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West Africa's mining industry is entering a new era as soaring gold prices attract fresh investment and push governments, mining companies and investors to rethink where the biggest opportunities lie. Global gold demand reached a record 1,231 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026, creating a market worth around $193 billion, up 74% year on year. That surge is having a major impact across West Africa, one of the world's most important gold-producing regions, according to the World Gold Council. The result is a renewed gold rush, but today's investors are looking beyond simply finding large deposits. Gold prices are changing the investment equationCountries including Ghana**,…

The UK government has launched an independent review into how business rates are calculated for pubs and hotels in England and Wales, opening the door to potentially significant changes for one of the country's most pressured business sectors. Business rates are a major operating cost for hospitality businesses, and industry groups have argued that the current valuation system does not properly reflect the realities of running pubs and hotels. The review will be led by business rates expert Jerry Schurder, with recommendations due to the Treasury by March 2027. For founders, investors and business owners, the review could have implications well beyond the hospitality indu…

Fast-fashion giant Shein is finally heading for the stock market, but its planned $27 billion valuation shows just how dramatically investor expectations have changed since the company was valued at $100 billion. The company plans to begin trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 1 September, offering almost 280 million shares at between HK47.60andHK49.50 each. At the top of the range, the IPO would raise around $1.77 billion and value Shein at approximately $27 billion. That would represent a major fall from its $100 billion valuation during a private funding round in 2022. Shein's IPO marks a major valuation resetShein's journey to the public markets has been far from…

UK inflation has accelerated again, adding fresh pressure to households and businesses already dealing with higher operating costs. The Consumer Prices Index rose 2.9% in the year to July 2026, up from 2.6% in June and marking the first increase in the annual rate since March. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics highlight a renewed challenge for businesses trying to manage costs while maintaining growth. For founders, investors and business leaders, the question is becoming increasingly important. How much longer can businesses absorb rising costs without passing them on to customers? Energy prices push inflation higherOne of the major contributors …

Artificial intelligence is changing Africa's cybercrime landscape at an alarming pace. According to INTERPOL's 2026 African Cyberthreat Assessment Report, AI now enables 55% of reported cybercrimes across Africa, while cybercrime-related losses have more than doubled since 2024 to USD 484 million. For founders, investors and businesses building Africa's digital economy, the numbers highlight a growing challenge. The same AI technology creating new opportunities for businesses is also helping criminals scale attacks faster and across borders. Cybercrime is becoming an industrial operationThe INTERPOL report, based on data from 36 African member countries, describes cybercr…

An AI manager has officially fired a human employee. It sounds like a scene from a science-fiction film, but it happened at Andon Market, an experimental retail shop in San Francisco operated by AI agent Luna. Developed by Andon Labs, Luna was given the responsibility of helping run a real-world business, including managing staff. The latest experiment offers founders and investors a glimpse into what autonomous AI agents could eventually do inside companies. Luna makes her first firing decisionThe employee was dismissed after arriving late for 17 of 23 shifts. Luna's own employee policy stated that repeated lateness could eventually result in termination. There was just …

Peak shopping periods are a major opportunity for retailers across Asia-Pacific, but they also create a bigger target for cybercriminals. As digital traffic increases, retailers face growing risks from bot activity, account takeovers and payment abuse, threats that can remain hidden until they cause serious disruption. For founders, investors and retail businesses, the message is clear. Cybersecurity needs to protect the entire customer journey, not just the systems a company directly controls. Peak demand creates a bigger attack surfaceStephen Bennett, Group Chief Information Security Officer at Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd, said some of the most serious risks are not …

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming less about experimentation and more about helping UK small and medium-sized businesses get through their workloads. New research from Dell Technologies found that 66% of UK SMEs believe AI will somewhat or significantly boost their business over the next three years, while 56% believe using AI gives them a competitive advantage. For founders, the bigger opportunity may not be replacing people. It is giving teams more time to focus on customers, strategy and growth. AI is giving SMEs valuable time backDell Technologies surveyed 2,013 SME decision-makers and 713 large-business decision-makers for its AI in Action report. Among SME…

Facial recognition technology is moving into more areas of everyday life, from policing and retail security to banking and secure access. But as adoption grows, one issue could determine whether the technology reaches its full potential. Public trust. For founders and investors building in AI, security and biometric technology, this is more than a regulatory debate. Trust could become a key factor in whether facial recognition products succeed commercially. Why public confidence mattersFacial recognition technology, or FRT, has faced growing scrutiny over accuracy and privacy. Reports of false matches in shops and supermarkets have raised concerns about whether the techno…

