Molyon – the spinout developing next-generation batteries with double the energy density of current lithium-ion batteries – has raised $4.6 million in its first funding co-led by IQ Capital and Plural. The funding will kickstart manufacturing at its pilot facility in Cambridge through expansion of the core team including battery engineers, material scientists and operations staff.
Starting a retail business in today’s digital age can be both exciting and challenging. With the rapid evolution of online platforms and digital marketing tools, startups have incredible opportunities to reach their target audience effectively. However, navigating the world of small business digital marketing can be overwhelming without the right strategies. This guide provides essential digital marketing tips for retail startups to establish a strong online presence, engage customers, and grow sustainably.
A new framework designed to guide businesses to introduce and implement new ideas, processes, products, or services that improve an organisation’s overall efficiency, productivity, or culture has been published by UK national standards body BSI.
YouLend, the global embedded financing platform, has reported that a growing number of UK SMEs are turning to embedded financing to secure vital capital ahead of the most important sales period of the year – Black Friday and Christmas.
Argil, the video engine for the creator economy, has announced it has raised €4.9 million in pre-seed and seed funding as it emerges from the Y Combinator incubator. The company raised €3.9 million in a round led by EQT Ventures and with participation from renowned youtuber Kwebblekop, who has over 15 million subscribers and uses Argil to grow his own Youtube channel, and Charles Gorintin, Co-Founder & CTO of Alan, Co-Founding Advisor of Mistral AI.
Trilateral Research, which investigates ethical AI solutions to address a range of complex social issues, has secured a £2.5 million investment from Growth Lending. The funds will facilitate the growth of the business as Trilateral Research accelerates the rollout of ethical AI products, which are designed to tackle complex social issues such as child safeguarding, modern slavery and public health.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), are being given the chance to engage with their bigger counterparts, along with education and governments, in order to help drive policy reform, close the skills gap, and generate growth, it has been announced.
Ukrainian startup GetOrder, a rising star in the restaurant-tech sector, has raised $250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by the venture capital fund Digital Future, with additional backing from the United Angels Network. The funding will drive the company’s expansion into European markets and enhance its product offerings for the restaurant industry, aiming to streamline operations and improve efficiency.
Donut Lab has developed an entirely new approach to building electric vehicles. The company’s development platform offers manufacturers a library of inter-compatible components that can be used to produce new electric vehicles such as supercars, buses, drones, or SUVs in record time. In addition, the company promises that vehicles built on the platform have significantly better performance and they are lighter and more affordable to manufacture.
Global research group, The Hurun Research Institute, has just released the Hurun UK Under30s 2024, showcasing outstanding young entrepreneurs in the UK who are driving growth and job creation.
iwoca has announced access to a £500,000 fund to help small businesses and employees build skills in AI and data analytics.
HyperHeat, the startup using renewable energy to make Zero-Carbon industrial heat, has successfully raised €3.5 million in a funding round. The investment was led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund with participation from Finindus, Possible Ventures, E44 Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Fellows, and a group of seasoned business angel investors.
A majority of UK business leaders (85%) feel that their productivity efforts are being held back, according to research from Celonis. Citing economic headwinds, employee stress, and difficulty implementing new productivity tools as the three core issues, these insights come against a backdrop of 57% of UK companies reporting turnover challenges in early October 2024, according to the ONS, and upcoming changes to employer’s National Insurance rates.
Biolevate, a software company accelerating healthcare innovations through AI, has announced that it has raised €6 million in a seed funding round led by EQT Ventures, with participation from bpifrance and prominent angel investors.
While tech giants spend years and millions building internal developer platforms, most engineering teams are left with a painful choice: cobble together fragmented tools or build everything from scratch. Spotify introduced Backstage to help address this problem, but even after years of availability, it still requires significant setup time and ongoing maintenance – an investment of time and resources that most teams simply can’t afford.
MAGIC AI, the startup that has created the fitness mirror that uses AI to track and train its users has announced it has raised a $5 million funding round.
emma, the cloud management platform transforming how businesses optimise and scale their cloud infrastructure, has announced the successful closure of its $17 million Series A funding round. This follows its $6 million Seed Round in March 2023, bringing total funding to $23 million within two years.
A new study, ‘Women Founders in European Deep Tech Startups’ reveals that women founders in the field receive less total funding compared with male founders. According to the study, women are underrepresented in deeptech startups, with less than one quarter (24%) of deeptech startups created in 2022 having at least one woman in the founding team.
Over three-quarters (76%) of UK software buyers expect their business to increase spending on software in 2025, according to Capterra’s 2025 Tech Trends survey. Of this group, 59% expect to spend between 5%-15% more on digital solutions next year compared to 2024.
Northern Gritstone, the investment company focused on science and technology businesses in the North of England and chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill, has announced a combined £4 million seed round investment into Exciting Instruments with co-investors Empirical Ventures, who led on scientific due diligence, NPIF II – Praetura Equity Finance (managed by Praetura Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II) and serial entrepreneurs Stan Boland and Jonathan Millner.
