Uber bets on India growth with media deal March 23, 2015 UBER has partnered with the publisher of the Times of India newspaper in a bid to shore up its position in the lucrative market – its largest outside the US. The tie up includes commercial arrangements for marketing and distribution through Times Internet, the digital arm of the Times of India Group, as the taxi [...]
Should you believe in unicorns? Tech start-ups have polarised investors with Bill Gates calling for restraint but others arguing new tech will change the world May 9, 2016 The sad demise of unicorns was widely predicted at the start of the year. Unicorns – or young, technology private companies valued at over $1bn (£693m) – drew vast sums of investment throughout last year and comparisons with the dot-com boom were drawn. There are around 170 companies with unicorn status, according to Fortune. Some are [...]
Carl Icahn just invested $100m in Uber rival Lyft valuing it at $2.5bn May 15, 2015 The well-known activist investor Carl Icahn has made a massive investment in Uber rival Lyft. The underdog taxi hailing startup is getting a $100m (£63m) from the outspoken investor's Icahn Enterprises. It's an unusual move for Icahn who holds stakes in larger companies such as Apple and eBay Lyft has exclusive membership of the so-called [...]
Uber users in Singapore can hail a Lamborghini or a Maserati March 30, 2015 Commuters in Singapore can now ride in a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder or Maserati GranTurismo, after taxi app Uber added the supercars to its fleet there. Uber has partnered with luxury car rental company Dream Drive for a trial period which runs until April 20. However, the taxi app warned customers it expects demand will be high and [...]
Uber teams up with peer-to-peer lender Zopa to help drivers buy their own cars May 6, 2015 Uber is aiming to make it easier for its drivers to buy their own cars by teaming up with peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Zopa. The taxi-hailing app's partnership with the world's first P2P marketplace will give drivers renting a licensed vehicle access to a loan agreement with one of Zopa's institutional lenders, allowing them to swap [...]
Identity and security: The price we must pay to keep our information safe – and the companies helping us do it May 17, 2016 In ancient Roman mythology, Janus, the god of boundaries, is usually depicted as having two faces. Skip a few thousand years to today’s modern world, and many of us still wear more than one mask: there’s the one we present at work, one we wear in front of family, and others we wear in front [...]
Shakespeare’s former theatre The Curtain now the scene for Galliard Homes’ new development The Stage February 8, 2016 Galliard Homes has launched its latest development venture on the site of William Shakespeare's former theatre The Curtain. The £750m development of the 2.3 acre site, which is being carried out in a joint venture with Cain Hoy, McCourt, Vanke and The Estate Office Shoreditch, will create a new mixed use space that includes a 37 [...]
The world’s most valuable start up? Uber eyes $50bn valuation from next fundraising round May 10, 2015 Uber is aiming to become the world's most valuable startup in a new fundraising effort. The disruptive taxi-hailing app, already valued over $40bn, is aiming to raise between $1.5bn and $2bn in a private funding round according to report in the Wall Street Journal. Such a valuation would set Uber on course to become the most [...]
Conservative GLA member Richard Tracey wants to cut the Knowledge test for black taxi drivers by two-thirds December 11, 2015 The black taxi industry has questioned new proposals from Conservative London Assembly member Richard Tracey to eliminate barriers to entry for taxi drivers. In a report out today, Tracey recommends that the industry implement eight for changes in order to “compete with increasingly popular app-based private hire firms such as Uber”, including reducing the entry [...]
Toyota Prius review: the new model is now a serious contender for the budget-conscious driver March 24, 2016 This year I became a Prius convert. Until that point it had always been a car for other people; I found the whole doing-good-for-the-planet thing irritating. And the logic behind the Prius didn’t work either: if you wanted the best fuel economy, simply buy a diesel. That way you get choice too, rather than having [...]