Brent Hoberman

These four iconic European founders plan to kick the asses of VCs who never started a company

Until recently, Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Wise, and Sten Tamkivi, co-founder of Teleport, had banded together as a sort of “mini Angel brand” known as “Taavet+Sten.” Tamkivi has done arou

This UK startup got $9M so you’ll pay it to shrink your household bills

The UK’s cost of living crisis has been making grim headlines for months — with no respite in sight. Just this week, newspapers reported that inflation had hit 5.5%, a 30-year high, furthe

Framework raises $2M seed to create an ‘on-demand business school’ aimed at startups

Business education is, let’s face it, finding it hard to keep up with a $3 trillion global tech startup economy that’s booming right now. High-growth companies are time-starved and so are thei

Wayve, the lidar-free self-driving startup, raises $13.6M from Ocado

Wayve, a U.K.-based self-driving startup that is notable for its use of deep learning and cameras rather than more-costly lidar and other sensors to guide vehicles, is gearing up for its next stage of

Food robotics startup Karakuri unveils automated canteen, plus $8.4M investment led by firstminute

Last week I witnessed for myself how a new kind of robot really could — as sci-fi has been telling us for many years — create and serve us food. Today, Karakuri, a food robotics startup, unveils i

Study launched into how startups will return to offices — will WFH continue?

A comprehensive study into how startups will work in the future, in the wake of the global COVID-9 pandemic, has been launched by UK non-profit Founders Forum. The initiative comes in the wake of a nu

COVID-hit UK startups cry out for help, as UK gov trails Europe in its response

The UK government is reportedly looking at a range of options to support the startup industry, possibly involving a co-investment model involving state-owned funds (via the British Business Bank) and

New Vector scores $8.5M to plug more users into its open, decentralized messaging Matrix

New Vector, a European startup founded in 2017 by the creators of an open, decentralized communications standard called Matrix to drive adoption and grow an ecosystem around an alternative messaging p

The winners of The Europas Awards 2019 display Europe’s continuing diversity and ambition

The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups came around again last week (Thursday 27th June), and once again proved that Europe’s enormous diversity in startups continues to shine through on t

Vote now in #TheEuropas Awards to find its hottest startups, and join Europe’s key players

In partnership with TechCrunch, The Europas Awards, recognising the hottest tech startups in Europe since 2009, is now open for its public vote. We’ve sorted and sifted through a record number of en

Europe’s high-growth ecosystem is strong, and weathering global storms

Around 10 years of ecosystem development has left European high-growth companies in a much stronger position counter to their global rivals, according to new research from the FT and Statista dubbed t

Founders Factory signs Marks & Spencer as exclusive UK retail investor

The model of building vertical market-specific accelerators is now well known, but in the UK, Founders Factory, which has emerged from Lastminute founder Brent Hoberman’s stable of projects, is pois

Pan-European seed fund firstminute hits a final fund close of $100M

New UK early stage VC firstminute Capital launched in June last year to the tune of $60m, with European VC Atomico as its first cornerstone investor. They were joined by 30 unicorns founders from Euro

Brent Hoberman launches new $85M pan-European seed fund, firstminute capital

Back in June Brent Hoberman, who famously founded and floated Lastminute.com, unveiled his new investment vehicle . The first $60m close for ‘firstminute Capital’ was announced then with A