As the global digital finance evolution accelerates, Future Blockchain Summit x Fintech Surge returns to Dubai Harbour from 12th - 15th October 2025, convening international innovators, startups, regulators, investors, and tech leaders during Expand North Star, the world’s largest startup and investor connector event powered by GITEX GLOBAL.

Despite more conversations being held publicly about the impact of menopause and the requirements for support, many women still feel alone in their struggles, especially the physical and mental health effects on their work and career.

Every business is a tech company now. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling clothes or executing a large-scale green engineering project; you’re ultimately driven by tech. Without it, your company wouldn’t exist in its current form. And yet, with all the advanced tech available, you’re still running your business using spreadsheets. Because they’re familiar, they feel comfortable… And they’re letting your business down. It’s time for a new approach.

Five years ago, I launched my first startup in The Bay Area. I’ll skip to the end: it failed. The idea was solid, I was motivated, but my co-founder and I didn’t see eye to eye. It was a costly, time-sucking mistake and it taught me a lesson I wish I’d learned sooner: non-technical founders don’t need a technical co-founder to get started.

The percentage of small business owners predicting growth has fallen for the fourth consecutive Quarter to a new five-year low (25%) – and in every industry sector, the percentage of enterprises predicting growth is down on the start of the year – according to new tracking research from Novuna Business Finance.

Tracxn has released its UK Tech 9M 2025 Report, capturing funding and investment activity across the United Kingdom’s technology ecosystem for the first nine months of 2025. The country ranked as the second highest-funded market globally, behind only the United States, with India and Germany following in the third and fourth positions respectively. The period reflected steady funding momentum, marked by billion-dollar rounds, notable sector surges, acquisitions, and IPO activity.

Experience shows that when we protect business purpose, performance follows. So, how do you hold fast to your values while pushing for higher returns? It starts by refusing to treat growth and values separately.

It takes grit, determination, and drive to set up on your own. And it takes even more to stay afloat, with an eye-watering 60% of businesses failing in their first three years. Perhaps just as much as the brilliant business idea, the difference between success and failure boils down to personal resilience. Just how do you handle those founders’ knock-backs, navigating funding rejections, business pivots, and burnout? Can you pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again?

Nearly all (95%) UK business leaders say they are committed to building a culture of learning, according to Pluralsight’s 2025 Tech Skills Report, but the research reveals a stark gap between this intention and the reality for learners. 

Datamonk, the agentic AI-powered platform automating medical imaging data migrations, has announced a total of €1.6 million in funding to address one of healthcare IT’s biggest challenges: moving and cleaning decades of medical imaging data.

 With capabilities of AI advancing every year, its potential to address challenges once thought unsolvable is rapidly expanding, from the possibility of curing genetic diseases to transforming urban mobility or enabling green data centres. With the global AI market set to reach $4.8 trillion by 2033 (UNCTAD), the race to deploy AI for critical sectors has never been more urgent. Against this backdrop, GITEX GLOBAL 2025 convenes as the world’s largest tech and AI event, with this year’s edition highlighting significant developments in biotech, physical AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, and data centres. 

British workers and jobseekers will be forced to compete with a surge of 100,000 virtual AI employees that will enter the workforce before the end of 2026.

Following a massively successful inaugural event, Good Hope FM’s ‘Warrior Woman Awards’ will be joining forces with the phenomenal WomenIN Festival 2025, delivering the biggest celebration of women that the Mother City has ever seen and rocking Cape Town on 13 to 14 November at Newlands Cricket Ground.

While most founders claim how hard it is to build in the UK, millions of pounds are burned on infrastructure costs alone. The UK is a homeland for 2,300 VC-backed AI startups, including 20 AI unicorns. Europe's biggest AI market, has reached a combined historical market valuation of $230 billion in Q1 2025 and may lose leadership to one of the highest electricity costs in the EU, rising data and infrastructure costs alone.

Workplace mentoring and coaching are now essential drivers of business performance, staff retention, and employee wellbeing in the UK, according to a major new report from the Association of Business Mentors (ABM). The findings show that over two-thirds of businesses have seen a positive impact on overall business performance from their mentoring and coaching programmes, and a further 60% attributed an improvement in employee wellbeing to their programmes.

A study released today (7th October 2025) reveals the core traits shared by billion-dollar startup founders across the UK, Europe and North America. Developed in partnership between VC firm Ada Ventures and behavioural scientists at Synaptiq, the study analysed how founders communicate to find a clear psychological profile behind unicorn success. These findings stand to reshape how VCs assess potential, making it easier to spot talent fairly and consistently, without bias towards background or identity.

Dragonfly has announced the close of a £2.6 million pre-seed round alongside the public launch of its conversational AI tool. Founded in December 2024 by Zego alumni Sean King and Sven Sabas, the round was led by Episode 1, joined by Dreamcraft and Portfolio Ventures, with angel investors including QuantumBlack founder and CTO Sam Bourton, and Bolt founder and CEO Markus Villig.

The findings of the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest report quantifying the career and earnings impact of motherhood in England are sobering. According to the data, the average mother loses an estimated £65,618 in earnings over five years after having her first child. For a second child, the figure rises by another £26,317, and for a third, £32,456 more is lost.

The hiring landscape is about to experience profound change. New research warns that by 2030, as many as one in ten CVs could be entirely AI-generated. While AI offers promising efficiencies for candidates to craft their applications, this shift brings significant implications for how employers attract, assess, and ultimately hire top talent.