To mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2022, for which the theme is loneliness, SME accountancy firm, The Accountancy Partnership, is encouraging entrepreneurs to build founder support networks to reduce feelings of isolation.
When it comes to university, there is a lot to think about; often the onboarding and arrival processes for international students can be a nightmare. Enroly, founded by Jeff Williams and his Co-Founder Maynard Inkster, was created back in 2017 to address exactly this problem, as Enroly automates the CAS, visa and arrival process for universities, their international students, and agents.
Yesterday saw the prestigious group of judges come together for The Hustle Awards judging day 2022, sponsored by anglia unicorn. Taking place at Finsbury Business Centre in Clerkenwell, the sunny weather and the judge’s vast array of knowledge and expertise equated in a fantastic day.
Volume, the transparent checkout startup, has closed a pre-seed round of $2.4m, in an oversubscribed deal led by firstminute Capital and joined by SeedX and Haatch Ventures. Other participants include angels Christian Faes (LendInvest), Russ Carroll (ex-Klarna), as well as angels from MADE.COM, Mastercard, Visa and American Express. Volume improves on current open banking capabilities to reduce the long checkout process, while simultaneously killing hidden fees charged by payment intermediaries.
Employers are being warned about selecting employee benefits that are too inflexible in the way they support the health and wellbeing of employees. RedArc, the nurse-led health wellbeing service, believes that although employers are doing the right thing in proactively providing health and wellbeing support for staff, they need to be cautious about overly prescriptive benefits that may not give staff enough of the right kind of support.
Fundraising is full time job, there is so much time and effort that goes into raising money, but it is worth it. We all know what the stats and figures show that there is a massive gender disparity when it comes to funding, and therefore although being a tough job – it’s even harder for women.
Treeapp, the mobile app which enables anyone to plant a tree for free everyday, has officially partnered with fellow B Corp the Big Mamma group. To celebrate Earth Day on the 22nd of April, Big Mamma will be planting one tree for every veggie and vegan pizza sold at Ave Mario, Circolo Popolare and Gloria Trattoria.
In light of Earth Day 2022, new research suggests that although UK climate technology is playing a crucial role in tackling global climate change, challenges in accessing funding and a lack of support from the government is impeding the development of the industry.
Flow Your Money (Flow), the money management app for freelancers and consumers has raised a €3.5m seed investment round led by Eleven Ventures. The round was joined by RockSalt, the venture arm of SaltPay, as well as Silverflow co-founder Robert Kraal (former COO Adyen), Hristo Borisov (founder and CEO of Payhawk), Marnix van der Ploeg (Booking.com) and Travel Health Group’s owner Arnoud Aalbersberg. The investment will enable Flow to scale up its platform, which makes it possible to automatically distribute incoming and outgoing money flows, taking the step towards ‘self-driving money’: smart, fully autonomous money management. Flow now also can expedite European expansion plans as it sets out to become the largest player in this fast-growth market.
As the IPCC announced its final warning that the coming years are critical in saving the Earth’s depletion. However, the road to achieving Net-Zero seems unclear, as nearly one in three (30%) say their company is not doing enough to combat climate change.
Despite feeling overwhelmed about how to take climate action, research from Ecologi, a climate action platform has shown that eight in ten business owners want to be greener, just don’t know where to start.
HumanForest and 22 Bishopsgate are partnering to encourage occupiers of 22 Bishopsgate to move around the city in a healthy and sustainable way.
As we celebrate Earth Day, I thought there is no better chance than to share one of my favourite startups in the sustainability/ tech4good industry, and that is Thrift who aims to encourage people to buy and sell second hand items more, to result in less items wasted and ending up in landfill.
Vaayu, the climate tech start-up that helps retailers reduce their carbon footprint in real-time, has closed an $11.5m seed funding round led by Atomico, with follow on from CapitalT and participation from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s firm Seven Seven Six, along with a select group of angel investors including Cristina Stenbeck, Chairperson of the Zalando Supervisory Board and non-Executive Director of Spotify and Bryant Chou, co-founder and CTO of Webflow. As part of this round of investment, Atomico Partner Terese Hougaard will join Vaayu’s board, making it 75% female.
SlothMove, which offers users a ‘stress-free’ change of address and home-setup service when moving home, was only formed three years ago. The business flourished during the pandemic as property sales soared and now legal giants Taylor Rose MW have acquired a stake in the business, which has also been championed by former Dragon’s Den star Piers Linney.
The best way to understand how an industry works is to get involved in whatever capacity you can. For example, if you want to open a shop, go and work in one. Doing this will give you an insight into what it takes to run a shop on a day-to-day basis. It will give you an understanding of what customers want, the potential pitfalls and the products that sell best. Working in a shop doesn’t mean you’ll make a success of your retail business, but it will give you a solid foundation to build on.
SafetyWing, the Norwegian startup building a global social safety net, has announced the closing of a $35m series B funding round led by leading European growth investor Kinnevik with full participation from existing investors Creandum and byFounders. The insurance investor Mundi Ventures also joined this round. The funding follows an $8m series A funding round last year, led by Creandum.
PropTech startup Bright Spaces launched its first subsidiary abroad, in the UK. The startup, which creates advanced, end-to-end digital leasing platforms for commercial and residential real estate, already has two clients from the UK.
A dog walking app designed to give dog walking businesses a head start has launched a crowdfunding campaign to invest in blockchain technology and support its impressive growth and development strategy.
SEON, a London-based Anglo-Hungarian startup that powers online fraud prevention raised $94m in Series B funding. Led by Silicon Valley-based IVP, the round also includes existing investors Creandum and PortfoLion, as well as, angel investors including founders and senior executives from the very best product-led tech companies: Aiven, Coinbase, DataDog, DoorDash, Figma, G2, GitHub, Public, Slack, Supercell, UiPath, Veriff, and Wise.
