Star fund manager Neil Woodford eyes 10 per cent returns with new fund backing start-ups February 6, 2015 Star fund manager Neil Woodford is launching an investment fund focused on start-ups and early-stage businesses with high growth potential. The Woodford Patient Capital Trust, which will target annual returns of 10 per cent "over the longer term," is seeking to raise £200m from an initial public offering (IPO) in April. Interestingly, the fund will [...]
London is home to Europe’s hottest FinTech startups as 24 of the FinTech50 come from the capital February 2, 2015 London once again dominates in a new list of the hottest European FinTech startups as the capital continues to put its backing behind the sector’s growth. Businesses from the capital represent almost half of those chosen as the FinTech companies to watch in 2015 by a panel of senior executives from across the world of finance, [...]
Cyber London: Startup scheme hopes to make UK the centre of cyber security technology January 28, 2015 A new scheme called Cyber London (CyLon) has been set up to help the UK become Europe's centre for cyber security startups. The not-for-profit accelerator programme, which will provide funding to 10 teams this year over a 13 week period, plans to give professional advice and training to young companies. It is hoped that [...]
TransferWise hits $1bn milestone as London FinTech startups attract more cash January 26, 2015 Confidence in London’s financial technology (FinTech) startup community, and indeed its wider startup sector, was understandably at an all time high yesterday as another of the City’s rising tech stars completed a funding round reaching a $1bn (£663m) valuation. Raising growth-stage capital is often cited as a challenge for tech businesses with global ambitions in [...]
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 [...]