Corporate innovation has become essential in today’s volatile environment. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted this need, forcing businesses to innovate to survive. For example, companies quickly adapted to remote work, developed digital solutions, and revamped supply chains. Restaurants shifted to delivery models, and retailers enhanced their e-commerce strategies to meet changing demands.

Every week, Maddyness brings you the latest investment news from the UK startup ecosystem. Here's a recap of this week's investments.

Whether it's our laptops, smartphones or smart home devices - the same devices that connect our everyday lives are helping drive an epidemic of loneliness and sedentary behaviour. But technology also offers a lifeline for tackling these issues. Smart fitness products can help transform how individuals exercise - turning workouts into gamified experiences which encourage physical activity through fun and community engagement.

As part of our quick founder questions series – or QFQs – we spoke to Laurynas Pamparas, founder of Liledu about circularity, why toys shouldn't end up in landfill and expansion into the British market.

Beyond Meat is a plant-based meat company that offers alternatives to animal-based meat. Its flagship product is the Beyond Burger, which is designed to ‘look, cook and taste like a traditional beef burger’. It also sells a wide range of other plant-based meat products, including sausages, meatballs and chicken nuggets.

At its heart, business is about people. Or, more specifically, it is about people buying from other people. This might seem an obvious point, but it’s one that often seems to get lost amid talk of revenue, profits, innovation, productivity, social media campaigns, data analysis and the latest technological tools, not least artificial intelligence.

As part of our quick founder questions series – or QFQs – we spoke to Will Clarkson Webb, founder and CEO of Rivr about digital insurance for emerging wealth, the importance of steady growth and knowing when to delegate.

There's lots happening in the UK legaltech scene right now - we look at some of the latest news from some of the startups disrupting an industry deeply rooted in legacy and archaic business practices.

If you had the opportunity to purchase a smartphone in recent years, it’s likely that you’ve stumbled upon the eSIM feature. We’ve all been using SIM cards for decades, but this new technology is bringing various advantages to our smartphones and daily lives.

One of the UK’s real strengths is its life sciences engine, driving continuous innovation and a track record of breakthroughs. The key components are all there and whirring away: leading universities, talented people and an available pool of funding. However, the sector’s growth is not guaranteed. Support for our life sciences startups is needed if we are to continue translating our world-class research into world-class companies that can thrive within the UK ecosystem.

As part of our quick founder questions series - or QFQs - we spoke to Dalraj Nijjar, cofounder & CCO at Concrete4Change about transferring CO2 into concrete, building a team and chemistry.

Cloudinary is on a mission to help companies unleash the full potential of their visual media to create the most engaging user experiences. Given that it now has millions of developers embedding it into their websites and mobile phone platforms, it seems to be fulfilling that. The main reason, says its developer experience leader Sanjay Sarathy, is that it is staying true to its root cause: helping save developers time and hassle.

Paul Ferretti spoke to Andrei Serjantov, Head of Digital Global Markets at BNP Paribas, about BNP Paribas' partnership with Mistral AI, LLMS and the evolution of technology.