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6 October

As it grows funds under management and pursues a broader investment strategy managing growth and buyout capital on behalf of retail and institutional investors, Mobeus continues to invest in its portfolio management capability, appointing Clive Austin as partner to lead the team and hiring highly experienced portfolio directors Jane Reoch and Ed Wass.

6 October

Maven Capital Partners and Enso Ventures, a leading specialist early-stage venture capital firm have invested £2million in Cognitive Geology, to support the continued growth of the business.

 6 October

Nearly two thirds (63%) of small businesses are looking to big data to benefit their business, according to research by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group.

5 October

Award-winning challenger law firm gunnercooke has today launched Operating Partners, a team of expert business leaders who will work with private equity firms and their portfolio companies and ambitious small and medium sized enterprises to improve their performance, increase their value and help them to scale.

5 October

BGF has announced the appointment of Andy Watts to its Talent Network team. Andy will provide support to BGF-backed companies by further expanding BGF’s network of non-executives, interim managers and experienced finance directors. 

5 October

Mercia Technologies PLC announces that one of its third party managed funds, the RisingStars Growth Fund, has completed a further cash realisation from Blue Prism Group plc, representing to date a 55x return on the Fund’s original investment.

5 October

Yorkshire-based Nationwide Window Cleaning has received new investment of £1.5m from BGF to support its organic growth strategy and the acquisition of Reflekt Cleaning Company. The investment follows a period of significant growth at NWC, with revenues increasing by close to 100 percent since BGF’s first investment, from £7.5m in June 2014 to more than £14m in June 2017.

4 October

YFM Equity Partners has backed a £1.5 million investment into e2E Engineering Limited, a leading technical consultancy operating in the telecommunications market, with particular expertise in satellite communications. YFM’s funding comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies and British Smaller Companies 2.

4 October

Mercia Technologies PLC announces that it is rebranding its fund management subsidiaries, which include Enterprise Ventures and Mercia Fund Management, to Mercia Fund Managers. As part of the Mercia Group’s continued growth and development, the company has also relaunched its website with a new, refreshed look at www.merciatech.co.uk

4 October

Roc Technologies, one of the UK’s fastest growing companies for IT services, has secured a £10m investment from BGF to support its longer-term growth strategy and the acquisition of City Change Management (CCM).

4 October

Crowdcube announces another strong quarter of performance in 2017, with over £1 million generated in company revenue.

• 70 pitches launched in Q3, with 42 launching in September alone - three times as many that were launched over the same period in 2016
• Over £5m raised through the iOS App since launch

4 October

Pixey.io, an Edinburgh-based startup enabling broadcasters and publishers to obtain the digital rights to Instagram photographs has secured almost £250,000 in seed funding. The company, set up by Sarah Stenhouse, will use the cash injection to add five new members of staff over the next six months to introduce artificial intelligence technology and grow its international profile.

4 October

Maven and YFM-backed Indigo Telecom Group, a leading provider of multi-vendor managed and project services to Tier 1 and 2 telecom network operators, equipment vendors, multi-national corporations and government clients, today announced the acquisition of Belcom247 (Bellcom UK Ltd). 

4 October

ZOA Robotics has secured seed investment from the British Robotics Seed Fund (BRSF). The £85,000 investment is the first of a series that have been made by the UK’s robotics-focussed investment firm, and is in a company that is raising further investment on the new and complementary robotics crowdfunding platform Britbots CROWD (http://crowd.britbots.com).

2 October

Startup founders should be prepared to put their money where their mouths are if they want to secure investment from business angels, according to research from University of Edinburgh Business School and the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School. In a study of more than 100 UK established investors – often known as business angels – 87% said they would find it too risky to back an entrepreneur who had not made a significant financial investment in their own venture.

28 September

Shoosmiths corporate partner Steve Barnett, assisted by solicitor Rebecca Chafer, advised rapidly-growing men’s online grooming business Cornerstone on its £3.5m investment, led by Calculus Capital.

28 September

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has responded to HM Treasury’s consultation Financing Growth in Innovative Firms.  In its response, the AIC demonstrates how VCTs are an ideal means to raise much needed capital from retail investors to help smaller businesses grow.  The AIC has also proposed measures to ensure VCT and EIS investment is focussed even more closely on young, innovative businesses.  Key amongst these are a restriction on allowing VCT and EIS money to be used to purchase property.

28 September

Capital Cell, the first pan-European equity crowdfunding platform dedicated to life sciences, has announced the launch of its first active UK campaign. The platform is raising seed finance for companies across biotechnology and healthcare, with products varying from cancer therapeutics to fertility monitoring devices.

28 September

Startup Funding Club (SFC) has announced the launch of the Startup Funding Club Angel Fund. This latest edition of SFC’s SEIS/EIS Fund will allow qualified investors to get exposure to the very best of Startup Funding Club’s dealflow.

28 September

Green Angel Syndicate has completed a funding round for the syndicate with thirteen of its most enthusiastic members investing in equity in the syndicate itself.  This investment is intended to support the marketing of the syndicate to the wider population of angels and potential angels, whose concerns for resource use and environmental challenges might find resonance in Green Angel Syndicate.

27 September

BGF has agreed to successfully exit its minority stake in aircraft seat manufacturer, Acro Aircraft Seating. The company will, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions including regulatory approval, be acquired by Zhejiang Science and Technology Investment Company (ZTC) for £55m. 

27 September

Maven Capital Partners has completed a £1m investment in hedgehog lab Limited, a mobile app designer and technology consultancy headquartered in Newcastle.

27 September

BGF has launched its new visual identity as part of a brand refresh. The company, which is now the UK’s most active investor in growing businesses, will stop using Business Growth Fund in favour of the shortened BGF to better accommodate its three areas of investment - BGF Growth, BGF Quoted and BGF Ventures. A new website www.bgf.co.uk also goes live today.

