2026 is set to be a busy year for UK SMEs, bringing some of the most significant legal and regulatory shifts in recent times – including tighter payment rules, new transparency standards, and digital-first tax and reporting reforms.

A 15-year Impact Study of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB) UK programme reveals alumni have created approximately £2.7bn in additional revenue and 41,000 additional new jobs across the UK.

Half-time at Old Trafford is always loud, but inside our dressing room it felt strangely focused. We were catching our breath, a few of the lads grabbing jelly babies and Jaffa Cakes, when one of the coaches slipped in and whispered something to Steve Coppell. Coppell called the room to attention and delivered the news straight: Rooney had gone off injured.

International expansion is the ultimate growth lever but also one of the fastest routes to failure if mishandled. I’ve seen ambitious startups spend millions on new markets only to retreat within a year, and I’ve also watched careful, measured plays turn into rocket fuel for growth. The difference comes down to timing, planning, and leadership.

The agentic vibe-coding platform, Emergent, has announced a strategic investment from Google’s AI Futures Fund. Launched in May 2025, the fund supports AI startups with capital, early access to cutting-edge AI models, and direct support from Google’s experts. Emergent will leverage this investment and support to further accelerate talent acquisition, product development, and expansion of its platform across the globe.

Jason Bennett is the Global VP of Startups and Venture Capital at AWS. He has been at AWS for 15 years, he has previously served as VP, US Enterprise and private equity, and GM, US-Enterprise Leader. At AWS re:Invent in Vegas, Bennett discussed all things AI, startup trends, and AWS’s commitment to supporting startups.

European technology investing can no longer be relegated to the continent’s economic sideline. New movement in the sector and regular activity over the past few years have made it one of the primary infrastructures on which other industries and services are built. Every month, Zubr Capital publishes a brief look at how this European tech sector is evolving, not just to summarise, but to better understand what the market is building towards.

Most founders will tell you they are bringing AI into their business. Some talk about it with genuine excitement, others with a quiet sense of panic, and a few with the hope that automation might finally fix the chaos they’ve been ignoring for years. The truth is far less glossy. AI rarely fails because the tools are weak. It fails because the organisation behind them isn’t prepared for what the shift actually involves.

Natalie Portman and biomaterial company UNCAGED Innovations have announced a partnership. Portman, a long-standing advocate for animal welfare and ethical consumerism, will work with the company to promote the adoption of sustainable, animal-free materials within the luxury and fashion sectors.

Track Titan, the AI-powered “Strava for motorsport”, has raised a $5 million seed round co-led by Partech and Game Changers Ventures, the fund led by Alpine F1 co-owner Roger Ehrenberg.

Sustainable Ventures and Barclays Eagle Labs announced the launch of The National Climate Tech Accelerator (NCTA), a new programme designed to rapidly scale high-potential climate tech startups across the UK.

Britain is on the verge of an entrepreneurship boom which could change its employment make-up and significantly boost the economy, new research has revealed. One in 10 (10%) Brits want to start a business in the next year. If all of these people were to do so, the number of businesses operating in the UK would almost double.

Brevo, a European leader in customer engagement software, has closed its latest €500 million financing round, officially becoming a unicorn.

team.blue, a provider of digital solutions for businesses and entrepreneurs, has released a new report which analyses the digital maturity of European small businesses revealing that, while many are eager to adopt digital and AI tools, they are held back not by resistance but by uncertainty.

Zen Internet is marking this year’s Small Business Saturday (6th December) with a month-long social media campaign highlighting the outstanding contribution small enterprises make to the UK economy.    

Jentic has launched its AI Readiness Scorecard, the first automated assessment tool to pinpoint where and why enterprise AI pilots fail. The free solution aims to help organisations move from pilot to production by unblocking technical barriers.

Flametree has recently announced that Mexican fintech NOVACARD has officially deployed Flametree’s agentic AI to power its next stage of growth. This collaboration will let NOVACARD scale efficiently while maintaining high-quality, personalised customer service.

Anti Fund, co‑founded by Jake Paul and Geoffrey Woo, announces its over-subscribed $30 million Anti Fund I. With the close of Fund I, Anti Fund’s assets under management now exceed $65 million.

Two of the UK’s leading innovation organisations – Science Creates, the deeptech ecosystem supporting startups with lab space, training, and early-stage investment, and NCC, an innovation organisation helping businesses of all sizes bridge the gap between cutting-edge innovation and industrial application – announce a partnership to accelerate and scale the impact of the South West’s deeptech ecosystem.

On 3rd December, Campus Founders and Dieter Schwarz Foundation celebrated the official opening of its new startup and co-innovation space GRAVITY, marking a major milestone for the development of a collaborative and future-oriented innovation ecosystem in Heilbronn.