Business

Furniturebox, the fast-growing UK-based online furniture retailer, has secured £1 million in new funding from Barclays to support continued innovation, product development, and international growth. The funding comes in the form of a Barclays Trade Loan, designed to help the company strengthen its supply chain, invest in product innovation, and create new jobs as it scales operations at its new 88,000 sq. ft. headquarters and warehouse in Chippenham. From teenage start-up to £25m revenue success...

BERO, the fast-growing premium non-alcoholic beer brand, has adopted Oracle NetSuite to streamline operations, improve financial visibility, and scale its business internationally. The AI-powered cloud ERP platform is helping the company increase efficiency, automate key processes, and build a strong foundation for global growth. Founded in 2024 by actor Tom Holland and beverage industry veteran John Herman, BERO has rapidly expanded across the US and UK, selling four unique beers both direct-to-consumer online and through...

Millions of motorists mis-sold car finance deals could receive average payouts of around £700, under a compensation scheme announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Tuesday. The regulator estimates that 14 million finance agreements between April 2007 and November 2024 were affected by unfair commission practices, leading to an expected £8.2 billion in redress and a potential £11 billion total bill once administrative costs are included. The scheme, which will cover loans issued through...

Oracle NetSuite, has announced the formation of a new strategic partnership with BILL, the intelligent finance platform used by more than half a million businesses, to transform how companies manage accounts payable. The collaboration introduces BILL-powered payment automation embedded directly within NetSuite Intelligent Payment Automation, enabling US customers to make fast, secure, and flexible vendor payments without leaving the platform. “Accounts payable plays an important role in helping organizations manage cash flow, control costs, and...

Oracle NetSuite has launched NetSuite Next, a major evolution of its cloud ERP platform featuring conversational AI, agentic workflows, and natural language capabilities to help businesses automate repetitive tasks and make smarter, faster decisions. The new system aims to transform how businesses interact with AI, enabling users to complete repetitive and complex tasks faster, more intuitively, and with greater confidence. “NetSuite Next puts AI to work for businesses by making it a natural extension of...

Let’s get one thing straight: business is not an Olympic sport. No medals. No referees. No level playing field. It’s not drug-tested either, and you can forget about fair play. The idea that commerce is some noble amateur pursuit where everyone lines up at the same starting line, toes behind the white paint, and waits for the gun is a comforting delusion. Out here, in the mud and chaos of modern busines, it’s survival of...

OpenAI has agreed a multibillion-dollar partnership with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to secure massive computing power for its next generation of artificial intelligence models — a direct challenge to Nvidia’s dominant position in the global AI chip market. Under the five-year deal, OpenAI will purchase up to 6 gigawatts of AMD’s most advanced AI processors, a level of computing capacity equivalent to the peak electricity demand of London. The partnership is designed to provide OpenAI...

Delivery company DPD is facing potential disruption after hundreds of drivers began three days of action in protest at cuts to their pay for delivering small parcels. The company has reduced payments for such deliveries by 65p per parcel, a change that self-employed and franchised drivers say could reduce their annual earnings by as much as £6,500. The protest, organised informally through online chat groups with an estimated 1,300 to 1,500 participants, began on Tuesday...

Asahi Group, Japan’s largest brewer, has partially restarted beer production at all six of its breweries after a cyber-attack last week forced a temporary shutdown across its domestic operations. The company said production of its flagship Asahi Super Dry beer had resumed, along with limited output at facilities producing soft drinks and food products. However, Asahi cautioned that its breweries were “not yet fully operational” and that normal operations would resume gradually in the coming...

Artificial intelligence is emerging as a key driver of growth in the UK’s climate tech start-up ecosystem, with AI-related ventures attracting record levels of funding even as broader climate investment stalls, according to new research by Sustainable Ventures. The study, titled “Advancing AI’s Potential for Climate Innovation”, draws on data from 3,345 high-growth UK climate tech start-ups compiled by Beauhurst and includes qualitative insights from founders, investors and academics. It concludes that while AI is...