Koa has officially become a B Corp™, short for Certified B Corporation, using the power of business to address some of society's greatest challenges.

Average testosterone levels have been declining for decades, yet men suffering from testosterone deficiency often don’t receive the support and treatment that they need to get back to full health and reduce their risk of early death.

Brite Payments today announced further expansion to offer full product coverage across the Baltic region, following the successful launch of its instant pay-ins solution in Estonia earlier this year.

Something and Nothing, a London-based premium drinks company, has raised a total of £2.5M in an investment round that included ACF Investors and Rianta capital. 

Ctrl Alt, the app that enables investments in alternative assets with as little as £10, will launch on the 17th of November, it was announced today. Founded by an experienced team of financial services and technology experts, Ctrl Alt is set to change the alternative investment universe by providing its users access to assets that have so far been available to only the wealthiest in society. 

Profyle Card was started in 2020 by co-founders Chris Tingley and Jonathan Murphy with their personal goal of developing a product that would help replace and reduce wasteful single-use paper business cards with a more reliable, reusable and environmentally friendly solution.

Nourish Community Foodbank is appealing to schools, individuals, businesses, places of worship and groups this Christmas to support those who are in crisis in our community.

Air pollution is the most-pressing environmental health crisis of our time with approximately nine in 10 people around the world breathing unclean air. Helping to spotlight this existential threat, cleantech startup Airly is today announcing a $5.5M series A funding round as it targets cleaning the air by understanding the exact sources based on sensor data and comprehensive actionable insights. 

Blickfeld, the Munich-based manufacturer of break-through LiDAR sensor solutions creating innovative hardware and software, is launching the delivery of its Qb2 device to customers and partners, following its concept announcement at CES 2022.

The UK Government’s 2022 tech scale-ups programme, the Tech Rocketship Awards, reached its conclusion today. The Awards identified the brightest and best tech companies and will accelerate the global growth of its winners, through curated programmes connecting them with the UK’s ecosystem of investors, incubators and High Potential Opportunity (HPO) clusters.

With many UK singletons looking to ‘reset’ their relationship and dating lives, amongst a sea of challenging online behaviour, fake profiles, and inauthentic connection, ZiP Video Dating app has launched with a promise of ‘what you see, is what you get’ - via in-app video profiling designed to combat ‘catfishing’, inaccurate imagery and promote inclusivity and safety.

SonX is a content platform that enables musicians to monetise and grow their existing fanbase via premium content subscriptions.

If anyone had suggested only a few years ago that it is a realistic proposition to float a psychedelics company on any of the London markets that suggestion would likely have been met with derision. Commentators would have pointed to a lack of understanding and therefore acceptance of psychedelics in the investment community and to potential problems under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA).

Evolito Limited, a privately-owned company developing and manufacturing electric motors and powertrains for aerospace applications, has today announced former YASA CEO, Dr. Chris Harris, is joining the company as CEO. 

HumanForest are pleased to reconnect its environmentally conscious community with Earth & Wheat, to promote the need to reduce food waste and the positive impact it can have on the planet.


 

Darwinium, a pioneering new Customer Protection Platform, has today announced a seed funding round of $10 million USD led by Venture Capitalist firm Blackbird alongside Airtree. The initial funding round, raised to elevate the global launch of the company into the security and fraud sector, will be targeted towards both product and customer expansion. Additional funding was supported by several prominent angel investors including Naval Ravikant and Jeff Fagnan.

Admiral Money - a subsidiary of Admiral Group PLC, a specialist in car insurance, home and travel insurance, insurtech, personal loans and legal services - has chosen OCR Labs Global as its digital identity verification provider to enhance and accelerate its onboarding process.

Harper, a company pioneering new science in mental health, from identification to personalised care, is launching Tune by Harper. The first of its kind, Tune’s wellness kit uses a lollipop to test saliva for multiple evidence-based markers of health, providing an accurate and objective measure of wellbeing when combined with digital assessments.

After growing a business, there will come a time when any founder must build a team to take the company to the next level. However, it can be difficult to recruit and to know what to look for in candidates at such a crucial stage. In addition, building a team requires entrepreneurs to become leaders, an evolution that can be as difficult as knowing who to hire.

Curating content to optimise leads is a cost effective tactic for lean marketing budgets. And what’s more, Google’s recent core web vital update has placed engaging, relevant and quality website copy as a major factor in its search criteria. 

