O2 owner Telefonica UK chief executive Ronan Dunne is leaving the company July 15, 2016 O2 boss Ronan Dunne has announced he is leaving the company after 15 years with the group, eight of which were spent at the helm. Dunne will step down from the board of O2 owner Telefonica UK, a subsidiary of Spain's Telefonica, on 31 July. He will be replaced by finance chief Mark Evans, who joined the group in January [...]
Nintendo and Niantic’s smash hit Pokemon Go to be rolled out in 200 markets July 15, 2016 Pokemon Go has pushed games giant Nintendo's share price up 86 per cent in just over one week. The firm's share price surged by 10 per cent on Friday – setting a record in daily trading for an individual stock on the Tokyo exchange. [charts-share-price id="354"] The game has so far been launched in the [...]
Let’s not be spoilsports and crush Pokemon Go July 15, 2016 It was a story that gripped the nation for weeks. Unexpected twists and turns meant no one was sure what would happen next. But yesterday, after what seemed like an inordinately long wait, Britons were rewarded for their patience. No, it was nothing to do with Theresa May: Pokemon Go finally launched in the UK. The game, [...]
Pokemon Go has already shot to the top of the UK app charts July 14, 2016 It's finally arrived…. Pokemon Go has officially become available in the UK on Android and iOS And within around half an hour, nearly half a million people had already downloaded the game on Android phones and before the end of the day had shot to the top of the app stores. The hit game from the [...]
The biggest tech IPO of the year is here – and Line popped July 14, 2016 The biggest tech IPO of the year is here, as Line goes public in a dual listing on the Tokyo and New York stock exchanges. The Japanese messaging firm is the sixth most used messaging app in the world, boasting 218m users. Priced at $32.84, shares popped nearly 30 per cent, opening at $42 per share [...]
A beginners guide for reluctant Pokemon Go players July 14, 2016 Come with me on a journey through time and space….. to a world where some grown-ups are more concerned with small cartoon characters than with the state of UK politics (perhaps understandably so). You may have heard the hype around Pokemon Go and wondered what it's all about. Should you get involved? Do you have enough time in your [...]
It’s a myth that VCs and crowdfunding platforms are at war. If you’re raising money, your focus should be on the following July 14, 2016 As equity crowdfunding evolves, the view is that there’s a war underway between venture capitalists and platforms targeting retail investors – as both vye for the best deals. But in reality, the scene remains peaceful. As a VC firm, we view crowdfunding as a complementary finance channel that can find additional and strategic capital for appropriate [...]
How are the alternative finance industry and the $1.6 trillion wealth management market approaching each other? July 14, 2016 If you use an independent financial adviser or wealth manager, they’ve probably never mentioned P2P lending. This might seem strange: there’s been a lot of talk of how the peer-to-peer industry is “moving mainstream”, and volumes reflect that. In 2015, the online alternative finance industry in the UK grew to £3.2bn – an 84 per [...]
How artificial intelligence, peer-to-peer technology and blockchain are changing the insurance industry forever July 14, 2016 Just as fintech is transforming the banking world, “insurtech” has set its sights on the insurance industry. There are firms like Trov, which provides insurance on-demand and enables consumers to catalogue insured belongings. Buzzmove uses home removals data to create a new distribution model for insurance – people are more likely to renew or buy [...]
EU slaps more antitrust charges on Google July 14, 2016 The EU's move against US tech companies when it comes to competition has continued today as the Commission accused Google of further breaches of anti-trust laws. Two further charges have been set out against the search giant by competition chief Margrethe Vestager and claim Google abused its dominant position by "systematically favouring its comparison shopping [...]