News
There’s a real energy and passion about the diversity and volume of startups emerging across Europe. From Spotify and TransferWise to Deliveroo, these businesses are totally transforming how people consume goods and services – and the best bit is the level of ambition has gone through the roof. Europe no longer wants to sell out to the US, startups these days dream of world domination on their own terms.
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Amazon is expanding its Influencer Program beyond YouTube to also include Twitter and Instagram, the company announced on Thursday. First launched into beta earlier this spring, the program initially targeted YouTube stars by offering them a way to make money from the products they promoted in their videos through an affiliate-like relationship with Amazon.
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Last night, at the Royal Lancaster in London, 450 leading decision makers from the UK’s vibrant SME investment ecosystem celebrated their stellar successes at the third annual Growth Investor Awards, organised by Intelligent Partnership.
Amid intense competition for the inaugural Best Angel Syndicate award, Oxford Capital Co-Investor Circle came in a very close second as runner-up for displaying how an experienced business angel can work with start-up companies to help them scale up and achieve global reach. Startup Funding Club took the top prize.
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Today, Deloitte celebrates the 20th anniversary of its Technology Fast 50 program and unveils the winners of its Technology Fast 50, Companies-to Watch and Leadership awards programs. The Technology Fast 50 program recognizes Canadian technology companies for their entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, rapid revenue growth, and world-class achievements. This year, the Fast 50 winners achieved an average four-year growth rate of 4,625 per cent, which represents a 74 per cent increase from 2016.
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Here are Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ tips about inspiration, work-life balance, and how to be an inventor. Oh, and how it felt getting doused with champagne at his rocket landing. The world’s richest person displayed an unprecedented level of candor during an interview at invite-only getaway Summit Series in Los Angeles this weekend.
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Yoox Net-a-Porter has continued to achieve positive growth throughout its third quarter thanks to the success of its UK market.
In the three months to September 30, net revenues rose 17.7 per cent to £427.23 million (€481.8 million) on an organic basis.
Growth was seen across all of its business lines, with multi-brand in and off season revenues growing 16.8 per cent to £209.1 million (€235.9 million) and 17.4 per cent to £180.50 million (€203.6 million) respectively.
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Indian credit marketplace BankBazaar has pulled in $30 million in fresh funding led by Experian, the London-headquartered credit giant with a £14 billion ($18 billion) market cap.
BankBazaar seems to have a penchant for big name backers. Amazon led its $60 million Series C funding in 2015 while Experian is the main investor behind this Series D raise. The company didn’t specific the other participants in the round, but its existing backers include Sequoia, Eight Roads from Fidelity Growth Partners and Walden International.
To date, nine-year-old BankBazaar has raised $110 million from investors.
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Body positivity has never been more on-trend – and this week it’s British retailer Missguided that’s flying the flag for fashion.
The Manchester-based business has just launched a new season of online fashion sported by models with stretch-marks.
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Chris Boos, the creator of a bot that can play FreeCiv, a Civilization clone. His solution demonstrates the power of machine learning and, wildly, has beaten multiple humans at the game.
Boos’ company, Arago, specializes in building tools that build themselves. Humans can show his bots how to do something – manage a piece of software, for example – and the bots can write scripts automatically. He is bullish on AI on the whole but still thinks we have a long way to go before we hit a truly intelligent future.
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Revolut, the London-based financial technology startup that’s raised more than $86 million in venture capital, said it’s applying for a European banking license to broaden the portfolio of services it offers customers.
It’s joining a growing roster of neobanks in Europe, which are seeking to entice clients away from traditional retail banks with slick mobile apps, budgeting tools and low-fee or no-fee services. Contenders include Germany’s Fidor Bank and N26, which recently expanded to the U.K., and London-based Monzo, along with more than a dozen others.
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