Here, Startups Magazine speaks to Shruti Rai, Chief Growth Officer and Co-Founder of Novus, the new sustainable banking app making it easy to generate positive impact from everyday purchases.

Research by the Belvoir Group has found that although three quarters of women working in the property industry are keen to run their own business, lack of confidence and concerns about juggling family and work life are major preventative factors.

There is no denying that this year has been a particularly tough time for businesses - small and large - all over the world; particularly for entrepreneurs from underrepresented and BAME communities, who are amongst those who have been hit hardest by the pandemic here in the UK. In light of this, it is more important than ever to celebrate our diverse female founders and champion their incredible innovations and achievements, this International Women’s Day. 

To mark International Women’s Day 2021, Sodexo Engage UK is offering women an opportunity to join its job shadowing program, SheWorks.

Almost one fifth of women (17%) are considering starting their own business, in a sign of a potential fresh wave of female-led startups that could help power the UK’s economic recovery.

Digital Boost, a new platform connecting organisations with digital skills founded by serial entrepreneur Sherry Coutu CBE, has today set out a bold ambition to digitally upskill 500,000 women from female-led organisations by January 2022, with 200,000 of those from BAME backgrounds.

To coincide with International Women’s Day, O2 is sharing new research revealing how women have been impacted by challenges raised by Coronavirus. As insights show how employees are feeling a year on from the outbreak of the pandemic, O2 is calling on employers to ramp up their focus on wellbeing and take action to ensure women thrive in the post-pandemic workplace.

Nearly half of women working in cybersecurity (49%) say that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their career in a positive way, with just nine percent of female cybersecurity professionals saying that the pandemic negatively impacted their career. This is according to a new global report from human layer security company Tessian, published this International Women’s Day.

Especially for International Women’s Day on March 8, iStock has unveiled a series of tips to help SMBs meaningfully depict diversity, encouraging them to intentionally and authentically portray women across age, race and cultural lines in their marketing and advertising campaigns for their benefit, and the benefit of women everywhere.   

A few years ago I was sitting in a meeting, working while I waited for it to be my turn to present. The engineer sitting next to me asked me what I was doing - I said that in order to make it home in time before my children’s bath time, I had to work through every single free moment. He replied saying he preferred to not get home until after bath time.

The founder of LatchAid, a FemTech startup using innovative technology to revolutionise breastfeeding and early parenting support, has won the prestigious Women in Innovation award.

Despite the global growth of women-led businesses, funding continues to be a significant challenge. Having gathered multiple data and research, Instant Offices revealed 35% of female business founders still face gender bias when raising their business capital. Female entrepreneurs also receive an average of 5% less funding than their male counterparts.

UK businesses are at risk of losing employee trust through choosing to abstain from reporting their gender gap figures, following on from the EHRC’s second deadline extension. Government figures show that nearly half of 10,000 eligible employers chose not to submit their pay gap figures last year - equalling to nearly 5,000 businesses that possibly have something to hide.

Xero accounting and bookkeeping practices and app partners across the UK and Ireland were honoured at the annual Xero awards. Hosted by Gary Turner, Xero UK & EMEA Managing Director and comedian, Henry Paker in an online ceremony, the awards showcased the achievements of those supporting small businesses through one of the toughest years. 

A London-based business growth agency has set up a neural network to help enhance its Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services.

Angel Business Club will lift the lid on the secrets to investment success when the club’s Insights Series returns on Wednesday 17th March.

2021 sees the continuation of much of the UKs workforce setting up office at home.  However, as the government reveals its roadmap for the lifting of lockdown, workers are considering when to return to the traditional office setting.

New ideas are overrated, you can find them on every street corner. We’ve been in a holding pattern for a year, where everyone you meet is an expert on COVID and has their own ideas about what should happen. I’m sick of hearing them.

Innovative property technology company, Vouch has confirmed that their team has more than doubled since March 2020, marking a 118% workforce increase despite the lockdown. Designed and built by letting agents for letting agents, Vouch delivers a referencing solution designed for the 21st century. 

Following the government’s latest support measures for SMEs, new research from Xero shows that many firms acknowledge they will make more use of technology to capitalise on the post-lockdown bounceback, with the potential for a £16.6bn productivity boost.