Retail technology platform Patchworks has secured £5 million in new funding to accelerate its expansion into the United States and scale its next generation of AI-powered integration tools for enterprise retailers. The round, led by existing backer Gresham House Ventures with growth lending from Palatine Growth Credit, comes as the company reports a 41 per cent year-on-year increase in annual ...
The Open University (OU) has joined forces with NatWest and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to relaunch the Open Business Creators Fund, a nationwide initiative offering early-stage women entrepreneurs financial support, mentoring, and access to training resources. Launched in a video message by Baroness Martha Lane Fox, Chancellor of The Open University, the competition offers individual grants of ...
VRFY Solutions Group UK, an AI-driven transcription and data intelligence platform founded by two veteran police officers, has secured £200,000 in pre-seed investment led by Fuel Ventures. The funding will accelerate adoption of the company’s secure AI transcription solution within UK police forces and lay the groundwork for expansion into other critical sectors, including healthcare and the NHS. VRFY’s technology ...
The UK head of Fujitsu Services Limited, the company behind the Post Office’s disastrous Horizon IT system, has received a 50% pay rise — despite the firm still refusing to quantify compensation for hundreds of wrongly convicted sub-postmasters. The Japan-owned technology giant handed its best-paid UK executive — believed to be Anwen Owen, Fujitsu’s UK chief — £591,000 in total ...
A new €10 million (£8.6 million) initiative will accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in British science, business, and public services, marking a major collaboration between the UK and the European Union. The University of Edinburgh’s EPCC, home to the UK’s first National Supercomputing Centre, has been awarded joint EU and UK Government funding to establish the UK AI ...
Leading AI and tax specialists have warned that the government’s failure to reform the UK’s tax system for the age of automation could trigger what one expert calls a “fiscal collapse engineered by the Treasury itself.” Ahead of the November Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces an unprecedented balancing act: investing billions in artificial intelligence to boost growth, while preventing AI-driven ...
Beijing has issued a strong warning to Washington, promising retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports by 1 November — a move that risks reigniting a full-scale U.S.–China trade war. In a statement on Monday, China’s commerce ministry accused the U.S. of “wilful threats” that would “escalate tensions and ...
Japanese investors have poured almost £118 million into Greater Manchester over the past year, in a fresh sign of the region’s growing international profile — but business leaders say Whitehall must match that confidence with long-term support for regional growth. New figures show a surge in Japanese investment in the North West, led by companies such as Astemo, Daikin and ...
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, risks fuelling inflation and damaging small business growth if she reduces the VAT registration threshold in the Autumn Budget, according to leading audit, tax and business advisory firm Blick Rothenberg. The warning comes amid growing speculation that the Treasury is considering lowering the current £90,000 VAT threshold in a bid to raise revenue and bring more ...
The Co-op has warned that Britain’s high streets face a tipping point, with new research revealing that 60,000 small shops and 150,000 jobs could vanish without urgent reform of the business rates system. The warning comes ahead of the Autumn Budget and follows YouGov research commissioned by the Co-op showing that seven in ten Britons (69%) doubt the Government will ...