UK Startup Ecosystem 2015 Review
by Startacus Admin
March
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Mass
Challenge’s London based tech startup accelerator programme opened for entries. -
The Telegraph wrote a very insightful piece suggesting that baby boomers and immigrants were largely to be thanked for the boost in UK entrepreneurship levels. They also suggested that the 2020s could be a bumper decade for the UK's economy.
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Social Forces journal published findings of research by academic Sarah Thébaud which sought to account for the apparent gender disparity in entrepreneurship and innovation. An interesting read which helps to explain gender bias in both conscious and subconscious levels.
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The BBC published a quiz which claims to assess how entrepreneurial a person is. Apparently one needs to be dishonest, venal, and unscrupulous in order to be a successful entrepreneur. The offending quiz has since been removed after widespread outcry at its crass depiction of entrepreneurship, but you can check out the questions which were included here
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It is revealed that the UK government spent £3.7m promoting its ‘Business is Great’ initiative.
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A campaign to save creative charity Ideastap built steam throughout the early part of the year, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save it.
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A government report controversially suggested that there are 4 types of entrepreneur
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Leading UK entrepreneurial event MADE announced its Autumn return to Sheffield.
April
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Sage teams up with Startup Britain to provide better support to UK startups and entrepreneurs
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As the election approached many organisations created guides to political parties and sparked fierce debate across social media. Here at Startacus we tackled the question, what does the election mean for startups and small businesses?
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Drones were top of the startup headlines throughout the year, including the story of a man who plans to plant 1 billion trees using the technology.
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Innovative bike light startup Blaze raised £1m investment.
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Transport for London was accused of being ‘in bed’ with startup ‘unicorn’ uber and displaying ‘unjustified and damning bias’ towards the company.
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The John Lewis incubator returned to unearth the next big innovations in retail technology.
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Virgin Media Business’ ‘Pitch to Rich’ entrepreneurship competition opened with a prize fund worth up to £1m
May
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Santander Corporate and commercial released a report suggesting that SMEs within the UK are likely to spend up to £53bn on improving their digital abilities by mid 2017.
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The UK General Election took place, with a small but comfortable majority for the Conservative party led by David Cameron. The business world reacted; What does a Conservative government mean for social enterprise? for small business? and for UK business?
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David Cameron assembled his first Conservative only cabinet including George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Theresa May (Home Secretary), Ian Duncan Smith (Work and Pensions Secretary), Sajid Javid (Business, Innovation, and Skills Secretary). You can see all of the appointments here
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With all the usual ceremony and pomp, the Queen opened parliament with her traditional speech which outlined the new government’s agenda and key focus areas, including those related to business and economic growth. Read and listen to the full speech here.
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The world’s largest accelerator Mass Challenge announced the first finalists of its new London based programme.
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The team at Startacus HQ announced the return of its hotly contested Self Starter Awards.
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Facebook announced that it had purchased UK VR startup Surreal Vision.
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Barclays Bank announced the launch of a new £100m fund which would allow high-growth potential tech firms to borrow up to £5m to accelerate to the next level.
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Ignite, pre-seed programme for innovative web and mobile tech businesses raised £1.8m to expand its operations from the NE of England to other parts of the UK including London and Manchester.
Brands & Startup / Business Services - Here are some ways you can work with Startacus to help us on our mission.
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WeWALK, RNIB, and ICL consortium secures UKRI funding to improve mobility for visually impaired and elderly.
The impact of standards, ethics and conduct on business success and profits - Work.Life has some interesting insights...
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The lowdown on Space32 - the startup that wants to help hybrid-working businesses find the working space and solution that's right for them.
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Global Tech for Good initiative seeks innovative startups and scaleups that are creating positive social impact and enhancing people's lives through tech.
The lowdown on Bidnamic, the startup that's combining advance machine learning with human expertise to help retailers to maximise revenue and profitability from Google Shopping.
Innovative Czech fintech startup 4Trans raises investment to expand first of its type AI driven factoring services across Europe.
Edinburgh-based life science company Cytomos secures funding to support further development of its innovative cell analysis tech.
Ethical Equity and Streets Consulting join forces to deliver Founder Workshop to help close the inequality gap in startup to scaleup funding.
Fancy being featured in this year’s SmallBiz100, which showcases the best of Britain’s vibrant small business community? There's just a couple of days left to do just that!
Screenloop secures major investment to support further development of its AI-driven recruitment platform that helps companies build the best teams and removes unconscious bias.
Published on: 29th December 2015
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