Bloq.it, the smart locker company providing end-to-end services for out-of-home delivery and e-commerce businesses, has recently closed a €28 million Series B round.

Alba Health, a Swedish and Danish gut health startup, has raised a $2.5 million seed funding round to advance its innovative approach to digital gut health support for children. The round was led by Unconventional Ventures, with participation from Exceptional Ventures, as well as continued investment from Voima Ventures, Noaber, Bust, and Petteri Lahtela (co-founder of Oura).

Swedish startup Alrik, the fast-scaling platform transforming construction logistics, has raised a new funding round led by Nordic-VC People Ventures, with Pi Labs doubling down on their investment.

The business world is incredibly volatile, and a company can fail without an expertly executed strategy. Around 90% of startups fail because they run out of capital, don’t define the market need well enough, get outcompeted, or suffer through flawed strategies related to modelling, regulatory challenges, and pricing/cost issues. Without proper strategic planning, a business stands on the edge between success and failure.

Tech Nation, part of Founders Forum Group, has unveiled the eight finalists for its 2025 Rising Stars competition, the UK’s largest prize pitch competition for early-stage B2B startups. Its Rising Stars report details the 60 startups that pitched across the country’s regional heats.

Every year, the Hustle Awards champion the individuals, startups, and scaleups pushing the boundaries of innovation, resilience, and impact. The 2025 shortlist showcases the most forward-thinking founders, trailblazing technologies, and inspiring stories from across the startup landscape.

Building a business is hard enough, but building a business that lasts is even harder. On average, 20% of businesses fail within their first year and 49% fail in their first five years.

Let’s stop pretending that your weekly corporate Zoom yoga is fixing burnout. Your company rolls out meditation apps, hosts mental health webinars, and maybe even throws in a mindfulness day once a quarter. All under the banner of ‘employee wellness’. Meanwhile, the calendar is still packed with back-to-back meetings, Slack never sleeps, and your team’s average workday just bled into their evening…again.

When startups map out their growth strategy, influencer marketing is often the first port of call. It’s seen as the shiny, must-do tactic that promises rapid brand awareness, new customer discovery, and double-digit growth.

Despite impressive funding rounds and bold visions, most game startups are still struggling with the same fatal flaw: they’re building for metrics, not for people.

The AI revolution is often depicted as a contest between tech giants, each pouring billions into ever-larger, general-purpose models. But while big tech dominates headlines, a quieter transformation is underway: startups with deep domain expertise are building deeply valuable, practical AI solutions that solve real problems. In a world obsessed with big names, it’s these focused, specialist teams that are quietly reshaping industries from the ground up.

Did you know that one of the world's most recognised fintech companies, Wise, has roots in Ukraine? It's a story that often goes untold: a fintech giant, founded by Estonians, but in its early days built by a dedicated team of Ukrainian engineers from Cherkasy. This is the unexpected origin story of a company that has revolutionised international money transfers.

PiLogic announces the closing of a $4 million seed round to expand its footprint in the aerospace and defence industries to upgrade rules-based systems with the power of exact AI.

Launching a startup is a thrilling endeavour – it’s the dream of building something from nothing, fuelled by passion, grit, and ingenuity. But amidst the hustle of product development, pitching, and building a brand, many founders overlook one of the most critical elements to long-term success: legal infrastructure.

With a potential recession knocking at the door of the American economy, managing cash flow is moving to the centre of the plate for small business founders and CEOs. Recessions inevitably cause a business’s payables to balloon, and with business credit already running tight across the US, the lack of free-flowing capital can create a big problem.