When I founded Game Insight in 2009, I often felt like a newcomer in a room full of seasoned professionals. Despite growing up in a post-Soviet environment where women worked alongside men and gender inequality wasn't as pronounced, I still felt I had to work twice as hard as my male counterparts to achieve the same level of success.

What a few weeks it has been for the new Government – a Labour Party conference that fell flat, weaker GDP figures, and Keir Starmer’s “clothes gate”.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is perhaps one of the fastest evolving technologies in business today. For SMEs, it can be hard to keep up with these developments and sift through what’s simply noise, and what will deliver tangible business benefits. 

Ameba, an AI-powered platform revolutionising supply chain management, has secured $7.1 million in Seed funding, led by Hedosophia. Visionaries Club, a prominent early-stage investor in Europe, reinvested after leading Ameba’s pre-Seed round, alongside participation from Anamcara.

As the clock ticks down to Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget announcement on 30th October, the entrepreneurial community across the UK is holding its breath. The tax changes unveiled on that day have the power to either ignite a new wave of innovation and growth or extinguish the entrepreneurial spirit that has long been a hallmark of the British economy.

ALL.SPACE creates cutting-edge multi-orbit, multi-network connectivity solutions, enabling high-speed, uninterrupted communications across air, land, sea, and space.

Innovate UK’s £1.5 million MARCONI project is set to transform the landscape of quantum key distribution (QKD) by developing and demonstrating high-fidelity, modular, and scalable receiver modules.

Drofa Comms, a global finance PR consulting agency, is excited to announce its next Communicate Fintech event in London on October 8, 2024.

XTB, a global fintech company that offers individual investors instant access to financial markets, has integrated investing and payments. The company has introduced a mobile wallet and a multi-currency card, allowing investors to easily manage both their investments and payments through the XTB app.

Ameba, the AI-driven platform helping companies manage and unlock growth from their complex supply chains, has today announced a $7.1M Seed round led by Hedosophia.

xtype, the pioneering software company for multi-instance management on the ServiceNow platform, has announced it had raised a $21 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from ServiceNow Ventures and existing investors including Columbia Capital and Inner Loop Capital.

It’s not a sector that has ever stood still, but the next few years will bring some particularly big changes in manufacturing. From the rollout of AI for everything from machinery monitoring to material design to an increasingly urgent push towards sustainability, revolutionary new ways of operating will require major software-system adjustments. So what issues do companies face when moving to new technology and how do they deal with them?

New research from innovation incentives specialist ForrestBrown revealed that while UK businesses are keen to invest in innovation, various obstacles are hindering progress. A shortage of skilled personnel emerged as a significant barrier, with 19% of businesses highlighting this issue.

Mindstone, an international training platform known for its focus on practical AI education for non-technical professionals, has teamed up with Pearson to introduce Pearson's new Generative AI Certification programme.

The startup ecosystem is seeing a distinctive shift in its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. Traditionally, it was the tech giants that led the charge in acquiring promising startups. However, a growing trend is emerging: startups are acquiring other startups.

Foreverland, the Italian startup behind a sustainable carob-based chocolate alternative, is setting a new standard in the chocolate and food industries. With a recent €3.4 million Seed round, just a year after its inception, the company is gearing up to launch its semi-finished product facility and expand across Europe.

Manchester’s £1.7 billion innovation district has officially launched its first building and revealed its new name: Sister. The district’s first tenant, Sustainable Ventures, Europe's climate tech hub, is set to move into the Renold Building this November.

Onboarding still remains one of the greatest challenges for both employers and employees. Research by Gallup finds that only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organisation does a great job onboarding new employees and with a staggering 50% of newly hired employees planning to quit soon, that number skyrockets to 80% for those who feel undertrained from poor onboarding, according to research by Paychex.

With over 500 million podcast listeners globally and the market projected to skyrocket from $27 billion in 2023 to over $234 billion by 2030, the podcasting industry is experiencing rapid growth. Given that approximately 80% of podcast episodes are completed by listeners, it is no surprise that global ad spending is forecasted to hit $4.02 billion by 2024.

Blackfinch Ventures has unveiled its latest offering: the Energy Transition EIS Portfolios, designed to provide investors with access to innovative technology companies driving the widespread electrification of society.