Atom Bank secures £113m in new funding for app-only lender February 28, 2017 App-only Atom Bank has succeeded in raising more money as part of a £250m funding round, as it races to secure market share in the newest front in the battle for banking customers. The fintech start-up will receive £113m in investments from Spanish bank BBVA, as well as investment funds Toscafund and Woodford Investment Management, [...]
HMD talks bringing back the Nokia 3310. Could other classic phones be next? February 28, 2017 Mobile World Congress is all about the latest technology, so it was with some surprise among nearly all the top tech and telecoms executives that it was a so-called dumb phone from the early noughties which basically won the event But could the classic Nokia 3310 feature phone (with addictive game Snake, naturally) be just [...]
Uber: TfL’s new English test rules could cut the number of private hire drivers in London by 33,000 February 28, 2017 The number of private hire drivers in London could be cut by 33,000 if new rules requiring all them to complete a written English test are introduced, Uber has claimed Figures suggest as many as 28 per cent of minicab drivers could lose their licence by 2020 – while another 37,000 new applicants to be [...]
These are the UK’s 17 fastest growing cities for tech jobs (spoiler – London’s missed the top spot) February 28, 2017 Looking for a job in tech? It might not be worth sticking around the capital – a new report has suggested the place to be could be Bournemouth. TheCityUK's Enabling Growth Across the UK report, which looks at how finance hubs outside London can flourish, shows London is no longer the UK's fastest-growing tech hub. In [...]
Google Home is about to launch in the UK February 28, 2017 Hey Google! Google Home, the smart home speaker launched by the tech giant last year, is about to become available in the UK. The voice controlled assistant powered by artificial intelligence and which is a rival to the Amazon Echo is scheduled to be available for UK buyers in the second quarter of the year, it's been [...]
Droning on: How drones are transforming marketing February 28, 2017 From publicity stunts to epic and cost-effective aerial photography, marketers are getting increasingly creative with how they use drone technology. Prior to the rise in camera-equipped drones in recent years aerial photography was restricted to those who could afford helicopter support. All that has changed. As Morning Wire reported last year, the drone [...]
What we want from the government’s long-awaited digital strategy February 28, 2017 The tech industry on both sides of the Atlantic has been united in opposition to restrictive immigration policies, with advocates, entrepreneurs and investors making it clear that access to talent is crucial to building a healthy technology ecosystem. But a global tech sector also requires access to home-grown talent, and a system of training and [...]
Carmakers must embrace Big Tech to survive the coming revolution February 28, 2017 Merger plans for Europe’s car manufacturers have dominated headlines in recent weeks, not least because of the threat they pose to UK and wider European car jobs. Combine this with Brexit jitters and concerns about overcapacity, and you might view our industry with a “glass half empty” attitude. And this is even before you contemplate [...]
Tech entrepreneurs may be over confident about their chances of success February 27, 2017 Tech entrepreneurs are more positive about their prospects for growth compared to the rest of the market, according to a poll of owner-managers and entrepreneurs by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group. Three quarters (74 per cent) of tech entrepreneurs and business leaders forecast growth in 2017. In the wider entrepreneurial [...]
Blockchain for banks is a “long way off” says influential central banker February 27, 2017 Blockchain fintech has a “long way to go” to satisfy financial regulators, according to an influential board member of the European Central Bank (ECB). Benoit Coeure said the underlying distributed ledger technology could pose new risks to the financial system, including legal and operational obstacles. Coeure said: “Distributed technology could become a game-changer for payment, [...]