A Digital Investor

  Hiro Capital is a London- and Luxembourg-based venture capital (VC) firm that invests in innovative technology companies, especially across Europe, the UK, and North America . It’s known for being founder-led and thematic , backing early-to-growth-stage startups in sectors that it believes are central to the future of technology and human engagement.  📌 What Hiro Capital Does • Investment Focus: Hiro Capital targets companies in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), spatial computing, autonomy & robotics, longevity, simulation, games & esports, digital sports, metaverse technologies, cloud & future compute, and next-generation space & defence tech .  • Stage: It is a multi-stage investor , typically participating from early stages (Seed, Series A) through to later growth/scale-up rounds (including Series C).  • Geography: Focuses primarily on the Europe+ region — including the EU, UK, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and ...

  Holiday planner acquires rival to expand across North America Jessica Newman- Leisure Industries Correspondent A Manchester-based personal holiday planner has struck a deal to buy a Canadian rival as it seeks to double in size. Travel Counsellors, which operates a platform that connects holidaymakers to thousands of self-employed advisers under a franchise model across six countries, has acquired Toronto-based The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND), for in the region of £50 million. Steve Byrne, its chief executive said it would provide a platform for expansion across North America, the world’s largest travel market. “Canada is the world’s seventh-largest outbound travel market and in TTAND we have partnered with one of the most successful travel businesses in that market with significant further headroom for growth,” he said. Byrne said the deal would provide a gateway into the North American market, which represents a “significant potential future growth opportunity”. Since it was ...

  US prediction market takes on Wall Street for a share of punters’ cash Louisa Clarence-Smith Will President Trump meet Elon Musk again before the end of the year? Will the share price of Alphabet hit $355 before the end of 2025? Will Lando Norris win the Formula 1 drivers’ championship? Those are just a tiny sample of thousands of events that customers of Polymarket, the American prediction market platform, can place a bet on against another user. Prediction markets have become one of the hottest sectors on Wall Street and Silicon Valley as start-up platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, attract millions of users and billions of dollars. Betting on events such as elections has long been permissible in the UK, via bookmakers such as Betfair. But it was only allowed in the US after Kalshi won a legal battle with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year which allowed it to offer election contracts to the public. The ruling paved the way for US prediction markets to gr...

  Bending Spoons acquires Eventbrite in $500m deal Max Head Technology investor Bending Spoons has added Eventbrite to its portfolio in a $500 million cash deal, sending shares in the US-listed ticket seller up by more than 80 per cent. The Milan-based investor, which is led by entrepreneur Luca Ferrari and controls $12 billion in legacy internet assets including Vimeo, the video platform, and dotcom era web browser AOL, said it planned to “accelerate innovation and strengthen Eventbrite’s tools and resources to bring even more people together through shared live experiences for many years to come”. Eventbrite founded in 2006 in San Francisco and saw its valuation soar before it was floated in New Yorkwith a market valuation of $1.8 billion in 2018. Its shares initially performed strongly, reaching a peak above $2.8 billion, but have not recovered since collapsing in the pandemic, when lockdowns put live events on ice. In 2024, Eventbrite distributed more than 83 million tickets to...