Tech News: 15th Feb

The founder of Britain’s biggest cryptocurrency company has attacked the City watchdog for choking the industry and warned that London is losing ground to EU rivals as a result. Peter Smith, the chief executive of Blockchain.com, notes that Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had taken a “risk-management first approach” that came “at the expense of innovation”. The regulator has pursued a series of crackdowns on cryptocurrency brokers in the last year, including requiring them to join a register and prove they meet strict money laundering and terrorist financing rules. Blockchain.com, founded in York is valued at $5.2bn, its investors include Sir Richard Branson. Mr Smith runs the company from its US headquarters in Miami. It currently has a “temporary” licence to operate a cryptocurrency exchange in the UK. 

The UK start-up with ambitious plans to build a battery gigafactory to help equip the nation’s car industry for an electric future has secured renewed support from Glencore in a £200mn funding round. Britishvolt said the miner and commodity trader would be the cornerstone investor in its Series C financing, which is being opened to new and existing shareholders. Glencore has committed £40mn at a significantly higher valuation than its previous investment in Britishvolt, according to the company. The previous deal, which also included an agreement to supply the gigafactory with battery raw material cobalt, valued Britishvolt at more than £774mn ($1bn). 

Electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will be required for all new homes and businesses in the UK starting in 2022, the government has announced. The new measure aims to boost EV adoption in the nation by adding up to 145,000 extra charging points each year. The UK government has already backed the installation of over 250,000 charging points, so the new rules would increase that by over 50 percent in the first year alone. Buildings like supermarkets and workplaces are included in the law, along with large scale renovations that will have over 10 parking spaces. However, details of the rules, like specifications and power outputs of the installations, have yet to be released. 

Gaming startup Tripledot Studios has secured a fresh $116m round of funding to make it the UK’s latest ‘unicorn’, with a valuation of $1.4bn. The London-based mobile game developer, will now use the funds to develop new games and snap up rival studios. Co-founder of Tripledot Akin Babayigit said that the business was now looking to ramp up the development of the games pipeline and “build a generational, once-in-a-lifetime company”. The firm has expanded rapidly in the last two year, with revenues reaching $94.5 million for the year to the end of June last year, up from $70.8 million in the previous 12 months.

Virgin Media O2 has revealed that its 5G network has now hit two thirds of the capital, giving London the largest 5G footprint within the group. The telecoms giant has committed to investing at least £10bn in the UK, and has delivered 5G to more than 2,000 sites across the country last year. It has also promised to reach 50 per cent of the UK’s population with its services in 2023. The company completed its wider gigabit rollout in December, meaning that over 15.5 million homes across the UK can now access broadband with average download speeds of 1,130Mbps. The importance of improved connectivity was highlighted in recent research from economic modelling experts Oxford Analytica, which found that investment in full fibre and mobile connectivity could unlock 68,384 jobs in the capital and boost London’s economy by more than £16bn by 2026.

London-based ev.energy, which provides software to manage electric vehicle (EV) charging, has raised a further £295,000 in funding to scale its virtual power plant (VPP) that aims to reduce the strain on the UK’s power grid during peak times. Innovate UK, a government research department, provided the latest funding to bring its total investment in the ev.energy to £754,000. Innovate UK has provided the capital as part of UK Research and Innovation’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme, a government-funded initiative investing up to £102.5m in smart local energy systems.  The EV startup uses software to manage vehicle charging at homes and automatically optimises for greener and cheaper rates. 

Telecoms giant BT has pumped £30m into a tech freelancing start up which helps business transform their digital systems, as it looks to ramp up its own modernisation efforts. BT bosses revealed they had taken a stake in Distributed, which provides firms with freelancers with expertise in AI and cloud computing, as the firm looks to tap into high growth tech startups via a new division it set up to back fast-growth tech firms. The investment from BT marks the latest step in the firm’s efforts to ramp up modernisation efforts after hiring tech executive Harmeen Mehta as chief digital and innovation officer last year.

No longer a London-centric phenomenon, fintech prowess has now reached into all corners of the UK. Birmingham, Manchester and the West Midlands are just a few of the now well-established hubs in England, and cities across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are also fast ascending the ranks. In the context of the government’s Levelling-Up in the United Kingdom whitepaper, released last week, the fintech industry appears to be ahead of the game. It’s a good sector to have as a front-runner too. The UK fintech industry leapt forwards with 217 per cent investment growth, according to data from Innovate Finance. In the regions of the UK, outside of London, this figure was even higher, showing 237 per cent growth. Government-backed industry group Tech Nation adds that now “over 50 per cent of all the companies on [its] growth programmes and competitions hail from outside of London”.