As part of a slate of activities promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in robotics, finalists for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics Award (IERA) presented their projects to a panel of judges at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), held in London 29 May – 2 June.

The three-day event of WMF - We Make Future, the International Trade Fair and Festival, held from June 15th to 17th at the Rimini Expo Centre, has come to an end. Organised by Search On Media Group, it brought together the world of innovation in Italy, with over 60.000 attendance from 85 countries, more than 670 exhibitors, 2.000 startups and investors, over 1.000 speakers, and more than 130 institutional, national, and international guests. This solidifies and emphasises the important role that WMF has always played as a platform for building the future and as an accelerator of education, culture, and innovation in service of global society.

With an estimated 582 million entrepreneurs in the world today, new research conducted by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) – a non-profit membership network of 18,000+ business owners across 76 countries – shows that founders of small to mid-size companies (SMEs) are more focused on driving positive change for their local communities today compared to 2013, and nearly half feel a responsibility to support the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Swave Photonics, a forerunner in the implementation of true holography for augmented reality, has announced the successful closure of its seed round expansion. This additional investment of €3M catapults Swave's total funds raised to €10M.

KNOT has unveiled its universal docking station for e-scooters and, for the first time, e-bikes, addressing the growing demand for sustainable urban transportation. This docking solution will transform how shared micro-mobility services operate.

DigiKey, a global commerce distributor offering a large selection of technical components and automation products in stock for immediate shipment, has partnered with GroupGets to launch the “Get MADE” crowdfunding initiative, a collaboration that promotes and funds hardware creators. This program will allow startups to get hardware funded, produced and sold on DigiKey’s website.

Freepik has announced the appointment of Jose Florido as Chief Market Development Officer, United States, effective immediately, and the opening of its first U.S. office located in San Francisco.

DREST announces that it raised £15M of funding to continue the genre defining development of its new product proposition, DREST Game 2.0.

Dracula Technologies, a player in energy harvesting through indoor light, has announced a new generation of LAYER OPV modules, with a 25% performance improvement over the previous generation.

Canva, the all-in-one visual communication platform, has released new data and insights from the company’s Visual Economy Report, revealing the majority of business leaders are investing in design literacy and expect employees to demonstrate these skills as the world becomes increasingly visual.

Ferrero Group (Ferrero), a global confectionery group, joined forces with AstroLabs, MENA’s trusted partner for innovation and entrepreneurship, to launch a comprehensive data training program designed to enhance the data literacy and skills of over 130 talents.

TIS – Tourism Innovation Summit, the global tourism innovation forum that will take place in Seville, Spain from 18 to 20 October, has just announced Ángeles Moreno as new Tourism Innovation Global Summit Congress Curator.

The World Economic Forum welcomes 100 innovative tech firms to its Technology Pioneers community.

Technology consultancy esynergy has published brand new research identifying the challenges large enterprises are facing in implementing successful data strategies.

Simpson & Partners, a new British-owned electric vehicle (EV) home charging manufacturer based in the Cotswolds, has reported strong growth since production started in June 2021.

FundMyPitch (FMP), a platform that connects investors with investment-ready companies seeking funds in order to kickstart their ventures, has helped raise nearly £6m in funding for entrepreneurs using its platform in its first year of trading.

Nearly one in four UK workers (23%) expect to change jobs within the next twelve months - up from 18% in 2022 - according to PwC's Workforce Hopes and Fears survey, in a sign that the 'Great Resignation' is far from over.

Mark your calendars for National Women’s Enterprise Week, taking place from the 19th to the 23rd of June 2023. This is the first nationwide campaign set to honour and empower female entrepreneurship.

Blueshift Memory, designer of a novel proprietary high-speed memory architecture, has signed an agreement with Crypta Labs, developer of a quantum random number generator (QRNG) for resilient encryption, to create a cybersecurity memory solution that will be capable of countering threats from quantum computing.

Finnish Earth observation company Kuva Space has been awarded a five-year commercial contract worth €5M to be the world’s sole provider of hyperspectral data services for the European Commission’s Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCM) programme.