Coventry Building Society Arena, one of the Midlands' premier event venues, has unveiled a new partnership with sustainability platform, SKOOT.

As an executive deeply immersed in future foresight and private-public partnerships, I'd like to highlight the pivotal role of empathy and active listening in navigating this dynamic landscape. In our relentless pursuit of more efficient, effective, and innovative solutions to the myriad complex challenges of our era, startups often emerge as beacons of innovation. However, they frequently find themselves facing resource and expertise gaps and fierce competition to gain access to the necessary support.

With almost 40 years of experience behind me and having owned eight businesses myself, I know that the reality for many business owners is that the first time they pay close attention to the financial side of the company is when they get in trouble, whether that’s that they can’t meet payroll, supplier bills are late, a huge customer leaves, or there is a huge unexpected tax bill or another seemingly catastrophic situation occurs… I am on a mission to prevent these mistakes before it is too late and give you the tools to prevent business situations that cause sleepless nights and worry.

Despite tentative jobs growth, small businesses experienced slow sales growth and rising late payment times in the three months to September, according to the latest data from global small business platform Xero.

Every business has intellectual property (IP) assets, even if they don’t realise it. And those businesses that leverage these intellectual assets from the get-go are more likely to increase their opportunities for growth and their ability to attract investment. But all too often, businesses make mistakes that lead to their intellectual property being unprotected or to other unforeseen issues arising, so, here are my top five IP pitfalls to avoid.

Multiple startups have been recognised at the Touristech Startup Fest 2023, the global entrepreneurship competition hosted annually by TIS - Tourism Innovation Summit. The event, which has positioned itself as the key event for the tourism and technology entrepreneurial ecosystem, received more than 4,000 applications from startups from countries such as Spain, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

We all are pretty aware of the fact that the world is now standing face-to-face with numerous pressing environmental challenges requiring urgent action. Ecologists and environmental activists have done a remarkable job to bring these issues up for a global discussion. Climate change, deforestation, air pollution, uncontrollable amounts of waste, and other problems require a collective effort from governments, businesses, and individuals.

Finnish biotech startup Enifer has contributed to a new study on farmed salmon that was done in collaboration with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). The study utilised Enifer’s PEKILO®Aqua mycoprotein, and it was conducted by a group of researchers led by Professor Margareth Øverland.

LG NOVA, LG Electronics’ North American Innovation Centre, has launched the next version of its Mission for the Future programme designed to discover, build and grow highly impactful mission-driven new businesses in collaboration with startups and entrepreneurs.

Global startup accelerator, ZEBOX has opened the doors of its UK hub in Manchester as it continues its ambition to support and develop the sustainable innovations of tomorrow.

This is the first of a series of five technology briefings for Startups Magazine readers, in which we will be reviewing the fastest moving and most exciting fields to equip business leaders on how to identify trends that they can leverage in their own business and technology development plans. The series will cover AI, sustainability, security, and eHealth, but we start with the critical and frequently overlooked role of sensors.

Tom Price-Daniel is VP of Strategy at Teamed, a service-led platform which takes the hard work out of compliantly employing talent from anywhere in the world. Tom is an experienced Chief Revenue Officer with multiple exits.

Almost 80% (77%) of leaders from European financial services expect Gen AI to have a significant impact on productivity and roles, according to the EY European Financial Services AI Survey. Yet, many firms still lack plans to train their workforce.

Sometimes, successful startups don’t need to do anything new, they just need to do it better. HumanForest is one such a company taking that route. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they are seeking to make something that already works, better. Bike sharing. Sure, you’ve heard of it, from Santander Cycles to Lime bikes, they lounge on the pavements of major world cities and help everyone from tourists to company execs circumnavigate the city.

The idea of VR and exercise may seem either unfamiliar or incompatible to some, but the fact is the immersion VR offers can lend to some convincing scenery for avid cyclist to take a workout in. Imagine, it’s Monday, you live in central Paris, you get home from work at six o’clock; you’re a 25-minute, one-way journey from your nearest park, perhaps it’s also raining too. So many hurdles present themselves before you have even committed to go for a ride that for some, the easier option to not go may win them over.

InterLnkd, the travel industry’s intelligent shopping mall partner, has announced it has raised £1 million in seed funding to accelerate its growth and international expansion.

Engine B, a next-generation AI-driven professional services technology company, has created its first scalable Copilot, using the latest tools from Microsoft and the Azure OpenAI Service.

There’s a Big Bang theory to economic growth, which goes much like the one denoting the origins of our universe. For tiny particles clustering together, take university spinouts. As they form into startups (atoms), eventually that concentration, over time, creates something far bigger, at a scale that was once unimaginable (stars and galaxies).

Michael Doolin, Founder and Group Managing Director of Clover HR gives startups effective, simple and affordable advice to maximise their chances of hiring top talent.  

Canva has launched a suite of new primary and secondary school education products as part of its Canva for Education platform, making it the first company to introduce AI-powered tools at scale.