Singapore's department-store era is quietly coming to an end. Metro, which has traded in Singapore for almost 70 years, is closing its final two full-size stores at Paragon on Orchard Road and Causeway Point in Woodlands once their leases expire. The retailer plans to focus instead on smaller specialist shops and pop-ups. Metro isn't alone. Isetan has closed five Singapore locations since 2015, while BHG has reduced the size of its Bugis Junction flagship. That's a significant change for a country where department stores once played a central role in the shopping experience. But there is a bigger business question hiding underneath the closures. Corporate strategy consult…

African startup funding had a strange month in July. Only 44 disclosed rounds of at least $100,000 were recorded, producing $102 million in total funding. That was roughly 60% below the recent monthly average. But the headline number wasn't the most interesting part. The funding mix was. Just $25 million came through equity, the lowest monthly figure tracked by Africa: The Big Deal since April 2019. Debt supplied around $75 million, or roughly 74% of the month's total. That doesn't mean venture capital has abandoned Africa. It means investors are becoming much more selective about what they are willing to finance. Founders are finding another route to capitalFour deals ac…

AI has crossed another scientific boundary, and this one is difficult to ignore. Researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute have used an AI model to design new viruses that did not previously exist in nature. The 16 viruses were able to function, although they were designed to infect bacteria rather than humans. That distinction matters. It means this is not a story about an AI system suddenly creating a human pandemic. It is a demonstration that AI can move beyond analysing biology and begin designing biological systems. And that changes the conversation. From predicting biology to creating itThe research, published in Science, involved Evo, an AI model tra…

Britain's AI funding numbers look incredible. They also need a little context. UK AI companies raised $9.6bn (£7.1bn) during the first half of 2026, according to Tracxn's latest data. That's a staggering 360% increase on the same period last year and 284% higher than H2 2025. At first glance, it looks like the UK's AI investment market has exploded. But there were actually fewer deals. Tracxn tracked 69 funding rounds in H1 2026, compared with 74 in the first half of 2025. The money has therefore not been spread across a much larger group of startups. Quite the opposite. The UK's AI funding boom is heavily concentrated. The five biggest recipients accounted for 84% of all…

TikTok Shop is no longer just a place where creators sell beauty products between dance trends. More than 300,000 UK small businesses are now selling through the platform, while new seller sign-ups have reportedly jumped 200% year-on-year. That is a remarkable shift for a shopping platform that only launched in the UK in 2021. And the really interesting part isn't simply how many businesses have joined. It's how they're selling. TikTok says more than 6,000 LIVE shopping sessions take place in the UK every day, with sales through LIVE up 55% year-on-year. That turns ecommerce into something much closer to a conversation. A butcher can demonstrate products. A beauty founder…

The AI boom is creating an unexpected winner: electricians. While headlines focus on engineers, data scientists and AI researchers earning huge salaries, the physical infrastructure behind the technology needs a very different workforce. Data centres need power. Lots of it. And someone has to build, wire and maintain them. For electricians like Detroit apprentice Tyler Shelton, that demand is already changing the job market. Crews are being redirected towards large data-centre projects, leaving fewer workers available for ordinary maintenance and repair work. The money explains why. Some electricians working on US data centres have reportedly been earning $240,000 to $280…

For years, stablecoins were mostly associated with crypto traders. Africa is giving them a much more practical job. Across the continent, businesses are increasingly using dollar-backed digital assets to move money across borders, manage liquidity and settle payments when traditional banking rails are slow, expensive or simply difficult to access. That shift isn't really about blockchain hype. It's about a very old problem: getting dollars where they need to go. Foreign exchange shortages, volatile local currencies and fragmented banking systems can make international payments painfully complicated. For an importer waiting to pay a supplier, three days isn't a technical i…

For the Philippines, this is a milestone worth celebrating. But it is not the finish line. On 1 July 2026, the World Bank moved both the Philippines and Vietnam from lower-middle to upper-middle-income status, based on their 2025 gross national income per person. Vietnam came in at $4,970, while the Philippines reached $4,850. It sounds like a small statistical change. It isn't. The Philippines had remained lower-middle income in every World Bank classification since the system began. Vietnam, meanwhile, was classified as low income as recently as 2010. Their journeys have been very different, but both have now crossed the same line. For founders, investors and businesses…

Britain's new government has barely had time to settle in, yet many business leaders have already made up their minds. A survey of 400 CEOs found that 83% expect business conditions to either stay the same or get worse under Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Just 17% believe things will improve. That is not exactly a vote of confidence. The research, commissioned by Helm, found that 40% expect conditions to deteriorate, while another 43% expect no meaningful change. More strikingly, only 6% believe Burnham is pro-business. For founders, these numbers matter because confidence isn't some abstract economic concept. It affects hiring, investment and whether someone decides to bui…

