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The UK threw a splashy event in New York this week to woo more American VCs
U.K. officials unveiled a hologram statue and threw a big party to celebrate the U.K. as the third $1 trillion tech economy.
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Not many unicorns were spotted in the UK and France this year
Since France and the U.K. have both been vocal about their unicorn goals, it is these two countries we are looking at today.
OpenAI brings the competition to DeepMind’s doorstep with new London office
OpenAI is expanding overseas. To London, specifically. Today, the Microsoft-backed AI startup announced that it plans to open an office in London, its first international outpost. When OpenAI’s London location…
Dope Security emerges from stealth to shake up the SWG market
San Francisco-based cybersecurity startup Dope Security has launched from stealth with $4 million in funding to modernize the secure web gateway market. A secure web gateway, or SWG, is a…
Google’s adtech practices targeted in UK, EU antitrust damages suits
More antitrust litigation targeting Big (ad)Tech: Google is being sued in the U.K. and the Netherlands where two suits have been announced today seeking damages on behalf of publishers who…
Runa Capital kicks off new fund as it joins the VC ‘Scramble for Europe’ by moving to Luxembourg
TechCrunch understands Runa Capital, which launched in 2010, has raised $55 million toward its fourth fund, aiming for a target of $250 million. The company is declinging to comment. However,…
Stockholm’s EQT Growth closes $2.2B to fund scaling European startups like Vinted, Mambu and Epidemic Sound
The days of European startups relocating to the U.S. if they want to grow (and raise money to do so) have been receding in the rearview mirror for a while…
Vorboss brings minimum 10 Gbps enterprise fibre network to London businesses
A new enterprise fibre network is ready to deliver up to 100 Gbps (gigabits-per-second) high-speed internet to London businesses, as part of a £250 million ($290 million) investment in the…
UK’s FocalPoint raises $17M for its software-based approach to repairing the flaws of GPS
GPS in its many regional flavors has become a ubiquitous feature in phones, smart watches, cars and other connected devices, but for all the location-based features that it helps enable…
Flush with fresh funds, UK ‘eco laundry’ startup Oxwash spins up growth plans
Oxwash, a U.K. startup that’s spent the last few years applying high tech processes to shrink the environment cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, has trousered £10 million (~$12…
OnlyFans’s Ami Gan and Keily Blair join us at Disrupt for a SFW fireside chat
It’s been a tumultuous year for OnlyFans, the popular subscription-based social media platform best known for hosting explicit content and offering an online safe haven to the sex workers who…
Thirdweb raises $24M at a $160M valuation from Haun Ventures, Shopify and Coinbase for its web3 development kit
There’s been a lot of hype about “web3”, but the reality is that it’s still a largely nascent and fragmented concept, and that has led to web3 startups building platforms…
This new $100M fund plans to focus on startups accelerating the science around longevity
Longevity-focused startups have been proliferating in recent years as we become more focused on our health. However, it’s not just about apps to get you in the gym. Longevity startups…
Aero Technologies, which describes itself as a “next-generation air travel company” which currently operates on a limited number of routes in the U.S. and Europe, today announced that it has…
Despite remote work and the economic downturn, some companies look to London for expansion
Barely a day goes by without news of layoffs emerging from the tech world — from cybersecurity to gaming, no industry is impervious. It’s not limited to any particular size of…
Robotic process automation (RPA) company UiPath has acquired Re:infer, a London-based startup that’s developing natural language processing (NLP) tools for enterprises. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded out…
Data center electricity demands could curtail London housing development
Data centers might be the lifeblood of the modern digital economy but for housing developers in some parts of London they could curtail building plans for the next 13 years.…
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…
Systemiq secures $70 million to fund early-stage climate tech founders
Systemiq Capital, a backer of early-stage climate tech startups, says it has secured $70 million to kick off its second fund. The London-based VC aims to raise as much as…
London fails to retain Atlassian as it heads stateside in search of a ‘broader set’ of investors
Despite multiple overtures by the British government to woo tech companies and keep the largest ones from defecting to the U.S., the latest example of the failure of this policy…
Crypto gaming firm Cauldron raises $6.6M to build ‘Pixar of web3’
A number of crypto gaming firms have ramped up production in the past year with hopes of revolutionizing the growing industry. Adding to the list is London-based gaming firm Cauldron,…
This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
North Korean Lazarus hackers linked to $100M Harmony bridge theft
Researchers have linked Lazarus Group, a notorious North Korean state-backed hacking group, to the theft of $100 million in crypto assets from Harmony’s Horizon Bridge. Last week, U.S. crypto startup…
Nautical Commerce sails away with new funding to bring marketplace tech to the masses
The company is boiling down the time it takes for businesses to create an e-commerce marketplace from two to three years to about 90 days.
Entrepreneur First raises $158M at a $560M valuation, adding Stripe’s Collison brothers to its list of backers
Entrepreneur First made a name for itself a decade ago in its home base of London, and then further afield, for the novel approach it takes to tech investing: Rather…
Shop Circle wants to keep Shopify merchants from going ‘round and ‘round finding apps they need
The London-based company is creating a one-stop shop for what it considers to be the “best-of-the-best” e-commerce apps to get merchants up-and-running quickly.
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 around…
This Week in Apps: Twitter Notes, Instagram age verification, Spotify’s Live Events
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
UK-based Playter closes $55M round for its BNPL platform aimed at SMEs
Europe has no shortage of buy now, pay later startups and a quick search is revealing. Berlin-based fintech startup Mondu has taken in €39.9 million to expand its B2B BNPL…
Paris-based Breega closes €250M fund, opens Barcelona office to back Iberian startups
Paris-originated VC Breega wasn’t enormously well known in the VC world (it only closed its first fund in 2015) until, perhaps, it started attracting attention with its second €110 million…
