In a bid to help create the carbon neutral home, Schneider Electric has partnered with Sustainable Ventures, a UK-based cleantech hub that offers entrepreneurs workspaces, accelerator programs, and support to develop their businesses.

Blackfinch Group announces the launch of the #ISOLATIONINTERN  platform in partnership with investment industry firms and universities to enable specialist talent acquisition under Covid 19 Restrictions. The initiative aims to supercharge early stage companies and help keep this vital sector of the economy on track.

Throughout history there have been several significant events which have led to mass deaths defining the course of civilisation. Among these are World Wars, plagues, pandemics, and epidemics including the black death, flu pandemic of 1889-1890 and more recently Swine flu, Ebola, and our present challenges with COVID-19. They are all examples of major historical outbreaks that have taken lives and steered the course for public health development, social and medical innovations some which still being used today. 

Small business owners are used to tackling the unexpected, but coronavirus has presented startups across the UK with a challenge on a scale they could never have planned for.

Sage has released the first edition of the SMB Tracker, highlighting the latest weekly sentiment from businesses across the UK. This week the Tracker finds that a greater proportion of the UK’s small and medium sized businesses may have either applied or intend to apply for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS).

Startups across sectors are signing up to offer learning and development opportunities to furloughed workers through professional development platform, Learnerbly, as they attempt to support employees throughout the coronavirus crisis.

Modern day advancements in technology and resources, as well as a much wider range of funding options, mean taking an idea from initial concept to startup has never been easier. One thing that you can’t create a shortcut for, however, is understanding the fundamentals of scaling a business - and getting it right. 

With the UK charity sector estimated to be facing a £4 billion loss in the next 12 weeks and 50% of all businesses putting most of their staff on furlough as a result of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Freestyle, a Midlands-based digital product studio - has launched a unique service helping charities connect and find support from local businesses and its furloughed workers, Charity Matcher. 

The UK government’s announcement of a £500m co-investment Future Fund to help startups navigate Covid-19 is a positive step. It recognises the innovation and job creation startups bring to the economy, while addressing their most pressing issues – cash and safeguarding talent.

COVID-19 is affecting every area of our lives. As well as the immense personal cost of this global health tragedy for so many, there are likely significant business implications for your customers as well.

Fractory, the award-winning Manchester cloud manufacturing startup, has announced the launch of SafeKey, an antimicrobial multitool that kills harmful bacteria, such as Covid-19, in as little as two hours. 

LuggageHero, a leading luggage-storage network, is bucking the trend by showing that investing in travel startups is not over during these uncertain times surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Last year, Startups Magazine met with two Cambridge entrepreneurs, Anya Roy and Chantelle Bell who have co-founded Syrona Women, a startup designed to help women detect early signs of gynaecological cancers, infertility and endometriosis.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on businesses and the economy in the UK. Access to finance for business, as provided by banks and financial services institutions, is imperative in these trying times. Whether you’re a shopkeeper, sole trader or multi-national company, the chances are you need help right now, and getting access to that support is a top priority. 

Working from home is the new norm for many professionals and it’s still not clear how long this new way of working will last. So for many small businesses this means adjusting and managing the logistics of running a business remotely for the foreseeable future.

London based FinTech Flagstone, developer of the UK’s largest cash deposit marketplace, has raised $15m (£12m) in venture capital in a round led by OMERS Ventures and supported by existing investors including Kindred Capital and Moneysupermarket Group plc.

As we emerge blinking into the light post lockdown, what will the ‘new normal’ look like? The questions that I am overhearing have changed very recently, from those covering how to survive during lockdown, to those focused around how to get back to normal working? In truth, the questions vary from the theoretical to the practical, but in essence they all ask, ‘how will we adapt to the ‘new normal’?

With most countries in some form of lockdown to slow the spread of CoVid-19, the business landscape for both startups and investors is almost unrecognisable to the start of 2020.

The UK government has taken a number of steps to support businesses and entrepreneurs during the Coronavirus pandemic. One of its flagship schemes is the Future Fund, a £250m package that provides a financial lifeline for innovative startups.

Bot-Hive, a digital marketplace for robotics and AI solutions has successfully completed a six-figure equity funding round. Bot-Hive is a digital marketplace which connects SMEs with the right automation technology for their business and shows them the best way to introduce robots to their workflow processes.