The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in collaboration with Alibaba.com, has officially launched the first phase of the fourth edition of the Athlete365 Business Accelerator programme, which aims to empower current and former elite athletes to transfer their skills into successful business ventures.
In the 12 months ending 31 October 2024, one in 427 adults in England and Wales entered insolvency, higher than the 12 months to October 2023. Combine this with overall registered company insolvencies in 2024 tracking similarly to 2023’s figures – which were the highest for a decade – leading finance and small business experts have pooled their wisdom and launched a new eBook to help SMEs survive.
Berlin-headquartered fintech bunch has launched in the UK, bringing its operating system for private equity and venture capital funds to the largest market in Europe. The move builds on a stellar year of growth for the company, which has tripled both its revenue and Assets under Administration over the past 12 months.
Predium, a provider of ESG management solutions for the real estate and finance industry, has successfully closed a Series A financing round of €13 million. With this investment, Predium strengthens its position as the Real Estate Intelligence Platform for sustainable and economical real estate management.
The planet is facing a real biodiversity crisis that can no longer be ignored. More than half of the global GDP relies to some extent on nature, and according to the IPBES, one million species are currently threatened, representing the sixth mass extinction. This is a matter of urgency, and businesses have an important role to play in protecting biodiversity. Together with darwin, they will find the keys to more sustainable business models.
Tembo, the award-winning digital savings and mortgage platform, specialising in maximising affordability, has raised £14 million in funding. The Series B round was led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Tembo’s existing investors including Aviva, Ascension Ventures, Love Ventures and McPike Family Office. This brings the company’s total funding raised to £20 million.
With significant economic disruption over the past few years, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances quickly has never been more important for businesses. Increasingly, there are instances of sudden pressure on organisations to adopt the latest technology, such as the push to move to cloud computing models or embrace AI.
Open science startup and preprint network DeSci Labs has been listed as one of the 20 Most Innovative Companies to Watch, 2024, by Business Worldwide Magazine. This is DeSci Labs’ second accolade within a month following its Lab Awards success in the Best Automation & Data Innovation category at Lab Innovations 2024.
Recent findings from the government’s Invest in Women Taskforce paint a concerning picture for female entrepreneurs in the UK. Private-equity investment in women-led businesses dropped to 1.8% in the first half of this year, down from 2.5% in 2023. This decline exacerbates an already challenging landscape, where fewer than 6% of active equity-backed companies have female founders.
This year’s final of the EIT Jumpstarter programme was held on 28 November in Budapest, Hungary, along with the EIT Community conference “The next decade of innovation for the future of Europe. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme”. EIT Jumpstarter is an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union.
Three innovative UK tech companies – specialising in renewable energy, advanced sensors and hydrogen-powered systems – have been given government support to expand into Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Each has been selected to participate in the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme, an initiative that helps British scaleups unlock commercial opportunities in 11 markets across the Asia Pacific region.








