A recruitment company that's shaking up the international space industry, Britain's first carbon negative ice cream company, and a key disruptor in sustainable fashion-tech are all among the finalists in the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2021.

Did you know it takes less than 0.1 seconds for people to form a judgment of a face they are shown in a picture? It’s no surprise when we consider how much information people need to process in today’s society. However, this creates a problem for organisations.

A lot of people these days start to think about targeting a particular market segment, with a very narrow audience. This isn’t the worst idea in 2021, especially for those willing to launch a startup, it could potentially help your business and bring you more revenue than you expected.

The global eCommerce markets experienced a remarkable boom period over the past 18 months, presenting agile firms with an unprecedented opportunity to secure growth from a retail sector which, even in normal trading conditions, had been on an unstoppable rise for several years.

The last year has caused a huge shift in the business landscape, with technology and digital skills being more fundamental than ever for all businesses. Research shows that businesses integrating digital skillsets across the workforce could increase the UK economy by around £92bn.   

European travel startup, Framey has closed a $1M Seed funding round led by ICE Capital from Dubai, and backed by Europe based JECO Capital. The company, planning to disrupt the way people plan their trips, will use the funds to invest in its technology, scale up its operations and launch globally.

A study of 250 business owners in London and Greater South East England by Vistage, the CEO coaching and peer advisory organisation for small and medium sized businesses, has revealed that the majority of respondents remain positive in spite of ongoing challenges, with 84% claiming they are optimistic about the next 12 months.

New data from European small business lender, iwoca, revealed how embedded finance will play a vital role for small businesses as they look to recover from the pandemic.

A British AI tech startup Kortical, which helps companies use Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, has improved 10x their success rate of generating positive outcomes across their organisations vs the industry average.

An online brand protection business, SnapDragon Monitoring has raised £1.2m in its latest funding round, bringing the total raised to just over £3m, from ACF Investors, Mercia, and Scottish Enterprise, to help brand owners identify and remove fakes, copycats and online threats, using intellectual property to do so.

It’s back – the ideas incubator programme that launched the 2021 drinking water initiative of the year and delivered the UK’s reigning top Tech Innovator.

Business credit ratings have been around for a long time and are seen as being directly connected to the financial capability of a company, but despite this many companies don’t maintain an awareness of them and don’t fully understand the impact they can have on day-to-day operations and growth.

Coined by environmental campaigner Jay Westerveld 35 years ago, ‘greenwashing’ refers to activities by businesses that are designed to make them look like they are more environmentally sound than they really are.

As part of a new edition of ICT Spring (September 14th and 15th), the renowned global tech conference organised since 2010, Mastermind Summit & Competition will take place on September 15th at the European Conference Center Luxembourg. This event - dedicated to the startup ecosystem - aims to promote and spread best practices, foster emulation between entrepreneurs and VCs and offer recognition to the best international startups of the ecosystem. Mastermind is composed of a one day conference and a startup competition where three key categories will be represented: FinTech, DeepTech and NewSpace.

Business owners are feeling the pressure to adapt in an ever-changing world. The accelerated pace of change required during the global pandemic has highlighted the need for organisations to place digital transformation at the forefront of their strategies. However, putting those plans into action is another story and the difficult truth is that 70% of digital transformation projects fail.

Innovative business travel company TapTrip has teamed up with Trainline Partner Solutions (TPS), Trainline’s B2B arm and a leading distributor of global rail content, to further elevate and streamline its service to business users as rail becomes the primary source of travel for more and more domestic business customers post-Covid.

Xero has unveiled its most comprehensive improvements to bank reconciliation on the platform in a decade, to help give small business owners more time back in their day.

The latest Microsoft Inspire event proved once again to be an insightful and valuable event for all of Microsoft’s partners. It has proved to be an invaluable tool to measure the company's future and where it sees itself in a post-pandemic world.

 The largest global brands in the technology industry today announce their collective commitment to champion racial equity at Black Tech Fest '21, a live festival celebrating Black culture, showcasing innovation, and creating pathways for underrepresented talent. The three-day event will take place online and in person from 19th to 21st October during UK Black History Month. Last year, over 40,000 people streamed Black Tech Fest content across Black History Month and 3,500 attendees from over 20 countries attended the festival, the biggest celebration of its kind in Europe. See here to pre-register.

Over the last year, many of us have become very familiar with remote working. However, as we begin to return to normality, you’re probably wondering – what now? Is everything going to go back to the way it was pre-pandemic, or are we going to use this experience to change the way we work for good? It’s a decision that your leadership team needs to make together and back 100%, so how do you get them on board?