River Cottage serves up £1m in mini-bonds to investors via Crowdcube in just 36 hours

River Cottage, the restaurant and food business, made famous by co-founder Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for championing home-grown, seasonal food, has raised £1m on crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube, attracting 283 investors in less than 36 hours. Mexican restaurant chain, Chilango, was the first to launch its 'Burrito' mini-bond on Crowdcube last week and has also raised more than £600,000 towards its £1m target.

The River Cottage Bond, which allowed private investors to make an initial investment of £500 or more, and pays out 7% fixed interest per annum, will allow the company to expand its award-winning chain of restaurants.  Bond-holders also get 10% off at River Cottage's three Canteens in Axminster, Bristol and Plymouth and free River Cottage membership, with access to a range of exclusive benefits.

MoMA Design Store and Kickstarter

For the next two months, 24 Kickstarter-funded projects will be available through the MoMA Design Store in New York City, and online

These products were hand-selected by MoMA's amazing curators, and feature some of the most exciting new products in the world of design. You can explore these selections here.

These are not the first Kickstarter-funded products to land in the MoMA Design Store. Last year theAmplifiear, an iPad speaker that was supported by 1,453 backers, entered the store. Shortly thereafter, the 3Doodler, the Lumio, Frank, and the Musguard were also selected.

Kickstarter has quickly become a hub for the global design community, and has pioneered a sea change in how designers work. To date, more than $158.8 million has been pledged to 7,778 design projects on Kickstarter by thousands of people all over the world.

The cab fare to growth

If one story tells you just how much the environment for raising equity finance for startups has changed, it's that of Amer Hasan and minicabit. He's secured funding from a top technology accelerator and from a group of business angels. He has made a successful appearance on Dragons' Den. Right now it's crowdfunding on Seedrs.

With a career in the mobile industry behind him, in 2011 Hasan decided to take the minicab industry into the digital age.

Minicabit is a price comparison site for licensed minicabs nationwide. Customers get quotes from minicab operators from both their pick-up and destination venues. The cab operators set their rates with minicabit taking a ten per cent commission on the fares booked. So, Hasan says, "we only make money when they do." (There's no signing up fee for a cab firm to be on minicabit.)

Britain needs to move beyond the rhetoric of a rebalanced economy, warns InvestingZone

Jean Miller, CEO of InvestingZone, the equity crowdfunding platform, explains why the UK economy needs to be rebalanced towards business investment in SMEs.

The latest set of GDP figures reveal 0.8 per cent growth in the UK economy but do not change the underlying problem; that limited investment in SMEs is not enough to support the foundations of a rebalanced economy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) act as an engine room for the UK and are currently responsible for 48.1 per cent of private sector turnover. As a result, any developments in the support, guidance and funding for SMEs would create a more bullish attitude about the future for UK plc and help the government achieve its growth ambitions including making the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business.

which plans to operate via a network of franchises and licensees around the country, will use the money to fund its expansion plans and capitalise on a market valued at more than £6bn in the UK.