As online retailer Farfetch is valued at $1bn we asked ‘are renewed fears of the UK’s tech sector being overhyped justified?’

‘The VC market in Europe is hot right now, but I don’t think it’s out of control. UK tech valuations are still a pittance compared to the Silicon Valley. Farfetch is an impressive business which has grown tremendously in the last 5 years. $90m in revenue and zero EBITA doesn’t justify a $1BN valuation at face value, but it’s all about growth rate (and Farfetch is booming and has investors willing to get behind it at this price). I’ll be watching these guys closely, along with the rest of the sector over the coming 12-18 months. The market is swelling, but it’s not about to burst’

Andrew Hunter
Co-founder
Adzuna

A greater focus on sustainability/profitability. Sharper alignment of technology with actual market need and not just good ideas. Leading to economic as well as functional viability.

Alan Maguire – Partner at Leaf Investments

Data Protection (“DP”)

DP in the UK and Europe is a hot topic and 2014 should see the finalisation of a new Regulation implementing major reforms across Europe with even tougher regulation and fines for serious data breaches of as much as 2% of global turnover.  There has also been a proposal from one of the European Parliament committees that this should be increased even further to an eye-watering 5% of global annual turnover.  In the meantime, the current UK legislation remains the Data Protection Act 1988 (“DPA”), enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).

By Heather Leisman, MD for Europe at HotelTonight

The San Francisco-based company, HotelTonight, was built exclusively for mobile from the ground up. In only three years the app has grown to more than 10 million downloads and 300 destinations worldwide. How does HotelTonight’s “mobile only” business model work?

By Lloyd Price, Co Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Zesty

London is rapidly gaining a reputation as the ‘FinTech” capital of the world as investor appetite for disruptive startups in the financial services market increases beyond Angel and Seed financing rounds to serious multi million dollar Series A and B investment rounds. Payments, money transfer and foreign exchange focused Tech companies are moving fast and positioning themselves as market leaders in multi billion dollar untapped markets with the potential for exponential growth. It’s hard to think there could be even bigger, more lucrative and untapped markets than FinTech right ? Wrong, let me introduce you to one of them, the world of HealthTech …

By Mike Laven, CEO, The Currency Cloud

If ‘FinTech’ is one of technology’s hottest sectors today, then international payments must surely be the hottest niche, at least if we’re judging by level of investor activity. This year in London alone, remittance players WorldRemit and Azimo scooped $40m and $10m in Series A rounds respectively, peer-to-peer hedging firm Kantox took €6.5m, while my own firm The Currency Cloud has just raised $10m in a Series B.

So why are tech entrepreneurs rushing to innovate in international payments, money transfer and foreign exchange? Well, one interpretation is that the retail international payments market is finally beginning to follow the lead of the capital markets.

The European start-up scene is thriving, full of bright young things trying to turn innovative ideas into real businesses.

But, increasingly I’m starting to feel that things are getting out of kilter: the start-up scene seems to have become more important than the actual building of successful businesses. There’s a fascination in being immersed in the start-up culture – people want to see and be seen – and this is getting in the way of actual work.