Cognicity Challenge: Canary Wharf Group’s £300,000 smart city startup fund October 21, 2014 Canary Wharf Group yesterday launched a startup accelerator programme to find six so-called smart city technologies – that drive cost savings using technology in fields such as transport and construction – to be piloted across its estate. The Cognicity Challenge will be spread over six sectors: integrated transportation, connected home, virtual design, construction, integrated resource [...]
London tech startups attract $200m Singapore venture capital fund Infocomm October 21, 2014 Singapore venture capital fund Infocomm is setting up shop in the capital, bringing its $200m (£124m) fund to startups in London and the rest of Europe for the first time. The move was spurred by the momentum in the capital's tech sector and the new outpost makes permanent an 18 month “commuter relationship” with the city, [...]
Techcrunch Disrupt: Let the (tech startup) battle commence October 20, 2014 European tech startups, including two teams from London, went head-to-head yesterday in the first round of a battle at Disrupt, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest annual tech conferences, which is currently in London for the first time. London startups Lobster – an online marketplace for regular people to licence their photos and videos – [...]
BSkyB invests $500,000 in online TV startup October 13, 2014 BSkyB continued its pattern of taking small stakes in US tech startups yesterday by investing $500,00 (£311,000) in Pluto.TV, an aggregator of video from across the web into themed TV channels. It follows investments in startups Jaunt and Sharethrough this year.
Richard Branson has spoken: Apple Pay is the future, Bitcoin regulation is a good thing and Sidecar is the startup app to watch September 25, 2014 City A.M. chatted with Richard Branson about his views on startups, why affordable space travel is imminent and what drove his decision to invest in a drone business. What’s the most exciting startup at the moment? I’m lucky in that I meet exciting startups virtually everyday. One that’s especially grabbed my attention lately [...]
Gimme 5: Startups crowdfunding this month September 22, 2014 Rollasole Target: £150,000 for 7.5 per cent equity If you’ve seen a pair of bendy pumps someone’s shoved in their handbag, you’ll know how useful Rollasole shoes are. Raised: £130,210 via Crowdcube 42 days left Line-Up Target: £200,000 for 9.09 per cent equity Line-Up’s technology collects and collates “what’s on” information from newspapers, radio [...]
BlackBerry swoops for London mobile software startup Movirtu September 11, 2014 BLACKBERRY, the struggling smartphone maker, has bought London-based startup Movirtu, a firm that makes software that allows users to have multiple phone numbers on the same device. BlackBerry yesterday said the move would help it target smartphone users who increasingly use a single device for personal calls and business. Chief executive John Chen said: “In [...]
Blackberry buys London startup Movirtu September 11, 2014 Is this a sign of things to come for the new, leaner Blackberry? The embattled mobile manufacturer has bought Movirtu, a London-based mobile software startup, to target smartphone users who increasingly use a single device for personal calls and business. Movirtu provides a virtual mobile platform which enables users to have more than one mobile [...]
Cubicle to co-working space: London startups want to poach City workers September 5, 2014 More than 30 of London’s tech startups are looking to hire City workers away from their corporate cubicles to the world of beanbags and co-working spaces. Startup hiring conference Uncubed is hosting its first event in London, playing matchmaker between talent in traditional corporate jobs and creative technology companies, and urging people to ditch their [...]
Why I left the City for a startup – and why you should too September 5, 2014 If there’s a reason I left my finance career to build startups it’s probably this: vomit. It happened one night at 10 or 11pm on the 33rd floor of a gleaming investment bank. It wasn’t unusual that I was there so late – in fact, it was mostly the norm, and I’d been run haggard [...]