Brexit’s official 5th anniversary was on 31st January, and – for some businesses – international trade remains a point of great frustration. Brexit, for many British enterprises, has been more shock and less awe. A recent LSE study revealed that the UK lost £27 billion in trade during Brexit’s first two years, with the value of British goods exports falling by 6.4% and total goods imports by 3.1%.
Augmetec, the legaltech startup founded and led by Kritin Sundaram, announces that it has raised over £2 million in seed funding to turbo charge its growth. The round is led by UK-based early-stage investors Fuel Ventures, with participation from Swiss fund 14Peaks Capital, and three industry angel investors, including the Founding Partner of one of the world’s largest law firms, the family office of a $1 billion+ legaltech organisation, and the Head of Fraud at Asia’s largest law firm.
Noxus has raised $1.5 million in pre-Seed funding. Led by SFC Capital, the round also saw participation from Antler, Bynd VC, Caixa Capital, AltaIR Capital, I2BF Global Ventures, Yellow Rocks, and Smart Partnership Capital plus prominent business angels from the European ecosystem. The funding will help further develop and scale Noxus’ platform and expand operations.
Jarvis has partnered with Finity to simplify pensions management for businesses in the recruitment industry. This integration will also act as a platform for direct access to pension data through a unified system.
With UK landlines (PSTN) being phased out by 2027, small businesses face a shift in how they communicate. Rinkel, the Dutch telecom provider for freelancers and SoHo, is expanding its virtual phone services to the UK, offering a reliable, future-proof alternative to traditional telephony.
Doshi has teamed up with Lloyds to give students the financial confidence they need. This partnership is all about combining gamified learning experiences with rewards-based engagement to help students master essential financial skills and build a stronger connection with Lloyds.
Efforts to boost AI use will be undermined if key people and organisational factors aren’t properly understood, the CIPD says as it begins a government-backed programme to help bridge the gap between AI innovation and responsible implementation.
SAP launches its ‘Supercharging Growth with AI in the UK – a Pathway for High-Growth Businesses’ report, which considers the scale-up opportunities and challenges facing UK businesses in 2025.
A new study by Markel Direct has revealed the top cyber security issues facing SMEs – with the increasing sophistication of cyber threats named as the top concern for business owners.
NatWest Group has made a minority investment in Serene, an early-stage AI platform dedicated to tackling financial vulnerability. Through real-time customer insights driven by AI and behavioural science, the platform detects early signs of financial distress and predicts risks to help financial institutions deliver personalised, timely support at scale.
Technology and sustainability are joining forces to drive a new wave of innovation in the financial sector, and ekko, a fintech company with a mission to make every transaction a force for good, is leading this movement.
In 2024, the UK’s fintech startup ecosystem emerged as the second most funded globally, trailing only the US. Despite its historical prominence, 2024 marked a five-year low in funding, attributed to factors such as evolving regulatory complexities, heightened investor caution due to fraud and cybersecurity concerns, and macroeconomic challenges like inflation and rising interest rates.
International law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Streambased, a specialist in streaming data analytics and management, on its $2.7 million in seed funding led by Elaia. Other backers include Seedcamp, TKM, and First Momentum as well as industry expert angels. This funding round will go towards hiring and R&D to expand their tech capabilities.
Ayesha Ofori is the Founder and CEO of Propelle and she is on a mission to change the way women think about and engage with their finances.
In 2024, well-known social media platforms faced fines totalling €1.955 billion for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Krete Paal, CEO of the Estonian privacy startup GDPR Register, analysed the most significant breaches and court rulings impacting European companies and the development of data protection practices.
The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG), a not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation for the drug discovery community, has announced the keynote speakers for Research & Innovation 2025. Dr Jue Wang, Research Scientist and Co-lead of the Protein Design Team at Google DeepMind, and Dr Robert Grundy, CEO of Intelligent OMICS, will lead this year’s event focussed on ‘big molecules to big data … thinking BIG to drive innovative research’.
FITUR has once again hosted the official presentation of the new edition of the TIS – Tourism Innovation Summit, which will take place from October 22–24th 2025 in Seville, Spain. The summit, already established as a key technological event for the travel and tourism industry, will bring together the sector’s main players and professionals.
The latest ONS figures offer little comfort for UK businesses. Unless December’s data delivers significant – and surprising – expansion, the economy will have contracted in the final quarter of last year.
NeoCarbon and Carbonaide are excited to announce the successful mineralisation of the first batch of concrete cured with ~1kg CO2 captured from NeoCarbon’s pilot Direct Air Capture (DAC) blended with other biogenic CO2. This marks a significant milestone in their collaborative effort to increase the share of DAC CO2 used in the mineralisation process, in addition to CO2 captured from biogas and waste-to-energy plants.
Constant Contact, a marketing solution that has helped millions of small businesses and nonprofits around the world, is proud to announce a new sponsorship with Chelsea FC Women.
