The UK’s Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has revealed that nearly one million 16–24-year-olds are currently not in work or education, marking the highest numbers in over a decade. This lost generation risks deepening divisions in the labour market, impairing industry innovation, and stalling economic growth.
Swish Solar, a cleantech company based at Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, has closed an oversubscribed $1.5 million pre-seed round. The new financing will accelerate market adoption of its self-cleaning solar technology that helps make renewable energy more efficient and sustainable.
HMRC’s latest statistics on R&D tax relief paint a new picture for the UK’s startup ecosystem. While larger and more established innovators continue to claim and invest, small businesses and first-time claimants are increasingly stepping away from the scheme altogether due to compliance measures and a reduction in rates.
Catalyst, Northern Ireland’s science and technology hub, has announced a new partnership with Ulster University that will embed entrepreneurial thinking and innovation into the academic experience of more than 450 second and final-year students across the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment.
A Midlands-founded healthtech scaleup has landed £1.4 million in new funding from two leading venture capital firms. Securing cheques from both the Borski Fund and Future Planet Capital Regional, Rem3dy Health’s latest funding has reaffirmed growing investor confidence in the region’s innovation ecosystem, whilst also highlighting the impact and importance of cross-border investment relations.
DeepL, a leading global AI product and research company, announced two major business innovations for knowledge workers – DeepL Agent and Customisation Hub.
During its annual conference, DeepL Dialogues, the company unveiled the general availability of DeepL Agent, an autonomous AI coworker designed to streamline and automate a broad range of tasks for knowledge workers. DeepL also announced continued innovations in Language AI with the release of Customisation Hub and the announcement of over 70 new languages to the platform.
arcoris bio, a Swiss life science research tools and in vitro diagnostics company, has secured CHF 6.3 million in an oversubscribed seed financing round to advance the development and commercialisation of its breakthrough MUSE biomarker detection platform. The round was co-led by Ventura Ace and ZEISS Ventures, with participation from Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) and both existing and new private investors.












