As the UK marks three months under lockdown, Sage has published an in-depth report based on weekly polling of a total of 5,000 SMEs over the course of the lockdown period.

The Great Depression that hit the US in the 1930s was probably the worst economic recession ever registered. To guide the country out of it, President Roosevelt launched a series of programmes, public work projects and financial reforms known as the New Deal. While the economic implications of COVID-19 threaten to shadow the Great Depression, Harel Boren, CEO and Co-founder of Inspekto, explains why Autonomous Machine Vision (AMV) could be the new New Deal.

Provider of a data analytics acceleration platform that enables enterprises to gain insights from their massive data stores, SQream has announced that it has raised $39.4m in Series B+ funding. The round was led by Mangrove Capital Partners and Schusterman Family Investments, who joined existing investors, including Hanaco Venture Capital, Sistema VC, World Trade Center Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Silvertech Ventures and Alibaba Group. The proceeds of the investment will be used to recruit top talent to accelerate advancements in the Company’s technology and cloud innovation, and customer delivery platforms to better serve worldwide demand.

The Mayor of London’s scaleup programme has teamed up with Microsoft to provide some of the capital’s leading small companies with extra support to help them grow.

OurCrowd hosted the OurCrowd Pandemic Innovation Conference earlier this week which brought together thousands of top investors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives, government officials and press from over 90 countries around the world.

The coronavirus pandemic is having a significant and painful impact on work, livelihoods and the economy. Recent reports suggest around 600,000 jobs have been in lost during lockdown in the UK alone, while over 40 million people have become unemployed in the US.

Apparently Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t actually say the famous line himself until Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones which we all know is the weakest of the series, however plenty of star characters encourage Luke to 'use the Force' throughout his journey to Jedi.

LiveStyled is excited to announce it is relaunching as ​Realife Tech​, The Experience Automation Platform, with a $7.2m funding round led by ​Virgo Investment Group​, with additional backing from strategic investors ​Superfly Ventures and ​Stadia Ventures​. Realife Tech works with the world’s biggest entertainment destinations and events, and has developed a ‘​Post-Covid Fan Safety Hub​’ to provide key customer-facing technology and help bring events back safely once restrictions on large gatherings are lifted.

It’s a tough time for all businesses, but Manchester once again proves to be a hotspot for emerging new talent. Ambitious startup, The Shirt Society, has secured a substantial six figure investment from one of the city’s top tech investors: Scott Fletcher MBE.

As renowned author and alternative medicine practitioner, Deepak Chopra once said: “You have to think of your brand as a kind of myth. A myth is a compelling story that is archetypal, if you know the teachings of Carl Jung. It has to have emotional content and all the themes of a great story: mystery, magic, adventure, intrigue, conflicts, contradiction, paradox."

The business landscape has transformed like never before in just a matter of months. I've seen first-hand how the current climate has impacted global enterprises. As business leaders, we need to instil trust within our teams while also having a clear strategy on how to navigate these challenging times.

Israel startup Rise.ai, which offers AI-driven customer re-engagement solutions, is making its gift cards available for purchase on Facebook and Instagram. This new feature will let small and medium businesses and enterprises (SMBs/SMEs) sell digital gift cards to their local community through Facebook and Instagram using the customers’ geo-location.

The role of the traditional office has been profoundly undermined by the recent pandemic - and with companies like Twitter granting employees indefinite leave to work remotely, coworking should be set to boom.  

In the world of work, the effects of social measures that governments are being forced to take have proven to be incredibly challenging for businesses and employees. However, for many business leaders around the world, they are now starting to turn their attention to the potential long-term implications of the pandemic on the next era of work.

Purina has announced the first ever winners of the UNLEASHED accelerator lab programme. UNLEASHED is a unique initiative, run by the Purina Accelerator Lab, designed to combine R&D with personalised mentoring and a bespoke nurturing of each business. The winning cohort includes: BlueNalu Innovations, San Diego; BorrowMyDoggy, London; Natu, Barcelona; OneMind Dogs, Helsinki; and Petable, Lisbon.

One of the largest independent financial advisory and tech wealth organisations is to launch a first-of-its-kind on-boarding verification app amid 'soaring global demand' for fintech solutions.

Asto Business Capital loans are now available on the Funding Options platform as part of a long term partnership with the business finance marketplace. The Santander-backed app joins Funding Options’ roster of more than 200 lender partners, offering loans of as little as £150 or as much as £150,000, to help small businesses plug urgent cash flow holes.

Early 2020, a Chinese city called Wuhan was spotlighted on the global stage, as the epicentre to a global pandemic forcing large parts of the world to go into lockdown. The stuff of movies became a reality, and humanity was thrown into turmoil. 

So far, the first half of 2020 has felt like six years, not six months. Every new month seems to bring with it global challenges and the threat of coronavirus still looms. The knock-on effect of COVID-19 has been significant, with the FTSE100 losing nearly a quarter of its value in late March - the biggest drop in history.

Roy Ledgister, Founder & CEO of Convivia, speaks to Startups Magazine about his experiences and offers some insight into entrepreneurship.