Samsung Unpacked 2019: Your guide to the launch event as Samsung prepares to unveil Galaxy S10 February 19, 2019 Samsung is gearing up to unveil a spate of new smartphones and wearable gadgets at its Unpacked 2019 event tomorrow night, but several leaks might have taken the wind out of its sails. The South Korean tech giant is expected to launch three new smartphones at a dual launch event in San Francisco and London, [...]
Twitter rolls out political ad tracking tools in Europe ahead of EU elections February 19, 2019 Twitter has launched new tools in Europe to make it easier for users to identify ads paid for by political campaigns, ahead of key elections due in May. The news follows similar moves by fellow social media firm Facebook, as tech platforms prepare to face potential regulation and renewed disinformation efforts from hostile actors. The European [...]
Former Google finance boss to head a venture capital office in London with $600m fund February 19, 2019 Former Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette will lead a venture capital (VC) office in London with Canadian firm Inovia Capital. Inovia, which is also today announcing a $600m (£464.7m) fund for technology startups and entrepreneurs, said the office will back UK companies as well as create opportunities for North American firms to expand across the Atlantic. [...]
Facebook has gambled away the right to regulate its own bad behaviour February 19, 2019 All credit must go to Damian Collins MP and his colleagues at the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee. Their report on fake news, published yesterday, does not pull its punches. Even a cursory read of the text reveals the extent to which Facebook has been operating irresponsibly. As the report makes clear, [...]
UK Space Agency fires £18m into Oneweb for a global communications network in space February 18, 2019 The UK Space Agency has invested £18m into building a new global communications network in space, provided by Softbank-backed London satellite firm Oneweb. Named Project Sunrise, the system will initially be comprised of around 650 satellites, before expanding to more than 900 satellites over time. While on a visit to the European Space Agency today, science [...]
Softbank plugs $200m into European-focused Abu Dhabi tech fund February 18, 2019 Japanese investment giant Softbank is said to have stumped up half of the cash for Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala's new $400m (£309.5m) fund for European tech startups. Mubadala, which has conversely contributed around $15bn to Softbank's $100bn Vision Fund, said last week that its venture arm would be launching the $400m tech fund this year. The move will involve a number of Mubadala's [...]
Berlin banking tech startup behind N26 and Oaknorth nabs €30m from Skype-backer Bessemer February 18, 2019 Software-as-a-service startup Mambu, which provides banking rails to the likes of N26 and Oaknorth, has raised €30m (£26.3m) from the world's oldest venture capital firm. Bessemer Venture Partners, which has backed the likes of Skype, Linkedin and Pinterest, led the round with participation also coming from Acton Capital, the venture arm of Commerzbank, Point Nine Capital [...]
Meet the startups tapped by John Lewis & Partners in its experiential retail accelerator February 18, 2019 John Lewis & Partners has lined up six startups for its Jlab innovation programme, after more than 160 businesses applied to its experiential technology accelerator. A panel of judges heard pitches from 11 startups earlier this month, offering up new ways to navigate stores from a mobile phone or interact with digital screens without needing [...]
Twitter is great, just don’t make an Elon Musk-sized mistake February 18, 2019 Despite a staggering $20m personal fine from the US finance watchdog the SEC and the loss of his chairmanship at Tesla for an errant tweet, we learned last week that Elon Musk’s 280-character updates have won the approval of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, aka @Jack. “He’s focused on solving existential problems and sharing his thinking [...]
It’s search and rescue time for the future of marketing February 18, 2019 Search marketing is all about making your brand easy to find on the internet. It accounts for half of all UK digital ad spend, and is worth over £3.1bn. Given all that, you’d expect that marketing degrees would devote some course time to this subject. However, it’s pretty shocking that none of the UK’s top [...]
