The co-founder of Secret Escapes and LoveFilm is now offering tech solutions to help out tenants and landlords William Reeve is what he terms a “classic accidental landlord”. The serial entrepreneur didn’t intend to rent out his flat in central London, but had to give it up soon after gaining his first rung on the property ladder. “I got married while I was there and, much as I thought it was the perfect place, it turns out that some compromise was required,” he says. Instead of keeping it as a pied-à-terre, the flat now offers Reeve an insight into the needs of his customers at online platform Goodlord, which is designed to help lettings agents, landlords and tenants slash the admin time spent on renting. Continue reading...

Harry Stebbings says tax rules make Britain ‘a bad place to do business’ as he warns of entrepreneurs leaving Tech entrepreneurs will leave the UK “en masse” if the chancellor announces a significant increase in capital gains tax at this month’s budget, according to a leading industry investor. Harry Stebbings, a British podcaster turned investor who raised a $400m (£310m) fund this week, said the UK was “a bad place to do business” because of its tax environment. Continue reading...

Platform run from industrial estate in Cumbria and catering to alternative relationships has expanded globally A dating app aimed at alternative relationships nearly doubled its revenues last year as non-monogamous, queer and kinky users helped the UK-based business expand its reach across the world. Feeld, founded by an entrepreneur couple in an open relationship, has said it is “on a mission to elevate the human experience of sexuality and relationships” from its registered office on an industrial estate in Carlisle, Cumbria. Continue reading...

Startups around the world are engaging in clinical trials in a sector that could change lives – and be worth more than £15bn by the 2030s Oran Knowlson, a British teenager with a severe type of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, became the first person in the world to trial a new brain implant last October, with phenomenal results – his daytime seizures were reduced by 80%. “It’s had a huge impact on his life and has prevented him from having the falls and injuring himself that he was having before,” says Martin Tisdall, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) in London, who implanted the device. “His mother was talking about how he’s had such a improvement in his quality of life, but also in his cognition: he’s more alert and more engaged.” Continue reading...

Science secretary backs five quantum technology hubs in push for UK to transform healthcare and industry Britain’s plans to create advanced devices based on the mind-bending physics of the quantum world have received a £100m boost, in a move ministers hope will have a transformative impact on healthcare, transport and national security. Peter Kyle, the science secretary has announced funds to establish five quantum technology hubs across England and Scotland. They will work with industry and government to develop and commercialise devices and ultimately drive a new economy. Continue reading...

Switchee aims to protect health and cut bills by installing its technology in 1m homes A British startup which uses technology to prevent renters from living in cold, damp homes has raised fresh funds to expand as landlords belatedly try to tackle outbreaks of mould in crumbling social housing. Switchee has secured £5m, split equally between an existing investor, Axa IM Alts, and Octopus Ventures, part of the group which includes household gas and electricity supplier Octopus Energy. Continue reading...

If Keir Starmer wins on Thursday, he will have the power to free our data, jump-start the NHS and strip friction from our daily lives. Here’s how • Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here Barring an asteroid strike, Keir Starmer is going to be the UK prime minister in three days. Given the lead in polling, I’d probably bet on him over an asteroid, too. Labour will come into government with a broken state, a flatlining economy and no money. A thin manifesto and enormous parliamentary majority means the party will almost certainly end up stretching further afield for ideas about how to deal with that trilemma from hell. Continue reading...