Funding Circle’s new funding round will value the London FinTech startup at $1bn April 2, 2015 Funding Circle is on the verge of closing a new round of funding which would value the London FinTech startup at more than $1bn (£674m) and see it join just a handful of UK tech companies with billion-dollar valuations. The peer-to-peer lender could close funding of more than £50m within weeks, including backing from Blackrock and [...]
Investment in London’s tech startups hit record levels of $682m in 2015 April 2, 2015 Investment in London’s technology sector has hit a record high, once again proving the city’s attractiveness to investors as firms in the capital gained more than half-a-billion dollars in backing in 2015. In the first quarter of the year, in which established tech startups such as World Remit, Transferwise and Shazam received multi-million pound funding [...]
RBS sees better-than-expected price for its Aldgate office block March 31, 2015 Bids for one of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s office buildings in Aldgate have entered a second round, with the taxpayer-owned lender set to gain a better-than-expected payout. The bank appointed advisory firm DTZ at the end of last year to sell Aldgate Union on Whitechapel High Street, with a guide price of around £85m. [...]
London’s booming FinTech sector will stumble without better access to talent March 29, 2015 One of London’s strongest attributes has always been its ability to reinvent itself – and the success of the financial technology (or FinTech) sector shows this characteristic coming to the fore once again. Since the financial crisis, the explosion of companies specialising in financial technologies has brought innovation and prosperity to formerly run-down areas of [...]
City A.M. launches power list for London FinTech March 23, 2015 It has created billion-dollar startups, attracted record investment and is keeping major banks on their toes – London FinTech is having a moment and there are some major influencers making that happen. To keep you up to date with who’s who in the world of London FinTech, City A.M. has launched its own power list, [...]
Shoreditch meets the City: RBS, Lloyds and American Express challenge startups to create FinTech of the future March 9, 2015 Leading financial firms are laying down the gauntlet and challenging startups to come up with the next financial technologies of the future. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds and American Express are just three of the finance firms putting their weight behind the search to find digital innovations which will address areas such as [...]
Britain’s quiet FinTech revolution has begun – and we’re determined to back it March 9, 2015 Whisper it, but there is a quiet revolution going on in British banking. If you don’t work in the financial world, you may never even have heard of the UK’s burgeoning financial technology or “fintech” sector. And you almost certainly won’t know about the opportunities it offers. So what is fintech? For me, it is [...]
The non-bank of Facebook, AliBay, and AI: The future of global fintech March 5, 2015 The global fintech industry has seen some remarkable developments since we launched Level39 two years ago. But what of the future? I’d like to suggest two possibilities for what might happen, and challenge one that, contrary to some current thinking, I don’t think will. FACEBOOK: THE NON-BANK BANK More than any other social media platform, [...]
London FinTech startup WorldRemit raises $100m from Silicon Valley investors TVC and Accel Partners valuing firm at $500m February 18, 2015 WorldRemit, the London-based FinTech startup, has bagged a $100m (£65m) investment from Silicon Valley investors, valuing the firm at $500m. The series B funding round, from US venture firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), along with existing backer Accel Partners, is the latest investment in financial technology firms emerging from the capital. The $100m backing from [...]
The City and Silicon Roundabout lead Britain’s economic recovery February 16, 2015 London’s buoyant recovery is driving Britain’s economy forward, a study from RBS showed today. Inner-east London was the fastest growing locality in the country last year, expanding by 5.2 per cent. Next up was Milton Keynes at 4.9 per cent, followed by Aberdeen at 4.8 per cent. “Top of the class last year was London, driven [...]