Startups stories

SOUTHSTART 2026 returns to Adelaide, uniting founders, investors, and innovators across Australia’s startup and technology sectors in March.

Equinix plans a USD $22 million data centre in Lagos, its first in West Africa, boosting digital infrastructure to power Nigeria’s growing tech economy by 2026.

India’s fintech sector readies for a decade of innovation, with AI, embedded finance, wealth inclusion, and cyber resilience driving growth through 2026.

InsightAI raised INR ₹11 million in pre-seed funding to expand its AI-driven anti-money laundering solutions across India and the Middle East markets.

NetApp’s 14th Excellerator cohort has supported five AI startups in India, offering mentorship and access to networks to boost innovation in data and cloud tech.

Cicada Innovations, Australia's deep tech incubator, has generated an economic impact exceeding AUD $8 billion over 25 years, driven by AUD $6.5 billion raised.

Over a third of UK tech scale-ups lack women on their boards, with female representation at just 18%, lagging behind larger firms' 41%.

Australian startup Heatseeker won top prize in L'Oréal's Big Bang Beauty Tech competition, advancing AI beauty tech across the South Asia Pacific region.

New Zealand’s top cybersecurity experts and organisations were honoured at the 2025 iSANZ Awards amid rising cybercrime losses of NZD $1.6 billion annually.

Canadian tech and finance leaders call for open banking reforms and streamlined regulations to boost innovation ahead of the federal budget announcement.

Canva launched its AI-powered Creative Operating System, uniting design, collaboration and marketing tools, while offering its professional Affinity suite free to all users.

Only 32% of UK tech scale-ups have AI experts on their boards, risking growth compared to FTSE 350 firms with higher board-level AI expertise.

Despite 74% of Australian SMBs recognising branded merchandise boosts credibility, 55% still do not use it to enhance their business image.

Ben Thompson, CEO of Employment Hero, wins EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Australia award for driving tech innovation and supporting global small businesses.

Google Cloud will invest USD $15 billion to build its first AI hub in Visakhapatnam, enhancing India's digital infrastructure and AI capabilities by 2030.

Dell launches Pro Max with GB10, a powerful desktop for local AI work supporting models up to 200 billion parameters and 1000 TFLOPS performance.

Stockholm startup Epiminds raises USD $6.6m to launch AI platform with multi-agent system aimed at transforming marketing agency workflows.

The UAE has launched the Gulf’s first AI Centre of Excellence in Abu Dhabi to develop local talent and advance sovereign AI capabilities with Australian partners.

Startups at the Moscow Startup Summit secured investment offers exceeding RUB ₽1.2 billion, showcasing AI and deeptech innovations from 42 countries.

Nebius launches global awards with USD $100,000 in AI Cloud credits for startups advancing robotics and physical AI across Asia, Europe and the US.