Mayor-backed London venture capital fund has helped create 700 jobs across the capital October 26, 2017 Five years on from when MMC Ventures established its London-focused fund, the venture capital firm has revealed it has pumped more than £100m into businesses and helped create over 700 jobs. The MMC London Fund has invested money into 19 London startups, including short-term retail let marketplace Appear Here, home ingredient delivery service Gousto, and [...]
Ranked: The world’s best performing chief executives of 2017 as Inditex’s Pablo Isla and WPP’s Martin Sorrell take the top spots | City A.M. October 24, 2017 The boss of Zara’s parent firm Inditex, Pablo Isla, has been named the best-performing chief executive in the world for 2017, by the Harvard Business Review. The Spanish businessman, who ranked third last year, took the top spot for the first time, over WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell. Since becoming chief executive in 2005, Isla has [...]
Tinder’s ‘menducation’ doctrine dispels the notion that women are best served by other women October 17, 2017 A few weeks ago, Tinder announced a new chat feature. “Designed by the women of Tinder”, says the announcement, “the feature gives women extra tools to express themselves”. It concludes: “sometimes men need a little bit of guidance when it comes to communicating….” So many things are wrong with this pitch. Tinder’s new chat feature [...]
EY, Maersk, Microsoft, startup Guardtime and insurers are putting boats on the blockchain with marine insurance tech platform | City A.M. September 6, 2017 EY, shipping giant mersk and Microsoft are among the companies planning to get boats on the blockchain, or their insurance, at least. The professional services firm is building a blockchain-based platform that can streamline marine insurance for the shipping industry. It is working with Estonian enterprise blockchain startup Guardtime and Microsoft to build the technology [...]
A shareholder row is already brewing over the Investment Association’s role in Theresa May’s executive pay reforms August 29, 2017 Discontent among shareholders’ rights groups is already brewing as the government today announced its new corporate governance reforms. Business secretary Greg Clark set out the measures, which will force all listed companies to reveal the pay ratio between bosses and workers, name and shame on a public register those which receive significant shareholder opposition to [...]
Estonia proposes estcoin, a government backed cryptocurrency, issued via an initial coin offering (ICO) after e-residency success August 22, 2017 Estonia is living up to its digital reputation and setting tongues wagging with its latest idea: its very own digital currency issued via an initial coin offering (ICO). The buzz word of the moment in the heady world of cyptocurrencies, ICOs, are being used to raise cash via a digital token that’s issued to investors. [...]
Unilever, Walmart and Nestle are starting a major blockchain project with IBM August 22, 2017 Unilever, Nestle, Walmart and a handful of the world’s top retail and food brands are joining forces to tackle food safety with the help of blockchain technology. The 10 companies will work with IBM on a new project that will look at how the distributed ledger technology (DLT) behind bitcoin could be used to track [...]
Singaporean fund and KKR join £6bn Unilever spreads auction August 17, 2017 Competition over Unilever’s spreads business is hotting up as Singapore’s wealth fund enters the fray. The Sinagaporean state’s Government Investment Corporation (GIC) has agreed to back KKR, one of the world’s biggest buyout firms, in its bid for the operation according to Sky News. Unilever’s spreads include some of the world’s most well-known brands such [...]
Subscription shaving service Cornerstone gets a smooth £3.5m investment led by Calculus Capital as former Graze chairman William Reeve joins as adviser August 7, 2017 British shaving products supplier Cornerstone has nabbed a £3.5m investment, in a new funding round led by private equity firm Calculus Capital. E-commerce veteran William Reeve, who has previously held positions on the boards of Graze, Lovefilm, Zoopla and Paddy Power, will join the Cornerstone team as an adviser. The new investment takes the total [...]
Not spreading themselves too thin: Private equity heavyweights Bain Capital and CD&R team up for Unilever’s spreads division, home to Flora July 25, 2017 Unilever’s spreads division looks set to be snapped up, as heavyweight buyout houses begin to solidify their interest in the divested group of brands. Read more: Unilever shake-up unveiled: Spreads brands including Flora to be ditched, €5bn share buyback starts and dividend hiked City A.M. understands that Bain Capital has been sniffing around the £6bn [...]