Working at Startups Magazine, we come across some extremely inspiring, empowering and all-round incredible women, but it would be impossible to name them all. As we celebrate International Women's Day 2021, we wanted to highlight our 20 most influential women of 2020 from our last Women in Tech edition.

International women’s day is a double-edged tampon, on the one hand it’s a day of celebration, reflection and unity, on the other, it’s a day to bring about awareness and focus on the inequalities that still pelage our society. How’s that gender pay gap looking? Where are we with female representation in the tech industry now? Was your new smartphone designed with a women’s hand size in mind?

Three inspirational female founders discuss how they made their start in business, how they have continued to grow throughout the pandemic, and their advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.  

Disputes in business are inevitable, but they don’t have to cost the earth or damage your reputation. Here are some tips to avoid commercial disputes from escalating.

The Central Research Laboratory (CRL) is seeking applications for its 8th world leading accelerator programme, supporting early growth stage product pioneers.

The Digital Women’s Day, JFD in French, was started up by Delphine Remy-Boutang back in 2013, (back then just an annual meeting), but has since evolved into so much more. It is now a platform for the promotion of digital entrepreneurship for women, and JFD has brought together and celebrated a large number of women who all share the same goal - to revolutionise the world digitally both in Europe and Africa.

Retail Marketing Group (RMG), a UK-based marketing agency, has announced the launch of E:VENT Virtual & Hybrid Solutions, a virtual world experience that enables businesses to bring people and teams back together. Designed to keep employees, visitors and customers safe whilst working from home, the new E:VENT solutions provide a bespoke virtual environment for exclusive, secure and innovative events, and offers intimate board meetings to full-scale conference productions, as well as interactive learning, employee engagement, and celebratory experiences.

Class-ify, a new digital platform ‘powered by human connection’, has been launched by former Just Eat employees to enable fitness instructors to build their own businesses online. Set to revolutionise the fitness industry by providing a workout experience ‘powered by human connection’, Class-ify helps independent health and fitness instructors monetise their audience and build a global community, all from the use of a laptop or smartphone device. 

BLEND (formerly OneHourTranslation), an end-to-end technology-based multi-market enabler, announced the completion of a $10m funding round to fuel its continued rapid growth. Existing investor Fortissimo Capital led the round following a year of strategic expansion reflected in the company’s new brand and offering. BLEND leverages OneHourTranslation’s AI-driven language technology, 25,000 expert linguists, and advanced tech stack to help global brands establish a native presence in fundamentally different markets, worldwide.

Tractable, the AI startup accelerating recovery from accidents and natural disasters, has announced that former Microsoft CFO and Ignition Partners Managing Partner, John Connors, has joined its Board of Directors.

Generating £27.8bn gross value added annually, and employing more than 360,000 people, the West Midlands is the UK’s largest centre for Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS) outside London. Now, business leaders from Shoosmiths, Wesleyan, Bruntwood, CBRE and Birmingham Law Society, amongst others, are working with the region’s just under 12,500 leading tech and digital companies to see how they can integrate AI and advanced technology into their everyday activities.

Ten exciting startups are pioneering new green technologies with support from 5PRING and its Green Innovation Challenge programme, set-up in partnership with Suez, a large utilities company, and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) last year.

Today is World Book Day and primary school children across the UK will be dressed as their favourite fictional characters in front of laptops with their classmates.

Xero has announced the acquisition of Planday, a workforce management platform with more than 350,000 employee users across Europe and the UK that simplifies employee scheduling, allowing businesses to forecast and manage their labour costs.

Employees are at greater risk than ever of suffering burnout and employers should consider putting in place preventative and curative measures. For startup employers in particular it is important to look at tackling burnout in a sustainable way, eradicating the factors and issues before they take hold.

Today saw what we had all been waiting for, the budget announcement from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak - but what does that mean for the economy and small businesses? 

Here, Andy Hodgetts, Director of Corporate Finance at Buzzacott, the accountancy firm advising fast-growth companies, shares his thoughts on the recent M&A rush ahead of today's Budget and the corporation tax update.

China can be a tough market to enter, however it is far from being as impenetrable as some startup leaders may believe. Yes, there are cultural attitudes and government roadblocks to overcome, but new sectors and opportunities are opening up in China all the time.

Rewire, a fintech startup that develops cross-border online banking services tailored for the needs of expatriate workers worldwide, has announced a Series B funding round of $20m and significant line of credit from a leading bank. Rewire was founded with the vision to empower every migrant to fulfill their financial potential for a better future, for themselves and their families.

Following news this week that people have been rushing to book holidays for summer, data from absence management platform, e-days reveals that Mondays, already the day people are most likely to book holiday, will see a spike in holiday bookings post government announcements in 2021. So far Monday January 4th, the first day back after the Christmas break, and Monday 22nd February, following the UK government’s announcement of the roadmap out of lockdown, have witnessed the biggest leap in number of leave bookings.