A new poll has found that almost seven in 10 small and medium-sized businesses struggle to find new recruits with adequate skills. The Attitudes to Work study, conducted by an independent research firm, surveyed 525 business professionals at SME companies across various industries. It was commissioned by coworking company, The Brew.

New research from Xero, the global small business platform, has found leaders of the UK’s smallest businesses (1-9 employees) and sole traders spend less than half (46%) of the working week on their core jobs. These businesses effectively aren’t starting work on primary responsibilities until 2:36pm on Wednesday, because they’re juggling non-core roles like IT, legal, admin, finance and cleaning. 

Mambu, a cloud banking platform, has announced the acquisition of Numeral, a French payment technology provider for banks and fintechs.

Christmas may be the season of giving, but new research from Pleo, surveying 1,000 UK working adults who incur expenses, reveals employees are unintentionally footing the bill for their bosses.

Oxford Ionics, a startup in trapped-ion quantum computing, has announced it is working together with Quanscient, a provider of multiphysics simulation software, and aerospace manufacturer Airbus to develop quantum simulations for computational fluid dynamics.

UK firms broadly support the Government’s employee rights agenda but accept that it will lead to increased people management cost and complexity.

New research from Cloudways, a managed hosting platform provider, has revealed that UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) could lose up to £2.7 billion in festive sales due to website errors and slow loading times. 

The 4th December saw some of the most inspirational female founders come together at the everywoman Entrepreneur Awards for an afternoon of celebration. Over 300 business leaders, founders, and supporters of female entrepreneurs came together to celebrate the achievements of these extraordinary women and their businesses.

The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), part of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), has partnered with global innovation scaleup Wazoku to launch a crowdsourcing challenge that seeks a comprehensive telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) data link solution between a suborbital sounding rocket and a ground station.

OX Delivers, the UK e-mobility startup, has secured a $163 million contract to create its first franchise partner in East Africa, as part of its strategic vision to supercharge trade across the Global South.

The public is being urged to show support for small businesses this weekend as Small Business Saturday returns with a mission to deliver a vital boost for firms heading into another challenging winter. 

Lineage, the largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, has announced the winner of its Food Chain Innovation Challenge. Ryp Labs, the winner of the San Francisco regional event, was selected for its innovative solution for tackling postharvest food waste, securing the global grand prize of $50,000 and an invitation into a six-month, Lineage executive-led incubator programme.

Newly released research* reveals a troubling reality: UK employees are struggling with confidence in using AI at work, feeling under-trained yet eager to learn. 

The majority (85%) of finance leaders need a six-day work week to complete their tasks, causing stress and a general feeling of loss of control. That’s according to a survey by AccountsIQ, a provider of fully cloud-based accounting software, which surveyed 260 CFOs and finance leaders across the UK and Ireland.

The rapid adoption of AI is unlocking significant opportunities for organisations across the UK, enabling them to innovate, streamline operations, and compete on a larger scale. Yet, as businesses integrate AI into their operations, many face serious security risks for which they are often unprepared.

NGP Capital, the global venture capital firm, has unveiled the results of its latest comprehensive data report, "A Decade of European Startup Founders." The new research offers an unparalleled examination of the European startup ecosystem and the visionary founders who have driven its growth over the past ten years.

Lucanet, a global provider of end-to-end CFO software solutions, is releasing the first of its GenAI capabilities – a addition to its CFO Solution Platform. This release will add advanced Copilot features for Lucanet’s Consolidation and Financial Planning and Disclosure Management solution, in addition to the Copilot for the XBRL Tagger made available in October.

Bboxx, a data-driven super platform that transforms lives by unlocking access to clean energy and digital products across Africa, has announced an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to integrate generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into its Bboxx Pulse platform.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in collaboration with Alibaba.com, has officially launched the first phase of the fourth edition of the Athlete365 Business Accelerator programme, which aims to empower current and former elite athletes to transfer their skills into successful business ventures.

In the 12 months ending 31 October 2024, one in 427 adults in England and Wales entered insolvency, higher than the 12 months to October 2023. Combine this with overall registered company insolvencies in 2024 tracking similarly to 2023’s figures – which were the highest for a decade – leading finance and small business experts have pooled their wisdom and launched a new eBook to help SMEs survive.