No Brexit hit: London remains world’s most important fintech hub outside the US June 23, 2021 A newly-published report has shown that London remains the second most active city in the world for fintech, behind San Francisco, but that the fintech space in the rest of the UK is expanding rapidly. London’s fintech space is primarily powered by its thriving ‘challenger bank’ sector, with Brexit and the pandemic having little impact [...]
Revolut revenues surge as firm says it’s on the road to profitability June 22, 2021 Fintech firm Revolut made an adjusted full-year operating loss of £122m last year but a spike in customer numbers, the firm says, means it is on the path to profitability. Customer numbers jumped 45 per cent in the year ending 31 December and the firm’s adjusted revenues surged by 57 per cent to £261m, up [...]
Unicorn nest: UK hits milestone of 100 $1bn tech companies, more than rest of Europe combined June 20, 2021 The UK tech sector has now 100 UK tech companies valued at $1bn or more, according to new data from Dealroom and Tech Nation, shared with Morning Wire this weekend. The UK’s 100th tech unicorn, Tractable, an AI startup building computer vision tools, announced a $60m Series D raise, which takes the company’s valuation to [...]
Terrific Thursday for London IPO market as Wise, Victorian Plumbing, Seraphine, Poolbeg and Voyager Life confirm plans to float June 17, 2021 Fintech firm Wise, bathroom retailer Victorian Plumbing; high end maternity retailer Seraphine, favoured by the Duchess of Cambridge; Dublin-based drug maker Poolbeg and cannabidiol products supplier Voyager Life all revealed plans to float today. Money transfer firm Wise said this morning to join the London Stock Exchange in what could be the biggest UK listing [...]
High demand, low supply: The semiconductor players that dominate the hyperactive microchip space June 14, 2021 Semiconductors power much of the world’s technology, making it possible for families and friends to talk face-to-face from across the ocean or for Wall Street to move billions of pounds in the blink of an eye. And with more applications being produced worldwide, demand for semiconductor devices only continues to grow. The popularity of such [...]
Exclusive: In the office full-time? No thanks, say 86 per cent of tech professionals June 2, 2021 As restrictions continue to lift and companies prepare to bring employees back to the workplace, many workers don’t want to return to the office full-time. Technology professionals are no exception. In fact, 86 per cent of them want a work from home arrangement after the pandemic, according to a survey by tech job market platform [...]
Exclusive: 65 per cent of UK companies plan to increase investments in tech June 1, 2021 Just over 65 per cent of all UK companies plan to increase the amount they spend on IT and new technologies, according to new research, shared exclusively with Morning Wire today. This follows a majority, or 56 per cent, of all UK businesses successfully adopting one or more new technologies since the beginning of the [...]
Exclusive: Meet the former UBS and JPMorgan heavyweights shaking up private banking May 28, 2021 As the economy is slowly switching into recovery gear, activity in the City and beyond is starting to pick up again. That is also the case for Vestrata, a relatively new fintech player that is taking the wealth management and private banking space by storm by bring machine learning and automated risk metrics into the [...]
Crowdfunding: Fintech app Curve rakes in £10m in just 54 hours May 28, 2021 Fintech app Curve has raked in nearly £10m in just 54 hours, in the largest equity raise on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube’s record. A collection of 11,795 investors pushed the equity raise into near double digits, breaking multiple records during Crowdcube’s campaign. Closing at 3pm yesterday, investors raised £9.9m. The fintech app, which connects all bank accounts [...]
Evening Read: Investors sit on record levels of dry powder, says Silicon Valley Bank’s UK boss May 12, 2021 In recent months we have glimpsed potential opportunities for the post-Covid economy: the huge acceleration in technology adoption, both corporate and personal. And that’s good news for London’s technology and innovation space. But to get startups’ ambitious growth plans off the ground and put the pandemic recovery into motion, sources of capital are needed: financing [...]