
The Justice Department released more than three million pages of Jeffrey Epstein files, exposing email correspondence that ties high‑profile business leaders such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates to the disgraced financier. The documents reveal contradictions to earlier public statements that disavowed any relationship with Epstein. The release arrives amid broader market chatter about a potential $100 billion Nvidia‑OpenAI partnership, a new Fed chair nomination, and Waymo’s $16 billion funding round. Together, these stories underscore heightened scrutiny of corporate networks and governance.

General Partner Jos White of Notion Capital released his first annual market update, translating a recurring presentation into a full article. He highlights that the S&P 500 recorded 35 new highs in 2025 and rose 17% year‑to‑date, while the ACWI All‑World...

Quantum computing is moving from theoretical research to commercial opportunity, with startups already delivering products in cybersecurity, networking, middleware, and sensing. Andy Leaver of Notion Capital argues that waiting for fault‑tolerant, cryptography‑breaking machines is unnecessary; viable markets exist today. He...

The report "The Negative Split" draws a marathon pacing analogy to illustrate the founder’s journey, emphasizing that early excitement gives way to a demanding second half. It argues that sustained mental and physical health, supported by data‑driven strategies and peer...

ESG has moved from a niche concern to a mainstream priority for investors worldwide. Over 5,300 investment organisations, managing roughly $128 trillion in assets, have signed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. This surge reflects ESG’s evolution from a risk‑mitigation checkbox...

Nationwide’s latest index shows UK average house prices rose 1% year‑on‑year in January 2026, reaching £270,873, an improvement from the 0.6% gain recorded in December. Mortgage approvals remain close to pre‑pandemic levels, suggesting lingering demand despite recent market softness. Affordability...

Shield Technology Partners announced a $100 million investment from Thrive Holdings to accelerate its AI‑first IT services platform. The funding will boost product innovation, expand the company’s national partner network, and fund strategic M&A. Shield’s AI‑driven tools, Sentinel and Spectre, have...

Celesta Capital’s founding partner Sriram Viswanathan explains that abundant capital and a shrinking pool of high‑quality deep‑tech deals are fueling a surge in secondary‑market transactions. Investors are using secondaries to gain liquidity as private exits stretch, especially in AI‑driven hardware...

CesiumAstro announced a $470 million financing package on Feb. 2, comprising $270 million in equity and $200 million in debt. The round was led by Trousdale Ventures and included investors such as Toyota’s Woven Capital, Airbus Ventures, and the U.S. Export‑Import Bank. The capital...

NS&I announced two February 2026 Premium Bonds jackpot winners, each receiving a £1 million prize. Both winners held £50,000 of bonds, one from central Bedfordshire and the other from Liverpool. The February draw featured over 6.1 million tax‑free prizes worth more than...

At North Star in Montréal, Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde and Lightspeed founder Dax Dasilva shared hard‑won lessons from building billion‑dollar businesses. They emphasized self‑care, especially meditation and yoga, as a leadership prerequisite and warned that founders must delegate to avoid...

Oslo‑based AI startup Watchdog announced a $600,000 seed round led by venture studio Askeladden & Co and angel investors from OpenAI, Encube and Riff. The funding will accelerate development of its AI‑powered invoice verification tool that automatically cross‑checks invoices against...

The FTC is signaling a shift toward treating both traditional acquihires and reverse‑acquihires as subject to the same antitrust standards that govern full mergers. Reverse‑acquihires—where a firm takes a minority stake or no money but hires key talent—have historically avoided...

Affirm (AFRM) generates most revenue from high‑interest BNPL loans, unlike peers that rely on merchant fees. The company’s aggressive lending, high leverage, and dependence on risky consumers expose it to defaults, especially if the U.S. economy slows. Regulatory attention on...

Barcelona‑based health AI firm Biorce closed a $52 million Series A round, led by DST Global Partners and supported by existing backers Norrsken VC, YZR Capital and Mustard Seed Maze. The financing brings total capital raised above $60 million and will fund the...

