Transferwise attracts $58m in new funding: Money transfer startup backed by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz January 26, 2015 US tech magnates Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have become the latest high profile names to throw their weight behind London money transfer startup Transferwise after leading a $58m (£38.7m) round of funding. Transferwise was set up three years ago by early employees of Skype with the aim of disrupting the transfer market by cutting [...]
Semetric and Musicmetric co-founder Gregory Mead: Meet the London physics graduate who built a $50m startup January 21, 2015 Imperial College London graduate Gregory Mead began work on the software that would eventually become a $50m (£33m) business while working on the university’s student newspaper in 2007. “We had about 20,000 readers, and I had 30 reviewers that would write about new music and go to gigs. I needed to find a way to [...]
Apple buys London startup Semetric January 21, 2015 Fresh from its $3bn (£2bn) of Dr Dre's Beats headphone brand, Apple has made its next big acquisition: UK music analytics startup Semetric. In the strongest sign yet that it's moving its focus back to music, the US tech giant has paid an estimated $50m for the company, based in London. The company, founded in [...]
Shazam joins billion dollar startup club after $30m funding round January 21, 2015 Music recognition service Shazam has closed a $30m (£19.8m) round of investment valuing the London-based firm at over $1bn (£659m). It makes Shazam one of just a handful of tech startups to emerge from the UK with a $1bn price tag attached. The new investment will be used to expand the service into new markets [...]
Twitter buys Indian mobile content marketing startup Zipdial as it eyes emerging markets January 20, 2015 Twitter has confirmed speculation that it’s buying Zipdial, a mobile content marketing startup based in India which lets users connect through Twitter without being online. Zipdial provides a “missed call” feature allowing users to receive inbound marketing via text message, app notifications or voice calls after making a call to a free number. Users avoid [...]
Canary Wharf Group expands Level39 tech startup space for fintech, retail and smart city entrepreneurs January 19, 2015 Canary Wharf’s tech startup space, Level 39, is taking on additional space at One Canada Square to house entrepreneurs focused on developing technology in the fintech, retail and smart city sector. Accenture’s 2015 Fintech Innovation Lab is the first to be housed in the new space and will be joined by another 36 companies taking [...]
Centtrip: Leading FX entrepreneurs launch travel currency startup in London January 18, 2015 Three foreign exchange entrepreneurs will today launch a new travel money firm, Centtrip, a London-based startup which aims to cut currency conversion charges for consumers. Centtrip founders Tony North, Brian Jamieson and Daniel Butcher previously founded Schneider Foreign Exchange and HiFX, foreign exchange businesses that were recently sold for a combined £350m. “We are not [...]
WPP invests in George Pyne’s new sports marketing startup January 6, 2015 The world’s largest communications services group, WPP, announced yesterday that it was leading a syndicate investing $250m (£165m) in Bruin Sports Capital, a sports marketing startup. Bruin was launched by former IMG sports and entertainment president George Pyne. Bruin will build its portfolio organically as well through acquisitions and investments in established sports marketing businesses, [...]
Xiaomi: Everything you need to know about the world’s most valuable technology start-up and third-biggest smartphone maker January 5, 2015 Despite not having any products on sale in the UK, smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi can't keep out of our business headlines. Just a week after being named the most valuable technology company in the world, the Chinese company has announced a mammoth increase in sales in 2014. Xiaomi is now said to be the third-biggest [...]
London technology sector booms: Start-ups receive twice as much venture capital funding in 2014 December 30, 2014 The amount of venture capital funding given to technology start-ups in London hit a record high this year. According to research group CB Insights for London & Partners, investors put $1.4bn (£0.9bn) into the capital’s young companies over the last 12 months. This is twice as high as last year and 20 times higher than [...]