Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation for social good, and UK Research and Investment (UKRI) have announced a new two-year partnership to provide up to £6m in combined investment and grant funding for companies working to improve health outcomes in later life.

As Pink Orange Media celebrates its second year in business, the agency has set out a bold pledge to donate a portion of all client retainers to global charities and provide employment opportunities to struggling job-seekers.

The Mathys & Squire Scaleup Quarter team hosted a virtual pitch event on Monday 26th April 2021 to celebrate World IP Day. The theme for 2021 was ‘IP and SMEs: Taking your ideas to market’. With SMEs making up over 99% of all UK businesses and contributing around half of all business turnover in the UK, the importance of supporting such businesses in their growth and development is clear for driving economic recovery and human progress.

Miso Robotics, the startup transforming the foodservice industry with intelligent automation, announced the release of its standalone software as a service (SaaS) offering, CookRight. Packed with expanded cooking capabilities and accessible through an affordable subscription model, CookRight is the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) powered cooking platform able to automatically identify and track products and tasks.

Demonstrating the importance of small business to the UK’s COVID-19 recovery, a new report from Xero, shows 410,000 small business jobs need to be created by the end of the year to return to the pre-pandemic jobs trajectory. 

Koa Health, a digital mental healthcare provider offering personalised employee solutions, has launched a new report titled Wellbeing at Work, exposing the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in businesses across the UK and organisations’ response to the crisis.

Diginex Solutions, the disruptive impact technology company helping to solve the world’s most pressing challenges, has launched DiginexESG to help companies of all sizes and reporting experience make their ESG reporting faster, easier and more affordable. The platform also enables large organisations to collect ESG data in their B2B client network, allowing them to make more educated decisions around risk, lending, and value. 

Thanks to the new advancement, hoteliers will be able to manage multiple properties all in one place. Built by Bidroom’s in-house team of technical experts, the new web application offers a simpler solution for managing bookings and room rates, and an intuitive content management platform designed to easily update hotel information, images and offers.

Customers are set to increase their spending once vaccines have been rolled out, according to research by SAS. When asked if they would increase their spending, nearly a fifth (17%) said they would, compared to just a tenth (10%) who said they would reduce spending once vaccines were available.

SafetyCulture, the global operations platform which empowers working teams to drive improvements in the workplace, has announced a A$2.2bn valuation (approx. £1.2bn), smashing past its previous unicorn status from April 2020.

Sprout.ai, the insurtech that enables insurance claims to be settled within just 24 hours, has announced that it has raised £8m/$11m in Series A funding. The round was led by one of Europe’s largest and most active early-stage investors, Octopus Ventures, and was joined by existing investors, Amadeus Capital Partners, Playfair Capital and Techstars. 

How can the British public help their local pub, restaurant, cafe or hotel recover from May 17th when venues reopen indoor seating?

Businesses should consider classing long-COVID as a disability, an employment expert has warned. Up to one million people are expected to require treatment for the condition after June, according to recent reports.

A series of backers, including former c-suite executives from Barclays, American Express, Expedia and Hertz have invested in family travel tech startup tripAbrood, to further develop its revolutionary AI-powered family booking experience. tripAbrood has raised £645,000 seed funds in its second round of funding, bringing total funding to just shy of the £1m mark. It comes seven months after its September 2020 beta-launch.

On February 5, 2021, a hacker initiated a cyberattack on a small water plant in Florida. If successful, the attack would have caused multiple health complications for the 15,000 residents that the plant provides water for. This is just an example of the disastrous consequences of cyberattacks on smaller companies. But how to avoid them? 

Regardless of size, recruitment is often one of the most difficult areas for businesses to handle. Finding that vital talent via recruitment agencies requires an upfront investment that many businesses simply don’t have. The alternative, the DIY approach, is deeply time-consuming, taking anything from 12-40 hours from application to hire and it’s very easy to get wrong if you lack the experience.

NeuReality, an Israeli AI startup developing high performance AI compute platforms for cloud data centres and edge nodes, has unveiled NR1-P, a novel AI-centric inference platform. NeuReality has already started demonstrating its AI-centric platform to customers and partners.

Today (6th May) marks World Password Day. Since 2013, the first Thursday of May each year marks World Password Day, promoting better password habits to stay safe online.

Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, has awarded a Smart Grant to deep tech startup electronRx to support the development of their novel period pain relief technology, Ohmm.

The Hustle Awards 2021 is fast approaching, with applications open and in full swing we have seen so many amazing startups and founders already nominated, but who will be in charge of choosing the best of the best? Well let me introduce you to this years incredible judges...