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.

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.

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 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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

CareLineLive, the all-in-one home care management software that increases efficiency, capacity, compliance and communication of both managers and carers by digitising their work flows, has announced that it has secured a £175k grant from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

We are currently living in two versions of Europe, on one hand, there is a thriving urban one, with big cities such as Madrid, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Milan, etc., and on the other hand there is rural Europe, depopulated and lacking in possibilities, in a continuous decline and without horizon or prosperous future.  

Research from Ezra, a global provider of digital coaching, has found that UK office workers value their new norm of working from home so much that many would forsake career progression, company benefits and even a pay rise to maintain it.

incspaces, a space-as-a-service operator with locations across London, Leeds, and Manchester, is urging workers to consider supporting their vital local economies as they begin to return to the office later this year. Under the Government’s roadmap to recovery, office workers are expected to begin a phased return to the workplace from 12th April as an increasing number of businesses are given the green light to reopen. The team behind the growing flex space initiative is keen to use this as an opportunity to support small firms.

Xero has announced it has signed BDO as a Xero Global Partner, as part of a new three year global agreement. Xero will become BDO’s preferred accounting solution for its Business, Services and Outsourcing clients in the small to medium business space - significantly growing the number of BDO clients on Xero over the next three years.

As the vaccine continues to be rolled out across the UK, business confidence is at its highest point since the beginning of the pandemic. Here, businesses continue to be overwhelmingly supportive of the Government’s approach to help companies through COVID-19, with nearly four fifths either somewhat or very supportive of their initiatives.

Networking is a vital part of getting any business off the ground. No matter how good your product is or how on top of your finances you are, having good connections is essential both for learning skills necessary to the job and for establishing contacts who can provide you with new opportunities.

Brands can and should take a stance on social and political matters, according to new research by Kubi Kalloo and its partner Alligator Digital. A survey of 600 people in both the US and UK has uncovered that 59% of consumers believe taking a stance matters. Of this percentage, two-thirds take the issue seriously and are likely to buy from or boycott a brand based on their social media posts about an issue.

Healthtech company, NuroKor BioElectronics has announced plans to double its team and further its international expansion, following 12 months of rapid growth during which the company’s half-year sales rose by 156%.

Having recently graduated from Queen's University, Belfast, where he studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Lewis Loane has two big passions in life, engineering (of course), but also music.