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1 month ago | 
sifted.eu | Kirstie Pickering
Last month, the three winners of the 11th edition of the European Prize for Women Innovators were announced at the European Innovation Council (EIC) Summit in Brussels. The prizes recognise the important role of women who drive change and foster innovation-driven growth in the EU, and it is jointly organised by the European Innovation Council, SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
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2 months ago | 
sifted.eu | Kirstie Pickering
Business services — where business functions like accounting, procurement and people operations are performed by one business for another — can be a lifeline and time saver for many companies. However, not all such services are created equally.
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2 months ago | 
sifted.eu | Kirstie Pickering
Around 500m micro and small businesses are operating around the world, each playing a vital role in supporting their country’s economy — from leveraging AI and open banking to providing software as services to other enterprisesBut to run, these businesses require the support of credit and financial services that understand their unique challenges — while traditional financial institutions increasingly require the startups’ agility and disruptive approach.
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2 months ago | 
sifted.eu | Kirstie Pickering
The investor-founder relationship can be a tricky balance to strike. The founder wants funding with fair terms, the investor wants returns within a fair amount of time. At times, this balance has been off, with VCs wanting to capture quick wins at any cost. But being more "founder-friendly" is a growing trend.
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Mar 26, 2025 | 
sifted.eu | Kirstie Pickering
The volume of fraud that businesses face is on the rise and is advancing in sophistication. According to a 2024 report by digital identity platform Signicat, payment fraud alone costs merchants $38bn globally and could rise to as much as $91bn by 2028 — that’s 100 times as much as ransomware. AI plays a huge role in this uptick and is making the mechanisms of fraud more accessible for criminals and more difficult to identify for victims.
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Mar 6, 2025 | 
sifted.eu | Kirstie Pickering
AI is changing the world — according to PwC, the technology could add $15.7trn to the economy by 2030. While many people are nervous at what those changes could look like in the long-term, AI is creating a positive effect too. The technology is an invaluable tool for impact startups looking to solve some of the world’s most pertinent issues, with multiple use cases possible within a single business.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
granddesignsmagazine.com | Emily Peck |Emily Brooks |Sara D'souza |Kirstie Pickering
Looking for the ideal home-from-home getaway? When life gets too hectic, retreating to the mindfully designed and sustainable LG Smart Cottage could be just the ticket. It offers all the benefits of a high-tech smart home in a stylish, compact and eco-friendly solution and comes fitted with the latest gadgets and appliances.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
granddesignsmagazine.com | Emily Brooks |Sara D'souza |Kirstie Pickering |Jason Podesta
This four-bedroom detached property is a bespoke Grand Designs home in Keighley, West Yorkshire. It belongs to Kara and her husband Jonny, and their two children, Isaac and Winnie. After Kara was paralysed by an auto-immune condition in 2019, the couple sold their townhouse and moved to a two-bedroom bungalow on land belonging to Kara’s parents. But they found the property’s narrow corridors and doorways less than ideal for Kara’s wheelchair.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
granddesignsmagazine.com | Sara D'souza |Kirstie Pickering |Jason Podesta |Chris Haslam
From home-from-home retreats to cutting-edge architecture, these hotel design ideas to steal cover work from the world’s leading architects, designers and artists. There’s Martin Brudnizki’s eclectic Le Grand Mazarin in Paris, Virginia Nieto’s chic Hotel Cesar in Lanzarote, and the Swedish marvel that is the Arctic Bath.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
granddesignsmagazine.com | Kirstie Pickering |Jason Podesta |Chris Haslam |Joe Stuart
Finding an architect that is happy to bring your exact idea to life can be a huge hurdle in the house building process. It was one that Cat Miller and her husband had to overcome when they started looking for a new home in the desirable area of Hessen, central Germany, that could accommodate their whole family – and they found their dream partner in WeberHaus. At the end of 2018, they found the perfect location, but the layout of the existing house wasn’t what they wanted.
