​A​ few months on from the Labour Government’s first Autumn Statement and the employment market is in turmoil, business closures have hit a 20-year high and UK economic growth has all but stalled.

The emergence of DeepSeek, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, has shocked the IT industry. With its extremely cheap AI solutions, DeepSeek has challenged the dominance of tech giants and exposed an inefficiency in the way large corporations approach product development. If DeepSeek’s model becomes the norm, the entire IT sector could see a dramatic reduction in costs, making technology more accessible. 

For nearly 40 years, discussions about women in business, finance, and entrepreneurship have felt like they’re on a loop. We talk about diversity, increasing female hires, and closing the funding gap. Yet, we rely on the same data and measurements – and unsurprisingly, we see the same results. This narrative makes it seem like we’re constantly falling short when, in reality, we may not be looking at the numbers the right way.

Female Founders Day is back again. It's a free event designed to celebrate women entrepreneurs and leaders through an investor panel, pitch competition, and networking opportunities. This is the second time London Venture Capital Network (LVCN) is running the event and this year LVCN is proud to partner with Microsoft for Startups (Headline Sponsor), Barclays Rise, and NEXUS. It's a day packed with unparalleled opportunities to make connections and drive innovation in women's entrepreneurship—plus a chance to win a £5K cash prize.

Running a business means making critical decisions every day – about money, contracts, governance, and risk. But most founders aren’t legal experts, financial analysts, or compliance officers. Nor should they have to be. The alternative? Spend thousands on professionals just to tell you what you already half-know or waste time Googling answers that may not even be right for your business.

Growing a business in the UK is thrilling, until you hit the tax maze. With evolving regulations and financial hurdles, startups must be sharper than ever to keep their books in order and their cash flow intact. Compliance is not just about ticking boxes; it is about staying ahead of the game and avoiding unnecessary financial headaches.

The Estonian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EstVCA) CEO Madis Lehtmets says that the private and venture capital funds operating in Estonia are actively seeking new investments locally and abroad. “Last year, funds expanded their teams, opened offices in other countries and attracted international talent so as to boost their presence on foreign markets and grow their expertise, including in order to invest in new sectors,” he explained.

A new report developed by National Women’s Enterprise Week (NWEW), launched ahead of International Women’s Day, reveals a staggering inequality in investments and the disproportionate success rates between male and female entrepreneurs’ funding applications.

Epoch Biodesign, a company using enzymes to make recycled plastics cheaper and higher performing than virgin materials, has announced it has raised $18.3 million in Series A capital in an oversubscribed round.

On May 27-28, Gdańsk will welcome over 6,000 participants, 150 speakers and hundreds of startups ready for networking and innovation. This year's edition is held under the honorary patronage of the Ministry of Digital Affairs. A special highlight of the event will be the SpaceTech guest stage. Tickets are now available. 

A new study from Grantify, a platform that assists businesses in securing funding, reveals a 44% funding gap in UK tech grant enquiries. These figures suggest that men are more than twice as likely to apply for tech funding in the UK compared to women.

For those navigating an increasingly digital world, it can be nice to go back to the basics of putting pen to paper, discarding your tablet for the therapeutic experience of writing on a pad, or in a notebook. However, carrying a notebook wherever you go is not always convenient, as you may have a lot of notes to juggle, and having an in-between point between digital technology and physical paper provides a perfect medium.

You may be familiar with this scenario: faced with rising housing costs, you downsize and move into a smaller house. The problem being, you now have less storage space and you can’t surrender the essentials, like having a kitchen and a bathroom.

On the 3rd March 2025, Female Foundry officially launched its Female Innovation Index 2025, at an event hosted at Google. The event saw insightful panels, discussions around the stats that were uncovered in the report, and plenty of female founders in the room discussing what innovation meant to them.  

In today’s modern world we have countless daily interactions where we’re being served by a dazzling array of apps, websites, shops, and startups. From buying your morning latte at that artisan coffee shop on the corner, to snapping up a bargain top on the latest pre-loved fashion app or sending an invoice to a customer through your banking app.

While starting your business can be very exciting, your journey may be riddled with potential legal pitfalls. Navigating and understanding the legal landscape for early-stage companies will provide you with a strong foundation for your startup’s growth and avoid future disputes and potential costs.

Robin Bartmann’s passion and enthusiasm for mangroves is palpable. “I am fascinated by mangroves,” he admits with a grin. Bartmann is the COO of Vlinder in Kenya, an organisation that restores mangroves to combat climate change, enhance biodiversity and empower communities through fair carbon sharing and sustainable livelihoods. The project is designed to plant 4.2 million mangrove trees, sequestering approximately 911,660 tCO2e over a 30-year crediting period, with potential extensions.

Leadership is changing, and it's a shift I find truly inspiring. A recent Deloitte report found that 87% of executives believe we’ll face a strong focus on gender diversity in the next five years. That's not just a trend, but a necessity now, which only makes me proud, especially now, as we approach International Women's Day.

The field of finance has long been known to have a predominantly male presence, and when fintech came along, it hadn’t done much to change this state of things. Despite being built on the idea of innovation, gender diversity remained something that fintech struggled with. 

A new gender and diversity index assessing the state of play for the European deeptech scene has been released, developed by the GENDEX project and funded by the EIC. The index is intended to identify gender diversity and inclusion gaps across the ecosystem and to offer actionable insights and recommendations for stakeholders to consider moving forward.