Inspirational entrepreneurs from across the UK are officially kicking off this year’s Small Business Saturday UK, as the campaign gets underway with its 100 day countdown. Aiming to support, celebrate and send out a ‘big thank you’ to small businesses for the important role they play within communities, particularly throughout the pandemic, the 2021 SmallBiz100 is showcasing a diverse range of independent businesses from across the country.
Play Well For Life (PWFL) are a for-purpose games studio that has developed an approach to the traditional board game. Merging the latest immersive technologies with the power of game-based learning, they offer a fun and engaging table-top game that stimulates social interactions and promotes mental wellbeing. The company is launching a crowdfunding campaign on September 28th to finance the next phase of development.
Tech Nation have revealed new data on the Tech Nation Global Talent Visa, providing insights into the global talent pool working in the UK’s digital technology sector.
The last 18 months have been tough for everyone. We have witnessed limitations on all aspects of our everyday lives and experienced things that we never imagined could be possible. But for entrepreneurs, the unprecedented challenges that unfolded following the start of the pandemic have resulted in the unfortunate failure of many businesses and irreversible damage to industries worldwide.
With the return of live music and fans now able to see their favourite artists once again, we caught up with Pascal de Mul, CEO of Exit Live – a tool for artists to monetise live show recordings. A global platform, Exit Live can be utilised by artists to sell current and historic live performances. Its fair and transparent revenue share model allows talent to fully maximise the commercial value of their music. Pascal explains to us how Exit Live works, what it’s all about and what lies ahead.
There’s a quotation by Lao Tzu: “A journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step.” That’s pretty much how the Property Insights story started. Now CEO, Nitin Aggarwal started his own property career and became increasingly frustrated at the hours spent on the internet trying to get the information he needed. And, despite the time he’d invested, he still only had some surface level information.
Rocket Academy, a startup providing online coding courses, has announced it has raised $1.1m in pre-seed funding. The investment comes from a consortium of 50 marquee tech investors and venture capitalists including entrepreneurs Darius Cheung from 99.co, Marcus Tan from Carousell and Stanley Tang from DoorDash, former Singapore Ambassador to the UN Kishore Mahbubani, SEA tech leaders’ investment network XA Network, and VC firms Taurus Ventures and Hustle Fund.
You’ve got the idea, the business plan, the tech and – some of – the funding. You’re working on your product, iterating features, fine tuning the customer service, revolutionising a sector’s status quo. And you’re moving fast, because of your ecosystem’s need for speed. For most tech startups, those are the pillars they build a business on. But what’s the value of these if no one is paying attention? And if what your offer is so complex and new that people don’t understand it?
A new series shines a spotlight on 25 of the UK’s most innovative entrepreneurs and their ground-breaking businesses that are revolutionising the way we live. An entrepreneur who invented 3D printed personalised gummy vitamins tailored to people’s nutritional needs, lifestyles and goals is just one of the highlights of a new documentary featuring weird and wonderful ideas that will change the world.
WeWork has announced that WeWork On Demand, the company’s pay-as-you-go offering to access workspace and meeting rooms, is now available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, and Australia.
Instagram have announced the launch of its first Small Business Mentorship programme in the UK, in partnership with Small Business Britain. Aimed at supporting the country’s entrepreneurs and small businesses after an unprecedented 18 months, the mentorship programme will celebrate their creativity and resilience, as many have turned to Instagram to survive and thrive.
Lenders could see the time they spend processing the average loan reduce by more than 85% with the adoption of open banking technology, according to research from Yolt Technology Services (YTS), an open banking provider in Europe.
Chances are, you have probably had some sort of engagement with a chatbot in the past. These technologies are used by an array of organisations, usually in an attempt to create a much more efficient customer experience, and in many circumstances, cut costs along the way. However, these solutions are not always up to the task.
Research platform, Atheneum have announced they have secured a £110m growth capital funding round led by Guidepost Growth Equity. Existing investors also participated in the round including Crosslantic Capital Management, Michael Brehm, Vogel Communications Group, and the founding management team of Atheneum.
As a business owner, burnout can seem a distant reality or something out of a fairy tale. I have once thought: “How can my life, which I have chosen and is filled with me living and breathing my passion, ever cause me anything but harm?”
Environmental policies and working towards sustainable practices has been a hot topic among businesses across sectors and, crucially, across scales. While larger established enterprises are naturally responsible for a larger share of the productive overhauls required to attain Britain’s environmental targets, startups and SMEs are also increasingly outlining their commitment to sustainability.
At last, Freedom Day is here. We’ve long waited for government restrictions to ease, yet what this will look like within an office environment is still all very new. Companies everywhere are having to make new decisions that will impact the daily lives of their employees.
Sure Valley Ventures, the venture capital firm that invests in deep technology and software startups, is pleased to announce that it has invested in a €3m funding round completed by Ambisense, the IoT and AI enabled environmental risk assessment business. BGF has led the round and, together with Sure Valley Ventures, existing investors Atlantic Bridge and Enterprise Ireland have participated.
With its recent launch across the Nordic and Baltic states, we caught up with Jonas Sellberg, Co-founder and COO of Staccs, a premium streaming on-demand service for concert video and music documentaries. The new home for concerts on demand, Staccs is set to offer music fans the opportunity to relive their favourite concert moments. Jonas explains to us what Staccs is all about, the journey so far and what lies ahead.
LawtechUK has published a feasibility study and proof of concept for a new technological approach to the late payment challenges facing British business. This would work as an ‘SME online dispute resolution’ platform, produced in partnership with a consortium of legal, technology and alternative dispute resolution experts from the University of Oxford, Oxford Computing Consultants, Resolve Disputes Online and Jur.
