Your weekly summary of entrepreneurship news, comment, and features. Sent by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (home of StartUp Britain). Sign up here. Read the original newsletter here.
News
- UK fintech startups on track for a record-breaking year of investment in 2017 (CityAM covers London & Partners and Pitchbook research)
- Millennials ditching graduate jobs at big firms in favour of founding startups (Independent covers Moore Stephens research)
- Small businesses can now access government-backed export finance directly from their banks (gov.uk)
- Business rates rise of £1bn next year will be ‘final straw’ for small shops(Telegraph)
- London’s home-based businesses could generate an extra £2.76bn revenue but are being held back by high commercial space costs (CityAM covers Vonage report ‘Unlocking the UK’s home business potential‘)
Opinion
- Index of ambition: How AIM fuels Britain’s startups (Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury)
- What other ecosystems can learn from Barcelona (Dane Stangler, head of policy, Startup Genome)
- We need businesses to thrive for a resilient economy. So why are we shooting ourselves in the foot? (Chris Blackhurst, former editor, The Independent and exec director, C|T|F Partners)
- It’s time to stop pretending Airbnb is part of the ‘sharing economy’ (Oliver Smith, senior reporter, The Memo)
- Unjustified business rates are a hungover relic from the time before the digital age (Kate Nicholls, chief executive, Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers)
- Meet the home-based businesses that could net the UK billions (David Prosser, contributor, Forbes)
- Forget talk of mass automation. The UK needs to ramp up investment in AI or be left behind (Benedict Dellot, associate director, The RSA writes about the government’s AI review)
Features
- New York Times: How the frightful five put startups in a lose-lose situation
- The Memo: This VC fund is 50% women and staffed by students
- The Guardian: ‘You just can’t get bank loans’: the entrepreneurs dipping into pension pots
- Elite Business: The French revolution: Paris’ startups are on the rise
- The Telegraph: Digital business bank Tide ‘shooting at open goal’