VW’s launched a new company to discover the future of transport December 5, 2016 Volkswagen is launching a new business that will focus on the growing area of urban mobility such as on-demand travel and electric cars. Moia will operate as an independent company within the German car group based in Berlin and will "act more nimbly, like a startup" but with access to the expertise and funding of [...]
All of London’s black cabs will take contactless payments from Halloween October 28, 2016 Are we about to witness the death of cash? That may be slightly premature, but London's black cabs have announced a big step forward and it means passengers won't be hindered by only having cards on them. Passengers will be able to pay for any journey using solely credit and debit cards, including contactless payments [...]
The CMA has aired its dirty laundry after it suggests collusion between two laundry services January 20, 2017 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally concluded two NHS suppliers of cleanroom laundry services have created a market-sharing agreement, breaking competition law. The CMA found between May 2012 to February 2016, the suppliers, Micronclean Limited and Berendsen Cleanroom Services Limited, had an arrangement under which they divided up customers by geographical territory, as well as [...]
The French Touch Abounds in Tech January 18, 2017 The French tech scene has the most active sovereign wealth funds in the world, according to research firm, CB Insights. Two French funds make the top half of the top-ten, which also includes state funds from Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China. France’s Banque Publique d’Investissement (Bpifrance) sits atop the list as the [...]
GMB union goes to war with Addison Lee over driver dismissals August 25, 2016 The GMB union has launched legal action against London private car hire company Addison Lee over the dismissal of three drivers. The challenge – which relates to contracts that were terminated earlier this year – is understood to be a test case for the union which could lead to action against hundreds of former drivers. The drivers were dismissed following protests [...]
Five days in to 2017, London exceeded its air pollution limit January 6, 2017 Finding the city smoggier than usual today? It's no wonder. Five days into the year, London has already broken air pollution limits set for the whole of 2017. Brixton Road is to blame. The road exceeded the hourly limit of 200 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre of air for the 19th time last night. Under EU pollution [...]
Meet the 96 companies taking a stand against Trump February 6, 2017 In an unprecedented uniting of mainly technology companies, 96 have joined forces to fight Donald Trump's controversial ban on people from certain countries entering the US. From giants such as Apple and Google, to smaller firms such as TaskRabbit and Stripe, they have filed what's called an amicus brief in the court of appeals, meaning they are interested [...]
Uber’s new “destinations” feature means anyone can be a driver November 16, 2015 Not content with just offering rides on demand in hundreds of cities worldwide, wildly popular ride-sharing app Uber is now moving into carpooling. The company’s new “destinations” feature will allow drivers to set their destination and pick up a passenger, so drivers heading in a specific direction can choose to pick up passengers heading the [...]
For successful businesses, failure is not an option – it’s a requirement February 14, 2017 Urgent memo to executives everywhere: please stop saying things like “failure is not an option”. You’re engaging stakeholders – not saving Private Ryan. And if you are fostering a fear of failure among your people, you probably aren’t winning either. Let’s look at winning in today’s world, where it is increasingly crucial to spark emotional [...]
The worrying tale of how my business made $515m more than Snapchat last year February 14, 2017 The marketing and media agency I co-founded likely made at least $1bn more profit than Uber last year. We also made $515m more than Snapchat and $450m more than Twitter. This isn’t because we did anything particularly remarkable. We just stuck to the basic business principle that it’s better to make money than lose it. [...]