Yes, you did read that headline correctly! While it might not have hit our regional news headlines, it’s important that we take a minute to think about the very high-profile acquisition of Postmates this week.
I want to take you back to 2010. A time where words like startup or accelerator or even innovation weren’t anywhere near as common or cross-sector-cutting as they are today. I’m talking tech, baby!
Ten years ago, one of Europe’s first major acceleration bootcamp programmes started right here in Middlesbrough. The Difference Engine incubated nine budding businesses, catapulting the North East onto the global tech scene. One such startup, Curated.by, would move to the U.S. after the programme and would go onto pivot into delivery. Today we know this business as Postmates, which was bought by Uber this week for $2.65bn. How’s that for an ending?
Anyway, back to the present, here’s your headlines from this week.