Former Apple exec Jeff Martin joins London smart city startup Pavegen as crowdfunding reaches £2m July 5, 2015 London-based tech startup Pavegen which creates hi-tech flooring with the potential to power cities has announced that Jeff Martin, formerly a senior executive at Apple, will join its advisory board. The news came as the firm announced it has smashed its crowdfunding target, raising nearly £2m from online investors. Martin worked with iconic Apple founder [...]
UK start-ups beat the US for diversity as founders are five times more likely to be female July 3, 2015 The UK's tech hub may have fewer "unicorns" than its American counterpart – but at least we're doing better at one thing. Start-up founders in the UK are five times more likely to be female compared to the US, a new study from startup accelerator Wayra shows. They’re also ten times more likely to have a minority [...]
The UK’s biotech drain: This is why London’s most successful startups are heading to New York July 2, 2015 There's a mass migration taking place across the Atlantic right now. Each year, many of the UK's best biotech firms are choosing to leave and head to New York, where they can benefit from wealthy investors throwing their money at Nasdaq. Read more: Federal Reserve sees social media and biotech valuations as "substantially stretched" [...]
Grant Thornton makes multimillion-pound investment in London tech startup Geniac July 2, 2015 Grant Thornton has made a multimillion-pound investment in a startup which manages services such as HR and compliance for small businesses. The advisory firm has splashed £22m on London-based Geniac, its first investment in a tech startup. "The Geniac proposition to fast growing small businesses is exciting," said Grant Thornton’s head of audit Mark Cardiff. “When you’re [...]
WeWork launches shared office space for start-ups at Moorgate July 1, 2015 A US COMPANY that provides flexible workspace to start-ups is hoping to tap into demand among London’s thriving tech community after launching a new site near Moorgate station today. WeWork has taken eight floors at Brookfield’s Moorgate Exchange, its fourth location in the UK after opening in Sea Containers House, Soho and Devonshire Square over [...]
Investec Comment: Asset finance for startups: How it can help June 28, 2015 MUCH of the discussion about small business finance focuses on the very early stages of a company’s life. Will a bank lend the money it needs for its initial stages of growth? If not, what other options does that firm have? What can be done to make it easier for very new companies to borrow? [...]
Don’t write off startups as a threat to your company: Collaboration benefits all June 25, 2015 Digital disruption is snapping at the heels of London’s corporates. Many are only just waking up to the fact that tech startups like Zoopla, Skype and Funding Circle – all less than 10 years old and bred in the capital – have become billion dollar “unicorn” companies, rewriting the rules of whole industries. In [...]
London FinTech startup Currency Cloud raises $18m series C funding from Rakuten, Sapphire Ventures and other investors June 23, 2015 One of London’s FinTech stars has landed a new round of funding as investors scramble for a piece of London’s booming financial technology sector. Currency Cloud has landed $18m (around £12m) from investors, including ecommerce giant Rakuten, in its latest funding round, just a week after London cemented its status as the tech capital of [...]
Britain’s hottest startups grew six times the rate of UK businesses June 19, 2015 Britain’s hottest startups are fuelling economic growth and job creation, growing at six times the rate of the rest of the UK’s businesses. The Future Fifty, a group of the country’s brightest and most promising high-growth tech businesses identified by Tech City UK, increased their workforce by 30 per cent in the last year, compared [...]
Five FinTech startups to watch: RBS, Lloyds and American Express back finance innovation June 17, 2015 Five tech startups seeking to disrupt the financial industry have caught the eye of some of the world's leading firms in the sector. A savings app, a company using visual cryptography to create secure passwords and a real-time sales platform for local businesses are just three of the winners in the search for startups creating [...]