People – whether employees, customers or stakeholders – are the only reason any business exists. After all, it’s people who create companies to fulfil human needs and desires.

Edinburgh-based investment syndicate, Archangels, led £27.3 million of investment during 2024 in some of Scotland’s best early-stage tech and life science companies.

During October 2024, Amazon Web Services' (AWS) GenAI Loft in London became a hub of activity, sparking collaboration and experimentation to accelerate the transformative power of generative AI. Through engaging startup demos, insightful expert panels, and educational sessions, the Loft showcased how founders are harnessing cutting-edge technologies, such as large language models (LLMs), to drive innovation across industries.

Customer retention is a foundation for stable business growth, and email gamification is just the right equipment. Getting customers involved and entertained forms a deeper sense of loyalty. How is that?

During lockdown, remote working was mandated, with millions of British professionals having their first taste when introduced in March 2020. To sweeten the pill, the virtues of remote working were extolled by Government and business figures, and the nation laughed sympathetically, as clips of home-based public figures having video interviews crashed by children went viral.

For ages, founders have strived to create products so innovative that they spawn entirely new business categories. As a founder though, I believe that attempting to create new business categories from scratch is much more arduous, and potentially disastrous, than focusing on building great products that disrupt existing ones.

I never thought my ADHD would become my startup superpower. For years, I watched other entrepreneurs follow traditional business advice that didn't click with my brain. But here's the thing about founders with ADHD: we're not just managing challenges; we're sitting on a goldmine of unique strengths that can revolutionise how we build and grow companies.

Sustainable packaging is becoming an increasingly important aspect of product design for any modern business. It involves using materials and methods that have a minimal impact on the environment, such as recyclable, biodegradable or renewable materials.

Ideas fuel innovation, leading to continual developments throughout the technological landscape and redefining what is possible in the modern world. Yet, for too long, the flow of ideas has been limited to select teams or individuals, often stifling the full potential of creativity within organisations and wider society. Democratising ideas – creating equal opportunity for idea generation, deployment, and evaluation – resolves this issue.

Over the past two years, rising interest rates, and inflation in the UK have forced many businesses to scale back operations. Recent tax increases outlined in the Budget have further compounded the issue, prompting almost half of businesses to plan workforce reductions and almost two-thirds scaling back hiring.

Every year, Startups Magazine makes a list to highlight some of the incredible women in our network and 2024 was no different.

First aid charity St John Ambulance has declared 2025 the year of holistic workplace health, warning that organisations must proactively address outdated approaches to first aid in the workplace to best protect their employees.

January can be about resolutions, but really, it should be about goals if you want to achieve anything.

The healthcare system is under strain: overloaded doctors, mounting administrative burdens, and patient care pathways stretched to breaking point. As demand on services continues to grow, digital solutions are becoming more critical in transforming how healthcare is delivered. But what are the startups doing to address these real-time challenges?

In 2024, AI unsurprisingly continued to take the business world by storm – with 72% of businesses integrating this technology into at least one business function. From AI chatbots to AI coding assistants – the possibilities of AI are endless, and businesses are grasping the opportunities it has to offer with both hands.

2024 was a year of seismic change with a new government coming into power and a UK budget that will undoubtedly impact the UK’s small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2025. So, as we look ahead to next year, what technology trends will lead?

Monolith, an AI software provider to the world’s most innovative engineering teams, has started work with Vertical Aerospace, a global aerospace and technology company that is pioneering zero emission aviation. Monolith will help the Bristol-based company optimise its eVTOL testing and simulation programmes to improve performance and accelerate time to market.

TurmaFinTech, a new fintech startup helping US community banks bridge the technological gap, increase sales, beat customer churn, manage customer relationships, and provide targeted customer communications, has announced its launch.

In 2024, cybersecurity breaches and attacks were a significant issue for UK businesses, with approximately 50% of organisations reporting incidents. Government data reveals that 58% of small businesses, 70% of medium-sized businesses, and 74% of large businesses experienced cyber threats.

At now 81 years old, I’ve learned a thing or two about business and entrepreneurship along the way. My career to date has taken me from the engineering workshop, through delivering training and seminars to teams across the world, to even now taking on new projects in my ninth decade.