The Rundown: Edition 51 – A PM resigns, Allbirds pivots, and the hottest June on record
Welcome to The Rundown, a snapshot of news, views and intel from the fast-growth tech and investment scene.
British Business Bank commits £90m to next-gen VCs
The British Business Bank is committing up to £90 million in ten new microfunds with fund sizes ranging from £10 million to £20 million. This move is part of the Investor Pathways Capital Initiative, designed to broaden access to venture capital by backing talented first-time fund managers from diverse backgrounds. UKTN
Chinese supercomputer leapfrogs best US machine
LineShine, a supercomputer in China, now outranks its counterparts, displacing the top-ranked US computer El Capitan as the world’s most powerful, debuting at number one in the Top500 rankings. Guardian
Alphabet’s stock price falls following defections
Leading AI researchers Noam Shazeer and John Jumper have announced they are leaving the Silicon Valley tech giant, with the former joining OpenAI. Following the announcement of the departures, $240 billion was wiped off Alphabet’s stock market capitalisation. Times
Allbirds takes flight as Smartbird
Once a trainer company, Allbirds has renamed itself Smartbird in its bid to bet on the future of AI infrastructure. Its transformation is now complete, after the company confirmed it had sold off its footwear business and shed most of its workforce. Business Insider
RQ Bio raises £85.5m in Series A funding
RQ Bio, a London-based biotechnology company, has raised £85.5 million in Series A funding to develop long-acting antibody therapeutics to prevent influenza in high-risk and immunocompromised populations. Finsmes
Partly lands £40m Series B to fuel expansion
Partly, an AI infrastructure for the automotive repair supply chain, has raised £40 million in a round led by DST Global Partners to support its expansion into the US, where the core executive team has relocated. Soapbox VC
Astral Systems secures £23m Series A
Mercia Ventures has led a £23 million round into Bristol-based deeptech, Astral Systems. The Series A capital will be used to scale Astral Systems’ nuclear fusion technology, with the aim of running compact fusion reactors at full capacity by the end of the year. UKTN
Isometric closes $40m Series A
AVP, which counts the insurer AXA as an anchor investor, has led a $40 million Series A in an industrial certification AI platform. Isometric will now deepen its certification technology and extend the platform across the wider industrial certification market. The Next Web
No benefit from Brexit
Steve Rigby, CEO of Rigby Group, says, “We are yet to see an economic benefit from Brexit”, a decade after the UK voted to leave the political and economic bloc. He was “genuinely surprised” by the decision, and believes organisations had ample time to prepare for the nation’s departure from the EU. BBC
Can Burnham replicate his Manchester success nationwide?
With Andy Burnham likely to become the next Prime Minister, the tech and investment ecosystem weighs in on what this could mean for the country, following his tenure as Mayor of Manchester. According to Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, Burnham is pro-innovation and understands “what that means and the policy the government needs to support this”. Sifted
Enterprise AI’s valuation truth-test
The enterprise AI sector is approaching a crucial reality check on valuations. Sam Nasrolahi, Principal at InMotion Ventures, is an investor who doesn’t view genuine adoption as being reflected in token-based metrics or leaderboard rankings. Tokenmaxxing (the gamification of metrics) threatens the reliability of enterprise AI adoption data. Tech Funding News
“The country right now is crying out for leadership, not politics”
Paul Jenkinson, CEO and Co-founder of Whitespace, notes that businesses often adapt to changes in government, but argues that Britain is confronting a particularly challenging set of circumstances: the combination of geopolitical tensions, economic pressures and rapid technological change. The Tech Capital
We’re sure this week has been full of weather-related chat, and sorry, it’s not about to stop here. With record-breaking temperatures across Europe, and it feeling hotter than hell (unconfirmed) on the London Underground at nearly 40°C, we have to prepare for the fact that this might be “the new normal”. Whether you braved public transportation in favour of your office’s sweet, sweet AC, much of the conversation has been around how to cope. Around 20% of households in Europe have air conditioning, but this is, unsurprisingly, becoming more popular, raising questions about what this means for Europe’s power grid.
One person with sustainability on their mind is António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who renewed calls for the clean energy transition as part of the UN’s energy independence plan at London Climate Action Week. There are a number of startups working to beat the heat, and some materials companies are developing heat-resilient tech stacks for buildings which reduce heat at the point of impact. Meanwhile, a Tsinghua University-led research team in China has created a different heat-resilient technology: a tiny battery. This all-ceramic solid-state lithium-ion battery (ACMLB) can safely power small electronics in extreme conditions – 150°C, to be exact. Let’s hope the maximum temperature isn’t something we’ll have to test ourselves.
Ok, that’s enough from us. We’re off to lie in the shadiest part of the house. If we can find it.
See you next week…
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