// NEWS //
Companies able to access Chinese innovation via Wazoku InnoMatch partnership
Companies can now access China’ s fast-growing innovation ecosystem, via a new partnership between UK innovation scale-up, Wazoku, and InnoMatch, a Chinese open innovation platform.
Any organisation wanting to tap into China’ s innovation resources can simply post an open innovation challenge via Wazoku’ s Innocentive platform. Wazoku then syndicates this through InnoMatch, enabling Chinese research teams, startups and universities to submit proposals or technologies.
The InnoMatch innovation network encompasses more than 22,000 global experts, 60,000 technology transfer officers,
226 universities and research institutes and 68 venture capital partners and has been responsible for some of China’ s most groundbreaking innovations over recent years.
“ China’ s innovation ecosystem operates at a scale and speed that is hard to imagine, and the level of innovation is jaw dropping, tackling everything from AI to clean energy,” said Schønning Eysturoy, Senior Director Innovation Ecosystems at Wazoku.“ This partnership makes it incredibly easy for any organisation to tap into this expertise in China that can otherwise be hard to access. There’ s no need to navigate local regulations or language barriers directly as Wazoku facilitates all introductions and follow-up collaboration.”
InnoMatch was established by China’ s Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai Municipal Government. The agreement creates a powerful two-way bridge between China’ s fast-growing ecosystem of researchers, entrepreneurs and technology transfer organisations and Wazoku’ s global innovation community.
It also enables InnoMatch’ s Chinese partners and enterprises to access Wazoku’ s global open innovation crowd of more than 700,000 innovators, including leading corporations, start-ups and academic teams worldwide.
More than one in two small businesses need funding to power growth
total of 53 % of UK small business
A owners say they need to secure funding or finance in order to invest in growth plans for 2026. The need for finance is most acutely felt in London( 65 %) – the engine room of the nation – followed by enterprises in the North East( 62 %), Yorkshire / Humberside( 58 %) and Wales( 54 %).
Significantly, the new data from Novuna Business Finance reveals that the need for finance correlates most strongly with businesses that are planning rapid expansion, rather than it being a desperate measure for businesses in trouble. The poll of a representative sample of 1,244 small business owners revealed that those enterprises forecasting significant expansion were more likely to need funding to power growth( 71 %), compared to 49 % of those that were dealing with moderate contraction or decline.
The findings suggest UK small businesses are heading into the Christmas trading period facing a challenging financial double whammy – at a time when the percentage of small business owners predicting growth has fallen to a new five-year low( 25 %). The widespread need for finance to power future growth into 2026 coincides with 86 % of small businesses simultaneously fearing the possibility of Autumn Budget announcements that would adversely derail their plans for growth. Nationally, Budget rises to National Insurance( 59 %), VAT( 50 %), income tax( 50 %) fuel duty( 37 %) and further taxes on diesel or petrol vehicles( 37 %) would all negatively impact growth plans, according to business owners. �
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