Yesterday I caught up with Tom Blomfield, co-founder and CEO of ‘challenger’ bank Monzo. The startup is building a digital-only bank, or “smart bank,” as Blomfield calls it, and last August was granted a UK banking licence ‘with restrictions’ by the UK regulators FCA and PRA, as it prepares to launch a full current account […]
Baidu is furthering its push into artificial intelligence after it announced the acquisition of Raven Tech, a Chinese startup that developed an AI voice assistant platform. Baidu confirmed it has bought the startup’s tech, product and staff of 60. The deal comes a month after Baidu hired noted AI expert Qi Lu, formerly with Microsoft, as […]
London and Copenhagen-based fintech startup Pleo, which offers a card and app to manage company expenses, has closed an additional $3.25 million in funding. The round was led by European VC firm Creandum, with participation from pre-seed and seed investor Seedcamp, and previous backer Founders. Launched officially in July 2016, Pleo consists of the Pleo […]
Disney has cut ties with YouTube’s most popular star after he posted a series of videos featuring anti-Semitic clips and messages. PewDiePie has 53 million subscribers on YouTube, is part of original content network YouTube Red, and is affiliated with Disney’s MakerStudios brand, where he has his own network. But that latter relationship is now over after […]
Uber is beginning to map roads in Asia for the first time as it aims to improve its service in the region. The company said today that it has deployed mapping cars in Singapore, the first such country in Asia, in a bid to gather information that can improve its service for both drivers and […]
It seems like a fair trade: Get your favorite mobile apps for free, be shown annoying ads in return. But that’s not all you’re doing in return. In reality, this trade has you giving up a great deal of personal information. Mobile apps collect a massive amount of personal data — your location, your online […]
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Today’s Stories Twitter’s advertising business is stalling Zenefits is laying off 45% of its workforce Airbnb is buying Luxury Retreats for around $200M Facebook can now replace your weather app The Analogue Nt Mini is the perfect NES console for video game lovers Credits Written and hosted by: Anthony Ha Edited by: Joe Zolnoski Filmed […]
Nokia, once the world’s biggest handset maker, really wants the world to know that it’s a software company now. And today it made a big acquisition to that end: it is buying Comptel, a company that specialises in building software-based mobile data communications solutions for carriers. Comptel’s software is today in use by more than 300 […]
Earlier this week smart TV maker Vizio settled an FTC charge for nefariously collecting of data from its customers, but that isn’t deterring China’s LeEco from completing a $2 billion acquisition of the company. Back in July 2016, LeEco announced a surprise $2 billion deal to buy Vizio and thus further expand its business empire, which […]