Mike Butcher
Editor At Large
The Latest from Mike Butcher
Web3 giant Parity Technologies teams up with Watr over platform to track ethical commodities
As the U.S. and Europe bake in abnormal summer heat, the climate continues to climb up the world’s agenda. With everyone now talking about energy, how commodities are traded is also becoming a talki
Klarna founder to launch new ‘Nobel Prize for Impact’
According to BCG global assets under management are around $100 trillion, but only $715 billion, or less than 1%, goes on what you might term “impact” companies or projects to tackle the w
Digital pensions platform Penfold raises $8.5M Series A led by Bridford Group
Penfold, a digital pensions platform, has closed a £7 million ($8.49 million) Series A funding round led by Bridford Group, an investment group. Also participating in the round was Jeremy Coller, chi
A new ‘institutional angel’ fund is an example of the UK’s continuing ability to innovate in venture
The U.K.’s Enterprise Investment Scheme has been a powerhouse for startups out of the U.K. because it allowed angel investors to invest in a very tax-efficient manner. Launched in 1994, it was desig
With a €43M EU grant and €1.2M from a VC, this startup plans to turn CO2 emissions into gold
The global problem of an over-abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere is ongoing, and a huge area that needs to be addressed, given the amount pumped out by industry. It’s hoped that if carbon dioxide co
How an Armenian startup plans to use a new innovation to tackle the billion-dollar phishing industry
So-called “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance,” or DMARC, is a technical standard that is designed to protect the senders and recipients of email from spam, sp
This startup just raised $320M to make long-term care inside hospitals obsolete
Cera, a U.K. provider of healthcare inside people’s homes augmented by a platform that allows carers to monitor a patient’s health and potentially flag problems, has raised $320 million (£260 mil
How a Romanian medtech startup helped US doctors treat refugee Ukrainian cancer patients
An innovative new medical startup in Romania helped doctors from three countries collaborate to treat Ukrainian cancer patients made refugees after Russia’s brutal invasion. The “Tumor Board” pr
Swvl’s $100M acquisition of Smart Bus startup Zeelo is off, amid tech stocks slump
All is not well with the proposed acquisition of U.K. start bus platform Zeelo by Mass transit group Swvl. Back in April, we covered how a possible $100 million acquisition was on the cards, and, inde
How the problem of hiring healthcare staff has become a fertile ground for startups
The healthcare crisis — more evident now as summer heatwaves put pressure on hospitals — is resulting in a staffing boom. But healthcare professionals in Europe can end up with bad terms and pay d
Here’s why a gold rush of NLP startups is about to arrive
Remember Natural Language Processing? NLP arose several years ago but it was only in 2018 that AI researchers proved it was possible to train a neural network once on a large amount of data and use it
How did this tiny startup put live, moving people into a full-blown 3D landscape instantaneously?
Jumping into a flatpacked, chipboard room wasn’t my usual experience of the U.K.’s legendary Glastonbury Music Festival. But here I was, doing my best to dance around and test out this crazy n
Croatian comms platform Infobip acquires VoIP provider Peerless Network for $200M
Infobip, a cloud communications startup which – like Twillio – handles things like SMS, email, voice and WhatsApp messenger for customer engagement, has completed its acquisition of VoIP p
As Crypto exchanges struggle in a bear market, are hardware wallets about to make a comeback?
The crypto hardware wallet industry, somewhat eclipsed as crypto exchanges gained in popularity, may be due for a gradual comeback. As some centralized crypto exchanges experienced difficulties in ope
Exceptional Ventures joins Europe’s health and wellness gold rush with a new $24M fund
With the after-effect of the pandemic set to play out for years, VCs specializing in health, wellness and general ‘joy’ would appear to have rising fortunes. Funds such as Able Partners and Joyanc
Massage-booking platform Urban responds to reports of alleged sexual assaults by some therapists
Urban, a popular U.K.-based startup that allows customers to find self-employed massage therapists who can be booked to attend customers’ homes, has been named in an investigation into alleged abuse
Look out Putin — Ukrainian woman invents ‘solar for balconies’ to wean Europe off Russian gas
Much has been made of how European countries are, on the one hand, supporting Ukraine in its fight against the heinous and illegal invasion by Russia but at the same time remaining heavily dependent o
Can everdrop scale its plastic-bottle-free cleaning products, as well as build a global brand?
Household cleaning chemicals in the form of a tablet that can be dissolved in water appear to have given rise to a number of startups. As well as Munich-based startup everdrop, there is also Atmo Home
Vektor Partners raises new €125M fund to look specifically at sustainable mobility
Some estimates put the future mobility market at $178.7 billion by 2026, up from $78.1 billion two years ago. And there has been $400 billion worth of investments made into the sector over the past
As Netflix pivots, American attitudes shift to owning digital assets, not just streaming them
On a day when Netflix said it would launch an ad-supported service with Microsoft, it would appear the streaming world may, in fact, be poised to compete in popularity terms, as consumers begin to rea