For any business that’s looking to scale up, expanding through acquisition can open up a wide range of opportunities – whatever the current business size.

Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, Theo Paphitis – the roll call of dyslexic business leaders reads like a Who's Who of British entrepreneurship. Yet for years, traditional business planning has remained stubbornly one-dimensional: linear, text-heavy, and distinctly spreadsheet-shaped.

Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT burst onto the scene towards the end of 2022, Generative AI has become one of the most talked about technologies – and potentially the most transformative – since the advent of the Internet. Although the field of AI research was first founded over 60 years ago and the technology has been through a number of ‘hype bubbles’ and ‘AI winters’ since then, only in the last few years has it truly gained momentum in a mainstream capacity.

Three innovative UK tech companies – specialising in renewable energy, advanced sensors and hydrogen-powered systems – have been given government support to expand into Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Each has been selected to participate in the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme, an initiative that helps British scaleups unlock commercial opportunities in 11 markets across the Asia Pacific region.

Founded in 2017 by Co-Founder and CTO Dr Jim Bailey, PES Technologies has embarked on a journey to transform the agricultural sector.

In an era where disruption has become the norm, 2025 promises to usher in a new wave of startup innovation. As we've observed through our work with challenger brands across various sectors, successful startups aren't just creating new products – they're fundamentally reimagining entire industries.

The Venture Capital Trust Association (VCTA) is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the introduction of Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), an initiative launched by then-Chancellor Ken Clarke in November 1994.

Recent findings from the government’s Invest in Women Taskforce paint a concerning picture for female entrepreneurs in the UK. Private-equity investment in women-led businesses dropped to 1.8% in the first half of this year, down from 2.5% in 2023. This decline exacerbates an already challenging landscape, where fewer than 6% of active equity-backed companies have female founders.

The path to becoming a CEO in any industry is filled with hard work, determination and grit. Any leader will have highs and lows, successes and failures, and will learn plenty along the way.

A new partnership aims to transform the performance of the £14.7 billion UK search market by creating a transparent approach to paid search and setting a new standard in digital advertising.

Open science startup and preprint network DeSci Labs has been listed as one of the 20 Most Innovative Companies to Watch, 2024, by Business Worldwide Magazine. This is DeSci Labs’ second accolade within a month following its Lab Awards success in the Best Automation & Data Innovation category at Lab Innovations 2024.

Akhetonics, the pioneer of the a true all-optical digital processor, has raised €6 million in a funding round led by Matterwave Ventures, with participation from 468 Capital, Bayern Kapital, and existing investors Runa Capital, Rheingau Founders, and more.

Tembo, the award-winning digital savings and mortgage platform, specialising in maximising affordability, has raised £14 million in funding. The Series B round was led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Tembo’s existing investors including Aviva, Ascension Ventures, Love Ventures and McPike Family Office. This brings the company’s total funding raised to £20 million.

Predium, a provider of ESG management solutions for the real estate and finance industry, has successfully closed a Series A financing round of €13 million. With this investment, Predium strengthens its position as the Real Estate Intelligence Platform for sustainable and economical real estate management.

In today’s crowded marketplace, with countless products competing for attention, some startups manage to break through and become indispensable. These are the startups that see swathes of investment and rapid scaling, but this isn’t always the case – particularly for female founders.

Economic uncertainty is on the rise for the UK’s 5.6 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) following the Autumn Budget, according to iwoca’s Q3 2024 SME Expert Index.

In the 12 months ending 31 October 2024, one in 427 adults in England and Wales entered insolvency, higher than the 12 months to October 2023. Combine this with overall registered company insolvencies in 2024 tracking similarly to 2023’s figures – which were the highest for a decade – leading finance and small business experts have pooled their wisdom and launched a new eBook to help SMEs survive.

Lucanet, a global provider of end-to-end CFO software solutions, is releasing the first of its GenAI capabilities – a addition to its CFO Solution Platform. This release will add advanced Copilot features for Lucanet’s Consolidation and Financial Planning and Disclosure Management solution, in addition to the Copilot for the XBRL Tagger made available in October.

Payment data breaches are a threat with costly consequences for businesses. In fact, a major breach of a major payment system uncovered in September 2024 revealed that an unauthorised party accessed sensitive consumer data for nearly ten months. The compromised information included names, addresses, credit card details, expiration dates and more. Such incidents not only erode consumer trust but also leave businesses facing significant financial, legal and reputational repercussions.

Pathway, the data company that builds live AI, has announced a $10 million seed round to build live AI systems that think and learn in real-time as humans do.