Jukebox is expanding its global creative footprint with the launch of Jukebox Ventures, announcing the launch of their Fund I which is raising up to $15 million dedicated to backing the next generation of startups at the convergence of music, technology, and culture.

Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for transport, the built environment, cities, and local growth, has announced the first project under the new Public Realm Innovation Lab.

I spent eight years working for a small British manufacturer in Oxfordshire. The sort of outfit that, like so many brilliant UK manufacturers, makes astonishing kit in an unassuming shed tucked away in the beautiful countryside. I’ve lost count of the number of days I’ve watched vanish: chasing a work order hidden in someone’s desk, sitting in a meeting that should have been an email, or typing the same numbers into two systems that hate each other. So I started Mithryl with a goal to turn that chaos into usable knowledge and give teams their time back.

Deel has announced a $300 million strategic investment, bringing its valuation up to $17.3 billion.

Wild Bioscience (Wild Bio), the Oxford University spinout that develops improved crop varieties using AI and precision breeding, has raised a $60 million Series A investment. This significant funding round was led by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), with participation from existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), Braavos Capital, and the University of Oxford.

Jack & Jill, the AI recruitment company, has raised $20 million in seed investment to build and expand in Europe and the United States. The round was backed by leading European early-stage firm, Creandum, as well as prominent VCs including Dig Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Ada Ventures, Firedrop, Repeat.vc, Episode1, Playfair, and over 75 high-profile angel investors, including Nico Rosberg, and from companies such as Lovable, Anthropic, and ElevenLabs.

Nila, the healthcare management startup helping expatriates care for elderly relatives back home, has closed an oversubscribed $2.4 million (£1.8 million) pre-seed round led by LocalGlobe. The investment enables Nila to scale its revolutionary care management platform which addresses the stress and challenges that accompany overseeing the health and wellbeing of older family members across borders.

UK cybersecurity startup Ploy has raised £2.5 million to address a growing security threat, with 93% of organisations suffering two or more identity-related breaches per year.

America is the land of promise for many small British businesses. The population is generally fairly well off and there’s almost five times as many people as there are in this country. The potential to sell many more of your products and services there is enormous.

For most startups, the Cloud is not optional. It’s the backbone of rapid experimentation, product iteration, and go-to-market execution. Platforms like AWS make it possible to launch with minimal upfront investment and scale globally in a matter of weeks. But while the Cloud lowers barriers, it also introduces complexity.

With the Government’s new Growth and Skills Levy on the horizon, the way small businesses access training and upskilling is set to change. At a time when skills shortages are biting hard and business owners need straightforward, affordable ways to develop their people, this reform is a chance to get things right for SMEs, which make up 99% of the UK’s business community.

Aide Health, a UK healthtech startup, has launched the country’s first AI-powered “medical memory” designed entirely for patients – promising to end the age-old problem of forgetting what the doctor said.

Strawberry, the agentic browser with built-in, personalised AI companions, has announced that it has raised $6 million in funding, led by General Catalyst and EQT Ventures, with participation from founders of Lovable, Supabase, and Hugging Face.

Spex Capital, an early-stage investor tackling global healthcare challenges through innovative healthtech solutions, has announced the first €30 million commitment to its flagship €100 million Venture HealthTech Fund. The fund will invest globally in early-stage healthtech startups, from Seed to Series A/B, with investments of up to €5 million.

Red Hat has announced new survey results highlighting the prominence of AI for UK organisations’ IT strategies. The findings reveal UK organisations surveyed anticipate boosting AI investment by an average of 32% by 2026.