Startup news
11 storiesFunding, launches and milestones, reported plainly.
Al Murray's WWII clothing firm puts 200 shirts on sale at £249
AVRE Industries, co-founded by the comedian Al Murray and the historian James Holland, has released a copy of a US Navy deck shirt. It says it has donated over £2,000 to veteran charities since 2024.
TikTok loses appeal over £12.7m ICO fine on children's data
The Upper Tribunal rejected TikTok's argument that it was processing data for "special purposes". The ICO says the reasoning will apply to other online platforms.
OpenAI pays $3.2m and accepts three years of DOJ hiring oversight
The Justice Department says OpenAI and Statsig did not genuinely look for American applicants before sponsoring foreign staff for green cards. Fewer than 10 roles were at issue. The reporting requirements will last three years.
YC data: 454 repeat founders, and no proof second time is better
Y Combinator gave Crunchbase News records on 454 founders who went through the accelerator more than once. The numbers describe who comes back and when — not whether their second companies win.
Sovereign AI takes equity in chip startup OLIX, its fifth deal
The government's venture arm has joined a nine-figure round in a two-year-old London chip designer. It is the fund's fifth equity cheque, and the announcement says nothing about how other founders get one.
Public contract scoring doubles job-creation weighting from 10% to 20%
Bidders for UK public contracts worth £5m or more will be marked on local hiring, training and 45-day placements for young people instead of net-zero and diversity commitments. The change covers a £90bn-a-year market.
Airtable sells at 2.7x ARR, a ninth of its 2021 mark
Bending Spoons is buying Airtable at a $1.285bn enterprise value on roughly $480m of recurring revenue. The company was worth $11.7bn in December 2021 and raised $1.4bn along the way.
Treasury puts £100m into regional and first-time VC funds
The second tranche of the £400m Investor Pathways Capital Initiative goes to early-stage funds outside London. Who gets the cheques has not been named.
UK opens Global Talent visa route to 100-plus employers
More than 100 named companies can now bring foreign researchers into Britain on the Global Talent visa. The list runs from GSK and IBM to quantum startups — and leaves out the newest AI labs.
Tribunal certifies £5bn Google ad claim for 900,000 UK firms
The Competition Appeal Tribunal has let a £5bn opt-out class action against Google proceed to trial. Nearly 900,000 UK businesses that bought search ads are in the class by default.
Global Talent visa opens to 100+ commercial research firms
Companies, not just universities, can now back a researcher's UK visa. Deep-tech founders hiring from abroad have a new route, and a new set of gatekeepers.