Business

Edinburgh-based remote working platform SWURF has secured a £200,000 investment round as it accelerates plans to transform the Scottish capital into one of the world’s most flexible working-friendly cities. The funding will support the rollout of SWURF Pods, the company’s on-demand private meeting spaces designed for professionals who need secure and quiet environments for calls, meetings and focused work while on the move. The investment round includes backing from prominent industry figures such as Gareth...

Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg have joined the board of British artificial intelligence infrastructure start-up Nscale as the company completed a major fundraising round valuing the business at $14.6 billion. The appointments come as Nscale secured $2 billion in fresh capital from a consortium of global investors, including the US semiconductor giant Nvidia, significantly boosting the firm’s ambitions to build large-scale data centre infrastructure for the rapidly expanding AI industry. The move positions Nscale among...

Nigel Farage has invested £215,000 in a cryptocurrency business chaired by former UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, underscoring the growing overlap between politics and the digital asset sector. The leader of Reform UK purchased 4.3 million shares in Stack BTC through his personal investment vehicle Thorn in the Side Ltd. The shares were acquired at 5p each, giving Farage a 6.3 per cent stake in the company. Stack BTC is listed on the Aquis Stock Exchange...

Oil prices surged to their highest levels in nearly three years as escalating conflict in the Middle East disrupted energy supplies and triggered fears of a major global shock to oil markets. The global benchmark Brent crude oil briefly climbed to $119.50 a barrel in overnight trading, the first time prices have approached $120 since 2022, before easing back to around $107 after reports that the Group of Seven could release strategic oil reserves to...

Expectations for UK interest rates have shifted dramatically after the surge in global oil prices triggered by the widening conflict in the Middle East, with investors now increasingly betting that borrowing costs could rise rather than fall in 2026. Financial markets are pricing in roughly a 70 per cent chance that the Bank of England will increase interest rates by a quarter percentage point before the end of the year, a stark reversal from expectations...

AI marketing platform Mega has secured $11.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate the rollout of its AI-driven growth engine designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. The Brooklyn-based company aims to replace traditional marketing agencies with a network of autonomous AI agents capable of managing digital growth channels end-to-end. These agents execute and optimise search engine optimisation (SEO), paid advertising, website management and emerging AI search channels, delivering what the company describes as...

A Scottish life sciences start-up developing technology to improve cancer diagnostics has secured £1.58 million in fresh funding as it launches its first commercial product in the United States. BIOCAPTIVA, a spin-out from University of Edinburgh, is aiming to tackle one of the most persistent technical bottlenecks in the rapidly growing liquid biopsy sector: the preparation of blood samples for genetic testing. The company’s newly launched msX technology uses magnetic bead extraction to isolate cell-free...

John Lewis is preparing to enter a new era of retail by selling products through artificial intelligence platforms and social media, as the historic department store seeks to attract younger shoppers and modernise its business model. The retailer has launched a multimillion-pound strategy centred on what it calls “AI-powered shopping”, enabling its products to appear in recommendations generated by chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The move forms part of a wider digital expansion...

The UK government is preparing to commit more than £1 billion in taxpayer-funded infrastructure support for a major new theme park development in Bedfordshire, as part of efforts to secure the first European resort from entertainment giant Comcast. The investment package, which will primarily fund transport upgrades and surrounding infrastructure, is significantly larger than the £500 million previously expected to be allocated to the project. The funding forms part of wider preparations for the construction...

Visual content plays an important role in digital communication today. Businesses, content creators, students, and marketers use images and posters to share information, promote products, and attract attention online. However, low-resolution images and poorly designed graphics  can  reduce the  impact of visual content.  This is  why  technologies  such  as 4k image upscaler tools and platforms that help users create online poster maker designs are becoming increasingly popular. These tools allow users to improve image quality...