Business News and Headlines

ECB and ONCE Foundation Launch Collaboration to Ensure Digital Euro Is Accessible for Everyone
NewsFeb 18, 2026

ECB and ONCE Foundation Launch Collaboration to Ensure Digital Euro Is Accessible for Everyone

The European Central Bank has signed a collaboration agreement with Spain’s ONCE Foundation to make the digital euro app universally accessible, especially for people with disabilities, older adults, and those with limited digital skills. The foundation will provide technical advice,...

By European Central Bank — Press/Speeches
Moving to a Four-Day Week While Scaling
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Moving to a Four-Day Week While Scaling

Interlink, a fast‑scaling B2B demand‑generation startup, shifted to a four‑day, 32‑hour workweek after an 18‑month phased trial. The change was treated like a product launch—testing, iterating, and redesigning workflows rather than merely cutting hours. Despite concerns about growth velocity, the...

By Startups Magazine
Lasso’s Intent Deputy Secures AI Agents Through Real-Time Behavioral Intent Analysis
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Lasso’s Intent Deputy Secures AI Agents Through Real-Time Behavioral Intent Analysis

Lasso Security unveiled Intent Deputy, a runtime behavioral‑intent framework that secures autonomous AI agents by interpreting their decision flow and operational context. The solution claims 99.83% threat detection at sub‑50 ms latency and a 570‑fold cost advantage over cloud‑native guardrails. By...

By Help Net Security
InKind Raises $450M in Funding
NewsFeb 18, 2026

InKind Raises $450M in Funding

Austin‑based restaurant commerce platform inKind announced a $450 million funding round backed by Peak6 founders, former Sodexo US CEO, and Condé Nast CPTO. The capital will fuel a rollout to an additional 10,000 U.S. restaurants over the next twelve months. inKind already...

By FinSMEs
Alberto Naudon: Chile's Economic Outlook
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Alberto Naudon: Chile's Economic Outlook

Alberto Naudon, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, highlighted that 2025 delivered stronger‑than‑expected growth, with non‑mining activity expanding close to 3% and gross fixed capital formation rising about 7% driven by mining and energy projects. Inflation accelerated early...

By BIS — Press Releases
Defunding the Taliban without Starving the Afghan People
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Defunding the Taliban without Starving the Afghan People

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the bipartisan No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act, aiming to prevent American taxpayer money from funding the Taliban or affiliated terrorist groups. The legislation follows a SIGAR report indicating that roughly $3.83 billion of...

By Asia Times – Defense
Book Review: How Africa Works by Joe Studwell
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Book Review: How Africa Works by Joe Studwell

Joe Studwell’s new book “How Africa Works” asks why the continent remains poor and outlines policies that could accelerate growth, emphasizing agriculture, demographics, and the “enclave effect” of resource extraction. He profiles four early‑movers—Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda—showing how targeted...

By African Business
Landlocked Zimbabwe Flags Fraud to IMO After Tanker’s Bogus Registry Link
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Landlocked Zimbabwe Flags Fraud to IMO After Tanker’s Bogus Registry Link

Zimbabwe, a landlocked nation without a maritime authority, has reported a false flag registration for the aframax tanker Range Vale to the International Maritime Organization. The vessel, built in 2005, has cycled through bogus registries in Comoros, Zimbabwe and currently...

By Splash 247
OSHA Inspector Ranks Fell Sharply Before Projected 2026 Increase, Agency Says
NewsFeb 18, 2026

OSHA Inspector Ranks Fell Sharply Before Projected 2026 Increase, Agency Says

OSHA’s federal safety‑inspection workforce dropped sharply, falling from 812 officers at the end of fiscal 2024 to 629 by September 2025. The agency projects a rebound to roughly 1,720 inspectors in 2026, a figure that includes staff from state‑plan programs....

By Business Insurance
SMIFS Financial Services Elevates Pankaj Adhav as Head-HR
NewsFeb 18, 2026

SMIFS Financial Services Elevates Pankaj Adhav as Head-HR

SMIFS Financial Services has promoted Pankaj Adhav to head of human resources, positioning him to steer the firm’s talent acquisition, performance management, employee engagement, and HR transformation initiatives. The appointment aligns with SMIFS’s ambition to build a future‑ready workforce that...

