Estonia is back in the top tier of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2025, confirming its rising influence on the region’s innovation map. At the awards gala in Prague on November 20, Tallinn-based startup Wallester was revealed as the highest-ranked Estonian company, placing 6th overall among the fastest-growing tech firms in Central Europe.

As organisations strengthen their data foundations, chief data officers (CDOs) are increasingly driving technology innovation, according to a new Deloitte report which shows, CDOs overwhelmingly agree that a well-defined data strategy is essential.

“We can solve all the world’s energy challenges with no drawbacks,” said John Bucknell, CEO and Founder of Virtus Solis, a spacetech startup based in Michigan who is building astral solar power plants.

As many as 70,000 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are expected to be launched over the next five years, Goldman Sachs Research has reported, highlighting a growing and thriving industry that has come to rely on satellites for connectivity and observation. Satellites are used for anything from voice communications in remote locations to tracking populations of endangered species.

When we last spoke to Skyrora 18 months ago in our Jan/Feb 2024 edition, CEO and Co-Founder Volodymyr Levykin likened the company to being a “space taxi”. The vision was to disrupt the space industry by becoming the first private orbital launcher – designing, manufacturing, and deploying launch vehicles for satellites – all with sustainability in mind.

You are not your grandfather’s SMB.

While many mid-market manufacturers still fax purchase orders and wrestle brittle ERPs, born-in-the-Cloud startups enjoy a greenfield. That blank canvas is both a luxury and a trap: copy yesterday’s stack, and you inherit yesterday’s headaches.

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced targeted investment in industrial strategy sectors across the UK with the introduction of two AI growth zones in Wales, creating more than 8,000 jobs and £17 million in Northern Ireland to strengthen UK external markets.

Gosta Labs, a Helsinki-based healthtech company founded by the ex-Kaiku Health founders, has closed a €7.5 million seed round to scale its AI operating system for complex medical specialties.

A new education technology company, PupilPower, has launched with an ambitious mission: to bring immersive, virtual reality (VR) learning into UK classrooms – completely free for schools.

Startups love building elegant technology and chasing ideas no one has tried before. But in the supply chain, elegance rarely survives contact with reality. Julia Sanzharova – a supply chain transformation leader with deep FMCG and product-development experience – explains why even the most advanced AI models fall short without a solid understanding of how operations actually run.

Early-stage founders spend a huge amount of energy on the usual forms of capital: cash, talent, time, and product. But purpose-driven startups have access to a fourth resource that often makes the biggest difference in the years where margins, headcount, and certainty are all painfully thin – their community.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to use the opportunity afforded by AI to ‘Make Britain Great Again’.

Many leaders treat Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) as little more than a legal formality or a simple perk to attract talent. According to Stefan Surina, CEO and Founder of Eldison, this is a critical mistake. Drawing from years of experience advising founders, he believes that an ESOP isn't just a part of a compensation package – it's the foundational tool for building a company's culture. Done right, strategic ESOP turns employees into true owners, while a poorly planned one risks creating resentment and killing motivation before a company even gets off the ground.

Buildroid AI, an AI robotics startup, has emerged from stealth with $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Tim Draper, known for backing Tesla, SpaceX, Skype, and Robinhood. The startup has also announced the launch of its first block-laying robot, built using BIM-to-BUILD simulation.

More UK businesses can slash their energy bills thanks to Octopus Energy’s latest ‘Shape Shifters: Agile’ tariff – the UK’s first fully agile tariff for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).