In this episode Kelly Oakley, Associate Director of Incentives and Reliefs at ForrestBrown, explains how advisers can move from transactional grant claims to holistic, lifecycle funding strategies for 2026. She highlights the newly stable yet complex R&D tax landscape, the...

Startup founders are increasingly tapping secondary markets to secure personal liquidity without exiting their companies. Platforms such as Forge Global and Nasdaq Private Market streamline direct secondary sales and tender offers, while venture capitalists are more supportive of controlled liquidity...

U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff campaign has dominated the past year, targeting Europe, South Korea and other partners with a shifting array of duties and exemptions. Recent threats over Greenland and a perceived breach by South Korea have heightened...

President Donald Trump has named former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as his pick for the next Fed chair, a move that comes as markets brace for potential policy shifts. Warsh, who became the youngest Fed governor in history, is...

Pension advisers now argue that age 75, not the state‑pension age, should be the focal point of retirement planning. The popularity of income drawdown means many savers keep their pots invested while taking income, but HMRC rules make tax‑free cash...

Beeks Financial Cloud, a Scottish tech firm, provides private ultra‑low‑latency cloud infrastructure for high‑frequency traders and exchanges. The company has moved from one‑off hardware sales to multi‑year, revenue‑sharing contracts with major exchanges in Australia, Canada and Latin America, creating predictable...

Saba Capital’s latest activist push to replace the board of Edinburgh Worldwide Trust was rejected, with 53% of votes opposing the resolutions despite the fund’s 30.7% stake. The vote saw a record‑high 70% shareholder turnout, indicating heightened engagement. While the...

Iran announced a live‑fire naval drill in the Strait of Hormuz for Sunday and Monday, targeting a lane within the traffic separation scheme that handles roughly one‑fifth of global oil shipments. The United States Central Command warned Tehran that unsafe...

Two of Britain’s most celebrated fund managers, Terry Smith and Nick Train, are grappling with several years of disappointing returns. Smith attributes the underperformance to external forces, while Train publicly accepts responsibility and apologises to investors. Both built their reputations...

In this three‑week webinar series launching on February 16, Denis Kalyshkin—a principal at a U.S. venture capital firm and former aerospace engineer—explains how VC funds operate, covering market analysis, deal terms, due diligence, and financial modeling for startups. He breaks...
Invest Qatar will host the Startup Qatar Pavilion at Web Summit Qatar 2026, highlighting the nation’s fast‑growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. The pavilion will unite key agencies such as QFZ, QFC, MCIT, QDB and Media City Qatar to streamline setup, licensing, funding...

Deepgram announced a $130 million Series C round that lifts its valuation to $1.3 billion, led by AVP and joined by strategic backers such as Twilio, ServiceNow Ventures, SAP and Citi Ventures. The capital will accelerate the expansion of its real‑time voice AI...

Kofi Ampadu, a partner who spearheaded Andreessen Horowitz’s Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund, announced his departure in June 2026. The TxO program, launched in 2020 to back underserved founders through a donor‑advised fund, was placed on indefinite pause in November 2025 and...

NCSOFT announced a senior‑level reshuffle on Jan. 29, promoting Chief Business Officer Sunggu Lee and COO Koo Hyunbeom to Senior Vice President. The moves are tied to the strong commercial performance of AION 2, which has generated over KRW 100 billion since its...

Poetiq Inc., founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, raised $45.8 million in a seed round led by FYRFLY Venture Partners and Surface Ventures. The startup’s meta‑system platform enhances large language models like Gemini and GPT‑5.2, improving output quality while lowering inference...

On July 4, 2025, the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) became law, imposing new employer tax reporting requirements for qualified overtime and tipped earnings. Employers must now report qualified overtime compensation and qualified tips separately on employees’ Form W‑2,...
The NLRB Division of Advice issued memos recommending dismissal of three charges that stretched Biden‑era precedents, covering a union recognition claim, a Slack criticism case, and an overbroad non‑solicitation clause. The Department of Labor’s EBSA proposed a rule forcing PBM...

