Tech tracker round-up: Uber chief product officer leaves, PayPal buys iZettle

Here the Evening Standard business team highlights all the major tech news today.

Top story sees Uber Technologies chief product officer Jeff Holden is leaving the ride-hailing company, an Uber spokesman said, the latest of more than a dozen senior executives to depart since last year.

Holden oversaw Uber Elevate, the company’s flying car operation, which is now headed by Eric Allison but declined to elaborate on the reason for his departure.

New chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi has been shaking up the company since taking over Last August aiming to improve Uber’s reputation after a string of scandals.

Uber, along with Lyft, scrapped mandatory arbitration to settle sexual harassment or assault claims earlier this week, giving victims several options to pursue their claims including public lawsuits.

Uber also launched a new app for its drivers last month, in an effort to improve an often contentious relationship.

Uber’s chief legal officer, Salle Yoo, and head of external affairs Dave Clark left the company in September.

Uber is also searching for a chief financial officer who can help take the company public in 2019. The CFO position has been vacant since 2015.

Elsewhere PayPal has agreed to buy Swedish financial technology startup iZettle for $2.2 billion.

The deal will allow the Californian company to expand into the retail payment terminals business in international markets, where it will compete with Silicon Valley firm Square founded by Twitter chief Jack Dorsey.

Stockholm-based iZettle, which had advanced plans to go public, offers small businesses a miniature credit card reader that turns smartphones or tablets into payment registers.

It is present in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America and offers other services for managing small businesses.

By joining forces with PayPal, which operates in 200 countries, iZettle will be able to accelerate its expansion, including into the United States, the companies said.

iZettle chief executive and co-founder Jacob de Greer and the company’s management team will continue to lead the business. This year the company expects to process $6 billion in payments, resulting in gross revenue of $165 million.

Finally London has cemented its position as a global tech hub.

The UK was in the top three countries for total capital investment in digital tech companies last year, behind only China and the US, according to the Tech Nation annual report.