Face off: iProov’s facial verification system can keep your online identity safe and protect your bank account May 16, 2019 Cyber security can feel like an intractable problem. Every day there seem to be new stories about hacking, scams, and financial fraud that target our reliance on digital tools and use them against us. Just this week, we had news of a spyware attack on Whatsapp. And while cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated, our [...]
Monzo backer Accel raises $575m fund for European and Israeli startups May 16, 2019 London venture capital stalwart Accel has today announced its sixth fund for Europe's early-stage startups, closed at a final raise of $575m (£440m). The fund will be managed by a core investment team based in its London office, seeking out entrepreneurs across the continent and in Israel in both consumer and enterprise sectors at series A stage. Accel [...]
Honda leads £8.6m fundraising round in smart battery software firm Moixa May 14, 2019 Car maker Honda has led a completed £8.6m fundraising round for smart battery software company Moixa. The firm makes software managing energy storage systems, which can help make home energy systems and electric vehicle batteries more efficient, and recently partnered up with Honda at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The two plan to work [...]
Cybersecurity: why you’re right to be cautious May 13, 2019 By Ian Hall (City AM, for the CFA Institute) The threat of cybersecurity and data-privacy attacks is under-estimated and growing, and organisations and individuals should proceed with extreme care in respect of digital information security, according to a Switzerland-based expert. David Basin, Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, used a seminar at the 72nd [...]
DEBATE: Is the term ‘fintech’ becoming redundant? May 13, 2019 Is the term ‘fintech’ becoming redundant? Rhys Powell, UK managing director at EBO.ai, says YES. It’s true that the fintech revolution has brought about positive business change, but to stay relevant in today’s modern business world, all financial organisations have had to harness the power of technology. As such, it’s now almost impossible to define where general [...]
Stockwatch: When you should buy Amazon and Microsoft May 9, 2019 By Edmond Jackson from interactive investor. We've studied the charts, now our companies analyst runs through the fundamentals and gives his view. At a time of questions over durability of growth in US GDP and corporate profits, results in respect of Q1 2019 from Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have beaten expectations. As a result, [...]
It’s not cutting-edge AI we should feel anxious about, but mediocre automation May 8, 2019 If there were a betting market in future winners of the Nobel prize in economics, MIT’s Daniel Acemoglu would be at pretty short odds. His highly innovative work has already won him a string of prizes. So his research is always worth following – especially when he challenges the conventional wisdom, as in his paper [...]
Small businesses to be given artificial intelligence boost May 7, 2019 London may be the artificial intelligence (AI) capital of Europe, but City Hall believes the benefits of AI are failing to trickle down to small businesses. The mayor Sadiq Khan will give 200 small businesses in London a share of £200,000 to enhance their use of AI. “London is a leading hub for innovation in [...]
Huawei to build 400-person chip plant near Arm Holdings headquarters in Cambridge May 4, 2019 Huawei is planning to build a 400-person chip research and development factory in the centre of the UK's silicon chip industry, just outside of Cambridge. The Chinese telcoms group wants to develop the chips used in broadband networks at a base in Sawston, seven miles outside of Cambridge and just 15 minutes from Arm Holdings' headquarters, [...]
HMRC forced to delete 5m voice recordings after breaching privacy rules May 3, 2019 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has been forced into deleting the voice records of five million taxpayers after it was revealed that they were collected without proper consent and in breach of privacy rules. The government body had signed people up to its voice ID system for telephone enquiries in a bid to speed up [...]