Arlene Dickinson and Amber Mac announced they are no longer advisors to Gander Social just one day before the company’s crowdfunding campaign was set to close. Both posted on LinkedIn, while Gander’s CEO Ben Waldman said neither had finalized an...

Canada and Alberta unveiled 27 new broadband projects aimed at delivering high‑speed internet to 83,600 homes across 759 communities, including 3,488 Indigenous households. The initiative is funded with $373.6 million, split among the provincial government, the federal government, and private service...
Emobi, the leading EV charging roaming platform in North America, announced a $3.4 million seed round. The round was led by Florida Funders and included a slate of existing backers such as Y Combinator and Goodwater Capital. The capital will accelerate...

Mito AI, a collaborative platform that brings AI orchestration tools to video professionals, announced a $4.5 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Kibo, Kfund, Sequoia, a16z scouts, LifeX and several high‑profile angels. The service lets filmmakers,...

Succession risk has shifted from a peripheral concern to a central valuation driver in M&A transactions. Buyers now discount companies lacking clear leadership continuity, leading to lower multiples, earn‑outs, and tighter deal terms. CEOs and CFOs who proactively build second‑in‑command...

WEBTOON Entertainment, the world’s largest digital‑comics platform, went public on NASDAQ in June 2024 under the ticker WBTN. The company hosts 24 million creators who generate more than 120 000 new stories each day and reaches 160 million monthly active users, primarily 18‑to‑25‑year‑olds....
Amazon is reportedly negotiating a multi‑billion‑dollar investment of up to $50 billion in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. The funding round could total $100 billion, potentially valuing OpenAI at $830 billion. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is leading talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman,...

Avestec Technologies, a Canadian maker of flying inspection robots, has shifted its talent strategy from senior hires to student interns. Partnering with the ICTC’s Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital program, the firm brings on three to four interns each semester,...

Metropolitan Technologies, a Toronto‑based cybersecurity startup, has built an operational‑technology platform that secures critical‑infrastructure assets such as mines, energy grids, water treatment plants, and transportation networks. The company graduated from Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst’s eight‑month Cyber Challenge, receiving $20,000 in non‑dilutive...

Recent CJEU ruling (Case C‑110/24) classifies travel that is tightly organised by the employer as working time for health‑and‑safety purposes. German courts have traditionally focused on the burden of travel, but the EU decision shifts emphasis to employer control, potentially...

FinTech Futures takes a look back at five of the top fintech funding stories from January.

Yosemite, the cancer‑research investment firm led by Reed Jobs, is seeking to raise a fund of up to $350 million. The capital target positions the firm among the largest early‑stage biotech funds currently forming. Jobs leverages his Silicon Valley connections and...

Sixfold, a New York‑based InsurTech, closed a $30 million Series B round led by Brewer Lane with strategic participation from Guidewire. The funding will fuel development of its “AI Underwriter,” an autonomous system designed to handle end‑to‑end property and casualty underwriting. Sixfold’s...

European FinTech funding surged to $5.5 bn in Q4 2025, an 87% increase QoQ and the highest‑funded quarter on record. The number of deals stayed flat at 176, but large transactions exploded, with deals over $100 m rising 3.9 times QoQ to $4 bn. Zilch...

Technological University Dublin launched the Research Ireland ARC Hub for ICT, a €32.21 million national initiative designed to fast‑track ICT and artificial intelligence research into commercial products. Co‑funded by the Irish government and the EU’s ERDF programme, the Hub offers targeted...

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange processed 474 IPO applications in January 2026, with 415 still under review and only 19 having reached listing status. No applications were rejected or returned, reflecting a streamlined review under the Enhanced Application Timeframe, which...
San Francisco AI startup Adapt announced a $10 million seed round co‑led by Activant Capital and Headline, positioning itself as the “AI computer” for enterprises. The capital backs a horizontal AI platform that embeds frontier models into any workflow via API...

The European Union’s foreign ministers have formally listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, marking a sharp policy shift amid Tehran’s crackdown on protests and regional activities. The move, championed by EU foreign‑policy chief Kaja Kallas,...