London startup Osper wants to make kids better at managing money June 30, 2014 Osper, a London-based startup that teaches kids to manage their money online, has launched with £6m backing from Index and Horizons Ventures. The mobile app lets kids aged between eight and 18 years old take responsibility for their money and make purchases online using a prepaid card, but allows parents to oversee spending at the same time. [...]
Twitter founder’s startup Square moves into small business loans May 28, 2014 TWITTER founder Jack Dorsey is expanding his mobile payments startup, Square, to help small businesses with personalised lending with repayments that adjust based on a firm’s cashflow. Square’s hope is that by using the vast volumes of data it already has on the merchants who use it, Square will be able to offer unique loans [...]
Three tech start-ups hoping to win over John Lewis May 19, 2014 John Lewis will kick-off its search tomorrow for the next big idea to help its stores stay ahead in the digital age, with 30 technology start-ups battling out for a place in the retailer’s technology incubator JLAB. Each firm will deliver a five minute pitch to a panel of John Lewis directors and mentors [...]
Why Balderton Capital’s new $305m European Fund is a great sign for London’s startups April 1, 2014 Balderton Capital – the tech VC fund whose investment record includes breakout success from the likes of Lovefilm and Betfair – announced a new European $305m early stage investment fund this morning. That the fund is specifically targeting the early Series A round of investment is a great sign for London’s fledgling tech community, which [...]
Information startup DueDil raises $17m March 3, 2014 Business data platform DueDil has announced today that it’s raised a further $17m (£10.2m), taking the London-based startup's total investment to $22m in the past 10 months. Big data DueDil gives individuals and businesses free-to-access, up-to-date information on companies and directors. Led by Oak Investment Partners, DueDil’s latest funding round was also supported by London [...]
Blinkx founder joins Balderton Capital to lead startup funding January 20, 2014 BLINKX founder Suranga Chandratillake is set to return to London to take up his new role as a partner at the venture investor firm Balderton Capital. Chandratillake will retain his role as strategy chief at Blinkx after he relocates from California to the UK for his new role, in which he will focus on investing [...]
It’s time to break the Whitehall silo and put startup discipline into government December 3, 2013 THE CURSE of Norman Lamont makes politicians wary of mentioning the “green shoots” of recovery. But when the data show growth of 0.4 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013, it’s clear. The UK is off life support. Sure, the recovery is heavily consumption-led, with exports [...]
Government helped get my business going – now it’s boosting startups again November 19, 2013 TWENTY odd years ago, I stepped into a print shop on Albert Square in Manchester. It was an industrious place – full of whirring machines and the smell of printing ink. I knew then and there that I wanted to open my own printing business. But at 21 years of age, the bank manager wasn’t [...]
Startup springboks who let the idea come to them November 17, 2013 Annabel Palmer meets Leon Blitz and Brad Fried, lifelong pals behind investment firm Grovepoint MOST entrepreneurs start with an idea – be it reinventing the wheel or simply finding a way to do something better than anyone else out there. The hard part is then taking the first steps – shunning job security for months [...]
Four ideas from Silicon Valley on creating scale from Britain’s startups November 10, 2013 UK STARTUPS don’t lack enthusiasm (over 440,000 have been founded in 2013 so far), but Britain lags behind the US in the number that reach scale. This is an economically important issue. A report by the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme found that just 1 per cent of all firms – high-growth small [...]