Babel Systems acquired for $20m, Snapchat makes London its non-US home & more in the Week in Tech

Welcome to your Week in Tech – a roundup of the week’s top technology news.

We filmed this episode from 133 Whitechapel High Street, a co-working and office space run by The Office Group.

This week, we bring you CompareEuropeGroup’s €20m Series A, the acquisition of Babel Systems by InvestCloud and Snapchat’s new site in London.

Watch the video, or read on, for all this and more.

Investments

In investment news, financial management platform CompareEuropeGroup closed a €20m Series A round. Headquartered in London, the firm offers a comparison service for banking, insurance and telco products.

New event tech firm Revl raised a £2.4m Seed round from private investors. The app helps UK users to find events, shows and performances.

Olio, an app connecting consumers with shops to try and reduce food waste, secured a $2.2m pre-Series A round. Investors included Accel, Mustard Seed and ASOS co-founder Quentin Griffiths.

Other investments this week include the £480,000 raised by clean tech startup Switchee and the £350,000 Seed received by street trading booking platform StreetDots.

Best of British

Babel Systems, a London-based FinTech startup, was acquired by InvestCloud for $20m. The transaction will enhance the Californian firm’s capabilities to provide custom software solutions for financial services companies.

International story

Snapchat announced it is making London the home of its non-US activity. The social media giant already has an office in Soho, but plans to open a new site nearby.

Download

Our download of the week is Twizoo. The restaurant review app analyses millions of tweets to recommend an eatery based on what others have said about it.

And finally…

And finally, a word of warning for those who own an Amazon Echo.

In a TV news report about a child who had used an Echo device, the reporter said “I just love the little girl saying ‘Alexa, order me a doll house’”, which many Echo devices heard and responded to, purchasing doll houses for viewers across the US.

That’s all for this week’s episode, for more top tech news, remember to follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube channel.