Sales of personalised car number plates have more than doubled over the past ten years, according to new figures released by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). The data, obtained by the BBC, reveals more than 1.2 million transactions in 2024, up from about 500,000 in 2014. This surge is fuelled by two primary […]
Innovate UK has temporarily halted its Smart Grants programme—worth £25 million a year—to overhaul how it supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The pause aims to address oversubscription issues, with success rates reportedly falling below 10 per cent for applicants, and possibly as low as 2 per cent according to some. Under the existing scheme, […]
Fuel Ventures, one of the UK’s leading venture capital firms, has led a £4 million funding round in Prosper, a high-net-worth wealth management platform that combines cutting-edge AI with expert financial insights. Fuel Ventures contributed £2 million of the total round, which also saw participation from existing investors. Prosper, which already has more than £200 […]
BGF, the most active growth capital investor in the UK and Ireland, deployed £489 million in 2024, welcoming 47 new businesses into its expanding portfolio of 360 companies. Despite a subdued mergers and acquisitions landscape, several of BGF’s portfolio firms enjoyed robust exits this year, underscoring the benefits of BGF’s investment and value creation model. […]
Prisoners in the UK may soon benefit from an artificial intelligence system designed to transform how they access and engage with education. EdTech company Coracle has received funding from Innovate UK to work alongside the University of Hertfordshire in developing a system dubbed the “AI cellmate.” This platform would tailor learning content to inmates’ individual […]
London-based solar tech startup GRYD Energy has secured £1 million in pre-seed funding to scale its subscription-based solar and battery systems across the UK. Investors in the round include Black Seed VC, an early-stage fund dedicated to Black founders, and SFC Capital, a leading early-stage investor in disruptive British businesses. GRYD’s groundbreaking “solar-as-a-service” approach removes […]
Gresham House Ventures has committed €4.25 million to Dublin-based Mobility Mojo, a SaaS platform that helps organisations audit and enhance the accessibility of their buildings and facilities. Launched in 2018 by founders who are themselves wheelchair users, Mobility Mojo aims to standardise and streamline how companies benchmark and promote accessible environments. By replacing traditional, paper-based […]
Sir Len Blavatnik, Britain’s second-richest man, has injected an additional $827 million into DAZN — the self-styled “Netflix of sports” — despite the London-based streaming service recording widening losses. The billionaire’s latest funding, delivered in 2023 through his investment group Access Industries, brings his total backing for DAZN to more than $6.7 billion since its […]
Simon Swan, co-founder of Manchester-based digital recruitment platform Hiring Hub, has announced he is leaving the company after 14 years. Swan launched the firm in 2011 to connect businesses with specialist recruitment agencies, helping them find top-tier talent in a rapidly evolving jobs market. Speaking on LinkedIn, Swan described his departure as both “exciting” and […]
A new government-backed train ticket retailer is to be launched online, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced, with the aim of consolidating UK rail fares into a single digital platform. However, the service will only go live once Great British Railways (GBR) — the new body charged with running the UK’s rail network — […]