News
In a recent study of 2,100 UK adults, undertaken by global affiliate network, Awin, it was found that as many as one in five Britons (19%) are planning to carry out their Christmas shopping online for the first time this year.
‘Workcation’ has officially been added to the Oxford English Dictionary this year: and for good reason. Italian startup hotel booking platform, DayBreakHotels – who set up a bespoke ‘smart working’ service in the summer to open hotels up to a nation of remote workers – saw a 350% surge in bookings from business customers during the second lockdown (compared to the first lockdown), as Brits looked for a change of scene after months spent working from home.
HumanForest, London’s only truly sustainable e-bike, has secured it’s target crowdfunding investment of £1.25m. The campaign is now overfunded thanks to commitments from more than 445 investors so far.
Sage has called for urgent additional government support to give small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) the confidence to invest their way to recovery in 2021.
Businesses’ biggest concern over Brexit is how new regulations will impact their trading after 1st January, a new poll revealed.
Spend on Small Business Saturday hit £1.1bn this year, exceeding the billion pound mark for the first time ever as shoppers showed support for their local high streets.
PitchBook, the data provider for the private and public equity markets, has released All In: Women in the VC Ecosystem, its second annual report examining global Venture Capital (VC) investment in female-founded startups. The report, published with support from Microsoft for Startups and Beyond the Billion, shows the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted female founders and CEOs negatively, despite undeniable, long term gains in VC investment over the past decade.
It’s estimated that more than 750 million edge AI chips will be sold in 2020. Just got your head around AI? Edge AI is Artificial Intelligence-driven computing on embedded systems and the growth potential in the UK is immense. Now AeroSpace Cornwall, who is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Cornwall Council, has awarded Bluefruit Software – leaders in providing high-quality embedded software – £100k of funding for critical research and development into this mind-blowing technology, which is forecasted to expand by 20% over the next five years.
Charities from the UK and across the world are flocking to a startup social media platform which is coining itself the world’s first ‘social media for good’.
Compiled as an antidote to fast-growth lists dominated by private equity and venture capital-backed businesses, Buzzacott’s inaugural Organic Growth 25 has identified the companies achieving impressive revenue growth with minimal equity investment.
Moneyhub, the market-leading Open Banking and Open Finance data, intelligence and payments platform, is the first TPP to connect to Citibank, the consumer division of financial services multinational Citigroup. In the UK, Moneyhub offers consent-driven access to financial data via 580 live and in production connections across 200 financial services providers – of which 100 are direct UK Open Banking providers, and a further 100 more broad Open Finance providers.
Scientist and entrepreneur, Dr Harry Destecroix, has unveiled Science Creates, the deep tech ecosystem that offers specialised incubator space, a £15m investment fund and a comprehensive network of strategic partners to nurture science and engineering startups and spin-outs. The hub, in partnership with the University of Bristol and located in the heart of the city, is set to become the ‘new West Coast’, transforming disruptive discoveries through impactful commercialisation.
Digital insurance company, Getsafe closed a $30m Series B funding. Swiss Re’s digital platform iptiQ led the round. Existing investors, including Earlybird, CommerzVentures, btov Partners and Capnamic Ventures, also participated. Getsafe now has received a total of $53m from investors, making it one of the best-financed European insurtechs.
The benefits of satellite data to life on earth are something that the global space community celebrated at this year’s ‘World Space Week’. Female founded tech startup, Data Duopoly, have already been recognised for their innovation in the use of space data – winning the Pitch to the Primes competition at the UK Space Conference in 2019, awarded by Astronaut Tim Peake.
Accenture & Ponemon’s 2019 Cost of Cybercrime Study indicates that the right approach to cyber threats might save companies up to $5.2tn of future revenues in the next few years. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are among the most vulnerable as they only recently became more conscious of clear and present cyber threats.
myGP, the UK’s largest independent GP booking and healthcare management app that connects patients with primary care, has announced its intention to provide the people in England with a simple, clear means of communicating their verified vaccination status, via their Smartphone.
Almost half of UK businesses have seen an employee move on because their mental wellbeing wasn’t being looked after, with a quarter losing a key member of their workforce, according to new research from not-for-profit healthcare provider, Benenden Health.
During 2020 virtual collaboration accelerated exponentially, creating an instant need for virtual facilitation skills. But as more and more companies move towards online and virtual meetings, the opportunities and challenges associated with remote sessions have been thrown into sharp relief.
Virgin StartUp and Crowdcube have partnered to help the next generation of purpose-driven founders grow their businesses and achieve real change through their Collective Impact programme.
u-blox has signed a deal with the Cambridge-based technology company, Focal Point Positioning, to integrate technology that will improve the accuracy and reliability of GNSS devices – enhancing positioning performance and security for growing applications such as smart cities, location-secure IoT and health and fitness wearables.
