Mike Butcher
Mike Butcher is the Editor-At-Large of TechCrunch. Mike is also involved in a project to bring European technology entrepreneurs and investors together in a club environment called TechHub, in London initially.
A long time journalist, Mike has written for U.K. national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. He is a former editor of New Media Age magazine, the leading new media weekly in the UK, and the European edition of The Industry Standard magazine.
Since 1996 he has launched numerous media web sites and in 2000 he was nominated as NetMedia's European Internet Journalist of the Year. In 2004 he was voted ""One of the 100 Innovators of the UK Internet Decade"" by GfK NOP, the fourth-largest custom research business in the world. In July 2008 he was put at No. 47 out of the Top 100 people in London's creative industry by The Independent newspaper and The Hospital Club. In August 2008 TechCrunch Europe was awarded the best ""Web 2.0 and business blog"" in the U.K., by the readers of Computer Weekly magazine. In 2009 it was named as one of the Top 10 blogs out of the U.K.
Also in 2009 he was named one of the Top 10 bloggers on Twitter in the U.K. In October 2009 he was named one of the Top 50 most influential Britons in technology by The Daily Telegraph. In April 2010 he was named as one of Britain's Top 100 ""digital power-brokers"" by Wired UK magazine. In November 2010 he was named as one of London's most influential people in New Media and ""king of dotcom commentators"" by The Evening Standard Newspaper. In February he was listed as one of the Top 100 most influential people on Twitter in the UK. He has spoken at the prestigious Monaco Media Forum and Le Web, among many other conferences. Mike is a regular commentator on the technology business, appearing on BBC News, Sky News, Channel 4, and Bloomberg.
CrunchBase profile →Featured Picks from Mike Butcher
Latest from Mike Butcher
-
Borrowing From Snapchat’s Playbook, Curated Film Platform MUBI Raises $15M
MUBI, the global curated film streaming service, has closed a new $15 million funding round, bringing the total amount it’s raised so far to $20 million. Meanwhile, MUBI launched a few days ago on PlayStation 4, after being on PlayStation 3. It’s had over 5.5 million downloads to date, and makes MUBI now available in 43 territories. It’s also been confirmed as launch partners… Read More
-
Social Influence Startup PeerIndex Acquired By Brandwatch in Cash/Shares Deal
After raising $22 million in May this year, UK-based social media monitoring startup Brandwatch has clearly been hunting around for arrows to add to its quiver. Its gaze has alighted on another UK startup, PeerIndex: Brandwatch has bought PeerIndex, a specialist in social influencer mapping, in what is its first acquisition. Terms of the deal were undisclosed but TechCrunch understands it… Read More
-
Palringo Hits 35M Users Globally After Sticking To Chat Inside Mobile Games
You might been forgiven for having slightly forgotten about Palringo, an early messaging app founded in 2006 which later became associated with the gaming community. But it’s been building out from humble beginnings and today announces it’s hit 35 million users globally, and is now used by more than 350,000 user groups. This stands in marked contrast to the giants of WhatsApp and… Read More
-
Snap Fashion Extends Its Visual Search Engine App Into Men’s Clothes
London fashion startup Snap Fashion has extended its discovery platform into a visual search engine for men’s clothes. The fashion app is available on Google Play and Apple iTunes. Snap’s visual algorithms were invented and coded by 27-year-old founder Jenny Griffiths, while completing a Master’s degree in Computer Science. She says: “We wanted to create a brand that… Read More
-
ParcelBright Raises $1M To Make Business Shipping Simpler And Cheaper
UK-based parcel delivery startup ParcelBright has raised $1 million in a late seed funding round to power its service which is attempting to shake up the parcel delivery market for small to medium sized e-commerce businesses. Investors included Forward Partners, Talis Capital, Avonmore Developments and Howzat Partners. Read More
-
Automatic Music Generator Jukedeck Wins Le Web Startup Competition
As per usual the Le Web startup competition has been showcasing a smorgasbord of Europe’s hottest startups this week, and three stood out for the judges. But out of Easysize, Naturalcycles and Jukedeck, it was Jukedeck that won the top prize in the end. London-based JukeDeck has received a small seed funding round for its platform which literally composes original music based on a… Read More
-
Judge Shuts Down Uber In Spain, Pending Taxi Association Court Action
We might be at the point of losing count of the number of places Uber is being shut down at this point. Now, after a series of protests by taxi associations in Spain, a Madrid judge has ordered ride-sharing app Uber to cease all activities as of today. The judge accepted the ‘cautionary measures’ put forward by the Madrid Taxi Association, pending a future court case the… Read More
-
Humin Contacts App Launches On Android, Expands Support To Canada And Europe
Since fully launching in August this year Humin, the app that aims to replace your iPhone contacts app, has garnered a number of favourable reviews. This is in large part because it handles contacts in the way that you might. Humin gathers data from your phone, Facebook and LinkedIn contacts and combines them with your calendar, email and voicemail to provide context to your contacts. And… Read More
