Adventure capital: Investors pump £1bn into London’s tech sector in 2015 October 8, 2015 Investors have pumped a record £1bn into London’s thriving tech sector this year as the capital’s digital economy rockets, with experts predicting that the capital could soon be on course to challenge Silicon Valley. Data from London & Partners, the mayor’s investment company, shows that London’s technology companies have raked in three-quarters of the [...]
The next fintech? Why London can make unicorns a retail reality October 8, 2015 The future unicorns of the UK lie in London’s retail technology sector. This is according to a fifth of Tech London Advocates, in a study of the future growth drivers of London’s technology industry. The truth is, London already leads the world in terms of expertise and knowledge around retail technology. Retail technology is a sector [...]
London’s economic growth in 2015 far outstrips the rest of the country, RBS figures show October 7, 2015 London's economy is outstripping the rest of the country, growing 3.3 per cent year on year, compared with a national average of 2.5 per cent, according to RBS’ regional growth figures out today. London’s economic growth was boosted by its burgeoning professional, scientific and technical services industries. The City and the West End, unsurprisingly, were [...]
UK fintech needs more than just London: Manchester and Northern Powerhouse cities are the next hubs September 30, 2015 By some accounts the UK already leads the world in fintech – technology for the financial services sector. Much of this stems from the fact that London has always been one of the world’s leading financial centres, is home to 300 of the world’s banks and counts more than 130,000 knowledge workers in its financial [...]
Canary Wharf takes over from Tech City and Silicon Roundabout as London’s hottest Fintech spot September 28, 2015 Much has been made of Silicon Roundabout and Tech City's abilities to crank out tech "unicorns" – but there's a new neighbourhood in techland, and it's muscled in on the areas' fintech sectors. Yep – according to property giant CBRE, Canary Wharf is the new epicentre of London fintech, with 13 of the capital's 140 [...]
London fintech: Insurance tech is here, but it needs to catch up with the world of data science September 28, 2015 Rob Moffat’s recent column on the necessity for the insurance industry to catch up with tech was a welcome call to arms. It throws down the gauntlet to what can be a regressive industry, and plots a course for the future. What he may not have realised, though, is that much of the work he [...]
Breaking down vertical banking silos: Our outdated payments industry should look to Apple and BMW’s supply chains September 24, 2015 We depend on payments as the underpinning fabric of almost every aspect of cross border commerce. Yet the payments industry is still fundamentally built on a model which suited the needs of a world circa fifty years ago, rather than the dynamic, agile, hyper-connected world of 2015. The problem behind this is that individual financial [...]
London can come out on top in the era of job-killing robots September 23, 2015 Scary, scary robots. If you believe the hype, robots are coming for your job, your society and everything you hold dear. A widely publicised report argued that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK could be destroyed by automation and computerisation (which is what “robots” have come to mean in the shorthand of [...]
Why the future of fintech (and financial services) is collaborative September 22, 2015 The UK is fast becoming one of the world’s leading fintech centres. So it was fitting that, last week, investors, consultants, multinationals, startups and entrepreneurs gathered in London’s East End for FinTech Week 2015: an event where attendees could share ideas, network and, most importantly, do business together. The expo focused on how to [...]
Fintech is booming – but where are the insurance tech startups? September 17, 2015 As a technology investor, I spend my days scouring Europe in search of the next big thing. London’s fintech scene has been a profitable hunting ground of late. With the UK fintech industry generating $20bn in revenue annually, it is not surprising that $5.4bn has been invested in British fintech companies since 2010. [...]