When the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent UK lockdowns are discussed, much of the focus is on the negative impact on the economy, our physical health, and our mental health. But, while the damaging effects are unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Sure Valley Ventures, the venture capital firm that invests in early stage software companies, has announced that it has led a Seed investment round of £1m for Polience Limited (“PreCog”), a security solution platform company that is able to provide data intelligence to combat crime, terrorism and protect vulnerable people.

Tech Nation has announced the release of its annual Tech Nation Report, the ultimate state-of-the-nation report on the UK tech sector. In its seventh year, the report lifts the lid on tech in an extraordinary 2020, revealing how the sector has changed, who the top performers were through the year, and the challenges and opportunities the UK faces as it navigates out of the pandemic and leaving the EU.

Global online sales grew 27.6% in 2020 to reach $4.28tn and the number of transactions needing customer support increased from one-in-eight to one-in-six. In response, eCommerce customer service specialist, eDesk is supercharging support for its 23,000 agents with AI advancements, expediting the company product roadmap.

Since AWS Lambda first launched in 2014, serverless computing has exploded. Adoption is high, and Amazon, Microsoft and Google all now offer serverless capabilities. As is so often the case, entrepreneurs have reacted fast, and created an ecosystem of startups that support the continuing growth of the serverless industry.

Many of us have faced work challenges due to the long term restrictions implemented as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with unemployment estimated to be at its highest since 2016 at 4.9%.

The fourth edition of ChangeNOW has announced digital broadcasting from Paris and other live locations worldwide. A significant milestone for the planet, with the online streaming of inspiring content and meetings of impact actors, to create a global momentum of multi-stakeholder collaboration on our century’s issues.

Until very recently, data privacy has largely been a matter of ethics for tech startups. With most consumers fundamentally unaware of both the capability of apps and other software to farm data and the potential risk this engenders, there has been no compelling reason for tech companies to rethink their privacy policies.

The first national UK lockdown was announced one year ago on 23rd March, bringing with it social distancing restrictions that required physical office and store closures across the UK, changing the course of thousands of small businesses.

Hutch Games, the mobile racing game company launched in 2011 with no funding and sold for $375m less than decade later. Shaun Rutland, one its Co-founders, explains how a former PlayStation team struck out on their own and how picking the right investors can help a business flourish.

There’s two things you can do in a crisis - sit back and hope for the best, or stand up and fight - and as a business, Coalition’s ethos definitely falls into the latter group. We caught up with Founder, Guy Robinson about his latest venture - Car Park Party.

Do you want to create a new business venture? Do you have a business idea but don’t know where to start? Have you started your business without a plan? It is time to create a business plan! A business plan is like a travel itinerary, you need to plan your trip before travelling: Where you will go? How to reach there? How much will you spend? Where will you stay? What will you do (activities)? Which places will you visit?

Through all the advancements seen over the past century, international trade has been slow to change. For example, Letters of Credit (LCs) continue to be an important trade finance product for global traders, but they rely on paper-based processes, which are fundamentally slow and prone to error. Now, with the need to change how organisations work in a post-COVID world, there is a greater need to improve how trade and trade finance operate

Rosa von Krogh is Head of Insights and Innovation at the North Alliance, one of the largest companies in Scandinavia marrying design, media and e-commerce. She is speaking at the global SHE Conference, alongside guests like Hillary Clinton, Norwegian PM, Erna Solberg and Icelandic PM Katrin Jakobsdottir, from 5-19th March 2021.

Cleantech engineering firm, Sunswap has recently secured half a million pounds in crowdfunding that will be used to rapidly scale the business and deploy their zero-emission TRU technology on the roads by the end of 2021. 

University of Bristol spin-out CytoSeek has raised a £3.5m seed round to develop new cell therapies to treat solid tumours in cancer patients. The funding is led by Science Creates Ventures (SCV), Bristol’s new deep tech EIS fund for science and engineering startups, and is the firm’s first investment since announcing its venture capital fund last December.

Loui Blake, serial entrepreneur and angel investor, invests in Embargo loyalty app and joins as an advisor following the tech startup’s significant growth during COVID-19.

Ibex Medical Analytics, the pioneer in AI-powered cancer diagnostics, has announced a $38m Series B financing round led by Octopus Ventures and 83North, with additional participation from aMoon, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures and Dell Technologies Capital, the corporate venture arm of Dell Technologies, bringing total funding of Ibex to $52m.

A North-East based fintech firm has been launched with the aim of digitally transforming the way private equity firms, venture capital funds and angel investment networks currently manage the end-to-end investment process.