-
Telegram Claims 50M Monthly Active Users, Seems To Be Attracting Teams
Telegram, the messaging app startup created by a team headed by Pavel Durov (who created VK.com), has hit some major numbers, according to a blog post by the company today. It now claims to have over 50 million monthly active users, sending 1 billion messages daily. This is after only 16 months of operation and no marketing spend. Further more, the startup has revealed to TechCrunch that it… Read More
-
Recruitment Platform Intern Avenue To Roll Out Across Europe With Vodafone
Intern Avenue is a startup which matches college undergraduates/graduates searching for paid internships with employers by using a data-based scoring system. To date, around 2,000 employers and 40,000 intern applicants have registered with the service in the UK. But it’s now secured a major distribution deal with Vodafone Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the telecoms giant, to expand… Read More
-
Wonderloop Attracts Investment From One Of Africa’s Wealthiest Magnates
Tony O. Elumelu, one of Africa’s wealthiest magnates (who recently launched a $100 million program to support entrepreneurship in Africa) is understood to have put an undisclosed sum into Silicon Valley-based mobile startup Wonderloop. Prior to this, Wonderloop had raised $500,000 in seed funding and received $100,000 from Innovation Norway. Heirs Holdings, a Lagos based proprietary… Read More
-
Datasift Unveils New Conversation Feature, Guns for a $500M Valuation
Datasift has come a long way. It’s now at 135 people (is aiming for 200 people next year), is poised to open a London Office (it’s actually been based just outside London all this time), and has raised nearly $80m in venture. TechCrunch understands that it’s soon raising series D at a valuation of near on $500 million. It’s now unveiled a new product called Vedo Focus. Read More
-
Uber Hires A Mobile Team In Amsterdam To Staff A New Mobile Dev Shop In The City
In between raising more money, fighting Lyft and regulators, and denying it will investigate journalists, Uber’s global expansion continues. To spearhead its mobile growth, Uber is setting up a mobile development shop in Amsterdam, led by one of its earliest employees and staffed by a set of new hires: a team of Dutch developers who originally worked on Uber’s Spotify… Read More
-
London’s Mayor And Six Tech Investors Launch $133M Fund For City’s Startups
A new venture capital fund for startups has been launched by the mayor of London, aiming to boost the city’s already burgeoning startup scene. The new London Co-Investment Fund will be supported by £25 million from the mayor’s office and up to £60 million from six private-sector partners, so £85 million or $133 million in total. Applications for funding will open on 4th… Read More
-
London’s Containerville Is A Startup Office Built Out Of…. Shipping Containers
We’ve seen some pretty weird startup spaces in our time, but not often in shipping containers. Containerville, which has just launched in London, is an unusual take on startup offices. Some 30 shipping containers have been arranged over two floors, “up-cycled” into modern work spaces, just by the Regents Canal. Each container can accommodate up to eight desks, with each… Read More
-
Landbay Secures $2.35M From Omni For Its Buy-To-Let P2P Lending Platform
We covered the launch of Landbay in April and it’s since gone on to bring the peer-to-peer lending model to buy-to-rent mortgages, among a raft of other competitors piling into this space. The idea is that it offers lenders more attractive returns compared to banks. Read More
-
TC Cribs: Pact Coffee’s London Office Is As Fresh As Its Coffee
Pact Coffee is on a mission to become a daily habit for Brits, with a tech-driven startup that can deliver the freshest coffee available, shipping within seven days of roasting. Pact has also gone for super-awesome customer service, going above and beyond the call of duty, Zappos-style. Read More
-
Apploud Is Like An Instagram For Live Music Where Musicians Get Paid
Musicians have a need to perform, whether it’s a subway platform or a stage. But they also need money to create their art. Street musicians get tips. But what if you allowed more people to view the performances beyond who are in front of the musicians at that moment? appLOUD is a new startup with a clever new app. Think of it as an instagram video feed of live music only, no food shots… Read More
-
Fatmap Raises Seed Funding For Its Detailed 3D Mapping Engine And Ski App
3D maps come into their own in the great outdoors, so you have 3D mapping apps like the Maps 3D app which tracks you as you bike, hike or ski. But others are taking this area more seriously, and want to attack the market more aggressively. Today, London-based Terrascope has raised £300,000 ($470k) in seed funding to create what it aims to be the most detailed digital maps possible with… Read More
-
Bio-Fuel Powered Electric Triplane Launches On Kickstarter
We thought Triplanes disappeared after World War One. But a new startup aims to bring them back in a new hybrid electric aircraft, powered by biofuel. FaradAir is now raising money on Kickstarter to achieve its initial funding goals for its plane. The Bio-Electric-Hybrid-Aircraft or BEHA for short, aims to be the world’s first ‘Hybrid’ eco-friendly aircraft, but won’t… Read More