By HR Katha (India)
Krisp AI Note Taker Raises the Bar for Meetings by Expanding Its AI Meeting Suite With Accent Conversion
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Krisp AI Note Taker Raises the Bar for Meetings by Expanding Its AI Meeting Suite With Accent Conversion

Krisp AI Note Taker expands its meeting suite by adding real-time accent conversion alongside its established noise cancellation. The voice‑AI platform now offers AI‑generated transcripts, summaries and action items while normalizing diverse accents, improving clarity for participants. To date, the...

By MarTech Series
Intellinetics, Inc. Appoints Alison Forsythe as President and CEO
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Intellinetics, Inc. Appoints Alison Forsythe as President and CEO

Intellinetics, a NYSE American‑listed digital transformation solutions provider, announced Alison Forsythe as its new President and Chief Executive Officer effective February 17, 2026. Forsythe brings over 20 years of SaaS and enterprise software leadership, most recently as CEO of AI‑powered...

By AI-TechPark
New Clutch and Conductor Data Reveals 87% of Content Marketers Increasing Budgets in 2026 as SEO Expands Into AI Search
NewsFeb 18, 2026

New Clutch and Conductor Data Reveals 87% of Content Marketers Increasing Budgets in 2026 as SEO Expands Into AI Search

Clutch and Conductor’s 2026 State of Content Report shows content marketers are boosting investment as SEO expands into AI search. Eighty‑seven percent plan to increase budgets next year, and one‑quarter now write primarily for large language models. The survey of...

By MarTech Series
Microsoft Defender Update Lets SOC Teams Manage, Vet Response Tools
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Microsoft Defender Update Lets SOC Teams Manage, Vet Response Tools

Microsoft Defender now includes a Library Management feature that lets security operations centers (SOCs) organize, preview, and control the scripts and tools used in live response. Analysts can upload PowerShell, batch, and other response files ahead of investigations, making them...

By Help Net Security
When Senior Leaders Are Asked To Carry Too Much
NewsFeb 18, 2026

When Senior Leaders Are Asked To Carry Too Much

Biopharma senior leaders are increasingly shouldering operational work left behind by downsizing, stretching their capacity beyond strategic duties. The overload fragments focus, slows decisions, and erodes communication, while burnout remains hidden behind continued presence. As pressure builds, the organization’s decision‑making...

By BioSpace
Managing Systemic Supply Chain Risk to the U.S. Economy From Trade Concentration and Geopolitical Conflict
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Managing Systemic Supply Chain Risk to the U.S. Economy From Trade Concentration and Geopolitical Conflict

The RAND report examines systemic supply‑chain risks facing the U.S. economy stemming from trade concentration and geopolitical conflict. It highlights how reliance on a narrow set of foreign suppliers can magnify disruption impacts. The analysis calls for coordinated public‑private strategies...

By RAND Blog/Analysis
How to Catch Candidate Fraud: Lessons From Linktree
NewsFeb 18, 2026

How to Catch Candidate Fraud: Lessons From Linktree

Linktree’s recruiting team uncovered a sophisticated candidate fraud ring that used real engineers' LinkedIn profiles and altered emails to apply for remote positions. An email verification check via Gem inadvertently alerted the genuine engineers, confirming identity theft. In response, Linktree...

By Gem Blog
Drug Discovery Platform Peptris Raises Rs 70 Cr in Series A Round
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Drug Discovery Platform Peptris Raises Rs 70 Cr in Series A Round

Peptris, a Bengaluru‑based AI drug‑discovery startup, closed a Rs 70 crore ($7.7 million) Series A round co‑led by IAN Alpha Fund and Speciale Invest. The capital will accelerate its pipeline, moving novel chemical entities and repurposing programs toward clinical readiness within 24 months. Peptris’ platform...

By Entrackr
Sports, Influencer and Media Buying Capabilities to Drive M&A This Year
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Sports, Influencer and Media Buying Capabilities to Drive M&A This Year

Moore Kingston Smith forecasts a modest rebound in UK media and marketing M&A in 2026 after a 23% drop to 301 deals in 2025, the slowest since the pandemic. Buyers are prioritising capability‑driven targets—especially sports, influencer, and media‑buying agencies that...

By VideoWeek (UK/Europe)
Shadow Fleet Watchdog Publishes Treasure Trove of Tanker Intel
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Shadow Fleet Watchdog Publishes Treasure Trove of Tanker Intel

TankerTrackers.com, a leading open‑source monitor of the maritime shadow fleet, released a massive free dataset covering 1,469 active black‑listed tankers. The platform disclosed daily oil volumes on the four biggest trade lanes, led by Iran‑to‑China at 1.64 million barrels per day,...