Thirty-one per cent of employers have no plans to offer fertility support, according to new research1 undertaken during September 2022 by digital health app, Peppy. Peppy believes this approach may have a detrimental impact on an employer’s ability to both attract and retain staff of child-bearing age, as well as reflect poorly on their overall brand.

Collctiv, a group payment app that allows friends, families, businesses, charities, and community groups to collect money together, has launched today in  the USA.   

Venture Capital firm, QVentures announces key management hires and appoints Andrea Acerbi as Partner. New senior hires to the QVentures team are Ranjeet Sandu, joining as Chief Operating Officer and Nick Hill, joining as Principal to expand QVentures’ footprint of working with Family Offices.

Humm Care is a health-tech app offering personalised and curriculum based medical and non-medical support through the family building journey.

The starting phase of a business is not easy, and there are many important legal matters to settle before you get started. This article will outline some of the key legal considerations you need to remember when establishing a business, from selecting the right business structure to registering your business and complying with relevant regulations.

If you’ve recently started a business and you’re now looking to grow, the time will soon come where you may look to expand your team and your collective skillset to improve your chances of success.  

Starting a business can be an exhilarating experience but it also comes with a large share of stress and pressure. This is true for the entrepreneur at the top of the management structure and the shop floor worker. The health and well-being of you and your employees can be an asset to your startup, or a liability. It depends on how you manage yourself and your business. 

Healthtech startup Sleepwave is providing more ways to help people wake up fresh with the launch of its haptic smart alarm for the Apple Watch. Sleepwave is a revolutionary motion-sensing smart alarm and sleep tracking app that addresses an overlooked area of sleep health: the quality of our morning wake up. 

Maslife, the world’s first ever financial app that addresses the direct link between mental, physical, and financial health has launched as a UK first. 

For the eighth time, the international Formnext Start-up Challenge has recognised young companies from the world of additive manufacturing for their innovative business ideas and technical developments.

PocDoc, the digital health platform and leading personal diagnostics provider, today announces that it has secured the CA mark of approval for its world-first, smartphone-based test for cholesterol. 

Hoxton Farms has announced a $22 million Series A round to build a pilot facility for producing cultivated fat: the missing ingredient necessary to make meat alternatives delicious, realistic, and versatile. After receiving regulatory approval, Hoxton Farms will sell cultivated fat as a B2B ingredient for meat alternatives.

HumanForest, London’s most sustainable and affordable eBike operator, with its daily 10 minutes free, is leading innovation within the micro-mobility sector, integrating a new style of eBike into their existing fleet.

On-demand vinyl platform, elasticStage, has announced the opening of its new North-West London production and R&D facility. The 10,000 square foot facility will house its revolutionary, patent-pending technology that is set to change the vinyl market as we know it. The British tech startup has garnered interest and support from across the music, tech, engineering, automation and printing industries, and is also revealing the first names of industry veterans proudly joining its advisory board - Paul Smith, Aron Priest and Charles Grimsdale.

Innovative data-collection service app, Shepper, is predicting a 900% increase in revenue in 2022, compared to 2020, as demand for real-life, tangible data insights and side hustle incomes skyrocket. 

Cryptocurrencies are all the rage right now. Bitcoin, in particular, has seen an astronomical increase in value over the past year, and Ethereum and Litecoin are not far behind. So it's natural for business owners to ask whether they should invest in crypto. What a business needs is a way to determine if investing in crypto is right for them. This will depend on various factors, including their current financial situation and the nature of their business. This article looks at some of the reasons you might want to consider investing in crypto.

Nocturnal Pictures, an independent film production company specialising in action, horror and sci-fi movies has been selected for Creative Enterprises investor programme “Evolve” due to it being a highly promising screen business that has proven its readiness for growth capital.

The global identity verification and compliance tools provider, iDenfy, struck a new deal with CoinBeam, the digital banking platform, helping banks, credit unions, and financials to generate revenue in cryptocurrency.

Businesses aren’t doing enough to help midlife and older workers retrain, presenting a huge threat to the UK’s bid for economic growth, says think tank Phoenix Insights.

Iomob (short for Internet of Mobility), a UK and Spain-based technology start-up, is expected to launch the world’s first seamless mobility technology later this year, after more than three years of research and several pilots. The new platform will be integrated into existing transport and mobility websites and apps all over the world, allowing providers for the first time, to include third-party mobility connections— with a focus on sustainable options— enabling passengers to book and pay for a complete door-to-door journey involving multiple modes of transport on just one website or app.  

