The Hustle Awards, a longstanding highlight in the entrepreneurial calendar, has some updates for you all!

On April 25th, Rare Founders Demo Day returned with its most ambitious event to date – delivering a powerful reminder that the UK’s startup ecosystem doesn’t need more polish. It needs more truth.

As SMEs navigate an increasingly complex business landscape in 2025, rising operational costs, talent retention, and cyber threats continue to dominate boardroom discussions.

Mission Zero Technologies (MZT) has opened its Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant in Norfolk, the world’s first fully integrated DAC-to-building materials production demonstration.

BioMara, a seaweed biotechnology company, has successfully completed commercial-scale trials of its proprietary fucoidan extraction process at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), the UK’s premier bioprocessing facility.

Deckmatch, an AI-powered market intelligence company that analyses pitch decks for investors and product data for startups, has added former Financial Times Editor Lionel Barber as an adviser to the company.

Despite mounting cost pressures, shifting tariffs, and a turbulent economic outlook, UK small businesses are fuelling a surprising surge in employment growth.

Findings from a DeepL survey of UK and global executives reveal that despite English being the language of global business, UK companies are more likely to encounter language-related challenges when expanding into new markets than their counterparts in the US, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

EIT Food Accelerator Network, an early-stage innovation programme co-funded by the European Union, welcomes 65 promising AgriFoodTech startups to its 2025 cohort.

With AI-driven cybercrime and ransomware attacks surging globally, GISEC Global 2025 returns to Dubai from May 6 - 8, bringing together the world’s foremost leaders, innovators, and visionaries in a high-stakes effort to secure our digital future

Blue Earth Summit is back for 2025 with an even bigger mission to transform the way the world works and support the changemakers driving positive planet transformation.

International business development consultancy Intralink has expanded its global presence to India to help UK technology companies secure customers and partners in this rapidly-developing market, and to enable Indian businesses to grow overseas.

Manchester has been crowned the UK’s most AI-ready city in 2025, according to new research.

Generation Z workers have significant entrepreneurial aspirations with over two-thirds (67%) aspiring to own or lead a business in the future, according to research by American Express and The Conduit, a collaborative impact community and members club.   

Amazon is bringing the AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance to the UK, with the goal to provide 100,000 people with AI skills by 2030. Working in collaboration with educational institutions, government leaders, and enterprises across the country, the programme will help learners get ready for entry-level technical careers.

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly accelerating across the UK, with more than half (52%) of businesses now using AI, and at least one business on average embracing the technology about every 60 seconds, according to the latest edition of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) ‘Unlocking the UK’s AI Potential’ report.

The UK has emerged as Europe’s leader in corporate-startup collaboration, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), according to a new study by Sopra Steria Next – the consultancy division of the Sopra Steria Group, a major player in European technology.

bunq has launched bunq Crypto, empowering its users to safely and effortlessly invest in the cryptocurrency market.

Innovation scaleup Wazoku has announced a new partnership with National Innovation Center par Excellence (NICE), the Chinese innovation centre. This partnership has been kicked off with the launch of a major programme designed to identify and launch pioneering technology projects with the financial backing, expert guidance, and R&D support of the NICE ecosystem.

With landmark initiatives announced to forge new frontiers in Europe’s digital sovereignty, including the €200bn AI pledge and unprecedented emphasis on quantum, cloud, semiconductors and data storage, a sense of urgency is sweeping across the continent to reimagine the status quo and reshape critical tech infrastructures.