By Splash 247
Spokenote Launches the First Video Platform Built to Scale Authentic Interaction
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Spokenote Launches the First Video Platform Built to Scale Authentic Interaction

Spokenote unveiled the first video platform that combines automation speed with authentic, human‑focused interaction. The solution lets marketers generate personalized short‑form videos at infinite scale without manual editing or AI‑generated impersonations. Using modular components, each video adapts to viewer data,...

By MarTech Series
AWS Coding Agents Gain New Plugin Support Across Development Tools
NewsFeb 18, 2026

AWS Coding Agents Gain New Plugin Support Across Development Tools

AWS introduced Agent Plugins, a framework that equips AI coding assistants with native AWS capabilities. The initial "deploy‑to‑AWS" plugin lets developers issue natural‑language prompts to generate architecture recommendations, cost estimates, and infrastructure‑as‑code templates. It currently integrates with Claude Code and...

By Help Net Security
Middle Market Deal Terms at a Glance – February 2026
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Middle Market Deal Terms at a Glance – February 2026

SPP Capital Partners released its February 2026 Middle Market Deal Terms snapshot, updating leverage, debt‑to‑EBITDA, and pricing metrics for senior bank cash‑flow, senior non‑bank unitranche, and junior capital across micro, small and mid‑cap segments. Compared with February 2025, leverage ratios have nudged...

By The Lead Left
Is Australia’s Secondaries Market the Solution to Delayed Exits and Liquidity Pressure?
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Is Australia’s Secondaries Market the Solution to Delayed Exits and Liquidity Pressure?

Australia’s venture ecosystem is confronting a liquidity crunch as exits stretch and companies remain private longer. Secondary transactions have moved from occasional fixes to a structural component, with analysts estimating a US$2.6 billion pool of liquidity in tech firms over the...

By Startup Daily (ANZ)
A Decade on, Lily Mine Rescue Remains Unresolved
NewsFeb 18, 2026

A Decade on, Lily Mine Rescue Remains Unresolved

The Lily Mine collapse in 2016 triggered a business rescue that has now stretched ten years without resolution. The mine remains closed, the three miners unrecovered, creditors unpaid, and no funding has been verified for revised rescue plans. The case...

By Miningmx
Debtwire Middle-Market – 2/16/2026
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Debtwire Middle-Market – 2/16/2026

The VanEck BDC Income ETF is yielding 12.3% as of 12 February, just below its five‑year high of 12.8% reached in April 2025. In contrast, the BofA Merrill Lynch US High Yield index has slipped to 6.6%, down from an 8.5%...

By The Lead Left
FTSE 100 Live: Inflation Falls to Near Year-Low; BAE Leads Stock Rally
NewsFeb 18, 2026

FTSE 100 Live: Inflation Falls to Near Year-Low; BAE Leads Stock Rally

UK inflation eased to a near‑year low, with the CPI falling to 3% year‑on‑year in January 2026, down from 3.4% in December. The slowdown, driven by lower petrol, airfares and food prices, has revived expectations that the Bank of England...

By City A.M. — Markets
Pan African Dusts Off Historic Gold in Drive for Growth
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Pan African Dusts Off Historic Gold in Drive for Growth

Pan African Resources announced a maiden interim dividend of 12 South African cents per share, translating to a R280 million payout. The six‑month results showed earnings up 192% to US 0.073 per share, while net debt collapsed 69.3% to $46.2 million and cash...

By Miningmx
Optimism Rises Among UK Workers but Retirement Fears Persist
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Optimism Rises Among UK Workers but Retirement Fears Persist

UK workers are showing their highest optimism in years, feeling positive about work, health and day‑to‑day finances, according to a Fidelity International survey of 1,000 employees. However, retirement planning remains the weakest‑rated area, with half of respondents reporting stress over...

By HRreview (UK)
Routes Healthcare Unifies a Complex SaaS and ERP Landscape with BPA Platform to Strengthen Operations and Continuity
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Routes Healthcare Unifies a Complex SaaS and ERP Landscape with BPA Platform to Strengthen Operations and Continuity

Routes Healthcare, a leading health and social care provider in northern England, adopted the BPA Platform to integrate its Sage 200 ERP with a wide range of SaaS applications. The low‑code integration layer unified data, automated workforce communication, recruitment, and...

