Creative workspace and business accelerator, Huckletree has announced Yvonne Eruteya as its new Financial Director to focus on future growth plans, that will include new workspace products and further expansion across the UK and Ireland.

The Texthelp Group has been recognised with The Queen’s Award For Enterprise in the International Trade category.

London-based AI scaleup, Vivacity Labs has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The Vivacity Labs team was awarded the Innovation Award for its technology that supports government, regional bodies and local councils to re-think and optimise the way traffic and transport infrastructure is built and used.

Suss Ventures has backed five investment deals with a combined value of £570,000 in under half a year. The new investor matching service is funded by Sussex Innovation, the business incubator owned by the University of Sussex. Since it’s foundations in 2019, Suss Ventures has welcomed over 100 investors and fundraisers into its growing community and has hosted quarterly events welcoming over 300 attendees, comprising investors and founders.

Sage has launched a peer-to-peer (P2P) customer service platform in partnership with Limitless, to enhance its customer experience and enable small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to recover stronger as UK lockdown measures lift.

Record numbers of businesses are now using AI-based systems to hire and fire staff. And sign-up to these systems has sky-rocketed during the pandemic as more and more companies look at remote ways to recruit people.

Israeli Agtech startup, RCK, has announced the completion of the first ever catalogue of cannabis strains that covers all the medical indications of the Israeli Medical Cannabis Agency (IMCA).

The participants of this year’s RESPOND accelerator cohort have been selected: from approx. 400 applications from 65 countries, the ten best have been selected to participate in this year’s program. The five-month program starts on 7th June.

New research from PeoplePerHour, the freelance jobs marketplace, shows more people have turned to freelancing alongside employee jobs during the pandemic.

GoDaddy has revealed that a micro-business ‘powerhouse’ has emerged in the North of England during the global pandemic, with growth in new ventures outstripping that in the South.

Funding Options, the marketplace for business finance, has launched Funding Cloud, a technology and data-driven platform that will bring unparalleled scale and speed to the SME finance sector. Lenders including Just Cash Flow, iwoca, YouLend, Optimum Finance and FIBR have already integrated with Funding Cloud to benefit from its innovative technology and as a highly efficient channel for customer acquisition. By Q4 this year, the company expects to have more than 30 lenders fully integrated.

From better work-life balance and wellbeing to zero commute time, working from home is said to have more than a few perks. According to a recent study by Instant Offices, Britons who have been working from home have accumulated 1.2 billion extra hours which means a mammoth figure of £21.9 billion worth of unpaid overtime is lost.

Pauline Kwasniak from Female Event Planners, MCI’s director of onsite services, James Kelley, and Kathryn Frankson, director of event marketing at Informa, are some of the latest judges to be announced for Event Technology Awards (ETA) 2021.   

Conducted by Frank Recruitment Group's specialist Salesforce recruitment arm, Mason Frank International, the survey asked over 1,800 IT professionals from around the world for their opinions on the tech jobs market, salaries, and benefits. The findings showed that 54% of respondents who would consider relocating to the UK for work would be open to pursuing opportunities beyond the capital. Among the cities mentioned by respondents as potential relocation options include Newcastle, Liverpool, and Leeds.

ABB Electrification’s Startup Challenge in collaboration with Microsoft and SynerLeap is scouting for startups. Applications are now being accepted with three winners set to each receive $30,000 for project development.

To mark Earth Day 2021, creative workspace and accelerator, Huckletree has announced a second wave of speakers for its upcoming Earthrise Summit, a virtual festival to unite sustainability leaders, founders, politicians, change makers and innovators from all corners of the world - to inspire people to take action. 

Corgee has secured its first pre-seed investment from Think Bigger Capital to develop its AI-powered finance app to make personal finance simpler for the UK’s 5.3 million self-employed.

A cohort of ten technology startups have graduated from the Techstars Hub71 accelerator, making compelling presentations to the community at the annual Demo Day. The portfolio companies hope to secure a total $15m in funding to support their rapid growth. 

2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record as a result of human activities, according to NASA. Keeping business going during a pandemic has been front and centre this past year, but it’s possible that it’s distracted business leaders from another major crisis of our times - climate change.

As restrictions continue to lift and organisations prepare to bring employees back to the workplace, a new report from hackajob has revealed that 86% of technology professionals in the UK and Europe don't want to return to the office full time at all.