The UK has the potential to become a world leader in drugs derived from the cannabis plant, according to a leading biotech firm. GW Pharmaceuticals chief executive, Justin Gover, told the Telegraph that the company is rapidly expanding its processing operations and hopes to get regulatory clearance for a new cannabis-derived drug in 2018. GW, [...]
Flower delivery startup Bloom & Wild is set to blossom with millions in fresh funding February 12, 2017 An innovative London startup delivering flowers has raised millions more in fresh funding to pursue ambitious international expansion. Bloom & Wild has landed £3.75m from German media company Hubert Burda's venture arm and previous investor MMC Ventures, along with other angels. Read more: Hungry House is partnering with a startup to help takeaways deliver more The [...]
Ford gears up for a major AI investment to boost its self-driving car offerings February 11, 2017 Ford is spending big to up its game in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The US carmaker said it will invest $1bn (£800m) over the next five years in Argo AI, an AI software and robotics technology startup, to support its autonomous vehicle development. Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, which was founded by former Google and Uber leaders, will work to develop a [...]
“Don’t work for money” and 11 other devastatingly profound quotes from Tim Cook February 10, 2017 The wisdom of Apple chief executive Tim Cook may not be cited as often as his predecessor, but if there's one thing Cook's visit to the UK yesterday taught us, it's that he gives good quote. Yes, as Cook was presented with an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow before he headed off to [...]
Twitter shares sink at the open after yesterday’s $1bn selloff February 10, 2017 Twitter's share price sank further on the opening bell in New York today, after its results sent prices into a nosedive yesterday. Shares fell 3.6 per cent to 15.80 at the open, after they plummeted more than 12 per cent yesterday, wiping $1bn after the company's value. Its fourth quarter earnings, posted yesterday, showed revenues had edged [...]