Rising star Dufrain gets City vote of confidence as private equity investor PEP checks in with fresh cash July 18, 2022 Data management and analytics firm Dufrain confirmed this morning it has agreed fresh funding from Phoenix Equity Partners, a private equity investor in medium-sized UK companies. The cash will be used to fuel the next stage of its growth as part of a management buyout, the firm said. Dufrain has so far delivered year-on-year revenue [...]
Marks & Spencer pushes further into tech as high street giant extends 15-year old pact with Flooid July 18, 2022 UK high street retailer Marks & Spencer confirmed this morning it has extended its agreement with Flooid for the provision of store point-of-sale and unified commerce platform basket services for up to another five years. Flooid, formerly PCMS Group, agreed with Marks & Spencer in 2007 to supply software to run point-of-sale and self-checkouts across [...]
UK and South Korea to cooperate in space amid growing militarisation July 17, 2022 The UK and South Korea have agreed to cooperate in space, signalling continued steps towards forging a global framework for peaceful and sustainable activity in Earth’s orbit. The deal will see both countries share space-related discoveries, operational knowledge, training and personnel exchanges, as space becomes increasingly commercialised and militarised. “Space is critical to our security, [...]
From translations to chatbots: The future has arrived as UK firms rush to implement artificial intelligence July 17, 2022 It seems the future is knocking as more and more UK businesses are actively looking to implement artificial intelligence, with solutions such as speech recognition, machine translations, chatbots and sentiment analysis being the key drivers. Many businesses are opting to take a low- or no-code approach to implementing artificial intelligence solutions into their operations, according [...]
Pharma giant has another PCR test approved amid massive blow to Covid-19 revenue July 15, 2022 Covid-19 test maker Novacyt has had another PCR test approved for use in the UK, just a week after a damning trading update signalled the need to diversify its portfolio. The London-listed firm, which operates in both the UK and Paris, said the new test removes the need for manual extraction, which it hopes will [...]
Taiwanese iPhone maker confirms over £670m stake in ailing Chinese chip firm July 15, 2022 Taiwanese iPhone manufacturer Foxconn has confirmed today it has bought a considerable stake in China’s top chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup, after media speculation earlier in the week. Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, said it had bought a 17.8 per cent stake in the beleaguered chip firm, in an investment it added is [...]
UK risks losing life science firms to the EU with sluggish medicine approvals July 15, 2022 The UK is falling behind the European Union (EU) in approving new medicines, which could be the first step in life science firms picking up and moving over to the mainland. The UK’s medicines regulator typically approves novel medicines around a month slower than its EU counterpart, research by Imperial College London has found. Lead [...]
UK data watchdog plots regulation that cuts shackles of the EU regime July 14, 2022 The UK's data protection watchdog laid out its three-year strategy to safeguard the information rights and depart from the shackles of the EU's GDPR framework.
Amazon hopes to dodge EU fine by making changes to ‘anti-competitive’ practices July 14, 2022 Amazon has told EU antitrust regulators that it is willing to halt online-selling practices deemed as anti-competitive, in a bid to bat away two investigations. The tech titan could face a heavy fine if the investigations continue, with new EU restrictions set to target the marketing practices used by Amazon from next year. Now, the [...]
Lithium batteries are the ‘new oil’ as Panasonic unveils $4bn gigafactory July 14, 2022 The demand for lithium batteries, key components in electric vehicles (EVs), have skyrocketed in recent months – with onlookers, including Elon Musk, saying they are the new oil. Japanese tech giant Panasonic secured approval for a $4bn (£3.3bn) battery plant on Wednesday night, in a bid to keep up with demand from EV makers. Panasonic [...]