The UK’s most inspirational small businesses have been announced as Small Business Britain reveals its 2025 Small Awards shortlist.

South Summit Brazil 2025, the leading event for the entrepreneurial ecosystem co-organized by IE University and the Government of Rio Grande do Sul, will celebrate its fourth edition from April 9 to 11 in the city of Porto Alegre. The event will feature five major thematic areas of content that will set the pace of the conversations and presentations: Sustainability, Digitalisation, Ecosystem, Social Transformation and the Edge.

Insights, a global provider of workplace learning and development solutions, launches the Insights Discovery API.

Untamed, a pantry fresh, human-grade cat food brand, announces a Series B funding round of £10 million to continue to grow the brand’s offering and global reach.

OSSTEC, a London-based startup changing the face of joint replacement implants with a novel 3D printing technology, has raised £2.5M in funding.

In a first for the SaaS industry, fintech Lemon is unveiling its 0% financing product, allowing businesses to finance their software subscriptions without any additional interest.

Capital D announces that it has acquired a minority stake in Refinery89, the AdTech platform dedicated to supporting regional European and LATAM digital publishers.

Launched in 2021 by Luca Colciago, Jack Diamond, and Matteo Avramov Giulivi, pan-European growth debt platform, Atempo Growth has announced the first close of its Second Fund, Atempo Growth II. This close increases the firms AuM to over €700 million.

Building a startup is a healthy mix of energy, optimism, and of course, risk. The focus is often on product development, funding rounds, and scaling up fast. But in the rush to get off the ground, people management – the heartbeat of any organisation – can often skip a beat. And while it’s understandable, ignoring tried and tested HR best practices early on can be a costly mistake.

A pivotal experience in Simon Bailey’s twenties while commuting across London on a route besieged by poor public transport links led him to think about the “crazy system we’ve got,” he confessed, with regard to cars being oversized for single-occupancy, a path that set him on the journey to founding WeatherVelo, a mobilitytech startup that is developing a prototype vehicle that presents a midway point between a car and a bicycle.

The issue of battery waste is pervasive: according to figures shared by Statista, between 2011 – 2021 246,000 metric tonnes of portable batteries and accumulators were sold in the EU, of which 48% were collected for recycling.

Startups have a unique advantage when it comes to building a sustainable future. Unlike large enterprises that must modernise or upgrade operations to align with circular economy principles, startups can integrate these models from the beginning, creating a sustainable foundation for future growth while contributing to global decarbonisation efforts.

A new competition from Constant Contact and Enterprise Nation in collaboration with Channel 4 is set to offer UK small business brands an opportunity to win a professionally produced broadcast TV advert on Channel 4 and expert marketing support – a package worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The Kickstart Innovation Program is opening its application phase for the tenth time. Last year, AI applications were the main focus in 95% of cases, and 60% of the solutions also integrated sustainability and the circular economy as central elements.

In an endlessly hyper-digital world of scrolling, where thumbs move faster than minds and attention spans last only as long as a heartbeat, standing out has become both a science and an art.

Delivering on its promise to put passengers first, the Department for Transport has made £5 million funding available to winning projects as part of the First of a Kind (FOAK) competition.

Sagittal AI, the company building AI solutions that adapt to human workflows instead of forcing humans to adapt to AI, has raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding. The investment round was led by Twin Path Ventures, with participation from SineWave Ventures, Fuel Ventures, Blue Lake VC, and angel investor Husayn Kassai, Founder of Onfido and Quench AI.

April marks Stress Awareness Month, and this year’s theme, #LeadWithLove, resonates deeply with me – not just as a founder and entrepreneur, but as someone who hit burnout, hard, two years ago.

AppDNA.ai, a comprehensive operating system for subscription app growth, announced its official launch. Founded by app marketing veteran Michael Synowiec after 7 years of running a successful app growth agency, AppDNA.ai addresses the challenge that prevents 99.3% of subscription apps from reaching their revenue potential: limited access to professional growth expertise.

In this day and age, every business must have a digital presence to survive. Do you need a cleaner? A dog walker? A plumber? A quick Google search will bring up hundreds of thousands of options. However, search algorithms are unforgiving, and to get to the top of the page can be a feat. Couple this with short attention spans and picky users, crafting the perfect digital presence becomes a hefty task.