London’s unicorn boom is masking an early-stage funding crisis Opinion European tech is experiencing two diametrically opposed extremes. On paper, there has never been a better time to build, writes Christoph Klink A new breed of rocketship unicorns are reaching billion-dollar valuations in record time. London sits at the absolute centre of this surge, home to 43 per cent of all European rocketship unicorns – [...]
Goldman and Intel back $5.4bn AI video startup Tech Goldman Sachs and Intel have backed AI video maker Higgsfield in a $400m (£295m) funding round that has more than quadrupled the two-year-old company’s valuation since January. The fresh funding values the startup at $5.4bn, up from $1.3bn just eight months ago, as investors pile into companies looking to turn generative AI into products businesses [...]
Legora eyes $10bn funding valuation four months after last raise AI AI legal tech firm Legora is eyeing a new funding round as it aims for a $10bn valuation, nearly double the $5.6bn it raised in April. The Stockholm-based startup, which creates AI tools for law and professional services firms and corporate in-house legal teams to draft and review documents, is reportedly in the early stages of [...]
Boutique London advisory firm lands £8m funding amid M&A frenzy August 11, 2026 A boutique M&A advisory firm has landed £8m in fresh funding as it seeks to capitalise on a wave of takeover activity, City AM can reveal. London-based Lava Advisory Partners, which was founded in 2020, secured the debt finance from specialist SME lender Beechbrook Capital. The B Corp-certified firm said it would use the cash [...]
AI reduces founders’ need for capital, says Revolut Business July 22, 2026 AI is reducing the amount of capital startups need to build global businesses, shifting the battle for founders away from funding and towards which countries offer the best environment to scale, according to the head of Revolut Business. Speaking to City AM, James Gibson said AI had dramatically lowered the cost of building and operating [...]
London Tech Week was ‘complacency in conference form’ June 12, 2026 London Tech Week has been accused of masking some of the biggest structural problems facing Britain’s tech sector and of offering “complacency in conference form”. Adam French, partner at global venture capital firm Antler, said the flagship event highlighted a widening gap between the public narrative around UK tech and the realities facing founders trying [...]
Truth bomb: Defence secretary John Healey resigns over funding battles June 11, 2026 John Healey has resigned as defence secretary after months of tension with Sir Keir Starmer over funding for an uplift in spending on the armed forces. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Healey said the government’s draft for the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) “falls well short of what is required for defence and the [...]
James Reed: UK needs entrepreneurs desperately. So I’m gonna fund them May 26, 2026 My father founded Reed in 1960 with just £75. My new fund will help create the next generation of entrepreneurs, says James Reed.
Startups should pray the US AI giants don’t run out of cash April 23, 2026 As City AM revealed earlier this week, a London-based business has raised £2m to fund the development of an AI-powered coffee vending machine. The company’s founders say they can tailor the contents of the hot drinks – like coffee strength and milk content – based on the preferences of the customer, using AI. That sounds [...]
UK’s Disruptors, Innovators and Growth Hackers collide as SCALE Tables announced for April Summit April 2, 2026 New roundtable format brings curated, peer-level conversations to SCALE SUMMIT, inviting founders, investors and business leaders to “constructively disagree” to drive growth. SCALE SUMMIT, the UK’s leading event for ambitious, fast-growing businesses, has announced details of SCALE Tables – a roundtable experience running across both days of the Summit, designed to cut through the noise [...]