A new report from global HR, payroll, and employment platform Employment Hero is calling for an urgent rethink of how the UK defines and measures productivity, as new data reveals a striking disconnect between how productivity is understood by SMEs and their employees.

Swedish deeptech company Embedl has raised €5.5 million in a pre-series A funding round from Chalmers Ventures, Fairpoint Capital, SEB Greentech, Spintop Ventures,  and STOAF. 

Native Teams, the global platform for work payments, unveils Gig Pay, the end-to-end automated payroll and wallet solution engineered to turn compliance deadlines into growth drivers.

Miro, the Innovation Workspace, reveals the findings of its study into the attitudes and behaviours of British knowledge workers using AI.

Gcore, the Edge AI, Cloud, network, and security solutions provider, has announced the launch of Gcore for Startups, an AI-native program designed to meet the real infrastructure needs of startups.

Emma Jones CBE, Founder of Enterprise Nation, has just been announced as the new Small Business Commissioner, supporting the Government’s mission to support small businesses in the UK.

London's small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are struggling to keep pace with the rest of the UK's employment recovery, with the capital recording the weakest job growth in May, a new report from HR, payroll, and employment platform Employment Hero shows.

Over my 30 years of experience buying and selling businesses I’ve gained a deep insight into what buyers want when they look for a company, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there are several factors that they take into account. Specifically, I refer to these as the 10 drivers of business value, and of the most important drivers is high customer loyalty.

Orbit Capital is bringing venture debt to Central and Eastern Europe with its Growth Debt II fund. The fund will hold €100 million, allowing technology companies to accelerate further growth. This second fund follows on the success of Growth Debt I, which held €40 million.

LemFi, the international payments pioneer has announced it has acquired UK credit fintech Pillar to accelerate their shared mission of empowering immigrant communities with fair, fast, and accessible financial services.

Redefining success: “Success isn’t just about numbers. And it’s easy to get stuck chasing them. Success means freedom – the freedom to live by the ocean, to surf almost every morning, and to build a life shaped by small, intentional choices. A life where I get to design – and choose – every single piece of it.”

Speaking in front of an audience is one of the most common fears, whether it’s pitching to investors, leading a meeting, presenting at an event, or simply sharing ideas in front of a group.

The landscape for growth-stage fundraising has fundamentally changed. Today’s Series C and D rounds, typically involving raises of $50–100 million or more, are significantly tougher than in recent years. Investors have become more selective, valuations more restrained, and expectations for business performance far more rigorous.

Skype, the platform once synonymous with video calls, shocked the world by shutting down after 22 years. How is it possible that a once-dominant business – with more than 300 million users at its peak – could fail?

I still remember learning history in school, memorising dates, cramming timelines, trudging through dry textbook passages. It was boring and ineffective. Mostly, I remember not understanding why any of it mattered.

The modern startup moves fast – testing, iterating, pivoting. But one thing that doesn’t change is the need to connect with customers in simple, scalable ways. And in 2025, there’s one underrated tool that’s quietly becoming essential across industries: the QR code.

UK startups are facing one crisis after another, from the lack of investment opportunities and access to talent, to economic and political uncertainties, scaling a business is becoming increasingly difficult. A recent report found that Series A funding has slumped £500 million over the past 12 months to March 2025 – hitting a seven-year low.

Dan Thomson, Founder and CEO of AI startup Sensay, has urged governments worldwide to deploy AI in their policymaking, as the firm launches the world's first AI-powered government to experiment with new cutting-edge ways of developing policy. 

AI’s reliance on existing material to generate content raises a number of thorny intellectual property issues, both legal and ethical. When sourcing material to complete its tasks, AI does not distinguish between content protected by intellectual property law and content that isn’t. As a result, there is a genuine risk that AI systems could produce infringing material. If your business uses that content, you could face legal action and a claim for financial compensation.

In the March/April 2025 issue of Startups Magazine, we introduced four startups that we believe are the ones to watch in the deeptech space.