Global expansion stories

Vape Guardian secures seed funding of GBP £350,000 via Angel Investment Network to expand its vape-detection tech in schools and beyond.

Manchester’s GBP £1.7bn Sister hub and Galway’s Platform94 sign a 12-month pact to ease cross-Irish Sea expansion for start-ups.

Seismic to merge with Highspot, uniting rival sales enablement platforms in an AI-first deal with Permira to remain controlling shareholder.

Sue Ryder will deploy Heidi’s NHS-approved AI scribe across UK hospices, aiming to cut paperwork and free clinicians for patient care.

HBX Group seals a seven-year AI-driven travel partnership with Dida, becoming preferred global supply partner for its Asia-focused platform.

London AI start-up Electric Twin raises USD $14m to grow its synthetic audience tech, pitched as a faster alternative to market research.

Webtrends Optimize becomes first conversion optimisation platform to gain B Corp status, signalling stricter social and climate standards.

Data and AI firm Quantexa will move its global headquarters to The Delft on London’s South Bank when the new development completes in 2027.

Manchester’s mid-sized firms are stalling investment and expansion, citing volatile costs, policy shifts and tougher access to finance.

Unlimit appoints Hong Kong-based Michele Fung as Asia-Pacific head to drive regional expansion in increasingly competitive payments markets.

ZeroEyes taps former White House advisor Stephen Billy to spearhead federal strategy as it accelerates its push into the US government market.

Avast rolls out Deepfake Guard for Windows and expands Scam Guardian on mobile, promising real-time protection from AI-powered scams.

Pure Global launches flat-fee device approval model from $2,000 a year, bundling AI-assisted registration and post-market support.

Trust tech firm Drata opens San Francisco HQ after hitting USD $100m ARR, eyeing deeper ties with security buyers and partners.

Paragon has acquired a majority stake in South Yorkshire outsourcing specialist Parseq from Parabellum, boosting its back-office and payments arm.

Aspire partners with early-stage investor Antler to capture global founders at inception, targeting a 2.3x jump in startup customers by 2026.

Asendia unveils SendNow, a plug-in shipping platform to help Australian SME online sellers export up to 500 parcels a month worldwide.

Infobip upgrades its WhatsApp Marketing Messages API with optimisation tools that lift delivery rates and boost ROI by over 60%.

Asendia launches SendNow in Australia, giving SME online sellers self-service access to global shipping with no minimum parcel volumes.

Australian tech leaders shift AI from trials to daily operations, but warn a gap in skills and infrastructure risks stalling productivity gains.