Heatwave last year hits Thomas Cook, On the Beach and Hostelworld

New entrants to the market need to prove that their products work

Medical device start-ups must go far beyond proof of concept even before they have built a customer base

Estate agents focused on London and rentals worst placed to weather storm

WANdisco, CentralNic and Forbidden seek to keep pace with industry

Loyal consumers lift sales for Joules, Fevertree and Hotel Chocolat

Sector sees flurry of takeover activity and corporate governance wrangles

Dialight and Luceco work to fix their problems, and Vitec seeks overseas expansion

Policymakers look to innovation to reduce pressure on health services

Diversification and acquisitions emerge as favoured strategies

Sector must contend with rising fuel and wage costs plus uncertainty about EU exit

Carr’s, NFW and National Milk Records face biggest overhaul in decades

Shares in Connect Group and Wincanton fall as Xpediator’s rise

Companies focused on leisure pursuits have had mixed fortunes on public markets

UK’s smaller players have proved adept at scooping up rivals

Like their established high street rivals, new entrants face challenging conditions

Concerns that Beijing’s curbs on new releases will hinder expansion plans

Businesses from asset managers to outsourcing groups are starting to use machine learning

A £60m commercialisation centre hopes to take the material from the lab to the factory

Falling prices for digital assets such as bitcoin hurt start-ups

Diurnal, Tissue Regenix and Beximco went through long process of bringing products to market

Small-caps aim to carve out a slice of booming industry

Tighter regulations in home market contrast sharply with loosening in US

UK specialists add substance to government’s ‘Global Britain’ slogan

Smaller E&P players and majors jostle for acreage in African frontier region