Government to face Atos in court following spat over £845m supercomputer contract May 23, 2022 The UK government is set to face IT company Atos in the UK’s High Court next month after the French firm filed a lawsuit against government over its decision to award an £845m Met Office contract to Microsoft. The French multinational is claiming its bid was wrongly excluded from the tendering process on the grounds [...]
City exclusive: Cordiant Capital’s co-CEO on how to make money in the crowded world of digital infrastructure May 19, 2022 Amid an increased focus on digital infrastructure, data transfers and online storage in practically every market around the world, investment giant Cordiant Capital listed its Cordian Digital Infrastructure arm in London last year. Time for City A.M. to catch up with Benn Mikula, co-CEO and managing partner at Cordiant Capital, to see how things are [...]
Exclusive: Tech exits surge as unicorns are ‘out’ and recurring revenue is the new valuation for venture capital May 19, 2022 European technology exit values and counts have skyrocketed in the past year, reaching $133.4 billion in value, a 400 per cent year-over-year increase, across 1,247 exits. In 2021, there were approximately 186 public listings, including names such as UiPath, Wise, GitLab, OVH, and SUSE. In addition, M&As reached an all-time high with 687 European companies being acquired. The deep pool of [...]
Generation AI: Breakthrough for automation as robot ‘chef’ in Cambridge can taste food at different stages of the chewing process May 11, 2022 A robot “chef” has been trained to taste food at different stages of the chewing process to check if it is salty enough, imitating a similar process in humans. The University of Cambridge researchers suggest their results could be useful in the development of automated or semi-automated food preparation by helping robots to learn what [...]
Brexit-proof: London races ahead of all European tech rivals as record 18,500 new startups flock to the capital April 28, 2022 The number of new tech companies incorporated in London jumped 94 per cent last year, it has emerged. A total of 18,549 tech businesses were incorporated in London in 2021, according to an analysis of data held by Companies House, up from 9,572 in 2020. London accounted for the highest number of incorporations in 2021, [...]
Oxford Nanopore Technology has spike in revenue but losses up more than £100m March 22, 2022 A UK-based technology research firm has had spike in revenue by £30m, but an almost £100m loss from 2020. Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which develops state-of-the-art technology to analyse individual molecules, increased its intake to £134m in 2021, up from £114m. The company’s gross profit was up from 41 per cent to almost 55 per cent, [...]
Britain and Ukraine are tied together by our independent tech industries March 1, 2022 AS RUSSIA launched an illegal war of aggression in eastern Europe, Ukraine may still feel quite far away from the UK, even though it is in Europe. Cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv are foreign to most Britons. Crimea is best known to most from a 200 year old poem. When Vladimir Putin talks of Ukraine [...]
Supercharge your workout: My EMS progress after 7 weeks February 24, 2022 It’s amazing what you can adapt to given a little time. Seven weeks ago I was quite nervous about being strapped into a suit filled with electrodes, hooked up to the mains and guided through a workout while being zapped by an electrical current – now it feels like second nature. I’m just over halfway [...]
Exclusive: Half of all UK bosses plan to hire new tech staff this year January 31, 2022 Digital transformation is a key focus for UK businesses in the coming months. While costs have been a deterrent to innovation over the past year for many firms, the majority are looking to funnel investment into new technology projects in 2022. Nearly half of those polled admit that the cost of development has impeded their firm [...]
UK tech special: The rocky but unstoppable rise in startup valuations January 30, 2022 The accelerated growth of startup valuations has sparked debate around the world, particularly in the markets where this has been reflected in the most significant raises and the speediest unicorns. Despite ongoing pandemic uncertainty, a quarter of the UK’s 116 unicorn tech companies became unicorns during 2021. Investment climbed significantly, up to £26bn in 2021 [...]