News
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and shadow IT have an almost perfectly symbiotic relationship. Individual business units can easily sign up for cloud-based SaaS offerings without purchasing and deploying hardware and – often – without consulting their corporate IT departments.
To read more, click here.
BloomThat, an on-demand flower startup, has sold itself to flower giant FTD, Axios reports. FTD, which offers same-day delivery flowers for a variety of occasions, reportedly paid a small amount of money for the startup.
Prior to this reported acquisition, BloomThat had raised $7.5 million from investors like Rothenberg Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Sherpa Capital and others, with the most recent round in April 2015.
To read more, click here.
Hometree, which is seeking to change the way in which consumers buy a new boiler, has raised £2.9m in new funding as it looks to expand across the smart home space.
The London-based technology startup received cash from Literacy Capital, chaired by Paul Pindar, the former Capita CEO and chairman of Purplebricks and Eve Sleep.
Other new investors include former joint chief operating officer and board member of Capita, Dawn Marriott-Sims; and Anthony Gutman, head of UK at Goldman Sachs.
To read more, click here.
Tussell, a London-based company founded in 2015, has raised £1m in Seed funding.
The startup, now valued at £5m, provides online data on government purchasing, allowing companies to discover trends and opportunities in public procurement.
Tussell received support from a range of private investors, including Lord Young of Graffham, former cabinet minister and David Cameron’s enterprise advisor, who also sits on the firm’s board.
To read more, click here.
Digital Fineprint has raised £2m ($2.7m) from investors.
The InsurTech startup will use the cash to expand its London-based team and to continue developing its social media-powered insurance distribution software.
UK-based software-focused venture capital investor Pentech, which has backed firms including Nutmeg and Fanduel, led the round.
To read more, click here.
The Plum Guide, a London-based travel tech startup, has raised £5.7m in Series A funding in a round led by Octopus Ventures.
Investors in the round also included BGF Ventures and the founders of Secret Escapes, Zoopla and LoveFilm.
To read more, click here.
Scientists have successfully built artificial intelligence that can diagnose patients with heart disease and lung cancer much earlier than human doctors.
The ability to accurately pick up these problems at a less advanced stage could not only save people from the fatal diseases, but cut huge costs to the health service.
To read more, click here.
London-based CityStasher is building what it calls an ‘Airbnb for luggage’, a network of brick and mortar businesses across Europe that will store your luggage for a few hours after you have checked out or are waiting to check into your travel accommodation.
To help with this mission, CityStasher has raised $1.1 million in seed funding in a round led by Venture Friends, with participation from Howzat Partners, Charlotte Street Capital, and various angel investors. One of those is Big Yellow Storage CEO James Gibson, who was also an earlier backer of the startup.
To read more, click here.
The distance between prosthetic and real is shrinking. Thanks to advances in batteries, brain-controlled robotics, and AI, today’s mechanical limbs can do everything from twist and point to grab and lift.
TO read more, click here.
Mobile commerce’s inevitable rise to dominance is no secret. Heading into the holidays a Trustlook survey suggested more people would be doing their holiday shopping via mobile, and that they felt more secure than ever about doing so.
To read more, click here.