iwoca’s latest SME Expert Index reveals that the Labour Government has had a negative impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during its first year in power, according to SME finance experts.

In today’s overcrowded digital landscape, building a successful brand isn’t just about visibility. It’s all about meaning, too. The businesses that win aren’t always the biggest ones and they are certainly aren't the loudest, they’re the ones that connect most deeply. They make people feel something. They understand their customers better than anyone else and they show up online with confidence and purpose.

Founders are decision-making machines. From choosing your next feature to picking between two good-enough hires, your day is a stream of judgment calls, big and small. The problem? That stream becomes a flood. The more decisions you make, the worse they get.

With salaries for AI-related roles expected to increase by 15–25% this year alone, according to a new survey, UK organisations are facing escalating AI skills shortages as rising salary expectations make hiring increasingly unsustainable.

Tzafon has announced the final close of its $9.7million pre-seed funding round, where HV Capital led the extension, joining investors such as Streamlined VC, Kakao VC, Oliver Jung, and angels from OpenAI and xAI.

Gaydio, the UK’s LGBTQ+ radio station, is set to host the next instalment of its fast-growing Gaydio Networking series in London on Thursday 14th August, celebrating the energy of Pride season with an inclusive evening of connection, collaboration and community.

You can’t see it on a balance sheet, but technical debt compounds like interest and eventually demands payment.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report 2025 reveals that employee engagement has fallen once again, for only the second time in the past 12 years. An engaged and thriving workforce starts at the top and, as a leader, your actions can set the tone for your entire team. In a startup environment, where teams may be more founder-led, the actions, habits and processes of this leader are even more important.

Most organisations are storing far more data than they use, and while keeping it “just in case” might feel like the safe option, it’s a habit that can quietly chip away at budgets, performance, and even sustainability goals. In this article, Mike Hoy, Chief Technology Officer at Pulsant, discusses the hidden cost of overuse and misuse of data storage. 

Cotton Mouton Diagnostics (CMD), a UK-based diagnostics technology company, has received a half-a-million-pound investment from CPI Enterprises, the investment arm of CPI, as part of the Innovate UK Catapult Associated Fund.

DeepL has announced several updates to its live speech translation solution, DeepL Voice, including expanded language support and advanced meeting productivity features, with Zoom Meetings integration coming soon.

Mistral AI and NTT Data have announced plans to jointly sell and deploy safe and private enterprise-grade AI solutions that are able to foster strategic autonomy for clients.

In 2018, I sold my telehealth company, Advance Medical, to Teladoc. It was the culmination of over 15 years building a global healthtech company, and the beginning of the next stage of my career. Today, as a General Partner at Nina Capital, a specialist VC focused on healthtech, I work on the other side of the table. With constant discussion about what it means to be a VC that adds value – I often find myself wondering how best to draw on my founder experience as an advisor to the companies we invest in.

ESG reporting has taken a knock in recent times: the media has painted the perception of large businesses reneging on their ESG priorities with stories ranging from negligence to non-compliance. The practice has been seen as a ‘tick-box’ necessity and a blocker to business rather than a strategic asset. But these stances are from a minority of large players and do not represent the true reality on the ground.

The story of humankind is a tale of overcoming adversity. Of constant evolution and relentless struggle to improve. In the past two centuries, the world has experienced an unprecedented shift that reshaped a population with 90% of its inhabitants living in rural areas in 1800 into one where over half of us now reside in cities. This urban transformation is one of the most significant changes in human history – and it is far from over.

Startup life is messy. Calendars? Even messier.

You need to bring in diverse talent from the outset, and not in the way that you might think.

In its third annual Work from Anywhere Barometer, International Workplace Group (IWG) has named Tokyo as the world’s leading workcation city for 2025, overtaking strong competition from the likes of Rio de Janeiro and last year’s winner, Budapest. 60% of hybrid workers are more likely to extend a holiday to work remotely than this time last year.

team.blue, a digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs, has announced the launch of its first report exploring small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) sentiment toward data hosting across Europe.

Korra Ventures is an impact-investment angel syndicate backing underrepresented founders to create the next wave of £100 million+ companies and has launched with a mission to deploy £50 million of capital to support these founders over the next decade.