Amidst the chaos of the Covid-19 Coronacoaster, innovative startup baggl.com has pledged £1m worth of its barter trade credits to help support other SMEs during the latest national lockdown and beyond, with match-funded TV advertising grants with a value of £3,500 per applicant.

GovTech venture firm, PUBLIC has announced the six innovative startups selected to participate in the 2020 GovStart programme -  the UK’s only startup growth programme dedicated to supporting promising new technology companies to scale across Government and the public sector.

If you’re looking for a great Christmas gift for the women in your life, then a new book, Female Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of Their Success, may be the answer. 

Students from Essex University have launched a new start-up to help the county’s small businesses become more environmentally friendly. They see sustainability as of the utmost importance in today’s society; sustainability being a social and environmental commitment to finding new ways to consume without draining our planet’s resources.

Research technology company, uMed has raised £3.7m in venture capital to help healthcare providers in the UK and US, including GPs, hospitals and health specialists, run patient research more efficiently while safeguarding patient data and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Monimoto, the smart tracker for motorcycles, is offering the chance for new investors to join the fight against motorcycle theft. Having smashed its initial Crowdcube campaign target of €300,000 early, Monimoto has extended its crowdcube campaign for another seven days.

Infogrid, the artificial intelligence technology company that automates facilities management and makes any building smart, has raised $15.5m Series A funding from a combination of UK and US investors. The round was led by Northzone with participation from JLL Spark, Concrete VC, The Venture Collective, Jigsaw VC, a global real estate investment group, and a large international asset owner.

Small businesses in the UK still aren’t offering their people enough flexibility, according to new research from Tiger Recruitment. While the pandemic has required many to work more flexibly from home, more than a quarter of employees questioned say they still aren’t happy with the flexible working options available to them, and men are just as dissatisfied as women.

Habitual, the UK’s first fully digital diabetes prevention and reversal programme, has announced a raise of £325,000 in funding, taking its total to £575,000, to support its public launch in 2021.

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and Sage have teamed up to launch a package of advice and technology to help more accountancy practices launch in the UK than ever before.

East London-based accounting practice, Moose, is rolling out a new financial package to local businesses with the aim to help those most in need stay afloat and hopefully flourish into the new decade.

Unpick the wild world of business winners as Angel Business Club’s Insights Series returns on Wednesday, 2nd December.

Thursday 3rd December marks International Day of People with Disability (IDPD), originally created by the United Nations and designed to bring awareness and celebrate the diversity of the global community. This years’ theme is ‘not all disabilities are visible’, something Leeds-based behavioural research and UX consultancy, SimpleUsability, is keen to encourage businesses to consider when interacting with their customers.

Kaia Health and Chiesi Group, an international research-focused healthcare group, have announced that they have entered into an exclusive partnership to commercialise the Kaia Health Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Pulmonary Rehabilitation app in Europe.

In October the UK’s small businesses experienced their largest year-on-year decline in revenues since May, according to the latest customer data from the Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) programme in partnership with AlphaBeta (part of Accenture).

The new tiered system of restrictions for England after 2nd December 2020 should give businesses the certainty to plan and recover, according to innovative accountancy firm, Davis Grant.

With a third of UK employees having more than half their holiday allowance left to take, e-days the absence intelligence company, has found that 65% intend to use this up before the end of the year. With less than a month until Christmas, this raises some significant concerns over staffing resources for the remainder of the year.

Co-op CEO Steve Murrells opened a round-table on 26th November with representatives from the Department for Education, National Apprenticeship Service, National Society of Apprentices and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The conversation focused on a brand new report, commissioned by the Co-op group, into the national apprenticeships programme with recommendations on change to government policy.

Fashion production software company, SupplyCompass, will be hosting its next webinar on 9th December at 12pm GMT: ‘Financing for Fashion Brands’. Teaming up with MarketFinance, SupplyCompass’s webinar will navigate the world of financial planning through the lens of fashion, specifically for SME brands.