Shares, Europe’s first social and community-based investing app, has announced that international tennis champions, Venus and Serena Williams, have been appointed the first ambassadors of Shares as they become shareholders in the company. This news comes shortly after Shares has closed on its $40 million Series B funding round led by Peter Thiel Fund, Valar Ventures. 

Booknet (Ukraine) has signed publishing publicity agency, Literally PR, to introduce its popular literary social media network, self-publishing platform, and Bookscription sales concept to the UK following rapid growth in parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe.

When you’re just starting your business, learning the difference between some key terms can be extremely complicated. If your business is based in Hong Kong, you’re probably wondering about the difference between business registration, company registration, and trademark registration.

Deliverect, a global scale-up that simplifies digital orders for more than 27,000 locations across 40 markets, today announced new global research, which revealed that more people are purchasing takeaway or delivery orders today than they were before the recent increase in cost of living. The survey, which was commissioned by Deliverect and conducted by Censuswide, found that 57.34% of consumers are now purchasing up to three takeaways in a week now, in comparison to 49% prior to the inflation increase. 

Full-service event company Creation is celebrating monumental success having ranked 29th in The Sunday Times 100 following a record-breaking financial year and staggering growth.

Norwegian augmented-reality educational platform Ludenso announces $1m in seed funding to support its creation of the world’s first augmented-reality universe designed for educational publishers.

Enate, a fast-growing and pioneering intelligent automation platform, announced it has received a follow-on investment round of £2 million from Mercia, a growth-focused investment firm with experience backing innovative SaaS businesses.

The retail industry has experienced a huge shift in recent years. The power now lies with the customers. Yet, some brands have been slow to understand the gravity of this situation and find themselves falling behind as a result.

Swedish-Ukrainian IT company Sigma Software Group is scaling up their Femmegineering initiative to build a female tech community across emerging European tech markets. The organisers will launch educational events, and provide free access to IT courses at Sigma Software University and mentorships by industry leaders to female refugees and local women in Europe.

Acquisitions can be an ideal way for founders to accelerate growth, enhance market share and achieve higher valuations. However, startups considering an acquisition need to think carefully about their objections and plan for all eventualities if they want a merger or acquisition to be a success. 

Sküma Water has raised £300,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage focused venture capital firm Jenson Funding Partners. Multiple angel investors also participated in the round, including William Ripley, a notable investor in sustainable technology and ex-director of product strategy at Philips

Birmingham not-for-profit hibretOne is hosting an official launch event on Monday 10th October 2022. The free event is a continuation of the company’s efforts to help UK businesses, having already supported entrepreneurs to access £4m worth of grants to date. 

EasyTip, the UK’s leading online service for collecting tips in the hospitality industry, is announcing a new partnership with Samtouch Software, bringing fairer and quicker tip payments to staff at over 7,500 hospitality venues across UK. Technological innovation has become vital in driving the post-pandemic recovery of the sector and enabling the administration of staff tips to be more efficient, cheaper, and less time consuming is a significant component of such a trend.

Collctiv, a group payment app that allows friends, families, businesses, charities, and community groups to collect money together, is celebrating a major company milestone after reaching $20 million in processed transactions. 

KOOS, an Estonian-based start up, has today announced $4M worth of seed funding led by high profile investors at Plural Platform with participation from investors including LocalGlobe, Tiny.vc and Matt Clifford.

Starting a business comes with unavoidable risk and responsibility. And where there is risk, insurance surely follows. It’s an industry that has a foothold in many aspects of life, from the cars we drive to our homes and our businesses. While it’s another expense to add to the profit and loss sheet, taking out the right kind of insurance for your business is absolutely critical. Even more so for startups because many typically lack financial security and stability in the first few years. In this short guide, we’ll outline the most common types of business insurance that startups take out from the get-go.

Pets are big business in the UK. According to the PDSA, over half of the UK’s adult population own a pet of some description. This is a lucrative demographic for budding business owners in the pet industry, particularly with regard to ‘pet hospitality’ – an emerging industry borne of the increased mobility of younger pet owners in the UK. But if you were to start your own pet boarding business, where would you begin?

Zeus, the UK-based start-up which is disrupting the freight industry with its next-generation digital platform, has expanded into Europe after signing up the pioneering international fashion retailer, Primark.

Growth is often the number one priority for any startup. With growth comes revenue and with revenue should come profit, eventually. However, growth is all about finding the sweet spot – too much, too quickly and your startup could be left short of resources or without the proper structure in place to support your expansion. Too slow and your business could face stagnation and lose the race to turn profitable. The sweet spot is what’s known as sustainable growth – the rate at which your resources, structure and systems can support growth without risking the quality of your product or service, or operations as a whole. Below we’ll explore some of the areas of your startup that you should be focusing on to help generate sustainable growth.