Europe's startup funding numbers look fantastic at first glance. Startup community forum $35.4 billion was raised by European technology companies in the first half of 2026, up 46% from the same period last year. But there is a catch that founders cannot afford to ignore. The number of funding rounds fell 18% to 1,555. So, more money is entering the market while fewer companies are getting a piece of it. That tells me the European funding market isn't exactly recovering evenly. It is becoming more selective. The biggest rounds make the point. Isomorphic Labs raised $2.1bn, Nscale secured $2bn and Stegra closed a $1.6bn Series A. Together, those three deals represented rou…

I grew up in the passenger seat of my dad's Ford Ranger. Now I drive my own. So when I saw the headline that Ford and Apple were teaming up, I'll admit I read it twice, partly as someone who covers this industry, and partly as someone who's been an iPhone, iPad and Mac user for years and never seriously considered switching either brand. Ford gets me from A to B. Apple handles almost everything in between, communication, work, the rest of my day. Seeing the two actually work together isn't just an industry story for me. It's two brands I already trust, doing something neither had done before. For years, Apple stayed on the sidelines of the car industry, offering Apple Car…

At Secretlab, the flexible hours weren't originally about wellbeing. They were about time zones. Co-founder Ian Ang built a deliberately non-hierarchical structure with schedules loose enough to bridge Singapore and the US market, and years later that same flexibility shows up in how people actually rate working there: 4.2 out of 5 on Glassdoor across 201 reviews, with 78% saying they'd recommend the job to a friend. Nobody put "culture" on a slide for that. It was a practical fix that happened to work. That's roughly the story behind Tech in Asia and Statista's inaugural Singapore's Top Startup Employers 2026 list. Finding great talent is hard. Keeping it, especially thr…

"Where are the exits?" For years, that question has followed South Africa's venture capital industry wherever it went. It's a fair one. Investors don't just want promising startups, they want proof that successful businesses can generate meaningful returns. New research suggests South Africa is finally providing that evidence, and it could reshape how institutional investors view the country's startup ecosystem. Two studies commissioned by the SA SME Fund, Endeavor South Africa, and SAVCA, titled South African Venture Capital: Exit & Performance Analysis and a companion Exit Case Studies Analysis, found that South African venture capital exits are delivering returns c…

One freelance designer we spoke to waited 94 days for a £4,200 invoice from a national retail chain. She'd already been paid on time, oddly by two smaller clients in the meantime, which made the wait feel less like bad luck and more like a policy. There's a version of that story behind most late-payment complaints: not that nobody pays, but that the biggest clients are somehow the slowest. Late payments have become so common that many freelancers simply accept them as the cost of doing business. They shouldn't have to. The Commercial Payments Bill deserves far more attention than it's getting. Business Operations The proposed legislation has now entered the Committee Stag…

Running a business is challenging enough without constantly wondering what the next bill will look like. For many founders, rising costs have become part of everyday life. Energy prices, wages, rent, insurance... the list seems to grow every year. Now, Business Rates could become the next major pressure, with projections suggesting bills across England's retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors could increase by an average of 52% by 2028. That's a figure no small business can afford to ignore. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), a typical high street retailer could see its annual business rates rise from around £4,790 to more than £7,000 within the next…

For many UK startups, Europe feels like the obvious next step. You've found product-market fit at home, customers are growing, and naturally the conversation turns to international expansion. On paper, France looks like an easy choice. It's one of Europe's largest economies, it's close to home, and the opportunities are hard to ignore. But I think that's where many founders get caught out. Expanding into Europe isn't the same as succeeding in Europe. France isn't just another market on the map. It's the kind of place that quickly exposes whether your business is truly ready to scale internationally. One lesson stands out above everything else. Customers don't automaticall…

Living in the Philippines, I've watched Asia quietly become one of the most exciting places to build technology companies. Whether it's fintech in Singapore, AI startups in India, or blockchain communities across Southeast Asia, innovation here feels like it's moving at a different pace. That's why Simple Technology Holdings' latest announcement immediately grabbed my attention. The newly formed company plans to invest US$200 million over the next 12 months, acquiring 15 Web3 businesses as it builds what could become one of the region's largest Web3 Infrastructure groups ahead of a future public listing. That's an ambitious target by any standard. Simple Tech, which is in…

For the past couple of years, it felt like every conversation about venture capital started with the same question: Where has all the funding gone? That's why Africa's latest funding figures stand out. According to new data from Bloomwit Africa, startups across the continent raised $3.9 billion through 506 funding deals in 2025, marking a strong rebound for African Startup Funding and signalling renewed confidence from investors. Even more encouraging, the momentum hasn't faded. Startup funding reached $705 million in the first quarter of 2026, a 26.5% increase year-on-year, suggesting this isn't just a short-lived spike but the continuation of a broader recovery. One of …