Chilango, burrito bonds, and London – the boss of the Mexican food chain talks about the virtues of crowdfunding April 8, 2019 After interviewing Eric Partaker, the co-founder of burrito chain Chilango, he says I should try the food at his elaborately decorated restaurant on Cannon Street. I ask what he recommends, and instead of picking from the regular menu, he suggests I sample the “Noah’s Ark” – a lunch box containing all the meat options. A [...]
Venture capital firm Octopus launches new fund to break £1bn milestone April 8, 2019 European venture capital firm Octopus has launched a new £83m growth fund to further back its portfolio of industry disruptors. Octopus Ventures, has backed more than 100 companies in the past decade, including Zoopla, Secret Escapes and SwiftKey. Read more: Let's get kraken: How the Octopus Group is making waves The new fund, taking its total [...]
Barclays plugs $6m into London financial tech startup Simudyne April 8, 2019 Financial simulation technology firm Simudyne will today announce the close of a $6m (£4.6m) series A funding round, led by Barclays. Early Snap and Lyft investor Graphene Ventures also joined the round, alongside Gauss Ventures which has previously backed digital banks Revolut and Tandem. The round raises Simudyne’s total amount of investment to date to [...]
Baby Spice’s baby startup Kit & Kin breaks record for fastest angel investment April 8, 2019 An eco-friendly baby product business founded by former Spice Girls singer Emma Bunton has broken a record for the fastest fundraising round from angel investors. Kit & Kin achieved its target of £420,000 in just one week through online site Angel Investment Network (AIN), the fastest raise in the platform’s history. Read more: Software retains [...]
Monzo set to overtake Revolut as fresh funding lifts valuation to £2bn April 7, 2019 Digital bank Monzo is set to double its valuation to almost £2bn after securing hefty backing in its latest fundraising round. The bank will reportedly close a £100m funding round, led by a new US investor, that will take its valuation to $2.5bn (£1.9bn) and make it the UK’s second-largest fintech startup. Read more: Oaknorth [...]
The City ‘must change everything’ to improve gender diversity, says L&G personal investing boss Helena Morrissey April 7, 2019 The Square Mile must overhaul its entire structure in order to achieve gender diversity, according to City heavyweight Helena Morrissey. Morrissey, head of personal investing at Legal & General (L&G), said that change is happening too slowly, and called for all processes from recruitment to performance measurement to be challenged to boost diversity. Read more: [...]
It’s time for the pensions industry to stop taking customers for granted April 5, 2019 With workplace pension contributions increasing from tomorrow, I’m reminded of a recent industry event that I attended. During the keynote, the speaker cut to a video where members of the public were stopped on the street and asked “who is your pension provider?” Most of those questioned looked confused, unable to recall where their pensions [...]
Fevertree’s remarkable turnaround April 5, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. A 15 per cent trading range following annual results shows how divided opinion is on this AIM favourite now. Having accelerated from £158 million at IPO to a £3 billion-rated company in just over four years, posh mixers firm Fevertree Drinks (LSE:FEVR) underlined again today why it is regarded in [...]
Stop unfairly demonising firms that have large gender pay gaps April 5, 2019 Bad data cannot produce good policy. This gets us to the heart of the problem with the mandated gender pay gap reporting legislation, which is now into its second year. It’s all good and well finding a hook to speak about cultural issues. And no doubt, women are still operating in an unequal world, even [...]
Apprenticeship levy unlikely to meet target of 3m starts by 2020, admits minister April 5, 2019 A controversial tax designed to shake up the apprenticeship system will likely fail to meet its original targets, according to the government minister in charge of it. The apprenticeship levy, a tax on business designed to fund 3m apprenticeships by 2020, has caused the number of apprenticeship starts to plummet since its introduction two years [...]
