What Will Drive UK Entrepreneurship in 2025? As 2025 approaches, UK entrepreneurs are preparing for growth by embracing the latest technologies, securing strategic funding, and building agile teams.

In this Entrepreneur UK interview Forbes McKenzie, the founder and CEO of London based McKenzie Intelligence Services, reveals how his company plans to leverage artificial intelligence (AI), secure funding, and build top teams to stay ahead.

What trends do you expect to drive UK entrepreneurship in 2025?There are two main things entrepreneurs can do to support their startups: prioritising investment in the latest technologies and taking advantage of any available funds. Industry leaders are constantly chasing fashionable technologies, as this attracts interest from both private and public venture capitalists looking to profit from high- yield actions. There's an incredible amount of money being poured into generative AI right now, given its potential for so many uses across so many fields. Leveraging generative technologies properly will allow entrepreneurs to tap into that capital, as they simultaneously profit from reduced overheads and faster, more efficient operations. It's all about ensuring results are delivered quicker at much greater scale.

The other key avenue for entrepreneurs to explore in 2025 will be funding mechanisms, such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), both of which have been protected by the government. These mechanisms are only investing in companies with a proven marketplace and market fit – so, now that the dust has settled on Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget – this is where we can expect quality capital to be focussed.

2. How are you preparing for economic changes in the new year?
The economic changes introduced by the government this year will inevitably impact bottom lines by eating further into profit margins. In fact, in addition to seeing their own profits reduced, companies will also have to deal with reduced funding from their investors, as the private equity firms behind them are liable for greater tax. Whilst this is disappointing, there are things entrepreneurs can do to safeguard their business, for instance, looking to attract foreign investment for an additional boost. They just need to tell a good story about future scale and potential – something that should allow them to hold onto domestic backing in spite of increased pressures, as well.

3. What sustainability initiatives will you focus on in 2025?
As a business, McKenzie Intelligence Services is incredibly climate focussed, with the datasets we create being used to help global insurance firms make smarter underwriting decisions in the face of natural catastrophes and climate disasters. In 2025, we will continue to create and improve these datasets with accuracy and precision that guarantees the best possible climate response from all the stakeholders our business supports. Indeed, by aligning insurance and other industry practices with climate realities, our data fosters improved long-term adaptation and planning, supporting a more sustainable, disaster-resilient future
overall.

4. What challenges do you foresee with talent management in 2025?
The balance in the employment market is changing. Just a year ago, it was still possible for those with tech expertise to join a company and receive a generous six- figure salary in return for minimal effort and engagement – often resulting in these employees 'quiet quitting'. Now, however, we are shifting towards an employer's market, where there is an excess of top-tier talent available to hire. This will allow entrepreneurs to be more selective when interviewing and onboarding, choosing only the best quality candidates for their teams.

That said, there must be an interchange of expectations and efforts, where employers aim to meet these candidates in the middle. Amazon has been blunt about getting everybody back in the office, for example. However, talent management means seeking greater alignment between leaders and staff, ensuring that, if people want to work from home, they have the capacity and resources to do this. When candidates are treated well and there is some degree of compromise, companies will receive applicants of higher calibre and perform much better in the long run.

This emphasis on quality will likewise be reflected in the candidate pool, as we move towards an employer's marketplace filled with top-tier staff. As wages go up, so too will the competition, allowing entrepreneurs to recruit the very best people for their businesses and teams, ultimately driving greater results.

5. How will AI and automation impact your business strategy next year?
AI and automation are fundamental to everything we do. In the past five years alone, we have been able to reduce our output from two weeks to 48 hours thanks to these technologies – and expect our product to go down even further, from 48 hours to just 6 moving forward. AI has likewise played a critical role in increasing the scale of our data capture for greater impact and results. Ultimately, it has helped us to keep fidelity up as we drive timelines down – and this is something we will continue building on throughout 2025.

6. What's your approach to securing funding as we enter 2025?
McKenzie Intelligence Services benefits from a lot of inbound, tier-one Private Equity, venture capital trust and trade enquiries. So, the strategy for next year will be to continue demonstrating that any money we receive will be invested in good purpose. We won't sit on our laurels despite such high interest from investors, however.

Rather, we will continue to work with professionals in the industry to get the best valuation of the business, which we can then share with our shareholders and stakeholders to maximise growth. It also helps that we already have a robust subscription model, which helps to keep income and, consequently, interest from
investors, stable.