Both Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots, have focused on selling to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and both had big crowds of interested prospects at the recent Automate 2013 show in Chicago.

FORBES: Denmark's Universal Robots Moves Into US Market

She said it was important that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had continual support from both the Welsh and UK governments as they were key "pathways to employment for the unemployed and those who have been economically inactive for a long time".

BBC: job centre sign

But a net 22% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who are manufacturers said they were more optimistic in the three months to April, the CBI said.

BBC: UK companies remain optimistic, surveys suggest

Founded in 2006 by Radu Georgescu, a serial entrepreneur who sold a previous anti-virus software company to Microsoft (MSFT), Avangate helps 2, 800 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe and Asia to sell their software without hiring a big sales force.

FORBES: Avangate Is Changing How Software is Sold

By 2016, the 4Afrika Initiative plans to help place tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youth, bring 1 million African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) online, upskill 100, 000 members of Africa's existing workforce, and help an additional 100, 000 recent graduates develop employability skills, 75 percent of whom Microsoft will help place in jobs.

ENGADGET: Microsoft launches 4Afrika initiative with Huawei W1 variant, TV white space broadband project

We get a sense of this from an article in the February 28, 2011 Nihon Keizai Shimbunon public lending to small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), from which the chart above is taken.

FORBES: Small Company Financing and Government Dependency