Reactive Reality, the leading augmented reality (AR) company increasing sales and brand loyalty for fashion e-commerce brands by enabling them to offer virtual fitting rooms to their customers, has announced the opening of a new office in Minato-ku, Tokyo along with the appointment of their Japan Country Manager, Keiichi Iwamoto. This move continues the company’s international expansion, adding to offices in Graz, Austria, and Milpitas, California.

The application of artificial intelligence to automate diagnostics is one of the solutions that are already being implemented. DES2021, in collaboration with EIT Health, has brought together experts from companies such as T-Systems Iberia, Novartis and Ferrer to analyse the impact of technology on the health and pharmaceutical sector.

Last year, all types of people with different jobs were thrust into a new, unfamiliar place of business, which also happened to be their home. While we have all become used to the diverse types of personalities you find in an office, we have all had to adapt to different styles of and needs for working from home.

Nearly three quarters of employers (73%) believe the pandemic will mean long-term changes in the way they support the health and wellbeing of staff, according to research undertaken on behalf of GRiD, the industry body for the group risk protection sector.

The pandemic has inspired long-term digital transformation projects, with UK businesses set to increase IT spending and hiring in the year ahead, new research from Studio Graphene has revealed.

The invitation-only network for Founders and CEOs of the most successful tech businesses, Fast Growth Icons, has announced the return of its physical London event, taking place on 5th-6th July 2021.

Clim8 Invest (Clim8) launched its crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube on Tuesday and has already smashed its target by 168%, raising £1.26m by the end of Day 1. The latest round is set to fuel its product roadmap and team.

Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global has announced the launch of the UK and Ireland edition of ‘Go Global 11.11 Pitch Fest’, a virtual event designed to help international brands grow their businesses globally. Following the success of Pitch Fest 2020 in the US, the programme will be opened up to British and Irish brands looking to find success in China.

Tech Nation’s ‘The future UK tech built’ 2021 report, published earlier this year, revealed that the UK currently sits third in the world for venture capital (VC) investment in tech companies, behind only China and the US, with $15bn pledged last year. Great news for the UK’s emerging businesses, right? Well, Simon Philips, CEO of ScaleUp Capital, tells a different story.

PocketLaw, the Swedish legal tech solution providing a one-stop shop for businesses’ legal needs, has announced that it has launched in the UK.

This year CRL ran their first in-person Hackathon event where business and design students from Brunel University had the chance to join this year’s startup cohort team for two weeks and collaborate closely with the founders to help them test and develop their customer and commercial opportunities.

The UK’s largest ecommerce investor and a digital insights specialist have joined forces to help accelerate business transition online.

Members of the UK business community have signed an open letter asking the Government to extend its funding deadlines for startups in the wake of the pandemic.

New research from small business lender, iwoca, suggests that although the initial easing of restrictions has helped recovery for some SMEs, around a third are still sacrificing customer numbers with existing COVID restrictions in place.

Remote, the HR technology platform for international payroll, benefits and compliance, has announced exponential growth since its $35m Series A funding in November 2020, including substantial increases across customers, employees, country availability and new product offerings.

The Modern Milkman, a fast-growing sustainable grocery startup that offers doorstep grocery delivery in return and reuse packaging without single-use plastics, has announced the closing of a funding round led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners. Existing investors ETF Partners and Serial Investor Simon Murphy also participated in the round.

“Build a product to scratch your own itch” says entrepreneur Guy Stern after founding his own legal technology solution, Legal Connection, to improve communication and offer an ‘umbrella platform’ for the legal industry.

VenueScanner has secured a $1.5m funding round led by Rianta Capital and ACF Investors. Launched to enable individuals, businesses and event organisers to find better and more affordable venues, it is helping undiscovered and independent venues reimagine how they use their space and fill their down-time.

Deeptech Labs (DTL), a new post-seed accelerator aimed at deep technology (deeptech) startups, has been founded in Cambridge to bring the benefits of its innovation ecosystem to post-Seed deeptech companies from the UK and Europe.

The kings of search Google will often improve their algorithm around SEO. This can be based on emerging tech like voice search or changes in human behaviour like the use of mobile. 2021 sees some very big changes that could easily derail your current strategy; it’s almost a clean slate.