The Financial Times’ collaboration with a former supplier, commissioned to develop its web app, has brought about a new business unit dedicated to creating news delivery solutions.

The FT were clearly impressed with Assanka’s development of the new Financial Times Web App, and have now collaborated to create new brand, FT Labs, a team dedicated to improving the news provider’s digital services and technology products.

Andrew Betts, FT Labs founder, added: “FT Labs will become one of the Financial Times’ centres of innovation. Our expertise puts us at the forefront of emerging web technologies and we will use this knowledge and reputation to not only develop innovative products and services, but also bring the FT further into the web development community.”

The FT’s HTML5 app, as well as those from other media owners, offer greater opportunities for PRs to achieve a rich media broadcast. As well as gaining greater control of their mobile communications, users can generate faster reactions to measurable analytics and reach all audiences across a range of different platforms.

The introduction of the HTML5 app is a growing phenomenon, and is forecast to take 50% of enterprise use by 2014.

The FT app had a very successful start back in May 2010, enabling two million users to access its news reports on any device in its first 10 months. Its success was awarded with Best Mobile Innovation for Publishing prize at the Global Mobile Awards2012, which beat Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite Financial and the Guardian’s iPad edition of News and Media to first place.

The new branded site, labs.ft.com, is currently under construction and will be revealed soon.