Natasha Lomas
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Habitual is using digital support plus food replacement to help reverse type 2 diabetes
London-based Habitual, a health tech startup which offers a weight loss program aimed at people with type 2 diabetes (or prediabetes) that combines “evidence-based” food replacement with d
Leak shows Facebook’s business model needs regulating, says MEP
The European Parliament’s lead and shadow rapporteur for a major reboot of the bloc’s digital rulebook have called for an investigation following the Facebook whistleblower leaks. One of t
Made of Air, a maker of ‘carbon negative’ thermoplastics, locks in $5.8M
Berlin-based climate tech startup Made of Air has closed a €5 million (~$5.8 million) seed funding round, led by Norwegian sustainability-focused family fund, TD Veen. Also participating are Patrick
Clubhouse, Vimeo, DoubleVerify and others set to sign up to beefed-up disinformation code in the EU
Audio social network Clubhouse, video sharing platform Vimeo and anti-ad fraud startup DoubleVerify are among a clutch of tech companies and organzations preparing to sign up to a beefed-up version of
SquadPal is a social app to help remote working teams gel
The future of office work, post-COVID-19, is driving plenty of startup activity. Not just around core business needs like comms (Zoom, Slack et al.) — but entrepreneurs are also competing to com
UK class action-style suit filed over DeepMind NHS health data scandal
A U.K. law firm is bringing a class-action style claim over a patient health data scandal that dates back to 2015 and involves the Google-owned AI company DeepMind, after it was quietly passed medical
Fairphone adds a 5G smartphone, touting software support until at least 2025
Dutch social enterprise Fairphone has announced its first 5G smartphone, the Fairphone 4. The “greentech” mobile maker differentiates from almost the entire smartphone industry through a p
Seeking to respin Instagram’s toxicity for teens, Facebook publishes annotated slide decks
Facebook has quietly published internal research that was earlier obtained by The Wall Street Journal — and reported as evidence the tech giant knew about Instagram’s toxic impact on teena
‘No-code’ tool maker, Heyflow, nabs $6M to fix your customer conversions
Heyflow, a Hamburg, Germany-based startup touting “no-code” tools for easily building interactive “clickflows” to boost customer conversions, has bagged a $6 million seed. The
EU considers single rules for regulating vacation rental platforms
European Union lawmakers are consulting on how to regulate the short-term rental market across the bloc — asking whether a single set of pan-EU rules or something more locally flavored is needed
UK marketing-led group takes antitrust complaint against Google’s Privacy Sandbox to the EU
A coalition of digital marketing firms and others has taken its lobbying against Google’s plan to phase out tracking cookies — by replacing them with alternative technologies which the tec
Australia latest to eye laws to curb Google’s adtech dominance
Australia’s competition watchdog is the latest to push for legal powers to curb Google’s dominance in the adtech sector. It has made the call as it published its final report on an inquiry examini
UK clears Facebook’s purchase of CRM maker, Kustomer
The U.K.’s competition watchdog has cleared Facebook’s acquisition of Kustomer, a maker of CRM tools. The purchase was announced last November — with a price tag we reported as $1 bi
Instagram puts kids version ‘on ice’ after critical backlash
The head of Instagram has just announced that it’s “pausing” a planned version of the social media software aimed at those younger than 13. The development comes hard on the heels of
UK’s AI strategy is ‘ambitious’ but needs funding to match, says Faculty’s Marc Warner
The U.K. published its first-ever national AI strategy this week. The decade-long commitment by the government to levelling up domestic artificial intelligence capabilities — by directing resour
Europe will finally legislate for a common charger for mobiles
EU lawmakers are finally set to standardize charging ports for consumer electronics devices like smartphones and tablets — announcing a proposal today that, once adopted, will see the region set
London’s Jiffy scoops $28M for speedy grocery delivery
Well that was fast. London grocery delivery upstart, Jiffy — which was only founded in April this year — has nabbed $28 million in Series A funding around half a year after initial £2.6 m
Brave’s non-tracking, browser-based video conferencing tool is out of beta
Brave, the startup behind the eponymous non-tracking browser, has launched a non-tracking video conferencing add-on out of beta — letting all users make and receive video calls straight from the
UK announces a national strategy to ‘level up’ AI
The U.K. government has announced a national AI strategy — its first dedicated package aimed at boosting the country’s capabilities in and around machine learning technologies over the lon
Calyxia bags $17.6M to tackle the global microplastics problem
Our world is drowning in human-generated microplastics. And while these tiny fragments of non-biodegradable plastic — floating in the sea, embedded in the soil — are hard to see with the n