At the start of December 2020, new audio-only iPhone app, Clubhouse, had 3,500 members worldwide. Fast forward to the end of February 2021 and the Silicon Valley founded platform surpassed in excess of 10 million downloads, with 2 million weekly users.

Sage has unveiled research showing that 1 in 2 (52%) UK adults dream about starting their own business.  However, over half (53%) of those feel that money worries are stopping them from turning the idea into a reality - a fear that has been exacerbated by the stresses of COVID-19. 

A pioneering new mindfulness training programme, powered by Virtual Reality (VR) training specialists Virti, has launched this month to help employees cope with the demands of their jobs during the pandemic.

As WhatsApp users are forced to share personal data with Facebook, a new competitor - YEO (Your Eyes Only) Messaging - has launched today, offering an alternative ultra-secure private messaging platform.

Are you thinking of starting a business in 2021? If yes, you need to think of businesses that can thrive in the post-COVID-19 economy. The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour across the world, rendering many traditional businesses obsolete. For example, consumers now want to buy from businesses that meet them at their homes; that deliver products to their doorsteps.

Corporate culture embodies of all the written and unwritten rules, values and attitudes that characterise an organisation. It offers an insight into how business decisions are reached, and how they will be implemented. By extension, then, internal culture is the also the foundation upon which all successful innovation must be built.

A year since it was awarded CBILS lender status, responsible lender, AskIf, can now reveal it has approved close to £4m to deserving SMEs and micro businesses, playing an essential role in the national push to help businesses survive and thrive. AskIf has delivered on its mission to be an inclusive lender with 17% of CBILS loans distributed to BAME-owned businesses, and 22% to female-led businesses. 

With many of us working from home, dogs crashing our virtual business meetings has not only become the norm, but the preferred. According to recent data, dogs gate crashing your virtual meeting may have other benefits such as better feelings of wellbeing and lower stress levels.

Hotel owner and restaurateur Maximilian Steurer is an early adopter of the paul&ernst bikes, a decision that proved particularly lucrative during the past year. Pastry chef Lisa Haas also opted for her own bike when starting her own business - during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

New research by money.co.uk has crowned Google as the most successful company to be started at university. The search engine sits at the top of the university startup league table with a current market capitalisation of $1.27 trillion (£926 billion). This is 12.7 million times greater than the $100,000 initial funding the company received in 1998. 

Launching one year after the first lockdown, creative workspace and accelerator, Huckletree has launched a new campaign with Otherway to address the year that’s been, celebrating the founders persevering and innovating despite the pandemic, whilst inspiring the companies of the future to be brave in the face of adversity.

Salary finance is the fast-growing concept that helps employees earn wages in real-time from their employers, defeating the need for high cost loans.

A new report has revealed the devastating impact a year of lockdown has had on the mental health of those running business. According to a study by Harper James Solicitors the strain of the past 12 months has led to one counselling platform recording an 84% rise in demand.

An after-work programme designed to support people in starting social enterprises has enabled 18 businesses to launch, as well as helping some secure almost £20,000 in funding.

Quirk’s goal is to empower people to take control of their money, feel secure about the decisions they’re making, and make use of data and intelligence to help humanise the world of money and finance.

As the world strives to decarbonise the way we live, travel, and work, there is an urgent need to rapidly increase the generation and use of electricity from renewable power. Today we can successfully capture energy from the sun, wind and even tides, but we have not yet succeeded commercially in harnessing one of the largest green energy sources on earth – our ocean waves.

In this month’s Founder Focus feature, Startups Magazine speaks to serial entrepreneur, investor and star of the Canadian Dragons’ Den, Michele Romanow.

For any startup, time to market, knowledge, confidence, and expertise are all vital to the success of the entrepreneurial journey. With extensive experience in all these key elements, we speak to John Bowman, Marketing Director, and David Pearson, Technical Director at Anglia, the UK-based authorised distributor of semiconductors, optoelectronics, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components, about what the company can offer to new businesses.

Figures collected by insurance broker PolicyBee show a large increase in sales of cyber insurance since the UK went into lockdown in March 2020.