United Kingdom
The latest startup and technology news coming out of the United Kingdom.
Vaire Computing raises $4.5M for ‘reversible computing’ moonshot which could drastically reduce energy needs
Vaire Computing, based in London and Seattle, is betting that chips that can do reversible computing are going to be the way forward for the world.
Amazon hit with fresh class action-style suit in UK — $3.4B in competition damages sought for 200,000+ sellers
Amazon is facing another competition lawsuit in the U.K. The latest claim, which was filed Thursday, is seeking more than £2.7 billion in damages — or around $3.4 billion at…
PQShield secures $37M more for ‘quantum resistant’ cryptography
Malicious hacking is getting increasingly sophisticated, and that’s leading to a very clear trend in security technology. To keep people and organizations safe, security also has to continue improving. Security…
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Raspberry Pi is now a public company
Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate.
Deal Dive: Human Native AI is building the marketplace for AI training licensing deals
AI systems and large language models (LLMs) need to be trained on massive amounts of data to be accurate but they shouldn’t train on data that they don’t have the…
The British retailers association also takes aim at Amazon’s “Buy Box,” claiming that Amazon manipulated which retailers were selected for the coveted placement.
Sirion, now valued around $1B, acquires Eigen as consolidation comes to enterprise AI tooling
There’s a lot of buzz about generative AI and what impact it might have on businesses. But look beyond the hype and high-profile deals like the one between OpenAI and…
UK neobank Monzo reports first full (pre-tax) profit, prepares for EU expansion with Dublin hub
Monzo has announced its 2024 financial results, revealing its first full-year pre-tax profit. The company also confirmed that it’s in the early stages of expanding into the broader European market…
‘Pro-competition’ rules for Big Tech make it through UK’s pre-election wash-up
The U.K. will shortly get its own rulebook for Big Tech, after peers in the House of Lords agreed Thursday afternoon to pass the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer bill…
Bugcrowd, the crowdsourced white-hat hacker platform, acquires Informer to ramp up its security chops
On the heels of raising $102 million earlier this year, Bugcrowd is making good on its promise to use some of that funding to make acquisitions to strengthen its security…
In Seoul summit, heads of states and companies commit to AI safety
Government officials and AI industry executives agreed on Tuesday to apply elementary safety measures in the fast-moving field and establish an international safety research network. Nearly six months after the…
UK data protection watchdog ends privacy probe of Snap’s GenAI chatbot, but warns industry
The U.K.’s data protection watchdog has closed an almost year-long investigation of Snap’s AI chatbot, My AI — saying it’s satisfied the social media firm has addressed concerns about risks…
Vitesse, a payments and treasury management platform for insurers, raises $93M to fuel US expansion
London-based fintech Vitesse has closed a $93 million Series C round of funding led by investment giant KKR.
The AI Safety Institute, a U.K. body that aims to assess and address risks in AI platforms, has said it will open a second location in San Francisco.
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Microsoft dodges UK antitrust scrutiny over its Mistral AI stake
Microsoft won’t be facing antitrust scrutiny in the U.K. over its recent investment into French AI startup Mistral AI.
Embedded finance is still trendy as accounting automation startup Ember partners with HSBC UK
Ember has partnered with HSBC in the U.K. so that the bank’s business customers can access Ember’s services from their online accounts.
CoreWeave, a $19B AI compute provider, opens European HQ in London with plans for 2 UK data centers
CoreWeave has formally opened an office in London that will serve as its European headquarters and home to two new data centers.
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UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS
The ransomware attack that has engulfed U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and its tech subsidiary Change Healthcare is a data privacy nightmare for millions of U.S. patients, with CEO Andrew Witty confirming this week that it may impact as much as one-third of the country. But it should also…
Devastated by his videos being posted to a porn site, this founder hit on an AI startup idea
Dan Purcell, the founder and CEO of Ceartas, recalls feeling devastated when he realized that a former partner had, unbeknownst to him, uploaded private, intimate videos of them onto a…
Solo GP fund Andrena Ventures hopes to carry startup talent onto its next challenges
Gideon Valkin’s solo VC firm Andrena Ventures is raising $12 million from backers, including several VCs and entrepreneurs, and made its first investment into AI startup Nustom.
OpenAI inks strategic tie-up with UK’s Financial Times, including content use
OpenAI, maker of the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, has netted another news licensing deal in Europe, adding London’s Financial Times to a growing list of publishers it’s paying for content…
London’s first defense tech hackathon brings Ukraine war closer to the city’s startups
Last week, the U.K. announced its largest ever military support package for Ukraine. The bill brings the U.K.’s total support for this financial year to £3 billion — not quite…
Watch it and weep (or smile): Synthesia’s AI video avatars now feature emotions
Its latest version features avatars that provide more emotion, better lip tracking, and what Synthesia says are more expressive natural and human movements when they are fed text to generate…
European police chiefs target E2EE in latest demand for ‘lawful access’
The director general of the UK’s National Crime Agency has targeted Meta over its planned expansion of end-to-end encryption to Instagram.
Seraphim Space launches second VC fund with 9 investments already under its belt
Following its first close with limited partners, including Eutelsat, the early-stage fund will build a global portfolio of 30 startups that will be backed at the seed and Series A…
TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK
TikTok Shop, TikTok’s social commerce marketplace, is launching a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., putting it in closer competition with The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari, among…
Internet users are getting younger; now the UK is weighing up if AI can help protect them
Artificial intelligence has been in the crosshairs of governments over how it might be misused for fraud, disinformation and other malicious online activity. Now, a U.K. regulator wants to explore…
UK’s antitrust enforcer sounds the alarm over Big Tech’s grip on GenAI
The UK’s competition watchdog, the CMA, has sounded a warning over Big Tech’s grip on the advanced AI market, with CEO Sarah Cardell expressing “real concerns” over how the sector is…
Uber Eats courier’s fight against AI bias shows justice under UK law is hard won
On Tuesday, the BBC reported that Uber Eats courier Pa Edrissa Manjang, who is Black, had received a payout from Uber after “racially discriminatory” facial recognition checks prevented him from…
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The UK threw a splashy event in New York this week to woo more American VCs
U.K. officials unveiled a hologram statue and threw a big party to celebrate the U.K. as the third $1 trillion tech economy.
