Fintech business lender, MarketFinance has secured an additional £50m from one of Israel’s largest asset managers, Viola Credit, to lend to UK SMEs under the HM Treasury and British Business Bank CBILS initiative. The announcement comes as MarketFinance launches a 'unified application' process in which SMEs will, through one application, be presented with a variety of finance options and be able to select those best suited to their needs.

The German software startup, DGG, has secured a total of €760K in the seed funding round to support the development and worldwide adoption of its 3D optimisation tool, RapidCompact. The investment was led by 3VC Partners, Fraunhofer Tech Transfer Fund (FTTF), Singapore-based Sobel Rand Pte Ltd, and Charlie Songhurst, former Head of Strategy at Microsoft.

Indorse, the platform focused on building, growing, and sustaining high performance software engineering teams (built on blockchain technology) is formally announcing its Hackathon tackling challenges posed by COVID-19 - winners receive $40,000 for their innovations.

Aviation specific document management system, Web Manuals is launching a freemium package for aviation startups, to boost innovation as the industry emerges from the COVID-19 crisis.

Tech Nation has announced the 30 scaleups that have been selected to join the new Net Zero programme. Announced in Alok Sharma’s speech today at London Tech Week, the companies come from across the UK and across a range of sectors including construction, agriculture, and energy.

With the upcoming issue focusing on Women in Tech and Female Founders, we decided to speak to a few females in the industry on their journey and experiences. Starting with Franziska Kirschner, Research lead at Tractable. "When I was a child, I wanted to become a dog when I grew up. I genuinely believed that science would progress far enough that I could change species by the time I reached adulthood. Unfortunately,  the world’s scientists had other ideas and their endeavours focused elsewhere, such as on making computers reason like humans. 

Fintech startup, Fluidly has added end-to-end funding tools to its cashflow management solution, offering pre-qualified funding options to millions of businesses within minutes.

Ten British green tech private companies with significant potential to help protect the environment are revealed in the Sunday Times BGF 10 Green Tech to Watch, researched by Fast Track.

Vertical farming, the practice of growing crops indoors under tightly controlled conditions, is continuing to expand rapidly. By using LED lighting tailored to the exact needs of the crop, alongside advanced hydroponic growing systems, and growing crops in vertically stacked trays, vertical farms can achieve yields hundreds of times higher than the same area of traditional farmland.

For startups, the importance of quality professional advice cannot be overstated. While business owners are quick to seek advice from lawyers and accountants there is considerable resistance to seeking financial advice.  A survey conducted by OpenMoney earlier this year, which polled 2,080 adults, provides a worrying insight into how business owners view financial advisers and the advice that they provide. We spoke to Pradeep Oliver, Partner, Cripps Pemberton Greenish who gave us more insight on the topic.

The East Anglian City of Ely has been labelled the worst connected city in the UK according to a study by Nomad Digital.

David Spencer-Percival, serial entrepreneur and founder of two globally successful recruitment businesses, Huntress and Spencer Ogden, is launching his latest venture, Life Science People.

Fleet management software for small and medium-sized companies, Vimcar has released new research into vehicle theft and misuse in the electrical services sector. The survey of more than 1,000 UK firms identified a clear need in the sector to have greater control over its fleet, with vehicle misuse costing the industry thousands each year.

The Business 20 (B20), the official voice of the global business community across G20 members, and Business at OECD have launched a joint conceptual policy proposal that focuses on reducing barriers that firms in general and SMEs in particular encounter in their quest to participate in Global Value Chains (GVCs), as cross-border fragmentation and friction continue to impede the free flow of people, capital, goods and services.

Cyprus’s tourist industry suffered a hammer blow this year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, but the disaster has fuelled other ambitions on the island with many political leaders, financial experts and corporate players now seeing the country as an international hub for SMEs.

The sporting legend and seasoned business advisor, Sir Clive Woodward, will teach a new live and interactive course on team growth and development, to help combat the 95% failure rate for tech startup businesses in the UK. He will be working with an up-and-coming online-learning platform, which aims to flip this staggering stat by addressing the critical knowledge crisis affecting marketing and sales professionals in tech companies worldwide. 

European VC funds are raising a record amount of capital in recent years - $13B in 2018 with over 40% going into funds greater than €250M. Venture is not only a vital source for startup companies to achieve growth and create value through innovation - it is key for the overall economy. In essence, it is a two-sided business, where exceptional founders are matched with capital. While a lot has been said and written about the ‘front’ facing side of the venture industry, how do venture capital firms emerge and raise their funds?

Businesses, whether they’re established, starting up or looking to grow, all have one thing in common. The need to be agile and aware.  And, if the pandemic has taught us anything it’s that businesses can adapt to a changing market and they can do it very quickly.

UK startup, Flare Bright has announced that it has won a UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) contract to rapidly innovate it's SnapShot product.   

Technology startup inploi has launched a string of new features adding tens of thousands of job opportunities to their platform and positioning it squarely as the professional community to connect the New Collar Workforce with companies that want to engage and hire from this demographic. inploi notes that 82% of their user base does not have a LinkedIn profile.