Uber delivers Christmas trees on demand in Paris, Dubai and Guadalajara, but not in US cities this year December 7, 2014 Not content with delivering people home after a night out, rideshare service Uber is getting festive. Lucky city dwellers in three cities around the world are being treated to Christmas tree deliveries at the tap of a smartphone in another one of the startup’s marketing ploys. These have also included ice cream delivery in London [...]
Exclusive: “We are the anti-Uber”, says Kabbee CEO Justin Peters December 5, 2014 Yesterday, taxi app company Uber was valued at $40bn (£25.7bn) after it completed a $1.2bn funding round. This year, London has experienced an explosion in the growth of taxi apps, with different services dealing with black cabs, minicabs and other vehicles springing up all over the capital. Speaking to City A.M., Justin Peters, chief executive of [...]
Uber reaches $40bn valuation in $1.2bn fundraising as it bids to expand services December 4, 2014 RIDEHIRE service Uber has raised a massive $1.2bn (£765m) in its latest funding round, finally confirming the previously rumoured investment in a blog post last night. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and chief executive, said the funding would be used “to make substantial investments, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.” The round is understood to value [...]
Uber hires Goldman Sachs to power up its fundraising drive December 1, 2014 Uber has hired Goldman Sachs to help it raise funds from some of the bank's richest clients. It is offering financial products that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars, and help aid Uber's future international expansion plans, Fortune has said. This is separate to a previous report from Bloomberg, which said Uber was in [...]
BMW taps into London’s sharing economy: Who else is there? Airbnb, Uber and Zipcar December 1, 2014 Earlier this month, it was revealed the sharing economy could net up to £9bn a year for the UK by 2025. The independent review, commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, also laid out a road-map to ensure the UK becomes a center for this growing scene. Big businesses are eager to capitalise [...]
BMW to launch pay-as-you-go car share scheme to rival Boris Bikes in London on Thursday November 30, 2014 BMW will bring its pay-as-you-go car sharing scheme to London this week, pitting it against the capital's famous Boris Bikes. The German manufacturer will announce the launch of its DriveNow scheme in London on Thursday, according to the Financial Times. It's a car sharing service that requires users to register online for a small fee, before [...]
Apple’s $700bn smash, Black Friday misery: 10 things we learned this week November 28, 2014 1. In the future, cats will change colour when they go near radiation (maybe). Someone’s already written a nursery rhyme about it 2. Londoners take “painting the town red” rather more literally than you might think: by a vast majority, they prefer red wine to any other type, reckons Naked Wines 3. Aviva [...]
Time to give thanks for Black Friday – Editor’s Letter November 27, 2014 This week, one American seasonal tradition is on everyone’s lips: Black Friday. Today is the day when US retailers kick off the pre-Christmas rush with a slew of discounts, and their finances are said to move back into the black as a result. This year, Brits are promised our own welter of price cuts. But [...]
Uber valued at over $40bn as the ride hire app looks to raise $1bn November 26, 2014 UBER, the controversial ride hire smartphone app, is close to raising more than $1bn (£633m) in a funding round that could reportedly value the business at up to $40bn. While the financing round has yet to close and the terms and investors involved could still change, according to Bloomberg, US investors T. Rowe Price Group [...]
From Ukip and bird flu to RBS and Lidl: 10 things we learned this week November 21, 2014 1. Ukip got its second member of parliament. Mark Reckless retook the seat he'd held as a Conservative. But that was really the side show to accusations of snobbish tweets and comments around immigration that were so inflamatory Ukip distanced itself from them. 2. Bird flu returned to the UK. It's unlikely to pose [...]