Looking for a tasty and nutritious meal that you don’t need to cook from scratch? Feast your taste-buds on this new range of macro-balanced, high protein meals and pizzas from The Gym Kitchen.

Some things in life are simple truths: night follows day and people love pizza. This is clearly the case for British taste-buds, as the UK pizza industry market size hit a whopping £3272 million in 2021.

Optellum, an Oxford-based medtech company that provides a breakthrough AI platform to diagnose and treat early-stage lung cancer, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round. The investment will enable the company to scale its base, operations and commercial launches in the UK and USA, accelerate its research and development, and expand its platform into personalized therapy decisions, integrating imaging with molecular data, robotics, and liquid biopsies.

The last decade has seen a huge boom in the global startup ecosystem, with digital and tech startups driving innovation across every industry imaginable. Last year, VC investment in startups hit an all-time high, almost doubling to reach $621 billion globally and shatter historic funding records. In recent years, the UK has created more tech unicorns than any other country except the US and China. Following a turbulent couple of years, post-pandemic investor confidence in startups seemed to have skyrocketed, and it seemed the startup sector was on the path to an unprecedented recovery.

Darren Goode, former President and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Elvie, is taking up a new role as a leading Advisor at femtech startup Béa Fertility. Darren led Elvie to become a global healthtech brand with revenues exceeding $26m. He now joins Béa as the team gears up to bring its hotly anticipated fertility device to market.

On Wednesday 28th September, at 1.00pm, Phil Fraser, the Business Sounding Board, is delivering a free webinar titled ‘How to prepare to sell your Business...before it is even for sale'.

Here we are. It’s 2022 and we’re watching the pandemic slowly disappearing in the rear-view mirror. During the pandemic, being locked down in our homes gave us the opportunity to be more creative, have more quality time and do activities with loved ones.

Creating a startup can seem like a gamble, but it’s one that leaders are continuing to take the plunge on. According to a study by Embroker, only 10% of startups survive. But when they work out, there are still pitfalls.

Spathios is an online marketplace that connects professionals and businesses with great creative spaces. The startup provides its users access to locations for events, meetings and filming studios via its online booking marketplace. Founded by Pol Hevia and Joaquim Tresserra in Barcelona, the startup has now more than 2,500 spaces across Spain and 400 in London.

When UNLEASH World 2022 returns to Paris on 12-13 October, it will once again host its unique startup competition, showcasing the next wave of breakthrough technologies and global innovators changing the future of work.

When COVID-19 brought the globe to a standstill, it was the growth of online payment solutions that kept the lights on, and the money flowing, when much of the world was closed. We are all still coming to terms with both the human and financial costs of the pandemic and subsequent restrictions. Life has, in many ways, returned to a “new normal.” Businesses have, for the most part, reopened their doors and many of the restrictions on travel have been lifted. However, many aspects of day-to-day life have changed permanently - one of those being payments

FocalPoint, the UK Deeptech company which provides next generation positioning solutions for mobiles, wearables and vehicles, has announced the first close of a multi-round Series C funding round of up to £23m from a consortium of investors co-led by Molten Ventures and Gresham House.

It's safe to say that the internet has had a significant impact on the way businesses operate. Back then, marketing efforts focused on traditional channels like print, TV, and radio. With the advent of the internet, businesses have had to adapt their strategies to keep up with the times. These days, digital marketing services are one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers. And as we move into the future, digital marketing will likely become more critical.

infinitSpace has announced a global partnership with Vallist to enable more landlords and developers to enter the flexible workspace sector.

Branding is always one of the most challenging parts of launching your business: the message you send needs to perfectly convey your values and appeal to the market. Just like a person, your company is unique, and you want it to be likable.

From October 2022, Residency will be organising monthly pop-ups at its Islington Square site in North London.

Fifteen new tech startups will be joining the Exchange scheme with plans to scale, grow and raise funds over the next six months, with the support of the startup programme and its partners.

Just one year after being launched on Shopify (2021), Virtue closed a pre-seed round led by SFC Capital, and has also joined the Techstars accelerator.

Aero Technologies, Inc. the next-generation premium air travel company, which serves routes in both the US and Europe, announced a $65M capital raise, $50M in Series B funding and $15M in convertible notes, for a total post-money valuation of $300M.

