News

SMEs will face crunch year but expect recovery by summer 2022

Small and medium sized businesses that have suffered due to COVID-19 don’t expect to recover to pre-pandemic levels until summer 2022, according to new research published by Santander UK.

Socialsendr evolves tech platform to support small businesses across the UK

Yorkshire-based tech startup, socialsendr, has evolved the functionality of its platform introducing LinkedIn to its social portfolio to better support clients with their social media marketing.

Aviva Investors and other FS companies deploy causal AI platform

The world’s first causal AI platform, created by deep-tech scaleup causaLens, is being leveraged by financial services companies (including Aviva Investors, 2IQ, TIAA, CLS Group and a plethora of  prominent hedge funds), to automatically extract valuable causal insights from financial data and boost the profitability of their trading strategies.

Japan Doubles Down on African Startups

As part of its Next Innovation with Japan project (Project NINJA), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is expanding its startup accelerator program (NINJA Accelerator) to Kenya, scheduled to take place in Nairobi on 7th April, 2021, in partnership with the Double Feather Partners (DFP) / Deloitte Tohmatsu consortium, and GrowthAfrica.

The entrepreneur who is helping women across the world in the pandemic

Over the space of just two years, 33-year-old Raimonda Jankunaite from Kent has established a thriving community of 150,000 women in business from across the world. As the Founder of The Women in Business Club, her ambition is to share the secret sauce to succeeding in business. This has led her to educate, inspire, and support thousands of female entrepreneurs from the UK to Australia and the US. But it wasn’t something she originally set out to do…

Israeli agtech startup helps farmers in Australia pollinate almonds

Israeli agri-tech startup, Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture is due to begin commercial scale field trials of its artificial pollination technology in almond orchards covering dozens of hectares in the Australian state of Victoria. This follows the signing of an agreement with one of Australia’s largest almond growers. The field trials are due to commence in August when the almond trees begin to blossom.

COVID leaves candidates in the dark: only 7% of companies give feedback to all candidates

A new survey by Arctic Shores has uncovered revealing insights into the candidate application process since the pandemic, shining a light on the challenges currently faced by hiring departments in the new world of remote working.

Accelerator to help early-stage startups in Oman address COVID challenges

Plexal, the innovation centre and coworking space established by Delancey, has launched the Rapid Innovation Accelerator today in partnership with Omani innovation development company, AL JABR. This virtual-first, six-week programme will connect digital innovators in the UK with counterparts in Oman to help them develop technology-led solutions to the local challenges posed by COVID-19.

Cleantech startup announces crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs

Hydro Wind Energy is launching a crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs investment platform. This latest Seedrs crowdfunding campaign continues Hydro Wind Energy’s journey towards a valued funding round and the start of full commercialisation. The finance raised will go towards the technology and product development teams for power generation (OceanHydro Wind) and water desalination (SubSea RO Wind), as well as international expansion and to scale QuenchSea (portable water desalination) globally.

Twin take off for ETL start-up competitions

With the launch of Event Tech Live USA and Canada there are two versions of the show’s coveted startup competition this year, one on either side of the Atlantic.

North East tech startup is aiming to revolutionise customer experiences

An innovative North East-based immersive technology company is aiming to transform the way customers engage and experience entertainment, sport, visitor attractions, hospitality and retail.

App celebrates one-year anniversary by giving away free advertising

Midlands based entrepreneur, John Whitbread, launched The Spotted App back in January 2020 to allow businesses to connect with consumers without having to rely on social media alone or the interference of predictive algorithms. Now, he wants to give back to the businesses across the UK by offering a free, life-long membership 10,000 businesses when they sign-up.

Berlin-based startup to bring no-code AI workflow automation to anyone

Levity, the no-code artificial intelligence tool for workflow automation, has announced the launch of its flagship product that enables knowledge workers to automate tedious manual work processes in an easy-to-use platform.

Five apps to help you learn something new in lockdown

The new national lockdown has once again resulted in many Brits spending prolonged periods of time at home and learning a new skill can be a great way to boost wellbeing and mood under these restrictions.

CybSafe secures £5.6m Series A1 investment round

CybSafe, the behavioural security platform that’s transforming the way organisations manage human cyber risk, has announced a £5.6m ($7.9m) Series A1 round. It was led by deep tech investors, IQ Capital with participation from Hannover Digital Investments GmbH (HDI Group) and B8 Ventures.

Insurtech startup launches financial protection product for independent workers

Insurtech startup, Indeez has launched #CoviSure, a COVID-19 financial protection product for independent workers, in partnership with the global insurance company Chubb. Platforms engaging independent workers and small business entrepreneurs, can help them to obtain financial protection against some of the impacts of a COVID-19 infection.

Future Hamburg Award: Searching for the best international startups

International founders can now submit their applications for the Future Hamburg Award conferred by the City of Hamburg. With this startup award, Germany’s economic hub aims to support innovative solutions for the city of tomorrow. Innovative startups from around the world are invited to submit their projects until 31st March 2021 here.

Healthcare scaleup joins Tech Nation’s Upscale 6.0 Programme

Navenio, the healthcare scaleup whose location-based technology has revolutionised workflows and has been shown to double the throughput of hospital teams, has been selected to join Tech Nation’s Upscale 6.0 programme.

New ‘Scale Ratio’ identifies growth potential of UK tech hubs

Tech Nation, the scaleup network for entrepreneurs, has launched its inaugural Scale Ratio, which compares the number of seed stage, early growth and late growth companies in the UK’s tech ecosystems.

10 immersive tech startups to graduate from Digital Catapult’s Augmentor programme

Ten of the UK’s most promising startups working with immersive technologies have graduated from Digital Catapult’s Augmentor programme, with a number of investment ready, disruptive and commercially focused applications ready to market.