Autumn Budget: Reeves launches stamp duty holiday for new listings November 26, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched a three-year stamp duty holiday for new debut companies on the London market in her latest attempt to attract listing candidates. The Treasury’s new plans, announced as part of today’s Autumn Budget, will drop the 0.5 per cent rate paid by investors when purchasing shares in newly listed companies for [...]
Autumn Budget: Will the UK keep its tech talent or drive it abroad? November 25, 2025 Time is running out for Rachel Reeves to reassure the sector she has spent months courting. With tax rises looking increasingly likely in Wednesday’s Autumn Budget, the mood across UK tech has shifted to concern, reviving the warning issued earlier this month by some of Britain’s most valuable founders: change course, or risk watching high-growth [...]
AI startups lead growth despite market jitters and IPO drought November 10, 2025 AI firms have driven a 44 per cent increase in the combined value of the world’s top 100 private tech firms, even as concerns grow that the AI boom could be overheating and Britain’s startups warn of a worsening funding climate. According to new data from PwC, the total valuation of the global top 100 [...]
UK tech founders warn Reeves her Budget could derail London IPO plans November 6, 2025 Executives from some of Britain’s most valuable technology start-ups have warned Rachel Reeves that proposed tax measures in this month’s budget could force them to abandon London listing plans. According to Sky News, a letter was sent this week by companies like Revolut and Clearscore, urging the Treasury not to impose an exit tax on [...]
Deliveroo and Darktrace top UK exits amid IPO draught October 30, 2025 Deliveroo and Darktrace have been named among the UK’s most successful tech exits in the latest ‘Founders Forum UK exit 50 report’, as the country faces ongoing challenges in retaining its high-growth firms. Founders Forum’s annual list, compiled with Tech Nation and HSBC Innovation Banking, ranks the 50 UK tech companies that have navigated scale-up [...]
Investment minister Jason Stockwood: I don’t want to be political October 22, 2025 Jason Stockwood insists he hadn’t been angling for a plumb ministerial job before the call from Keir Starmer asking for him to be investment minister came six weeks ago. The serial entrepreneur – and Grimsby Town Football Club co-owner – had, instead, been “moaning” about the paucity of politicians with genuine business experience, when the [...]
Darktrace boss blames employee share rules for London exit October 22, 2025 The boss of Darktrace has said that the London Stock Exchange’s restrictive rules over offering options and equity to staff drove its decision to leave the UK bourse in 2023, saying it limited its ability to attract and retain talent. Jill Popelka told a Bloomberg event that the “limitations” meant that as a London-listed company [...]
Exclusive: Reeves poised to roll out ‘concierge service’ for investors October 16, 2025 The Treasury is preparing to launch its ‘concierge service’ to help international firms invest and expand in the UK as soon as this week, City AM can reveal, in a move ministers hope will attract as much as £10bn of foreign investment into the UK. The new service – also dubbed an ‘investment hub’ – [...]
UK’s top tech scale-ups named, but can Britain keep hold of them? September 11, 2025 Tech Nation has announced its Future Fifty 2025 cohort, featuring 25 high-growth UK scaleups across various sectors, including AI, climatetech, healthtech, and spacetech. Between them, these firms have raised more than £1.4bn and employ over 2,100 people. The programme, which was relaunched under Founders Forum Group in 2024, has long been seen as the UK’s [...]
Merck warns UK is ‘not internationally competitive’ as it scraps £1bn London research centre September 10, 2025 Merck has pulled out of a planned £1bn London drug research centre in the latest blow to the government’s growth agenda. The US pharma giant is to lay off 127 staff alongside abandoning the construction project, which had been set to open in King’s Cross in 2027. The firm warned the UK would lag behind [...]