Hipster investor The Craftory leads $30m funding round in vegan startup March 1, 2019 New “hipster” investor The Craftory has led a $30m (£22.59m) funding round in artificial intelligence meat substitution company Notco. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ family office Bezos Expeditions and existing investors Kaszek Ventures and Indiebio also took part in the round. Read more: New 'hipster' firm is investing $300m in challenger consumer brands Notco produces plant based replacements [...]
Strong and stable: London extends lead as Europe’s top hub for unicorn startups March 1, 2019 London has cemented its status as the home of more young billion-dollar tech companies than any other European city, taking home the crown for ten consecutive years. Read more: Female fintech leaders highlighted as sector battles gender imbalance The number of so-called unicorn startups – private businesses valued at $1bn (£752.6m) and founded after 2000 [...]
IBM’s Watson supercomputer to solve the mobility problem in tie-up with Volkswagen’s SEAT February 26, 2019 IBM and Volkswagen's Spanish unit SEAT have unveiled a standalone app that hopes to predict what mode of transport and route is best for urban users through artificial intelligence (AI). The app, called Mobility Advisor, will utilise the power of IBM's Watson supercomputer to present commuters with the best way to navigate cities, whether that's [...]
Microsoft goes all-in on holograms in the workplace with the new Hololens 2 February 24, 2019 Microsoft's long-awaited update to its mixed reality headset, the Hololens 2, has placed big bets on businesses including holograms in their day-to-day working life. Revising several major issues to the 2016 Hololens such as comfort and immersion, the biggest change to the Hololens 2 is the price. Coming down 30 per cent from the cost of [...]
Blackberry completes $1.4bn deal for AI firm Cylance February 22, 2019 Blackberry has completed its $1.4bn acquisition of US artificial intelligence company Cylance. The deal will drive forward the development of Blackberry Spark, the Canadian company’s secure communications platform for the Internet of Things. Read more: Blackberry buys artificial intelligence firm Cylance for $1.4bn Cylance will continue to operate as a separate business unit within the [...]
Artificial intelligence could lead to huge rewards, but we must break down the barriers to AI adoption February 22, 2019 Data, both the business and personal kind, is fast becoming an essential utility like transport, energy, and water. It is critical to the efficient functioning of modern life, and I honestly do not believe that we could do without it. How we live, administer, manufacture, invest, plan, research, sell, buy, deliver, and even connect with [...]
China invites chancellor Philip Hammond to visit despite war of words over British patrols in Pacific February 22, 2019 The Chinese foreign ministry has said it would welcome a visit from the UK government's chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond, just a day after he said that relations with China had been affected by talk of Britain deploying a warship in the Pacific. Read more: Defence firm BAE plugs £20m into artificial intelligence on UK [...]
Still a nation of innovators: Nurturing the talent to power Britain’s AI revolution February 21, 2019 The UK has been a leading light in the development and testing of machine intelligence since Alan Turing’s pioneering work during the Second World War. Now, we are living in a world where artificial intelligence (AI) is a reality in our everyday lives. It’s already benefiting customers, and from advanced manufacturing to financial services, almost every [...]
Fintech startup Revolut pushes ministers for fast-track tech visas February 21, 2019 London will fall behind as a world-leading fintech hub if the government does not prioritise incoming tech talent, the chief executive of Revolut warned today. Nikolay Storonsky, a Russian native who started digital bank Revolut in 2015, called on ministers to introduce a fast-tracked visa process for technology workers, particularly within software development and data [...]
UK AI sector funding hits record £1bn for 2018, almost the same as the rest of Europe combined February 20, 2019 Investment into the UK’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector from venture capital firms reached a record $1.3bn (£998m) last year, almost as much as the rest of Europe combined. The new figures from Dealroom represent a fourfold increase in five years, up from a total of $200m in 2014. In comparison, French AI startups raised $400m last [...]