Don’t forget the arts when it comes to R&D spending June 3, 2025 The UK’s creative economy is worth more than our life sciences, aerospace and automotive industries combined, says Hetan Shah UK productivity growth has been woeful since the financial crash and the economy is about a fifth smaller than it would have been had the trend in productivity growth continued after 2007. The Chancellor has a [...]
Can Cazoo go from collapse to Auto Trader’s ‘undisputed’ rival? June 2, 2025 Cazoo can double in size over the next couple of years and become the undisputed number two to FTSE 100 giant Auto Trader, the man charged with its phoenix-like recovery has said. Barry Judge, who helped rescue the brand after it collapsed in May 2024, added that the company is working on winning back the [...]
AI funding: Dawn Capital backs ex-Google team’s customer service startup June 2, 2025 Danish startup deepdots, founded by former Google engineers, has raised a €5.5m seed round led by Dawn Capital, as companies across industries accelerate investment in artificial intelligence (AI) tools to overhaul customer service operations. The company, which builds AI models to automate the collection and analysis of customer feedback, claims to enable enterprise clients to [...]
AI watchdog slams government over facial recognition rollout May 29, 2025 An artificial intelligence (AI) search body has criticised the UK government for accelerating the deployment of facial recognition technology without first establishing a comprehensive legal framework. The Ada Lovelace Institute has warned the increasing use of live facial recognition (LFR) by police and retailers across the UK is happening in a “legislative void”, raising urgent [...]
X down as thousands report issues with social media platform May 24, 2025 The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced an outage on Saturday as users reported issues with the site. According to service monitoring site Downdetector, thousands of users in the UK experienced problems accessing the app and website. The site, which tracks user experiences and outages across different websites, showed that the issue [...]
Sir Jony Ive joins Altman’s OpenAI in $6.5bn deal May 22, 2025 OpenAI has announced the launch of its io Products, founded by former Apple chief designer Sir Jony Ive and Sam Altman, in a deal valued at $6.5bn. The agreement brings one of the world’s most influential product designers into OpenAI’s leadership as the artificial intelligence (AI) company expands into consumer hardware. Under the deal, OpenAI [...]
A first timers’ guide to The Chelsea Flower Show May 22, 2025 A mainstay on locals’ social calendars for over a hundred years, The Chelsea Flower Show has built its reputation around exclusivity, and can feel untouchably posh, especially for those born outside the kilometre of real estate surrounding it. Regulars say that, in broad terms, the event hasn’t really changed for years, a narrative bolstered this [...]
Impax’s takings slump after global retreat on sustainability May 22, 2025 Impax Asset Management recorded a slump in revenue in the first half of the year as a global retreat on green policies turned clients away from its sustainability offering. The firm cited a “challenging first half of financial year” with assets under management falling to £25.3bn. This was down from £37.2bn at the end of [...]
Are cyber attacks about to become the norm for British retailers? May 20, 2025 In the last month, cyber attacks have gone from a destructive but uncommon issue to the top of most Brit’s news feeds. Marks and Spencer’s, Co-op, Harrods – plus the international Dior and Coinbase – have all been the target of attacks in the last months, with more unsuccessful or smaller attacks likely to have [...]
Microsoft is past its glory days says UK fund manager May 19, 2025 Liontrust’s global innovation fund team made a striking call that bucks the conventional wisdom of leading tech stocks by saying that Microsoft, one of the world’s most valuable firms, may no longer be a long-term winner. Storm Uru and Clare Pleydell-Bouverie, co-managers of Liontrust’s Innovation Fund, have told City AM they no longer hold any [...]