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NHS COVID-19: The UK’s coronavirus contacts-tracing app explained

The UK has this week started testing a coronavirus contacts-tracing app which NHSX, a digital arm of the country’s National Health Service, has been planning and developing since early March. Th

In conversation with Icebreaker, Finland’s most active pre-seed VC

Icebreaker claims to be Finland’s most active pre-seed VC. The firm, which also invests in Estonia and Sweden, has backed 38 companies in the last three years out of its first fund, with a 65% s

UK’s coronavirus contacts tracing app could ask users to share location data

More details have emerged about a coronavirus contacts tracing app being developed by UK authorities. NHSX CEO, Matthew Gould, said today that future versions of the app could ask users to share locat

Finnish VC Icebreaker launches second fund to continue backing ‘pre-founders’ and pre-seed startups

Icebreaker.vc, the Finnish venture capital firm that backs “pre-founders” and pre-seed to seed-stage startups, has launched a second fund, with a first close of €50 million. That’s

Bolt raises €50M in venture debt from the EU to expand its ride-hailing business

Bolt, the billion-dollar startup out of Estonia that’s building a ride-hailing, scooter and food delivery business across Europe and Africa, has picked up a tranche of funding in its bid to take

Salv, the anti-money laundering startup founded by ex-TransferWise employees, picks up $2M seed

Salv, an anti-money laundering (AML) startup founded by former TransferWise and Skype employees, has raised $2 million in seed funding. The round is led by Fly Ventures, alongside Passion Capital and

Uber rival Bolt returns to London 21 months after a TfL investigation shut it down

Bolt, the Uber rival formerly known as Taxify, is taking a significant step this week in its effort to build out its transportation-on-demand business across the biggest cities in Europe and Africa, w

MeetFrank nets $1.1M for its passive job matching chatbot

MeetFrank, aka a ‘secret’ recruitment app that uses machine learning plus a chatbot wrapper to take the strain out of passive job hunting and talent-to-vacancy matching, has closed a €1

Uber’s European rival Taxify raises $175M led by Daimler at a $1B valuation

There’s a new unicorn in the global ride-hailing space after Taxify, a startup born in Estonia that does battle with Uber across Europe and Africa, closed $175 million in new funding that takes

Our ‘modern’ Congress doesn’t understand 21st century technology

Lorelei Kelly Contributor Lorelei Kelly leads the Resilient Democracy Coalition, a group working to make sure Congress succeeds in the Information Age. More posts by this contributor Congress needs yo

This European country may hold an ICO and issue its own cryptocurrency

We’ve officially hit peak ICO. Estonia, a small country in Northern Europe, just floated the idea of potentially raising money by issuing a token called “estcoins“. So why Estonia? T

You can’t have financial inclusion without digital inclusion

Technology alone is not the answer, but the promise of blockchain could act as an enabler for a decentralized global identity database, where the people owned their own identity and no single governme

The future of healthcare is not people versus machines

A digital shift in healthcare in recent years has paved the way for advances in automation, artificial intelligence and even surgical robots. Whether using a virtual human to capture patient intake da

Governments must embrace the Information Age or risk becoming obsolete

Thirty-six years ago, futurist Alvin Toffler wrote The Third Wave, outlining the inevitable transition from a “Second Wave,” characterized by an industrial society, to a “Third Wave,” characte

Google Is Now Surfacing The World’s Constitutions In Its Search Results

Google has partnered with the Constitute Project to surface, analyze and compare key passages in the US Constitution, as well as the constitutions of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Estonia, Finland, France, Ice

Jomi’s Smart Water Bottle Sleeve-Plus-App Wants To Track & Chart Your Liquid Intake To Make You Drink More

Move over HAPIfork. Estonian startup Jomi Interactive is cooking up a pair of smart devices that will remind people to drink more water. Or at least whatever liquid/poison of choice you put in your wa

Estonia Drives Robotics and Coding Education With Smartlab Hobby Groups, Backed By Microsoft

The Baltic country of Estonia -- known as the birthplace of Skype and a go-to market for tech companies in the U.S. and elsewhere needing developers -- is making another IT investment so that younger

Russia Locked In Cyberwar With Estonia

In the first war of its kind, Russia has been attacking the small country of Estonia for several weeks now. The incident started after a bronze statue of a soviet soldier was removed from its memorial