London Brief #16 — £17.3m funding for AI research.
FinTech companies in and out. Read more in today’s issue.
People
Simon Black, chief executive of PPRO Group, is moving his business to Luxembourg, warning that the FinTech exodus has just begun.
Jim McCarthy, Executive Vice President for Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, had not known about Mr Black’s decision and opened its new innovation centre in Paddington. The centre is the biggest one that Visa owns and is supposed to be the primary hub for its FinTech operations in Europe. London’s deputy mayor for business Rajesh Agrawal is delighted.
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley MP has announced new proposals as part of the government’s Digital Strategy supporting AI sector. There is a funding boost of £17.3m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support the development of new Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (RAI) technologies in universities across the country.
In the news
If you can hardly breathe in your office, it may be that a deadline is looming. Or just air pollution. Nymbly is going to check it out for you using the Things Connected Long Range Wide Area Network as part of Future Cities Catapult IoT initiative.
Digital Fineprint, a startup that converts social media data into insurance profiles, has been selected for MetLife’s Collab Partnership focused on the Asian market. It is another success of the company after joining Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab.
Business as usual
- Ecrebo, a POS marketing startup based in Reading, has secured £12m series B round from Air Miles and Nectar founder Sir Keith Mills and former Warburg Pincus Head of Europe, Joseph Schull.
- Hostmaker, an Airbnb management company, has closed £5m series A funding round led by French venture capital fund Ventech.
- Zappar, an AR app developer, has closed a $3.75m series A round led by Hargreave Hale.
- REalyse, a startup which analyses residential property data, has closed £500,000 seed funding led by Rajiv Nathwani, director of property specialist private finance company Quivira Capital Ltd.
Eye Candy
Acumen Design Associates have been recognised at the London Design Awards 2016. They won an award for their pioneering design work on the geko and firefly wearable devices.
Number of the day
£17,3m: The value of EPSRC funding to support AI and robotics research in the government’s new proposals.
Idea
London Brief is a weekly selection of essential information about startups, technology and the business scene in London. Got news? Give us a shout at londonbrief@netguru.co.
Aleksandra Prejs
On behalf of the London Brief Team
