You’re a bored former finance guy who decides one day to strap on some micro-jet engines and see if you can become Iron Man. Hey it happens all the time. Or maybe not. But that’s what British entrepreneur Richard Browning decided to do and just this year found himself demoing his ‘flight suit’ to venture

Europe’s ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling, which allows private citizens in the region to make requests that search engines delist incorrect, irrelevant or out of date information returned by an online search for their full name, is set to return to the region’s top court to settle an ongoing dispute between Google and the French

The gig economy, as we know, is big and just getting bigger. But companies like Uber and Deliveroo have a huge problem and it’s called insurance. How do you insure all these workers and how do the workers cover themselves in the gig economy? Step in Zego. This London startup has just raised just over

The UK’s upper house of parliament is asking for contributions to an enquiry into the socioeconomic and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence technology. Among the questions the House of Lords committee will consider as part of the enquiry are: Is the current level of excitement surrounding artificial intelligence warranted? How can the general public best

Luxembourg-based Mangrove Capital Partners, one of Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital firms, has raised $170 million for its latest fund. Mangrove V will be used to invest across Europe and Israel. The amount matches that of its previous funds, and was completed inside two months with 90 percent coming from returning investors, said the firm.

A U.K. parliamentary committee report backs the view that Brexit cannot constitute a “clean break” in data protection law terms with the European Union. Au contraire. The U.K. will likely have to continue mirroring EU data protection rules encore et encore, i.e. after it’s left the room where those rules are made and debated. Such

Apple Pay hasn’t really been a major success in France so far. France’s biggest banks still don’t plan to support Apple’s payment service. But two companies announced today that they were going to add Apple Pay support before the end of the year — Lydia and N26. Crédit Mutuel Arkea’s banks also recently announced that

Digital-only UK “challenger” bank, Starling Bank, has added support for Apple Pay — meaning its customers can now add their Starling debit card to their Apple Wallet and make contactless payments drawing from funds in their Starling account via their Apple devices. The fintech startup launched a beta for its own app back in March

Artificial intelligence is now powering a growing number of computing functions, and today the developer community today is getting another AI boost, courtesy of Yandex. Today, the Russian search giant — which, like its US counterpart Google, has extended into a myriad of other business lines, from mobile to maps and more — announced the

As data protection — a set of laws and practices created across different markets to ensure that our sensitive information does not get leaked or shared without our permission — continues to gain priority in our rapidly expanding digital world, a UK startup called Privitar that is building tools to help organizations keep that data

Okoli is new service by developer Jack Deneut which aims to replace those ugly little cards you find in tourist hotels. The web app, which currently works in Prague, Budapest, Berlin, and Paris, lets you reserve a nearly private tour with a professional guide and you’re guaranteed groups of no bigger than eight people. It

Professional development is one of the hot areas for big corporates grappling with their millennials influx who are hungry to learn, so it makes sense that new platforms are now appearing to service this need. Today, Learnerbly, a “curated professional development SaaS platform” based in London announces that it has raised £1.6 million in seed

French startup Alan launched a brand new full-stack health insurance last year. This week, the company is launching corporate-owned life insurance so that it can become a one-stop shop for all your corporate insurance needs. When Alan launched its health insurance product, it was the first new one in France in decades. The life insurance

SoundCloud co-founder Alex Ljung gave his first major public interview to me today at Tech Open Air Berlin. In the interview, he batted back claims that SoundCloud (SC) is facing tough times, insisting that by drastically cutting headcount by 173 people recently and closing two major offices, SC is on its way to “taking back

On the internet no-one knows you’re a dog. And no-one knows whether that “fact” you’re reading — say, about President Putin’s pet dog having been trained to cock its leg at the word “trump” — is bona fide truth or more nonsense FAKE NEWS doing the rounds on Facebook. All we can be really sure

It’s been a year since the four major social platform players agreed with Europe’s executive body to a voluntary Code of Conduct for removing illegal hate speech within 24 hours of a complaint being received. A lot has happened on this front since then, with a series of content moderation scandals hitting different platforms and

Hubble, a London-headquartered a startup founded in 2014 to ride the coattails of the trend towards flexible office space, has picked up £1.2 million in new funding. Leading the round is Firestartr, with participation by 500 Startups, Maxfield Capital, and Concrete. The latter is a ‘proptech’ fund backed by Seedcamp and Starwood Capital and for

Julie Desk, a French startup that’s developed an AI-driven “virtual assistant” to automate the scheduling of meetings, appointments, and more, has picked up €2.5 million in new funding — money it plans to use to further develop the technology. Backing the company this time around are previous investors SIDE Capital, Entrepreneur Venture, and SAAS Lab.

Move over duckface. Shove off rainbow spew. There’s a new selfie game in town and it wants to turn your 2D visage into uncannily accurate 3D — then splice that axiomatic piece of you into animated cartoon suits that rock out, strut their disco stuff, skateboard, look coy, relaxed or laugh maniacally. Think: realistic-looking stickers

Through Lyft and Uber, the sharing economy has taken a charge at cabs. Airbnb is making hotels palpitate in their pants. If TRVL has its way, it’s the travel agencies’ turn to tremble. Armed with 2.7 million freshly minted dollars from a conglomerate of angel investors, the company is hoping to augment services like Booking.com,

Taxi drivers in Spain are protesting against ride-hailing apps Uber and Cabify today, holding strikes in multiple cities and a protest march in the capital. Early reports suggest 20,000 protestors took to the streets in Madrid. Meanwhile, both companies are continuing to recruit drivers — using another Spanish startup, Jobandtalent, to help them do so.

CrowdJustice, a startup that brings crowdfunding to “public interest” litigation, has raised $2 million in seed funding for U.S. expansion. First Round Capital, and Venrock led the round, with participation from Bessemer, and previous investor Kindred Capital. The company also counts Bela Hatvany (first investor in JustGiving) and Jonathan McKay (Chairman of JustGiving) as backers.

Taxi drivers in Spain are striking today in cities including Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia to protest at what they see as the exploitative practices of ride-hailing transportation apps Uber and Cabify. Cab drivers in Barcelona are staging a 24 hour strike and will be taking their distinctive black and yellow cars to Madrid to take

During London Tech Week, The Europas Conference & Awards (in partnership with TechCrunch) will see the highest concentration of tech investors and corporate players in one place. No other event can match it. What better time to pitch your startup? But there’s more than one way you can make an impact with your startup there.