In tennis, there’s a moment when you realise your pattern of play isn’t working anymore. You’ve got to change your game or risk losing. That’s exactly how I felt in my career.

If you’re building a startup, legal risk might not be top of your priority list, but a major new law in the UK means founders and startup leaders now need to think more carefully about how their team operates – and how the actions of senior people could put the whole business at risk.

When I started my career at Google two decades ago, we were obsessed with one thing: helping people find what they were looking for faster. Google's latest AI announcements signal something far more profound. Tech leaders are not just changing how people search, they’re fundamentally transforming how they discover and buy.

Perci Health, the UK’s most comprehensive virtual cancer clinic, has successfully raised a total of £7.7 million funding, after closing a new £3 million round, doubling the original £1.5 million target.

Abacum announces that it has raised a $60 million Series B round led by San Francisco-headquartered Scale Venture Partners.

Nova has raised €3.2 million in a funding round led by CDP Venture Capital, through the ServiceTech segment of its Corporate Partners I Fund. The round also saw participation from BY Venture Partners and angel investors from the Doha Tech Angels network.

IonQ and Oxford Ionics announce they have entered into a definitive agreement for IonQ to acquire Oxford Ionics in a transaction valued at $1.075 billion, which will consist of $1.065 billion in shares of IonQ common stock and approximately $10 million in cash (subject to customary closing adjustments and expenses).

Q5D has raised $13.5 million in funding to advance its robotic cells that automate product electrification, bringing its total funding to $16.7 million. This new funding includes a $2.6 million grant (£2.0 million) from Innovate UK and a $10.9 million Series A co-led by existing investors, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Chrysalix, and Maven SWIF, with other investment from SOSV, UKI2S, UntroD, and CPI Enterprises.

Northern Gritstone has announced a commitment to invest £1.8 million into Apini, a small molecule drug development programme being advanced by Syncona’s accelerator Slingshot Therapeutics.  

Pactum announces its Series C fundraise of $54 million. This round, led by global software investor Insight Partners, brings the company’s total funding to date to more than $100 million and will help bolster enterprise procurement with agentic AI solutions that work alongside humans to negotiate and close supplier deals at scale. 

ReSpo.Vision has raised €4.2 million in its latest funding round. The investment will accelerate the company’s mission to reshape how fans experience football and how broadcasters, leagues, and federations deliver it – by bringing unprecedented insight and immersion to the game.

It is often stated that in the metamorphosis between a caterpillar and a butterfly there is a very ugly larval stage. Parallels could be drawn between this and the labour markets of the UK and Europe. While the power and ubiquity of technology is increasing, rules, regulations, and legacy attitudes are holding back the potential of entrepreneurs and startups.

A cohort of patients suffering from the UK’s most common cause of sight loss have become the first in the world to successfully use a pioneering new technology which could help prevent and manage the development of eye diseases affecting millions of people.

SETsquared Bristol, the University of Bristol tech incubator, has bolstered its team with the appointments of Caroline Thompson as Centre Manager, and Dr Becky Sage and Dr Kam Pooni as Entrepreneurs in Residence. They will be joining the incubator this month as part of Bristol Innovations, the University’s catalyst for innovation. 

In a world facing growing environmental pressures and global uncertainty, small businesses across the UK are stepping up – proving that meaningful change often begins closer to home.

Guardz, the cybersecurity company empowering Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT professionals to protect small and medium-sized businesses, has raised $56 million in Series B funding led by ClearSky, with participation from new investor Phoenix Financial and existing investors Glilot Capital Partners, SentinelOne, Hanaco Ventures, iAngels, GKFF Ventures, Lumir and others.

German-born entrepreneur and investor Dr. David von Rosen is calling for the creation of a Federal Office for Entrepreneurship with one mandate: to make starting and scaling a business in Germany easier.

One of the company’s initiatives is to work with founders and business leaders in financial services to accelerate their ability to have an impact.

Cambridge Tech Week has officially opened applications for its headline pitch competition – with exciting new updates for 2025.

The annual state of the nation report on UK tech from Tech Nation, part of Founders Forum Group and a UK growth platform and industry body for startups, finds that UK startup founders are raising bigger early-stage funding rounds than ever before and reaching unicorn status faster.