UK fintechs shatter records and attract $24.5bn investment in first half of the year August 10, 2021 Investment in UK fintech has reached an all-time high, as firms in the industry attracted a staggering $24.5bn in the first half of the year across the highest volume of deals on record. British fintech investment across private equity (PE), venture capital (VC) and M&A deals has exploded as the country emerges from the pandemic, [...]
FCA explores new rules to block UK high street bank closures August 10, 2021 The Financial Conduct Authority is reportedly looking into new rules that would give it the power to stop banks from closing high street branches, in a bid to ensure consumers have continued access to cash. In a consultation last month, the Treasury said it was considering new legislation that would give the UK’s financial regulator [...]
SoftBank to pause investment in China as tech crackdown withers shares August 10, 2021 SoftBank will take a “wait and see” approach and pause its investments in Chinese tech startups until Beijing’s current regulatory crackdown on the sector calms, chief executive Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday. Son hoped the situation will be resolved and new rules for the sector would be introduced within “a year or two”, but still [...]
Exclusive: Cult Beauty founder Jessica DeLuca on selling to THG and what happens next August 6, 2021 In the thirteen years since launching online cosmetics retailer Cult Beauty, Jessica DeLuca and Alexia Inge grew the business from £72,000 to £275m – the amount it sold to The Hut Group (THG) for this week. Jessica DeLuca, a former IT analyst, worked in the spare bedroom of her basement flat through 2007 building the [...]
FCA approves James Hay’s Nucleus acquisition, creating £47bn mega-platform August 6, 2021 Pensions provider James Hay gained the nod of approval from the UK’s financial regulator for its £145m acquisition of investment platform Nucleus, in one of the biggest UK deals in years. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approved Hay’s purchase of Nucleus on Friday, paving the way for their creation of a mammoth financial adviser platform [...]
London’s Capita returns to profit, driven by new government contract wins of £2.6bn August 6, 2021 London-headquartered Capita has reported a recovery in the first half of the year from its pandemic-induced losses a year earlier, as contract cancellations were replaced with £2.6bn worth of new contract wins. Adjusted profit before tax for the six months to 30 June increased by £56.4m – or 508 per cent – to £45.3m, bouncing [...]
Amazon pushes back on return to office as Delta variant takes hold in US August 6, 2021 Amazon has postponed the return to the office for its employees until January 2022 amid concerns about continued surging coronavirus cases worldwide. The retail giant said on Thursday it would not expect its corporate employees – who had been due to return to their desks next month – to return to the office until 3 [...]
Johnson and Sunak call for investment ‘big bang’ in UK to aid recovery August 5, 2021 The prime minister and the chancellor have called on the UK’s institutional investors to plough more capital into UK assets to ignite an “investment big bang” that drives an economic recovery from the pandemic. In a joint letter with Rishi Sunak, Johnson said the UK’s institutional investors should “seize the moment” and use their “hundreds [...]
SoftBank injects $100m into former partner’s new consumer tech fund August 5, 2021 SoftBank Vision Fund II plans to invest $100m in a new consumer tech fund launched by one of its former managing partners Jeff Housenbold, the latest in a string of tech investments in the past few weeks. SoftBank’s second Vision Fund’s $100m investment will form up to a fifth of the $500m to $600m that [...]
CMA accuses pharma firms Pfizer and Flynn of charging NHS illegal prices for anti-epilepsy drug August 5, 2021 The UK’s competition watchdog has accused pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Flynn of breaking competition law and overcharging the NHS for crucial anti-epilepsy drugs, in a new re-investigation following a years-long battle with the companies. Pfizer and Flynn “abused their dominant positions” and charged the NHS “unfairly high prices” for life-saving phenytoin sodium capsules, for which they [...]