By ERP News
The Biggest Supply Chain Risks of 2026 (and How to Navigate Them)
NewsFeb 18, 2026

The Biggest Supply Chain Risks of 2026 (and How to Navigate Them)

2026 opens with heightened supply‑chain volatility as markets grapple with tight capacity, an early Chinese New Year, and the Red Sea’s tentative reopening. Geopolitical fragmentation, lingering trade‑policy uncertainty and economic instability force shippers to rethink tender timing and rate‑locking strategies....

By Xeneta Blog
Katie Collin on Why Female Leadership in the Top 100 Is Sliding
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Katie Collin on Why Female Leadership in the Top 100 Is Sliding

In this episode, Nikita Alexander talks with Ramsay Brown Partner Katie Collin about the recent drop in female leadership within the UK’s Top 100 firms, now down to just 12 % at senior levels. Collin attributes the decline to cyclical workload pressures that...

By Accountancy Age
CX for Industries Heats up - SAP's Balaji Balasubramanian on Why Retailers Must Balance Experience, Operations, and, Yes - AI
NewsFeb 18, 2026

CX for Industries Heats up - SAP's Balaji Balasubramanian on Why Retailers Must Balance Experience, Operations, and, Yes - AI

SAP’s Customer Experience unit is pushing industry‑specific AI, tying CX tightly to ERP and supply‑chain data to deliver truly intelligent retail interactions. At NRF 2026 the company announced embedded AI for planning, fulfillment and commerce, and a partnership with N4XT for...

By Diginomica
Fabless Semiconductor Startup Vervesemi Raises $10 Mn in Series A Round
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Fabless Semiconductor Startup Vervesemi Raises $10 Mn in Series A Round

Fabless semiconductor startup Vervesemi announced a $10 million Series A round co‑led by Ashish Kacholia and Unicorn India Ventures, with participation from Roots Ventures, Caperize Fina, and MAIQ Growth Scheme. The funding will accelerate commercialization of its machine‑learning‑enhanced analog signal‑chain ICs, expand...

By Entrackr
The Defense Industrial Base Is a Prime Target for Cyber Disruption
NewsFeb 18, 2026

The Defense Industrial Base Is a Prime Target for Cyber Disruption

Cyber adversaries are moving beyond classic espionage to disrupt the defense industrial base (DIB), aiming to cripple production capacity and supply chains. Attackers now target everything from large primes to niche startups, especially firms with dual‑use technologies, using ransomware and...

By Help Net Security
Pay Awards Rise to 3.2% as Employers Balance Caution with Hiring Pressures
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Pay Awards Rise to 3.2% as Employers Balance Caution with Hiring Pressures

Pay awards in the UK edged higher in early 2026, with median basic pay settlements reaching 3.2% in the three months to January, up from 3% the previous year. Brightmine data shows 41.7% of deals exceeded last‑year levels, while 6.8%...

By HRreview (UK)
How Japan Should Respond to Trump’s Project Vault
NewsFeb 18, 2026

How Japan Should Respond to Trump’s Project Vault

The Trump administration’s Project Vault earmarks about $12 billion to create a U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, a public‑private partnership that purchases, stores and manages a diversified portfolio of essential raw materials. Japan’s current METI‑JOGMEC approach evaluates projects individually, which could...

By Asia Times – Defense
Overseas Investors Tap Brakes on JGB Selling Post-Election
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Overseas Investors Tap Brakes on JGB Selling Post-Election

The Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s snap election has steadied the government‑bond market, halting a sharp rise in long‑term yields. Foreign institutional investors, who had been offloading JGBs, have paused sales and begun modest buying. Domestic investors are...

By Nikkei Asia – Economy
APSEZ Signs MoU with French Port to Deepen Cooperation on Trade Facilitation
NewsFeb 18, 2026

APSEZ Signs MoU with French Port to Deepen Cooperation on Trade Facilitation

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with France’s Port of Marseille Fos to deepen cooperation on trade facilitation, port innovation and energy transition. The pact will create an IMEC Ports Club to coordinate the...

