Catalyst has announced the INVENT 2025 finalists, Northern Ireland's top competition for emerging innovators and entrepreneurs, where a total prize fund of £56,500 is up for grabs.

The INVENT programme, spearheaded by science and technology hub Catalyst and supported by Bank of Ireland as the headline partner, is the region's leading showcase for new entrepreneurial talent, enabling innovators to demonstrate their ideas to a panel of industry leaders.

Innovation knows no bou

Joanna Jensen, award-winning entrepreneur and angel investor, today launches her inaugural book Making Business Child's Play: How to build a winning brand, essential reading for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners who want to turn their ideas into successful ventures.

Ignite, the Ford Family Foundation's flagship pitching event for social entrepreneurs seeking funding, has launched its 2025 event.

The grant competition for social entrepreneurs emerging from UK universities is now open for entries after last year's six finalists shared more than £300,000 in funding for their start-up businesses.

The fifth annual Investing in Women Code report was launched in London this week with key findings highlighting the strides made by the initiative.

Up from 12 founding signatories when it launched in 2019, the Investing in Women Code represents an increasingly powerful ambition to back the UK's women-led businesses.

South Yorkshire tech startups are being offered support to validate their new early-stage ideas through a new incentive programme launched to boost the region's tech startups.

The support comes from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority funded TECH SY project, which is offering either financial grants or support from a specialist consultancy to promising startups in South Yorkshire as part of the wider aim to help scale up our tech eco-system.

The Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade has announced that £6.6bn of new capital is being committed by the British Business Bank to boost growth, marking a major step change in financing to support smaller businesses to start and scale in the UK.

ET Capital is launching a new investment fund designed to make investing in Cambridge's thriving startup ecosystem more accessible to investors, particularly individuals. The fund will invest in a broad range of technology-based businesses to enhance its risk and return profile, and offer the benefits of the attractive SEIS and EIS tax relief schemes where appropriate

Cambridge University's impulse programme alumni is leading the charge in battery innovation. 

Aston University launched its Enterprise Strategy to an audience of industry executives, entrepreneurs and local leaders at John Cadbury House in Birmingham city centre on Thursday 6 February 2025.

A cornerstone of the enterprise strategy is the Birmingham Innovation Precinct, an ambitious initiative that will establish a technology-driven innovation ecosystem at the heart of the city built on strategic and inclusive collaborations. The precinct is being developed in partnership between Aston University, Bruntwood SciTech and Birmingham City Council.

The highly anticipated Athena VC Festival is set to take place on 13 May 2025 at Nexus, University of Leeds. Uniting women venture capitalists, aspiring investors, and industry allies, this landmark event is designed to promote equity, innovation, and collaboration in venture capital.

Oxford Innovation Finance, the home of OION and Oxford Innovation EIS Growth Fund, has launched its first independent SEIS Growth Fund. This fund targets innovative UK science and technology startups, responding to increased investor demand for SEIS investments and the growing pool of high-quality SEIS opportunities.

British Business Investments has provided an initial £20m funding facility to Sprk Capital Limited. The facility will provide capital to smaller businesses in the UK engaged in innovation.