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.
Cell-cultivated seafood innovator Forsea struck a major breakthrough in making freshwater eel farming a viable commercial reality. The startup announced its organoid technology reached a record-breaking cell density of more than 300 million cells/ml, and with minimal and precise use of cultured media ingredients.
H has announced the launch of Runner H, a first cloud-based web agent. With the beta release of Runner H 0.1, H is breaking through the limitations of plateauing scaling laws, taking a significant step towards artificial superintelligence (ASI).
One of Europe’s freelancer platforms, Malt, has launched its new AI Search tool to help cut the process of selecting top freelance talent from days to seconds and make managing freelancers easy and scalable.
Celebratix, a Dutch blockchain ticketing startup backed by Solana, has secured €1.1 million in investments from numerous Dutch serial entrepreneurs, the Swedish VC uBIT, and the UK business angel Justin Rees. The funds will be used to expand internationally. “We are beyond excited to set a new standard of blockchain based ticketing,” says Frank Roskam, Founder and CEO of Celebratix.
A decade of transformation in European tech is in the spotlight with the release of the tenth anniversary edition of the State of European Tech report. Charting a journey of remarkable growth, the report also examines the sector’s potential to drive innovation amidst present-day challenges.
The European unicorn landscape, home to companies that are valued at €1 billion or more, has undergone rapid expansion over the past five years, and is now worth €447 billion. However, valuations of many of these companies, especially those that happened in 2021 and 2022, appear overdue for reassessment.
AI integration platform Eden AI has announced a €3 million seed round led by Galion.exe, with participation from 50 Partners and several prominent business angels including Olivier Pomel (Co-Founder of Datadog), Sébastien Pahl (Co-Founder of Docker) and Alix de Sagazan (Co-Founder of ABTasty).
Eleven of the UK’s quantum pioneers met technology giants and venture capitalists from the Asia Pacific region during two days of business matchmaking meetings alongside the recent UK National Quantum Technology Showcase event. Several of the companies expect to progress commercial discussions as a result.
Tide, the business financial platform in the UK, has launched an automated carbon calculator developed in partnership with carbon measurement pioneer Connect Earth. The new tool will allow Tide’s 650,000 UK members (customers) to view an estimated and categorised understanding of their carbon emissions.
“This is the dawn of a zero-emission revival in waterborne transportation,” says Gustav Hasselskog, Candela’s Founder and CEO.
US VC firm Voyager Ventures has launched a London operation in a vote of confidence in European climate tech companies.
A new report by Marktlink reveals that while 20% of UK SME owners believe there are insufficient growth opportunities within the domestic market, a mere 11% would consider selling their company to a foreign buyer.
Nearly one in five (18%) employers leave employee benefits take-up to employees to initiate themselves instead of actively encouraging staff to use the benefits available to them, according to research from GRiD, the industry body for the group risk sector. GRiD highlights the potential waste of time and resources in investing in benefits if utilisation is not encouraged.
UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, managed by Future Planet Capital and in partnership with the Government Office for Technology Transfer, a part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, has announced pre-incorporation investment into Sona, from the world-leading National Physical Laboratory, which is developing a patented pioneering pre-imaging solution for breast density assessment.
UNCAGED Innovations, the biomaterial company that creates sustainable leather from grains has launched ELEVATE, a new luxury leather alternative.
New research has revealed a significant yet often overlooked source of stress for employers: manual payroll. For some, it’s causing ‘payroll paralysis’.
Apideck, a provider of real-time Unified APIs, has announced that it has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round. Led by Amsterdam-based Airbridge Equity Partners, the round includes PMV, angel investors, and executives from Atlassian, Rocketreach, Aikido, Teamleader, and Proxyclick. The investment will accelerate the company’s global growth and enhance its product offering, simplifying API integrations for B2B software and fintech companies.
Ninety seven percent of organisations using generative AI have faced security incidents or data breaches linked to the technology this year, according to Capgemini Research Institute.