By The Hindu BusinessLine – Economy
India–US Deal Under Fire as Kisan Bodies Call It ‘Anti-Farmer’, Urge President to Stop It
NewsFeb 18, 2026

India–US Deal Under Fire as Kisan Bodies Call It ‘Anti-Farmer’, Urge President to Stop It

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has condemned the interim India‑US trade agreement, branding it anti‑farmer and urging President Droupadi Murmu to halt its signing. The coalition demanded the removal of the commerce minister and the IAS officer who signed a...

By The Economic Times (India) – Economy
Elastic MES Platforms Shift Focus to Adaptive Manufacturing Architecture
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Elastic MES Platforms Shift Focus to Adaptive Manufacturing Architecture

MES platforms are moving to elastic, modular architectures, breaking the monolithic deployment model. Rockwell Automation’s elastic MES framework combines modular components, hybrid edge‑to‑cloud infrastructure, and industry‑specific templates, letting manufacturers add capabilities incrementally. The global MES market is projected to triple...

By ERP Today
Everyone Uses Open Source, but Patching Still Moves Too Slowly
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Everyone Uses Open Source, but Patching Still Moves Too Slowly

Enterprise security teams now rely on open source for core infrastructure, development pipelines, and production applications, yet patching cycles remain sluggish. TuxCare’s 2026 Open Source Landscape Report shows that 60% of recent incidents involved known vulnerabilities that were not patched...

By Help Net Security
Zest Equity Launches Zest Arrange and Zest Escrow Following FSRA Authorisation
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Zest Equity Launches Zest Arrange and Zest Escrow Following FSRA Authorisation

Zest Equity, backed by Morgan Stanley and regional investors, launched two new FSRA‑regulated services—Zest Arrange and Zest Escrow—expanding its private‑market infrastructure platform. Zest Arrange digitizes end‑to‑end deal‑making workflows, while Zest Escrow provides a regulated escrow function with segregated UAE bank...

By FinSMEs
What Is Workato?
NewsFeb 18, 2026

What Is Workato?

Workato is an enterprise‑grade integration and automation platform that connects apps through visual “recipes” and targets large organizations with complex ERP, legacy, and data‑warehouse systems. It emphasizes centralized IT governance, role‑based access, and custom connector development, resulting in longer implementation...

By Zapier – Blog
Octus: Private Credit & Deal Origination Insights – 2/16/2026
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Octus: Private Credit & Deal Origination Insights – 2/16/2026

In the third quarter of 2025, Business Development Companies (BDCs) reported the highest non‑accrual rates among issuers in the Information Technology (23%) and Consumer Discretionary (22%) sectors. The data, released in Octus’s private‑credit briefing, shows a clear tilt toward software‑heavy...

By The Lead Left
Seatrade Maritime Club Roundtable to Address Critical Industry Challenges at CMA Shipping 2026
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Seatrade Maritime Club Roundtable to Address Critical Industry Challenges at CMA Shipping 2026

The Seatrade Maritime Club will host an exclusive, closed‑door roundtable at CMA Shipping 2026, gathering senior maritime executives for candid discussions under the Chatham House Rule. The three sessions will address geopolitical trade disruptions, electronic navigation threats such as GPS spoofing,...

By Seatrade Maritime
Artociti Raises Rs 1 Cr on Shark Tank India at Rs 13.33 Cr Valuation
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Artociti Raises Rs 1 Cr on Shark Tank India at Rs 13.33 Cr Valuation

Artociti, a Bokaro‑based 3D wall‑art startup, secured Rs 1 crore on Shark Tank India in exchange for a 7.5% stake, placing its post‑money valuation at roughly Rs 13.33 crore. The funding, provided by investors Namita Thapar and Vineeta Singh, will finance a new manufacturing...

By Entrackr
Stop Overpaying For PDI
NewsFeb 18, 2026

Stop Overpaying For PDI

The PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund (PDI) is trading at roughly a 12% premium to its net asset value, delivering a near‑14% yield and monthly distributions. While its strong distribution history appeals to income investors, the fund’s leverage and sensitivity to...

By Seeking Alpha – ETFs & Funds
SatVu Raises £30M to Accelerate Its Constellation
NewsFeb 18, 2026

SatVu Raises £30M to Accelerate Its Constellation

UK‑based thermal‑imaging firm SatVu announced a £30 million equity raise, bringing its total financing to £60 million. The funding, sourced from the NATO Innovation Fund, British Business Bank and existing backers, will accelerate the deployment of its HotSat constellation after the on‑orbit...

By Payload