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Over £42m in UK tech investment, Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 8, a robot priest and more in The Week in Tech

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Welcome to The Week in Tech, your roundup of the latest top tech news. This week, we have over £42m in UK tech investment, news about Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, the latest Apple iPhone release date, a robot priest and much more.

Investments

Grid Edge’s £200k

Birmingham-based Grid Edge secured £200,000 from Ignite, an energy focused investment fund run by British Gas owner Centrica.

Grid Edge, co-founded by former Aston University lecturers Tom Anderson, Jim Scott and Dan Wright, has created a cloud-based energy management software which leverages AI to forecast a building’s energy requirements in a bid to optimise consumption.

The firm claims to be able to cut energy use in buildings by up to 25% and will use the funds to expand its team.

Sumdog’s £1.4m

Sumdog, an EdTech firm based in Edinburgh, secured £1.4m in funding from Nesta Impact Investments and the Scottish Investment Bank.

The startup, which seeks to encourage students to practice their maths, reading and writing skills on its platform, says it would like to help 15 million children across the UK and US in the next five years.

eMoov’s £9m

PropTech firm eMoov closed a £9m Series B, bringing its total raised to date to £15m.

Founded in Brentwood (Essex), eMoov’s round was led by JXC Ventures and attracted funding from investors including Episode 1 VC, Maxfield Capital, Spire and Startive Ventures.

The firm, which describes itself as a “hybrid estate agent”, will use the cash to expand its proprietary technology platform and to boost its marketing spend.

Let’s Do This’ £1m

Let’s Do This, an online listing platform seeking to connect athletes with endurance sports events, raised a £1m Seed.

According to Business Insider, the firm raised from investors including Mike Miller, the CEO of the World Olympians Association; Brian Schuring, founder of Rubicon; Jonathan Goodwin, the co-founder of Founders Forum; and Richard Oldfield, founder of Oldfield Partners.

The London-based firm was co-founded by Cambridge graduates Sam Browne and Alex Rose and Neil Locke, the former head of tech at MoneySuperMarket.

Prodigy Finances’ £31m

UK FinTech firm Prodigy Finance closed a $40m (£31m) Series C led by Index Ventures with support from existing backers Balderton Capital and AlphaCode.

Additionally, the firm also announced it had raised $200m (£155m) in debt funding from a global investment bank.

It comes after the firm, which helps students fund their university business degrees, raised $100m from investors including Credit Suisse in August 2015.

Pouch’s £75k

London-based Pouch received £75,000 worth of investment in exchange for 18% equity after pitching on popular TV show Dragons Den.

Pouch is a browser extension that presents users with the best available voucher codes for the websites they visit.

Founders Ben Corrigan and Jonny Plein pitched the show’s judges for funding and after receiving offers from all five of the investors, eventually agreed to partner with Touker Suleyman, Tej Lalvani and Jenny Campbell. Each investor received a 6% stake in the company.

Mergers and acquisitions

No significant UK mergers and acquisitions came to our attention this week, but there were some fine examples overseas.

California-headquartered Springpath was acquired by Cisco for $320m, marking the tech firm’s second big-ticket buyout of a company founded by Indian entrepreneurs.

Tel Aviv-founded gaming company Plarium was acquired by Australian gaming solutions provider Aristocrat Technologies for $500m.

Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 8

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Note 8 device, which measures in at 6.3 inches and an “infinity display” that wraps around the edges of the phone. It also comes with Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant, the firm’s virtual aide that launched in the UK this week.

The Note 8 comes with the S-pen stylus, which can be used even when the phone’s screen is switched off, so users can take notes, draw pictures or make a shopping list. The phone is set to go on sale for £869.

Apple announces iPhone 8 launch date

Not to be outdone, Apple has been making the headlines too. Reports have surfaced that the new iPhone is set to launch on 12th September. The date has been confirmed by a number of sources, but Apple is still to officially comment.

Hashtag turns 10

Ten years ago, designer and entrepreneur Chris Messina suggested to Twitter that it start using hashtags to distinguish between groups and topics.

A decade on, the # symbol is used 125 million times on the platform each day.

Elon Musk calls for ‘killer robot’ ban

Tesla’s Elon Musk, Google’s Mustafa Suleyman and over a hundred experts in robotics and artificial intelligence are calling on the UN to ban the development and use of killer robots.

The group wants the UN to add killer robots to a list of ‘morally wrong’ weapons, including blinding lasers and chemical weapons.

Download of the week

Our download of the week is one for all those enthralled by the recent solar eclipse. The Cosmic Watch app lets users explore the Earth, solar system and constellations in real time. It includes an eclipse mapper and a tool for adjusting telescopes.

And finally

Over in Japan, a robot is now being used as a Buddhist priest-for-hire. Plastics manufacturer Nissei Eco has trained Softbank’s Pepper robot to read scriptures, chant prayers and tap drums as part of a funeral ceremony.

That’s all for this week’s roundup. For more top tech news, make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook, plus subscribe to our newsletter.

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