News
Innovate Finance, the UK's independent industry body for FinTech, has launched its FinTech for Schools initiative. The focus for this is inspiring the next generation of FinTech leaders and developing the ambitions of young people in terms of innovation in financial services.
The FinTech for Schools campaign is designed to encourage young people to understand the increasing importance of digital skills in the workplace, with an emphasis on ensuring the sector is as appealing to girls as it is to boys. It has been shown that by 10 years old, children already have a strong sense of identity of what they can and cannot do. Inspiring young girls, by providing them with a wide variety of role models from diverse backgrounds and skill sets, is a vital first step in creating a new model to deliver real change in terms of diversity.
FinTech is a fast growing sector and so it is increasingly important to approach students to provide them with the education and guidance which will help them to make the right decisions which will enable them to enter the industry.
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Playfair Capital, a UK seed investor, has raised a $32 million fund that will allow it to continue investing in promising early-stage tech startups.
The VC firm was started in 2013 by Federico Pirzio-Biroli, who is the new fund’s sole LP, and it is an early investor in companies including Stripe, Ravelin, Thought Machine, CryptoFacilities and Mapillary.
The firm is focusing on early-stage companies across all sectors, but specifically deep tech — e.g. artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision — and B2B SaaS and marketplaces, which have worked well for Playfair in the past.
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According to research by Volterra Partners government-led digital tax initiatives, such as Making Tax Digital (MTD), could boost the UK economy by £6.9 billion a year, or £46 billion over a five-year period.
It said companies may struggle at first with adjusting to the new tax laws, but after the first hurdle it should streamline the process as they apply new digital tools which will help them adapt to the changing demands.
MTD will have the biggest impact on sole traders, with an average annual gain of £1,900.
The biggest gains will be for businesses in London and the south-east, whilst the manufacturing and retail sectors will be the most positively affected verticals in the UK.
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Tessian, a cybersecuity startup based in London, has successfully raised $42 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital. Other firms that participated in the round include Latitude, Balderton Capital, and Accel.
The company was founded in 2013 and originally known as CheckRecipient. It applies machine learning to enterprise email security in order to eliminate threats such as spear phishing and misdirected emails. The way it does that is by analysing the historical email data and then looking for anomalies in communications going forwards. Tessian’s mission is to help organisations protect people processing data using technology that empowers, rather than restricts the way they work.
Tessian will use the new funds to grow its team and expand its product line.
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Klarna, an online Swedish payments firm, has issued shares in a bid to increase funds from existing investors. It is intending to raise 1bn Swedish krona, equivalent to £82m. Klarna will also launch a larger external fundraising round later in the year.
The fintech company received an investment of $2.5bn in January from rapper Snoop Dogg and this was accompanied by a marketing campaign in which he rebrands himself as Smoooth Dogg. This has helped to increase the presence of the Swedish company.
Klarna acquired a Swedish banking license last year and this, alongside the new funds, will help it to expand into several new countries in 2019.
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Levi Strauss & Co., the American clothing company famed for its denim jeans, has appointed Katia Walsh as its senior vice president and chief strategy and artificial intelligence officer.
The creation of the role marks the shift of companies to focusing on the AI side of tech, as major developments are happening within the fashion and retail industries. Recent developments including improving customer service, offering product personalization as well as changing the way shoppers pay.
In the last few years companies have been expanding their executive team with roles that focus primarily on digital and data initiatives, however Walsh's position may by the first to specifically highlight AI.
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Experian, the consumer credit reporting company, has decided to stop its plan to acquire ClearScore for £275 million due to pressure from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
ClearScore is a UK firm that offers free credit checks for consumers and has over six million customers. Experian had expressed its intention to acquire the company back in March 2018.
The reason the CMA raised doubts about the merger is that it believed it could have a negative impact on competition with the sector.
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Farfetch and Harrods, two of the biggest companies in luxury retail - the former online and the latter in bricks-and-mortar, are teaming up as Farfetch will be the department store’s global commerce platform provider.
This follows a series of successful announcements for Farfetch including partnering with Burberry, acquiring Browns, CuriosityChina and Stadium Goods, as well as its earlier absorption of Condé Nast’s Style.com e-tail operation.
Harrods will use Farfetch Black & White Solutions for e-commerce management as well as support for operations, technical and international logistics. This will allow Harrods to offer an online experience to match that of their customers visiting the store.
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Accurx, a London-based messaging service that allows doctors to communicate with their patients, has raised £8.8m in Series A funding. The round was led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe and Entrepreneur First.
The startup provides Chain SMS, which can be used by GPs, practice managers, admin and reception staff to message patients with regards to prescription reminders, booking appointments, leaving messages, notifying them of normal test results as well as advice.
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Gocardless, a fintech firm, has successfully raised £58.1m in Series E funding. The round was led by new investors Adam Street Partners and the venture capital arms of Google and Salesforce.
The core focus of the company is improving the way businesses collect invoices and make recurring payments by building debit technology on top of existing banking systems.
According to Gocardless, it processes around $10bn worth of payments each year, and has seen a 500% revenue uplift from customers outside of the UK since 2017.
The London-based startup will use the funding to expand into new countries, and is considering opening offices in Spain and the US later this year.
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