In November 2006
TechCrunch UK and Ireland launched with Sam
Sethi as publisher and Mike Butcher as editor bringing much needed focus to the UK tech start up scene.
Just one month later Le Web 3.0 conference organised by
Loic le Meur in Paris sparked off a series of '
misunderstandings' that led to Michael
Arrington editor of the US parent site effectively shutting down
TechCrunch UK. Much heat was generated in the
blogosphere about
who said what and why.
Following the suspension of
TechCrunch UK, Sam
Sethi and Mike Butcher worked together at
Vecosys, then separated to run their own tech blogs at
blognation launched 8 weeks ago (currently in 9 countries) and
Mbites respectively.
So to bring things up to date it is
refreshing to see
Techcrunch UK up and running again with Mike Butcher once more working with Mike
Arrington. The important stuff is after all spotlighting new tech in the UK rather than the individuals blogging about it.
This week
Techcrunch UK covered
Seedcamp and
focused on the 6 winners that each received €50k of funding :
First up is
Project Playfair, a Scottish project still in development described as "hypertext for numbers";
next is
Zemanta, a 'content intelligence platform' from Slovenia;
Kublax is a hyper-encrypted personal finance application syncing all your bank accounts and utilities in one user-friendly place;
Swedish
Tablefinder is an online restaurant searching and booking service;
UK-based
Buildersite is a trusted marketplace for construction services based on 5% of the project fee;
Lastly is
rentmeonline which has been described an
eBay for renters.
If anyone has inside info, or experience of using the applications mentioned here share your thoughts on them below.
MessyMedia's first blog 'Westmonster' focusses on British politics and is described as irreverent, clued-up and scurrilous. It is edited by 'Westminster insider' Sadie Smith.
