UK SMEs face a ticking time bomb as a result of the imminent effects of an account reporting standard change, according to national audit, tax, advisory, and consulting firm Crowe.

Birmingham-based venture capital firm Midven, in partnership with The 51% Club, has announced a new initiative that’s set to nurture the next wave of high-growth female-led startups. The Fortuna Fellowship is a first-of-its-kind accelerator and will see up to five female-led ventures potentially secure a share of £2 million investment.

Accountants are calling on the new Labour government to provide more support for UK small businesses by introducing legislative reforms and simplifying tax laws, according to new research by accounting software company FreeAgent.

Jarvis, a pension fintech that empowers employees to actively plan for their ideal retirement, has partnered with JA, the software provider for umbrella companies, to transform pension management for umbrella companies.

Pleo, a European spend management platforms, has released a new report examining the current landscape of UK businesses. ‘The Finance and Business Synergy Report’ from Pleo, delves into the sentiments surrounding budget cuts, collaboration and growth in 2024, and how these dynamics are influencing business operations.

Eighty-two percent of employers say they currently record sickness absence, a marginal improvement on the 80% that said the same in 2023 but not as many as the 85% who recorded sickness in 2022.

Canva, the world’s all-in-one visual communication platform, has unveiled a suite of new products and features set to transform how people design at work and beyond. This announcement coincides with Canva reaching the major milestone of 200 million monthly active users, an increase of more than 115 million over the last two years, as the company also hits $2.5 billion in annualised revenue.

NVIDIA has expanded its collaboration with Microsoft to support AI startups worldwide, initially targeting the healthcare and life sciences sectors.

AudioStack is an end-to-end enterprise solution for AI audio production. Its proprietary technology connects AI-powered media creation forms such as AI script generation, text-to-speech, speech-to-speech, generative music, and dynamic versioning. This allows enterprises to build complex audio production workflows faster than real-time. AudioStack unlocks cost and time efficient audio that is addressable at scale, without compromising on quality.

Dryad Networks, a startup working in ultra-early wildfire detection technology, has announced a major financial boost to advance its wildfire prevention solutions. The company has been awarded a €3.8 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), via Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB), to accelerate the development of its revolutionary wildfire suppression project, codenamed “Florian.”

Estonian startup GDPR Register has created an AI-powered solution designed to assist businesses and public institutions across Europe in meeting their data protection requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). By leveraging AI, the platform streamlines compliance, offering a unique approach to managing GDPR obligations.

adCAPTCHA, a newly launched security verification platform, has secured £1 million in funding to combat the growing challenge of automated bots and cyber fraud.

Evntful is a female-led dating app aimed at levelling the playing field for women in the male-dominated dating industry. With a 70/30 male-to-female ratio on platforms like Tinder, Evntful seeks to address the frustrations and safety concerns that plague modern dating, particularly for women.

Zip, the AI-driven procurement orchestration platform, has secured $190 million in Series D funding, with BOND leading the round. This substantial investment ranks among the largest in the enterprise SaaS space this year, boosting Zip's valuation to $2.2 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2023. New investors DST Global, Adams Street, and Alkeon joined the round, alongside returning backers Y Combinator and CRV.

Authologic, a global digital identity verification platform, has raised $8.2 million in its Series A funding round, led by European VC firm OpenOcean. YCombinator, Peak Capital, and SMOK VC also contributed, backing Authologic's mission to modernise KYC and AML processes with secure e-ID solutions. Traditional KYC systems that rely on document images are becoming outdated, as AI-generated fake documents make these methods increasingly vulnerable to fraud, identity theft, and compliance issues. Authologic’s platform offers a more secure approach, addressing the flaws in legacy verification systems.