News

Consumers are willing to pay more for better customer service

New research by UserTesting, the provider of human insights for retailers, shows that as the annual holiday season rolls back around, good customer service could encourage UK consumers to spend at least £251 more than they would have initially.

SMEs hit hard by £53,000 loss from currency fluctuations

Extreme currency fluctuations have caused SMEs to face substantial losses and are compelling businesses to change their FX strategy.

Carbon-finance project pioneer TASC joins Carbon Markets Africa Summit as diamond sponsor

The organisers of the upcoming Carbon Markets Africa Summit have announced the diamond sponsorship of TASC, the award-winning and pioneering carbon finance project developer with a proven track record of innovative climate mitigating techniques and investing in local communities.

Fintech Week London Joins Forces with Fintech Fringe to Maximise Support for Scaling Companies

Fintech Week London and Fintech Fringe are uniting. As part of the merger, this year’s Fintech Week London will now be incorporated into the Fintech Fringe Festival, taking place 9-10 September 2025 at Old Sessions House, Farringdon, London.

London entrepreneurship moves East as Hackney property prices rise

London continues to lead the UK in overall startup and small business activity, according to fresh data from GoDaddy’s Small Business Research Lab. However, rising housing costs in established hotspots like Hackney are prompting more founders to set up shop further east – reshaping the city’s entrepreneurial map.

SurrealDB gives AI agents secure, real-time memory

SurrealDB, the developer-first multi-model database company, announced the launch of SurrealMCP, the official Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for SurrealDB and SurrealDB Cloud.

UK SMEs say they’ve been abandoned

UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are losing faith in the government’s ability to support them – and it’s threatening the country’s economic future.

Casual dress codes the norm in UK jobs

The days of the strict suit-and-tie are waning in the UK workplace, as new data from hiring platform Indeed reveals a tenfold increase in job postings mentioning “casual dress” since before the pandemic.

SPARK 1.0 incubator reveal first cohort

King’s Entrepreneurship Lab (King’s E-Lab) and Founders at the University of Cambridge have revealed the 24 startups that will join King’s College’s first-ever incubator programme designed to turn research-backed ideas from University of Cambridge students and alumni into investable companies.

Grow London, London Stock Exchange & The Global City partner with London FinTech Summit to connect global finance capitals and drive cross-border collaboration

London FinTech Summit, part of Fintech Week London, has announced strategic partnerships with Grow London (London & Partners), the London Stock Exchange, and The Global City – three of the most influential institutions driving London’s financial and business leadership. The partnerships position the newly launched Summit as a key moment for the UK’s FinTech sector and a powerful platform for global engagement.

CISOs call for DeepSeek to be regulated by UK Government

Four in five (81%) UK CISOs believe DeepSeek – the China-based AI chatbot raising global security concerns due to its data handling practices and vulnerability to misuse – must be urgently regulated by the UK Government before it sparks a full-scale national cyber crisis, according to Absolute Security’s UK Resilience Risk Index Report.

South Eastern Railway deploys IsoMat tech to keep trains running in hot weather

A new type of technology is being trialled on the Tonbridge to Hastings railway line to help keep trains running in hotter weather, and more reliable journeys for passengers and freight customers.

Strategies of the top-performing SMEs

New research by Ipsos and American Express Global Business Travel explores the key strategies of high-performing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), offering insights into the characteristics that differentiate the strongest-growing companies.

Two in five UK small businesses don’t celebrate their own successes

Xero has published new independent research revealing UK small businesses are missing out on the benefits of celebrating key achievements. The research showed that milestones often go unrecognised with only 43% of small businesses believing that it’s important to acknowledge wins, while two fifths (40%) admit they never celebrate, citing they’d never thought about doing so (64%).

Imran Gadzhiev, Creator of Axonera — Axon BCI Platform: Why He’s Bringing Brain Interfaces Out of the Lab and Into the Real World

At the intersection of neurotechnology and artificial intelligence, one of the most promising tech frontiers of the next decade is rapidly taking shape. According to Grand View Research, the global market for brain-computer interfaces (BCI) is valued at over $2.4 billion today and projected to grow to $6.5 billion by 2030. Once limited to research labs and clinical institutions, BCIs are now becoming accessible to indie developers, startups, and even hobbyists — thanks to non-invasive EEG headsets, Bluetooth protocols, and open-source machine learning tools.

The Legal Challenges of Family Tech: Mihail Touretskiy on Authorship, Ownership, and Privacy

Collaboration tools have revolutionised how teams and companies work together, but when it comes to families — the most personal and enduring “teams” in our lives — technology still hasn’t caught up.

Over a third of UK professionals start work earlier or finish later every day

With cost-saving still top of the agenda, and hiring plans remaining curtailed, new Robert Walters’ data reveals how professionals are working extra hours just to keep up.

StartUpNV sponsoring third annual Startup Week, Las Vegas

StartUpNV, a nonprofit statewide incubator and accelerator for Nevada-based startups, is again sponsoring the Las Vegas edition of Startup Week, Wednesday, 17-20th September.

Perplexity bids more than its worth to acquire Google Chrome

AI startup Perplexity has made an unsolicited all-cash takeover offer of Google’s Chrome internet browser for $34.5 billion.

Daye launches pain-free at-home hormone testing

In response to growing interest in hormonal health, female health platform Daye has announced the launch of its comprehensive at-home hormone testing service. The service features an innovative, pain-free blood collection method, designed to make the process of testing much simpler and more intuitive.