52 diverse women join Hatch’s female founders programmes

Founded in 2014, Hatch has been on a mission to increase diversity in entrepreneurship and has been shining the spotlight on diverse women-led businesses ever since.

The five key steps to obtaining effective business insurance

It is hard to imagine a single business that has not suffered disruption and loss as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is therefore no surprise that business insurance and in particular, business interruption insurance, has become a subject of great importance recently in the boardrooms of so many UK businesses. Here, Jonathan Cole, Solicitor at Goodman Derrick LLP gives us this tips on obtaining effective business insurance.

Top Virtual Conference Tips, from Start to Finish

The virtual conference has become all the rage and is now becoming common practice within many businesses working routine. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced business owners in all sectors to reassess how they communicate with their clients, colleagues, and audiences.

Companies given test social media video campaign opportunity free of charge

A London-based business growth agency is so confident that it can create profitable social media advertising for clients, it is offering to run test social media video campaigns on behalf of interested companies free of charge.

A third of businesses plan to downsize city centre offices

Over a third (37%) of business leaders are considering downsizing their primary office space – amid a long-term shift to remote working.

Cambridge Spark signs up more than 100 data science and machine learning apprenticeships
Cambridge Spark signs up more than 100 data science and machine learning apprenticeships

Cambridge Spark, the provider of data science and AI apprenticeships, has inducted more than 100 professionals in its latest cohort to undertake apprenticeships in data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

The top 50 London startups to work for

Recruitment platform, Tempo has conducted extensive research into hundreds of amazing companies to create the Super Startups list – the 50 best startups to work in London in 2021.

Software sets out to humanise social interaction as COVID-19 continues

ZING, a new video calling platform, has launched with the aim of making video calling more natural, fun and closer to real life human social interaction. The ZING platform is designed to encourage more natural interaction amongst colleagues, particularly on social video calls, as the ongoing COVID-19 crisis extends the time people are told to work from home.

How can businesses celebrate Halloween virtually?

Bring the spooky season to life by virtually gathering the team for fun activities during October. Even though this year’s celebrations will look a bit different, don’t let the restrictions of remote working stop the fun. Plan a virtual Halloween party and lead up to it with spooky but socially distanced activities to build suspense. Here, Employment Hero, who launched in the UK this week, has created some fun tips to help celebrate Halloween virtually this year.

How tradespeople can avoid being stung for tax they can’t afford

If you’re a self-employed tradesperson, driver, beautician, or hairdresser, there are things you can do now, before January’s tax return deadline, to avoid being stung for tax you can’t afford.

Business continuity: offering business as usual in unprecedented times

This year has been more turbulent than most. From setting out strategic business goals to embarking on new personal adventures, plans set out – in all aspects of life – have been well and truly rumbled. However, as businesses try to navigate the choppy waters posed by the pandemic and the changing needs of their people, customers and suppliers, they should strive to take advantage of this window of opportunity by rethinking how they operate.

8 ways to boost sales using video in your marketing campaigns

Business videos attract customers through eight marketing channels at once. EIGHT! And all eight can be used simultaneously! We conducted a survey and found that on average customers use no more than two of them. Don’t do that. Since you paid for a cool video, make the most of it!

Top tips to help entrepreneurs get on the right track to success

Starting a business can seem like a daunting prospect, given that if you Google ‘startups and fail’, there are lots of articles on the percentage of startups that fail before they get going, which could put you off even getting started. However, by being well prepared and informed before you start the process, you may be able to avoid some of the common pitfalls and become one of the 2/10 startups that succeed.

£7m injection into fast growth ‘fintech behind the fintechs’

Private equity firm, Grafton Capital has invested £7m into Third Financial, the fast growing, innovative investment platform and software provider. Grafton Capital’s investment takes it to majority ownership of the business, with £1.5m of fresh capital being injected onto the balance sheet.

Proptech startup grows client list by 120% in the last 9 months

Spike Global, a UK-based PropTech company, has grown it’s client list by an impressive 120% in the last 9 months, despite market difficulties. Alongside new clients, Spike is also expanding into new developments from existing clients including Wardian London, EcoWorld Ballymore’s residential led development in Canary Wharf.

Research shows worrying funding gap emerging for established SMEs

Allica Bank has seen a surge in demand for new business lending since the national lockdown ended, and has just reached the joint milestone of issuing over £250m of approvals in principle in 2020, and over £100m in committed loan offers since June to established SMEs across the UK.

Scientific knowledge discovery platform closes $9m in scale-up funding

Eagle Genomics, a pioneer in applying network science to biology – particularly linked to the microbiome – has closed $9m in new scale-up funding. It will use the investment to further develop the capabilities of its powerful AI-augmented, knowledge discovery platform and to drive further commercial expansion across Europe and the US.

£145bn productivity boost for UK economy if SME digital investment can be unlocked

New research published by Sage plc and Capital Economics finds that unlocking SME digital investment will be critical in helping small and medium size businesses remain resilient as a wave of local lockdowns trigger ongoing uncertainty – and could also deliver major benefits to the UK economy.

Investment into UK impact startups surges

New research from Tech Nation and Dealroom reveals that investment into UK impact startups increased 9.5x between 2014 and 2019. UK impact startups have raised €1.4bn so far in 2020 with Cleantech and Climate tech companies raising the most capital of all UK impact startups.

Looking at product development and challenges (part 2)

The testing and development phase, can either be one of the most enjoyable experiences when it comes to creating a hardware product, or one of the most difficult that makes you question and change everything you have worked on so far.