As the global retail industry continues to feel the full impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Swiss retail technology company meepl - the easy-to-use and time-saving online shopping companion for clothing - has announced it will offer complimentary access to their smartphone-enabled, 3D body scanning technology for vulnerable SMEs working within the fashion industry. 

Business and public, private and voluntary sector professionals in the Tees Valley and County Durham are now able to sign up to free digital skills training – both technical and creative – following some quick thinking by Teesside University as part of its comprehensive response to Covid-19.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared on the 30th January, OVHcloud have been carefully observing how the situation has developed across the globe. Today, depending on the guidelines issued by governing healthcare authorities, the company is managing local situations in all regions where it has teams. It is doing this to guarantee the employees’ safety, and also guarantee continuity for customer services. 

A new fintech platform for sustainable investments, Clim8 Invest has launched its first ever Crowdcube campaign.

VibePay has announced its open banking driven offer for businesses. The latest products will allow brands to process frictionless checkout and subscription payments online, increasing transaction success and reducing fees, whilst giving brands a gateway into their engaged Gen Z community.

YourLocal.Delivery, a new free online store service, is supporting local businesses to sell their goods online and help them to survive current difficult trading circumstances. Since its launch last month, a number of Kent businesses have signed up to the service and are already experiencing sales. 

UK-founded marketing technology company ContentCal has secured a £2.5 million investment from early and growth stage investor Fuel Ventures with participation from existing shareholders. The new funding will be focussed on driving customer growth, product innovation and doubling the size of the team.

UK businesses are still missing out on thousands of pounds of unclaimed tax credits, according to new figures from Leyton, the UK’s leading innovation funding consultancy. Leyton’s clients – 85% of which are SMEs – claimed an average of £78,000 in R&D tax credits last year.

Seven Italian startups selected to participate in Israel's first accelerator program for Italian startups could not have imagined in early January that the coronavirus pandemic would spread so rapidly and inflict such deadly damage to their country and around the world during their stay in Eilat.

Applied Blockchain has completed a £2m funding round lead by Hong Kong based venture capital firm, QBN Capital. The newly-injected funds will be invested in developing a platform using privacy enhancing technologies to help companies to collaborate and generate meaningful outcomes together, without having to share any of their data.

Autonomous machine vision pioneer, Inspekto, is one step closer to having a strong presence on US soil upon striking up a partnership with the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator.

We Are F, the social media and creative boutique for female-founded brands, has connected a team of NHS GPs with the PPE they urgently require - following a campaign to raise funds for the NHS.

The Chancellor’s £1 billion package for startup businesses is another brilliant move to support the UK’s business infrastructure during the COVID-19 crisis, but it will need backing from private investors if it is going to work, say leading tax and advisory form Blick Rothenberg.

Nottingham University Business School announces May event to help business leaders survive and thrive in the ‘new normal’. Chief Executives, HR, Learning and Development and Talent Management professionals are being brought together by Nottingham University Business School to plot their way forward from the Covid-19 pandemic which is threatening irreversible damage to the UK economy.

As part of a wider initiative to support businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, a global affiliate network is offering members of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) 30-minute consultations on the benefits of affiliate marketing.

Ingenious has announced that its Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service has led a $4m A-series investment round in Shoreline. The Norway-based startup has built an intelligent field operations and project development platform to help develop profitable wind projects by constructing and operating them efficiently using intelligent schedule optimisation and simulation.

The Francis Crick Institute today announces that it is deploying a cloud-native simulation engine developed by UK start-up, Hadean Supercomputing, to simulate how COVID-19 spreads both in the body and through the wider population. The Francis Crick Institute and Hadean are working together to accurately forecast how the virus spreads in order to help governments, public health authorities and businesses make fast, informed, and in many cases, life-saving decisions. 

BigChange, the mobile workforce management technology company, is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise, one of the highest official honours for companies in the UK.

Curve, the banking platform that consolidates multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and app, now allows customers to move past payments onto a different card for up to 90 days after the payment has been made. 

Aging is a slow process, and often a very painful one. The truth is the older we get the more assistance we need. Most of the time, the system we live in does not provide the right support for seniors. As the market continues to cater more to the younger, more digital-savvy consumer, there is a hole being created by the large retailers.