Tech Nation has announced the release of its annual Tech Nation Report, the ultimate state-of-the-nation report on the UK tech sector. In its seventh year, the report lifts the lid on tech in an extraordinary 2020, revealing how the sector has changed, who the top performers were through the year, and the challenges and opportunities the UK faces as it navigates out of the pandemic and leaving the EU.
Global online sales grew 27.6% in 2020 to reach $4.28tn and the number of transactions needing customer support increased from one-in-eight to one-in-six. In response, eCommerce customer service specialist, eDesk is supercharging support for its 23,000 agents with AI advancements, expediting the company product roadmap.
University of Bristol spin-out CytoSeek has raised a £3.5m seed round to develop new cell therapies to treat solid tumours in cancer patients. The funding is led by Science Creates Ventures (SCV), Bristol’s new deep tech EIS fund for science and engineering startups, and is the firm’s first investment since announcing its venture capital fund last December.
Some very interesting statistics were released this week relating to trade over the past twelve months. What was so interesting about these two particular sets of statistics is that both of them were unique to looking backwards from spring 2021, and this period will be studied in schools and universities for many years to come.
CareLineLive, the all-in-one home care management software that increases efficiency, capacity, compliance and communication of both managers and carers by digitising their work flows, has announced that it has secured a £175k grant from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.
Many of us have faced work challenges due to the long term restrictions implemented as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with unemployment estimated to be at its highest since 2016 at 4.9%.
The fourth edition of ChangeNOW has announced digital broadcasting from Paris and other live locations worldwide. A significant milestone for the planet, with the online streaming of inspiring content and meetings of impact actors, to create a global momentum of multi-stakeholder collaboration on our century’s issues.
The first national UK lockdown was announced one year ago on 23rd March, bringing with it social distancing restrictions that required physical office and store closures across the UK, changing the course of thousands of small businesses.
Until very recently, data privacy has largely been a matter of ethics for tech startups. With most consumers fundamentally unaware of both the capability of apps and other software to farm data and the potential risk this engenders, there has been no compelling reason for tech companies to rethink their privacy policies.
When I left university, I entered arguably one of the most slow-moving, heavily regulated corners of engineering, nuclear power. I was a member of a team that made sure the world wasn’t given a spin-off series of HBO’s Chernobyl, building layer upon layer of safety programs.
Since AWS Lambda first launched in 2014, serverless computing has exploded. Adoption is high, and Amazon, Microsoft and Google all now offer serverless capabilities. As is so often the case, entrepreneurs have reacted fast, and created an ecosystem of startups that support the continuing growth of the serverless industry.
It’s not what you know but who you know. Or so the old saying goes. Whenever that is said though it always seems to be said in a disparaging way, as in the ‘old school tie’ is more useful in life than being clever, working hard, or looking for opportunities to make your own way in life.
Do you want to create a new business venture? Do you have a business idea but don’t know where to start? Have you started your business without a plan? It is time to create a business plan! A business plan is like a travel itinerary, you need to plan your trip before travelling: Where you will go? How to reach there? How much will you spend? Where will you stay? What will you do (activities)? Which places will you visit?
2020 flipped everyone’s plans for the year upside down, with no corner of the world left untouched. In this state of complete disarray, the primary business challenge for many was to keep customers happy while rapidly shifting staff to remote working. With this now mastered for most businesses and homeworking being the new norm, the next hurdle for leaders will be getting the balance right between the many conflicting desires of those in their workforce.
Through all the advancements seen over the past century, international trade has been slow to change. For example, Letters of Credit (LCs) continue to be an important trade finance product for global traders, but they rely on paper-based processes, which are fundamentally slow and prone to error. Now, with the need to change how organisations work in a post-COVID world, there is a greater need to improve how trade and trade finance operate
Nearly a year on since the onset of COVID-19, many companies have realised their staff are able to (almost) work as effectively remotely, as they did in an office. For tech companies and their investors, the transition to remote working was relatively seamless, as the culture and infrastructure needed to succeed was already in place. It has, however, prompted many startups to reconsider whether they need an office at all, and whether high rents in cities like New York, London, and San Francisco can be justified.
Hutch Games, the mobile racing game company launched in 2011 with no funding and sold for $375m less than decade later. Shaun Rutland, one its Co-founders, explains how a former PlayStation team struck out on their own and how picking the right investors can help a business flourish.
Rosa von Krogh is Head of Insights and Innovation at the North Alliance, one of the largest companies in Scandinavia marrying design, media and e-commerce. She is speaking at the global SHE Conference, alongside guests like Hillary Clinton, Norwegian PM, Erna Solberg and Icelandic PM Katrin Jakobsdottir, from 5-19th March 2021.
Deci, the deep learning startup building the next generation of AI, has announced a broad strategic business and technology collaboration with Intel Corporation to optimise deep learning inference on Intel Architecture (IA) CPUs. As one of the first companies to participate in Intel Ignite startup accelerator, Deci will now work with Intel to deploy innovative AI technologies to mutual customers.
Cleantech engineering firm, Sunswap has recently secured half a million pounds in crowdfunding that will be used to rapidly scale the business and deploy their zero-emission TRU technology on the roads by the end of 2021.
