There’s a bright, collaborative future ahead for the City and Northern Ireland September 17, 2018 Last week, I embarked on a visit to Northern Ireland to engage with its financial and professional services sector. With fewer than 200 days until the UK leaves the EU, and the Irish border proving to be one of the more contentious issues surrounding negotiations, this was an excellent opportunity to hear the views of [...]
There’s a bright, collaborative future ahead for the City and Northern Ireland September 17, 2018 Last week, I embarked on a visit to Northern Ireland to engage with its financial and professional services sector. With fewer than 200 days until the UK leaves the EU, and the Irish border proving to be one of the more contentious issues surrounding negotiations, this was an excellent opportunity to hear the views of [...]
London-based tech company Fever secures $20m Series C funding July 5, 2018 Secret London owner Fever is set to expand into new markets across Europe and North America after securing $20m (£15.1m) in a Series C fundraise. The company runs a fast-growing entertainment and experience booking app that uses a recommendation algorithm to help its 12m unique weekly users discover new restaurants, bars, events, concerts, and experiences. [...]
Crispin Odey-backed London insurtech startup Bought By Many has raised a £15m series B funding round, led by Commerzbank July 3, 2018 Billionnaire Tory donor and hedge-fund manager Crispin Odey has re-invested into London insurtech marketplace Bought By Many, which closed a £15m series B investment round today. The round was led by Commerzventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Commerzbank, alongside new investment from global insurance broker and risk management firm Marsh. Additional follow-on investment from [...]
These are the 50 hottest fintech startups in Europe right now, as London fights to keep up with innovation June 20, 2018 Over half of the 2018 Fintech50 are based in London, as it fights to keep its crown amid increasing competition from startups in cities like Berlin, Dublin, Amsterdam and Warsaw. The city has produced 27 out of Europe’s best ‘ones to watch’, selected from the list’s largest ever pool of over 1,800 fintechs across the [...]
Lloyd’s of London is launching a global insurtech sandbox in the name of reinvention June 12, 2018 For the first time in its 330 year history, insurance behemoth Lloyd's of London is launching a global innovation sandbox to find tech talent that can develop new solutions as it attempts to digitise. Nicknamed Lloyd's Lab, the new initiative will see corporate innovation specialist L Marks go on the hunt for entrepreneurs, early and [...]
Barclays Techstars accelerator adds Anthony Browne , ex-head of banking industry body BBA, as entrepreneur in residence February 14, 2018 The former boss of the British Bankers’ Association; the industry body which last year became UK Finance, has resurfaced at the tech accelerator of one of Britain’s biggest banks. Anthony Browne is joining Barclays Techstars as entrepreneur in residence where he will help advise fintech startups. “Financial technology is one of the most exciting and [...]
The insurance industry needs to embrace blockchain, starting now January 31, 2018 In March 2017, the expression “financial inclusion” hit its peak popularity on Google. This is excellent news. There are over two billion unbanked individuals in the world today – people with no access to banking services. This is a global problem. In India, 19 per cent of the population – 1.2bn people – is unbanked, [...]
Challenger bank Revolut and Thomas Cook have just launched a pay-per-day travel insurance service activated by your phone’s location services January 17, 2018 Another day, another insurtech idea. This time, challenger bank Revolut has launched a pay-per-day travel insurance plan which relies on a mobile phone’s geolocational services. The scheme, which Revolut claims to be the first of its kind, can be turned on and off from a user’s phone. When in use, it will use the phone’s [...]
The next frontier for insurtech is reinventing insurance itself January 8, 2018 In 2015, when I first invested in an insurance technology startup, the term “insurtech” hadn’t been coined, and the explosion of investment in insurance was yet to begin. Fast-forward three years, and the landscape has changed immeasurably. Over $230m was invested in insurtech globally in 2015, growing to over $500m in 2016. Despite the fanfare, [...]