EdTech startup Microverse, an online school for remote software developers where students around the world pay nothing until they land a life-changing job, has doubled its valuation with an extension of $4M to its Series A round.

A significant amount of the new unicorns added last year came from the web3 market. This is in line with the overall trend of growth in the cryptocurrency industry and the rise in popularity of decentralised applications (dApps).

Black woman-owned and led, Discussion Box founded by Lisa Carter, helps global brands bring together high-level stakeholders for conversations that change history.

Whether you’re getting your nails done, having your hair recoloured or taking a waxing strip to your brows, the beauty industry isn’t short on treatments. In fact, it’s a booming industry that is growing with each year. In 2022, the industry has been valued at an eye-watering £395.7 billion. And everyone’s getting a slice of the well-groomed pie.

Peckwater Brands runs a range of virtual restaurant brands. These are virtual restaurants that exist solely on third-party delivery platforms, like Deliveroo or Uber Eats, without their own brick-and-mortar location.

From wearable devices to smart feeders and bowls, we all enjoy spending money on our pets. The PetTech market is set to hit $20bn by 2028, according to research. The market is being driven by the increasing introduction of AI-enabled solutions that enhance the analytics capabilities of products.

This issue we’re delving into Scotland’s astonishingly beautiful capital city, Edinburgh. Well known for its dramatic cityscape, historical charm, stunning architecture and infamous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh is also an up-and-coming startup hotspot. Let’s delve in as to why the city is predicted to become the UK’s next technology hub.

Classrooms have moved beyond the clunky desktop computers and square televisions wheeled out on a trolley that were once the norm for students across the UK. The new standard is for classrooms to be tech-infused with tablets, interactive online courses and sometimes robots.

Matt is no stranger to building successful companies and developing national brands. Before hitting 40 years of age, he’d created, grown and sold a multi-million-pound marketing company, picking up the Great British NatWest Entrepreneur Of The Year award three years in a row along the way. Not afraid to take on a new challenge, Matt set his sights on tackling the male skincare industry head on, with the launch of MESOA For Men. We caught up with Matt to learn more about him and the journey. 

According to the World Health Organisation, infertility affects 15% of couples worldwide who are of reproductive age. As many as one in six couples struggle to conceive. With almost 70,000 cycles of IVF performed every year in the UK alone, global IVF cycles exceed 2.5 million each year.

Building on its record-breaking Series B investment, SEON has hired Matt Davies, formerly VP of Customer Marketing at Splunk as its new Chief Marketing Officer in a move that highlights the company’s marketing-first approach to business development. We caught up with Matt to learn more about his journey and his new role.

Startups Magazine looks at the amazing work that startups are doing with AI and other tech to bolster the medical world’s diagnosis, treatment, and overall understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

Ethical Equity, the UK’s ethically compliant investment platform, announced a partnership with Streets Consulting, the financial services and technology business development, marketing and communications consultancy, to deliver a one-day Founder Workshop.

London-based B2B sales startup trumpet has secured £1.6m in a pre-seed funding round led by Lightbird Ventures, alongside Triple Point Ventures, Haatch and female-led Anamcara Capital, and a number of high-profile operators from Loom, Cognism and Reachdesk.

Journee, the online tour operator that matches people with experiential trips to mystery destinations, has secured £1.75m investment.

FoodLama is proud to announce it has been chosen by Google to be part of its Black Founders Fund cohort for 2022.

Returning to the Business Travel Show Europe this month, on the 29th and 30th June, at the ExCeL London is the Innovation Faceoff, a competition set out to find the most disruptive tech set to revolutionise business travel and six of this year’s nine finalists are startups. 

Just around the corner now, The Innovation Faceoff to find the most disruptive tech set to revolutionise business travel is returning to Business Travel Show Europe on the 29th and 30th June at the ExCeL London and six of this year’s nine finalists are startups.

The Innovation Faceoff to find the most disruptive tech set to revolutionise business travel returns to Business Travel Show Europe this month (29-30 June, ExCeL London) and six of this year’s nine finalists are startups.

Leiho has created smiley socks for a good cause. For homeless people, something as simple as putting on a clean pair of socks, underwear, eating a hot meal or drinking clean water can make a huge difference to your day. Leiho has created socks, and with every eco-conscious product you buy, you are helping the business support people in need by giving them essentials that improve their lives. We caught up with the two Founders Joey and Thuta to find out about their journey. 

Startups Magazine caught up with Wybo  Wijnbergen Co-founder and CEO, infinitSpace. infinitSpace enables office landlords to easily create and run a flexible office space under their brand and conditions.