Retail Marketing Group (RMG), a UK-based marketing agency, has announced the launch of E:VENT Virtual & Hybrid Solutions, a virtual world experience that enables businesses to bring people and teams back together. Designed to keep employees, visitors and customers safe whilst working from home, the new E:VENT solutions provide a bespoke virtual environment for exclusive, secure and innovative events, and offers intimate board meetings to full-scale conference productions, as well as interactive learning, employee engagement, and celebratory experiences.

Class-ify, a new digital platform ‘powered by human connection’, has been launched by former Just Eat employees to enable fitness instructors to build their own businesses online. Set to revolutionise the fitness industry by providing a workout experience ‘powered by human connection’, Class-ify helps independent health and fitness instructors monetise their audience and build a global community, all from the use of a laptop or smartphone device. 

BLEND (formerly OneHourTranslation), an end-to-end technology-based multi-market enabler, announced the completion of a $10m funding round to fuel its continued rapid growth. Existing investor Fortissimo Capital led the round following a year of strategic expansion reflected in the company’s new brand and offering. BLEND leverages OneHourTranslation’s AI-driven language technology, 25,000 expert linguists, and advanced tech stack to help global brands establish a native presence in fundamentally different markets, worldwide.

Tractable, the AI startup accelerating recovery from accidents and natural disasters, has announced that former Microsoft CFO and Ignition Partners Managing Partner, John Connors, has joined its Board of Directors.

Generating £27.8bn gross value added annually, and employing more than 360,000 people, the West Midlands is the UK’s largest centre for Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS) outside London. Now, business leaders from Shoosmiths, Wesleyan, Bruntwood, CBRE and Birmingham Law Society, amongst others, are working with the region’s just under 12,500 leading tech and digital companies to see how they can integrate AI and advanced technology into their everyday activities.

Ten exciting startups are pioneering new green technologies with support from 5PRING and its Green Innovation Challenge programme, set-up in partnership with Suez, a large utilities company, and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) last year.

Today is World Book Day and primary school children across the UK will be dressed as their favourite fictional characters in front of laptops with their classmates.

Xero has announced the acquisition of Planday, a workforce management platform with more than 350,000 employee users across Europe and the UK that simplifies employee scheduling, allowing businesses to forecast and manage their labour costs.

Employees are at greater risk than ever of suffering burnout and employers should consider putting in place preventative and curative measures. For startup employers in particular it is important to look at tackling burnout in a sustainable way, eradicating the factors and issues before they take hold.

Today saw what we had all been waiting for, the budget announcement from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak - but what does that mean for the economy and small businesses? 

Here, Andy Hodgetts, Director of Corporate Finance at Buzzacott, the accountancy firm advising fast-growth companies, shares his thoughts on the recent M&A rush ahead of today's Budget and the corporation tax update.

China can be a tough market to enter, however it is far from being as impenetrable as some startup leaders may believe. Yes, there are cultural attitudes and government roadblocks to overcome, but new sectors and opportunities are opening up in China all the time.

Rewire, a fintech startup that develops cross-border online banking services tailored for the needs of expatriate workers worldwide, has announced a Series B funding round of $20m and significant line of credit from a leading bank. Rewire was founded with the vision to empower every migrant to fulfill their financial potential for a better future, for themselves and their families.

Following news this week that people have been rushing to book holidays for summer, data from absence management platform, e-days reveals that Mondays, already the day people are most likely to book holiday, will see a spike in holiday bookings post government announcements in 2021. So far Monday January 4th, the first day back after the Christmas break, and Monday 22nd February, following the UK government’s announcement of the roadmap out of lockdown, have witnessed the biggest leap in number of leave bookings.

The Government is exercising extreme caution when it comes to easing lockdown restrictions. This is a sensible approach. After all, the UK is in its third national lockdown, and the Prime Minister will be keen to avoid another. That said, the slow road out of lockdown will likely frustrate many UK businesses. Many non-essential, retail and leisure businesses must now remain closed until 12th April, and even then, many will be unable to operate at full, pre-pandemic capacity.

As ambitious business leaders, you aspire for your organisation to soar high in success. Not only this, you try to leave no stone unturned to fulfill your aspiration. But, are you directing your efforts to enhance employee happiness? If not, it is time for you to start doing so. This is because happy employees can speed up your organisation’s growth and help you fulfill the aspiration of your company’s immense success quickly and easily.

Eight 5G solution providers have joined the SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre (SONIC), a joint programme between Digital Catapult and Ofcom to test interoperability and integration of open networking solutions.

There is nothing more important to company growth than employee productivity. That is why employers have to ensure that their workers are happy, educated, and motivated enough to give more than 100% on the job, on a daily basis. They strive to inject more office efficiency every single day.

Ahead of the budget on Wednesday, reputation management consultancy, Lansons and strategic insight agency, Opinium polled 500 senior business leaders to gauge their views on current economic support and understand what they want out of the budget.

As of this week, the government has put into effect a VAT Domestic Reverse Charge (DRC) for building and construction services. The reverse charge VAT procedure is an anti-fraud measure designed to counter sophisticated criminal attacks on the UK VAT system.