London’s still the number one city in Europe for digital startups November 18, 2016 Nobody is taking London’s crown as the best city in Europe for digital entrepreneurs. Not yet anyway. For the second year in a row, it has been crowned the best EU city for digital entrepreneurs. According to innovation foundation Nesta and the European Digital Forum’s European Digital City Index, the capital is still the best city [...]
Tesla’s takeover of SolarCity has just been approved by shareholders November 17, 2016 Tesla Motors' acquisition of SolarCity is on after it was revealed tonight it had received the green light from shareholders, according to various reports. By bringing the two firms together, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has previously said he hopes to create a one stop shop for customers looking to pick up solar panels, home batteries and [...]
Airbnb wants to sort out your entire travel itinerary way beyond home rental November 17, 2016 Airbnb wants to arrange your entire trip for you, not just find you a place to stay. The startup has set out ambitious plans to expand beyond simply being a holiday home rental platform, to turn itself into the go-to app for people's entire holidays with the addition of local trips, meetups, restaurant bookings and more. [...]
Sports software company Zwift secures bumper investment from London private equity house November 17, 2016 A software company promising to turn indoor sport on its head announced a $27m (£22m) investment from a London-based private equity house. Zwift, which currently focuses on creating an outdoor virtual reality for indoor cycling, said the cash boost would give them the "powder" to take the business to the next level. Gaming private equity specialist Novator Partners provided the [...]
E-cigarette innovation is stalling, a leading doctor has warned November 17, 2016 Innovation in electronic cigarettes will stall unless a bridging approach to new product regulations is made. New variants of e-cigarettes and next generation products risk being tied up in development, said James Murphy, head of reduced risk substantiation at British American Tobacco. Murphy gave a keynote speech today at the Next Generation Nicotine Delivery conference in [...]
1 to Watch: snap40 to accelerate growth after securing one of the largest seed funding rounds ever in Scotland November 17, 2016 | City Talk Edinburgh-based health technology start-up snap40 recently received £2m in seed funding from investment firm Par Equity. Innovative healthtech snap40 catch deteriorating health sooner by automatically detecting the warning signs. They have developed a single wearable health monitor that’s worn on the upper arm and which continuously monitors patient health across many different indicators – things [...]
Near-miss: A drone came within 20m of a passenger plane as it flew over the Shard this summer November 17, 2016 A drone almost collided with a passenger plane carrying 165 people as it passed over the Shard in July. A report from the UK Airprox Board, which records near-misses in the air, said the Airbus A320 was en route to Heathrow Airport on 17 July when its crew spotted a black drone out of their [...]
Weaker sterling gives Johnson Matthey a £27m profit bump November 17, 2016 Johnson Matthey is one of the companies that has welcomed post-Brexit currency volatility – the sustainable tech and chemicals firm today revealed that the weakened pound gave its profit a £27m bump in the six months to 30 September. The figures Sales were up five per cent to £1.68bn in the first half, from £1.6bn last [...]
Will Snapchat’s IPO go the Twitter way or the Facebook way? November 17, 2016 Reports of a potential (but secret) IPO by Snapchat yesterday brought out the usual round of dot com bubble comparisons. It’s hardly surprising: if the rumours are true, the social messaging app could be valued at as much as $25bn, making it the third-largest IPO ever, after Alibaba and Facebook. This, from a company built [...]
Hold off on criticising Snapchat’s $25bn IPO – it may be a Facebook, rather than a Twitter November 17, 2016 Reports of a potential (but secret) IPO by Snapchat yesterday brought out the usual round of dot com bubble comparisons. It’s hardly surprising: if the rumours are true, the social messaging app could be valued at as much as $25bn (£20bn), making it the third-largest IPO ever, after Alibaba and Facebook. This, from a company [...]