Tech firms will be heavily scrutinised for improper age verification and algorithms suggesting “harmful content” to children, according to a new report from Ofcom. The communications watchdog, which has been given extended powers to regulate digital content following the passing of the Online Safety Act, has published a list of 40 practical measures to protect children from dangerous content. The measures include an expectation from tech companies that host content potentially inappropriate for children to implement robust age checks. Last week, Ofcom launched an investigation into British con ..read more

The average stake taken by UK universities in spinout companies increased over the last year, despite government-backed recommendations. According to the 2024 Spotlight on Spinouts report from Beauhurst and the Royal Academy of Engineering, the average equity stake taken by universities in companies formed by students and staff grew from 19.1% to 22% over the last year. This is in spite of the spinout review, commissioned last year by the Treasury, which urged universities to reduce equity taken in spinouts. The review recommended universities take 10% stakes in less “IP-intensive” spinouts an ..read more

Two-thirds of startups supported by the Digital Growth Grant have had founders who are women or from ethnic minority groups, according to the director of Barclays Eagle Labs. The Digital Growth Grant is a £12m scheme from the government through which a third party supports the development of new tech companies. The grant was previously given to Tech Nation, however, in January 2023, the government awarded the two-year contract to Barclays Eagle Labs, a tech accelerator owned by the banking giant. Eagle Labs previously told UKTN that its focus would be on supporting regional and diverse startup ..read more

Venture capital is one of the globe’s most powerful industries. Whether it’s an app we tap on our phone or a product we pick up from the supermarket shelf, there’s a strong chance VC funding played a part in getting it to market. For those of us who work in the technology and startup space, VC is everywhere. But this is an echo chamber. Outside of our specific professional sphere, venture capital isn’t well understood at all. And that’s an issue we should all care about. In recent polling conducted by Newton Venture Program, we found that 94% of the British public wouldn’t be able to confident ..read more

The Royal Academy of Engineering has launched an initiative supporting the growth of tech businesses in Scotland. The Enterprise Hub Scotland will work with local entrepreneurs to commercialise deep tech developments, spin companies out from universities and attract new investments. The hub is based on similar initiatives from the Royal Academy of Engineering in Wales and Northern Ireland. Enterprise Hub Scotland is based in Glasgow and supported by the city council, as well as the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland and Scottish Enterprise. “Scotland has a proud history of innovation an ..read more

Octopus Energy’s valuation has jumped to $9bn (£7.16bn) after existing shareholders, including a fund chaired by former US Vice President Al Gore, increased their stake in the business. The deal saw Generation Investment Management, chaired by the US politician and prominent climate activist, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board up their stakes in the British energy company. The two groups now own 13% and 12% of Octopus Energy respectively. The increased stakes brought Octopus Energy’s valuation up 15% from its last investment round, putting the firm just shy of a so-called ‘decacorn’ valu ..read more

California-based unicorn Scale AI has announced London as the location for its first international office. Scale AI, which is in talks to raise investment at a valuation of nearly $13bn, provides labelled data for training AI tools. The company works with groups including OpenAI, Cohere and the US military. Founded in 2016, Scale AI is now looking to expand beyond the US, with the upcoming London office operating as the group’s European headquarters. The company hopes the expansion will create around fifty high-skilled jobs, with a mix of locally recruited staff and US specialists. “The UK has ..read more

London-based autonomous driving software startup Wayve has raised $1.05bn (£840m) from SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft in the largest-ever venture investment for a European AI firm. The SoftBank-led round will support the development of Wayve’s embodied AI technology. The company describes embodied AI as advanced software integrated with vehicles and robots to determine how they interact with the world and learn from human behaviour. The company said its software is akin to a GPT model for driving, wherein machines can respond to prompts from external sources using built-in data training. “At W ..read more

This year celebrates 11 years of KPMG Private Enterprise’s UK Tech Innovator competition. Nicole Lowe, UK head of KPMG’s Emerging Giants practice, looks back at how the tech landscape has changed, and what happened next to those businesses that won their regional pitching heats after entering the competition. The UK tech ecosystem is bursting with fantastic examples of innovation and solutions looking to address the world’s most challenging issues. Back in 2013, KPMG launched a competition that shines a spotlight on amazing tech businesses doing incredible things. When we first launched the co ..read more

Husayn Kassai, founder of Onfido and Quench.ai, suggests what the UK can do to attract more IPOs and build more scaleups, reflects on providing a 320x return on investment for the University of Oxford, and explains why people should be wary of the “excessive romanticisation” of unicorn success stories.   Kassai co-founded Onfido, a digital ID company, in 2012 straight out of studying at the University of Oxford. The startup, which uses AI to verify identities, has raised more than $200m and grown to over 500 people, generating more than £140m in revenue. Earlier this year, it was acquired ..read more