News

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Fresco is stepping up its ambition to become the default operating system for the smart kitchen, closing a €15 million Series C round to accelerate its AI-driven cooking platform for appliance manufacturers and their global consumer base. The Dublin-based company is positioning its KitchenOS and AI Cooking Companion as core infrastructure for appliance OEMs that want to deliver personalized, connected cooking experiences at scale.

From Smart Appliances to an AI-Driven Connected Kitchen Ecosystem

The latest funding round brings together mission-aligned investors focused on the future of food and connected living. New backers include Samuel Dennigan of Strong Roots, Barry Napier of Cubic3 and Tyler Hu of Arda, with continued support from existing investors such as Middleby, ACT Venture Capital, AE Ventures, Morpheus Ventures and Alsop Louie Partners.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Hanwha Finance is sharpening its Middle East growth agenda as Chief Global Officer Dong-Won Kim used his opening address at Abu Dhabi Finance Week's Global Markets Summit to position South Korea-UAE financial collaboration as a long-term strategic pillar for both economies and a testbed for next-generation digital capital markets.

Strengthening a Korea-UAE "100-Year Partnership" Through Finance

Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Kim framed financial services as the connective tissue that will turn high-level Korea-UAE diplomacy into investable projects and new cross-border capital flows. He noted that "since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1980, South Korea and the UAE have continuously expanded the scope of cooperation", and stressed that Hanwha Finance intends to help carry forward a "100-year partnership" between the two nations.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Europe has taken a decisive step toward defence communications sovereignty with the successful over-the-air demonstration of the European Protected Waveform (EPW), validating a new generation of secure, resilient, multi-orbit military satellite communications across GEO and LEO.

Milestone trial proves resilience against jamming and cyber threats

Conducted on November 26-27, 2025 at Universität der Bundeswehr München in Germany, the EPW tests confirmed the waveform's ability to protect mission-critical links against jamming, cyber threats and unauthorised access. For defence ministries facing increasingly contested and congested spectrum, the results provide concrete evidence that next-generation protected satcom can be engineered on European soil and operated across both geostationary and non-geostationary constellations.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - From its position as a fast-rising global capital hub, Abu Dhabi is using Abu Dhabi Finance Week's Asset Abu Dhabi forum to redefine how institutional investors think about asset allocation, risk and long-term value creation in a volatile macro environment. Hosted by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the event's second day brought together leading capital allocators, hedge fund managers, family office leaders and policymakers to assess emerging opportunities and the next frontier of asset management.

Abu Dhabi's regulatory platform moves into the global first rank

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - MindHYVE.ai, Inc. and the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) have entered into a landmark partnership designed to accelerate AI literacy, ethical AI adoption and workforce readiness across one of the world's youngest and fastest-growing regions. Under a new Memorandum of Understanding, IUCEA will champion MindHYVE's agentic learning technologies across more than 170 universities, positioning East Africa as a testbed for large-scale AI education and future-of-work transformation.

Regional higher education as a launchpad for AI fluency

IUCEA, which coordinates and harmonizes higher education across the East African Community, will act as regional advocate and facilitator for MindHYVE's platform. The collaboration is structured to give universities access to world-class AI reasoning tools, certified learning programs and structured training for emerging digital skills.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Monks, S4 Capital's unified, digital-first global brand, is sharpening its AI media strategy in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with the appointment of Thiago Correa as Senior Vice President of Media for EMEA. From his base in London, Correa will help brands redesign their media architectures around algorithmic performance systems that tightly integrate media, data, creative and measurement.

AI as the new engine of media economics

Monks positions Correa's hire squarely in the context of an industry where the leading AI innovators-Google, Meta and Amazon-are also the world's dominant media platforms. As performance increasingly depends on AI-driven bidding and optimisation, the agency sees manual, line-item trading as both a margin sink and a growth constraint for advertisers.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - A new GSMA Intelligence report argues that European mobile operators could unlock billions in network investment, accelerate standalone 5G (5G SA) deployments and boost economic output-if policymakers adopt a more disciplined, long-term approach to spectrum pricing and renewals. As more than 500 spectrum licences come up for renewal over the next decade, the study frames spectrum policy as one of the most powerful levers for Europe's digital competitiveness.

Rising spectrum costs squeeze capex for 5G SA and beyond

The report, Spectrum pricing and renewals in Europe, traces how legacy auction and pricing strategies have driven up total spectrum costs over the past ten years. According to GSMA Intelligence, spectrum fees now absorb around 8% of recurring mobile operator revenues, directly limiting financial headroom for 5G roll-out, fibre backhaul and future network upgrades.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Jiangyin, a key industrial hub in China's Yangtze River Delta, has wrapped up its 2025 Golden Autumn Month of Investment with 208 newly signed projects worth a combined 68 billion RMB, underscoring the city's ambitions in integrated circuits, next-generation information technology, advanced manufacturing and clean energy. For global investors and industrial operators, the city is signaling a long-term commitment to high-value, supply-chain-dense clusters backed by capital, research alliances and pro-business policy.

Golden Autumn Campaign Delivers 208 Projects and Deepens 14th FYP Momentum

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Germany's service economy is facing its sharpest increase in corporate insolvencies in more than a decade, with hospitality, tourism and leisure businesses bearing a disproportionate share of the pain. In response to new 2025 insolvency figures from Creditreform, the Denkfabrik Zukunft der Gastwelt (DZG) is urging the Bundesrat to pass the Tax Amendment Act unchanged, including the reintroduction of the reduced 7% VAT rate on food, to stabilise one of the country's largest employment sectors.

Insolvency spike exposes deeper structural stress in services

SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Koelnmesse Inc. is initiating a carefully planned leadership transition in North America, with long-time President and Managing Director Mette Petersen set to retire on June 30, 2026, and 22-year company veteran Darrin Stern taking over the top role on January 1, 2026. The structured handover is designed to safeguard continuity while positioning the U.S. subsidiary for its next decade of portfolio growth and international expansion.

Structured transition protects continuity and relationships

From 1 January 2026, Stern will assume the role of President and Managing Director, while Petersen will continue through the first half of the year in an advisory capacity. During this period she will mentor key team members and support strategic initiatives with Koelnmesse's headquarters in Cologne, Germany.