Some 1.7 million small-scale farmers in Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan will soon receive personalized agricultural advice through their mobile phones as a means to improve their incomes, food security and resilience to economic shocks caused by COVID-19, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced today.

As workforce strategies make a dramatic shift from hours-based to output-based performance metrics as Covid alters business models, investing in the right technology will be the crucial lever for success.

A financial services industry survey conducted jointly by FS Club and US-based Ravco Marketing in the summer of 2020, sponsored by Salesforce, found that the industry sees a silver lining resulting from the Covid-19 crisis.

Job opportunities for the professional sector – including sectors such as IT, professional services, life sciences, finance, marketing, HR and engineering, 

According to the National Association of Estate Agents Property Mark, the housing market is booming. In June, properties sold for over the asking price, making property sales the highest recorded number since February 2016.

New data published has revealed the regional distribution of loans under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme. 

Urgent action is required to close the UK’s growth capital gap, according to a report released by Innovate Finance, the ScaleUp Institute and Deloitte, in collaboration with the Business Action Council, industry and investors. This report focuses in on accelerating, evolving and expanding existing initiatives under a national framework for growth

Tech-led businesses, whose models have been further validated by the Covid-19 crisis, have seen unprecedented demand from investors in the last three months, according to tax-efficient platform Wealth Club. 

eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest annual Global Private Equity Performance Series, which shows that Western Europe consolidated its global lead in private equity, with LBO funds further improving their performance during 2019. Overall, 2019 was a positive year for global private equity performance, with most regions seeing rising returns as well as falling risk.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in the Growth Economy, has backed 24 new companies in the first half of the year whilst continuing to actively support its portfolio. Total H1 investment stands at £177m and includes £128m into new portfolio companies and £49m into existing portfolio companies. 

NatWest have announced a partnership with Synalogik, a member of their Entrepreneur Accelerator programme,