Hotel owner and restaurateur Maximilian Steurer is an early adopter of the paul&ernst bikes, a decision that proved particularly lucrative during the past year. Pastry chef Lisa Haas also opted for her own bike when starting her own business - during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

The findings of a new report shows that employee welfare has been catapulted to the top of the HR agenda for business leaders, with two-thirds of employees reporting a spike in support being offered to both furloughed and non-furloughed teams since May 2020. 

With many of us working from home, dogs crashing our virtual business meetings has not only become the norm, but the preferred. According to recent data, dogs gate crashing your virtual meeting may have other benefits such as better feelings of wellbeing and lower stress levels.

A year since it was awarded CBILS lender status, responsible lender, AskIf, can now reveal it has approved close to £4m to deserving SMEs and micro businesses, playing an essential role in the national push to help businesses survive and thrive. AskIf has delivered on its mission to be an inclusive lender with 17% of CBILS loans distributed to BAME-owned businesses, and 22% to female-led businesses. 

As WhatsApp users are forced to share personal data with Facebook, a new competitor - YEO (Your Eyes Only) Messaging - has launched today, offering an alternative ultra-secure private messaging platform.

A pioneering new mindfulness training programme, powered by Virtual Reality (VR) training specialists Virti, has launched this month to help employees cope with the demands of their jobs during the pandemic.

Sage has unveiled research showing that 1 in 2 (52%) UK adults dream about starting their own business.  However, over half (53%) of those feel that money worries are stopping them from turning the idea into a reality - a fear that has been exacerbated by the stresses of COVID-19. 

The past 12 months have placed many obstacles and challenges in the path of businesses, as the pandemic took grip of the nation and workplace processes were forced to change to stay within government guidelines.

Social impact fund Valloop, created to help employees and management buy the companies they work for, delivered compound annual growth of 16.1% over a five-year period between September 2015 and September 2020. 

New data shows fears for pupils’ well-being, increased workloads and concerns about the toll on their own health have all contributed to a massive increase in stress for teachers during the pandemic.

Osu, the payment app for the UK’s self-employed, has announced the close of a £2.25m seed round, led by early-stage experts Creandum, to fund further growth to reach 10,000 customers this year. 

There is not long left to appy for the opportunity to up-skill and up-scale your business, refine, develop and launch your product to market and secure a contract of work with Transport for Wales. 

LawtechUK, the government-backed initiative within Tech Nation, to help transform the UK legal sector through technology, today brings to a close the Pilot stage of the first Lawtech Sandbox - a research and development initiative for lawtech scaleups - following a successful three month trial period.

Beautystack Founder and CEO, Sharmadean Reid has launched her latest venture, a new media platform called The Stack World that will bring together content, community and commerce and put intelligence at the core of the women’s media landscape. 

Like Minded Females (LMF) Network joined efforts with online business school Jolt and technology venture firm, Balderton Capital to grant five Future Leaders scholarships to rising female tech talent from LMF’s community. The full bursaries will allow them to attend Jolt's Switch course, a programme designed to create pathways for those who want to begin a career in tech. 

The next Mayor of London’s TechInvest, taking place 27th April, will celebrate 10 of London’s pioneering HealthTech startups. This upcoming TechInvest instalment will seek to identify industry leaders that are converging technologies with medicine and healthcare to improve the efficiency and delivery of prediction, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.

Civic Tech platform, CitizenLab has announced a move to open up the core version of its community engagement software, in an effort to equip smaller organisations and communities with the tools to democratise policy-making by involving more citizens.

Cancer Research UK and Capital Enterprise, together with Roche UK, have launched the Cancer Tech Accelerator programme. This new initiative will help researchers translate their ideas and lifesaving discoveries into innovations that will improve the lives of cancer patients.  

Creative workspace and accelerator, Huckletree has announced international law firm, CMS to join as their first sustainability programme partner alongside Silicon Valley Bank, and A/O Proptech - Europe’s largest proptech VC firm. All three will provide support and services to Huckletree’s educational programmes, members and events.

A unique digital skills powerhouse is set to transform talent diversity in the North West’s tech sector, by breaking the barriers faced by those from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds and fast-tracking 450 people into careers in digital technology every year.