27 September

Hoop the family app that helps parents discover and book what’s on for their kids, has secured £2.4 million in funding which will help to grow the business across the country and begin to focus on revenue growth.  BGF Ventures, the UK-focused fund, is the lead investor. 

27 September

Britbots, the mentoring organisation devoted to supporting British-based robotics start-ups, has launched Britbots CROWD, the world's first dedicated equity crowd-funding platform for high potential companies in field of robotics and associated technologies.

25 September

Maven Capital Partners is leading an investment in ADC Biotechnology  to support the construction of a dedicated pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at a site in Deeside, North Wales, creating 50 new scientific jobs.

25 September

Maven Capital Partners launches VCT offers to raise up to £30 million (with an over-allotment facility for up to a further £10 million). Maven is launching the offers to take advantage of the strong pipeline of new transactions which is in evidence across the Maven regional office network.

25 September

The three Northern VCTs (Northern Venture Trust PLC, Northern 2 VCT PLC and Northern 3 VCT PLC) have launched a new joint share offer, to raise an aggregate of up to £60 million (£20 million per fund) in the 2017/18 tax year. 

25 September

YFM Equity Partners has invested in the £9million transaction into 4net Technologies Ltd to support the continued growth of the business through new product and market development.  YFM’s investment is the fourth investment from its YFMEP 2016 Fund.

22 September

The Finance Durham fund managed by Maven Capital Partners has completed its first deal, investing £250,000 in the region’s largest small-batch craft distillery, Durham Gin.

22 September

Northwest-based investment group Seneca, has recently expanded its investment capability with the launch of its property investment business, Seneca Property.

22 September

Redag Crop Protection , an agrochemical discovery company, has secured £1.3 million in funding from existing shareholders which include institutional funds managed by Seneca Partners, and private individuals. Manchester-based corporate finance boutique Acceleris Capital arranged the funding.

20 September

Volo Commerce, a leading provider of multichannel e-commerce technology, today announced it has raised £6.2 million in new investment led by NVM Private Equity with participation from funds managed by Downing LLP.  Volo will primarily use this new funding to expand its business into North America and across other international sales channels.

20 September

Crowdcube announces that Enertor, the innovative insole company endorsed and worn by Usain Bolt, has completed its crowdfunding round.

20 September

Q-Bot, the UK’s leading developer of robots for use in the construction industry, has closed an investment round of £450,000 supported by ClearlySo, Minerva Investors Group, Curious Capital, London Business Angels and Chicago Booth Angels.

20 September

The Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) review of Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), ‘Transforming small business’, highlights the role VCTs play in providing patient capital to UK businesses. This is particularly relevant as HM Treasury is currently conducting a review, ‘Financing Growth in Innovate Firms’, which is considering how the UK investment community can support growing innovative firms by providing increased access to long-term investment (patient capital).

See AIC VCT review: “Transforming small business”

See HM Treasury’s “Patient Capital” consultation paper

20 September

Research commissioned by YFM Equity Partners has established that shareholders consider the ability to support growing UK businesses and the dividend yield resulting from that growth as significant factors, alongside tax relief, when investing in VCTs.

20 September

Bud (https://thisisbud.com/), a marketplace banking platform, has today announced  a partnership with online lending-market WiseAlpha, creating new investment opportunities in fixed income  for their users.

20 September

Crowdcube announces that it is partnering with SeedInvest – America’s leading equity crowdfunding platform – in order to give UK investors access to American companies being funded on the SeedInvest platform. The collaboration is the first time a UK crowdfunding platform has partnered up with an American counterpart in this way.

18 September

VCT and EIS funds managed by Downing LLP have invested £5 million to support Exclusive Events Venues (EEV) to acquire and redevelop Chester’s Old Bishop’s Palace into an exclusive-use wedding and events venue.

18 September

University Cribs, (https://universitycribs.co.uk/) the online platform for student property rental, announces today the completion of their seed funding round. Strategic investors from a range of related industries have committed capital to seeing the business further grow.

18 September

Foresight Group LLP, confirms strong levels of interest in its innovative Foresight Smart Bonds Fund, which offers investors the choice to invest over 1, 2 or 3 year fixed terms for between 4.07% and 4.83% rates of interest per annum.   The Fund will close Tranche "A" on 13 October 2017.

15 September

Peak has announced their £2.5m series A funding round led by MMC Ventures, bringing the total amount raised by the company so far to £3.5m. Peak’s data analytics-as-a-service model helps companies of all sizes use data, machine learning and AI technologies to drive growth. This latest injection of capital will be used to will fund the company’s ongoing investment in machine learning and AI technologies and further accelerate sales growth.

14 September

The Mobeus VCTs announced last week that it is opening new share offers to raise, in aggregate, up to £50 million, with over-allotment facilities to raise, in aggregate, up to a further £30 million. Mobeus’s existing VCT asset base is approximately £200 million.

14 September

OfferMoments, the world’s most innovative advertising platform, has received a £1.5 million injection to fund a brand new project that will revolutionise Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertising. This new wave of investment has been led by Michael Edelson, who has been a director of Manchester United since 1982.

13 September

The entrepreneurial ecosystems of 10 more countries are now more connected with each other and the rest of the world, with the appointment of High Commissioners for Bahrain, Brazil, Ghana, Iceland, Jordan, Macedonia, Morocco, Ukraine, USA and Zimbabwe.

13 September

Jenson Funding Partners is delighted to announce that Piers Denne, industry veteran, has joined as Head of Distribution.

13 September

Scotland’s first dedicated pre-seed tech accelerator, Seed Haus, has launched in Edinburgh backed by a stellar line-up of investment partners. Seed Haus’ mission is to trigger Scotland’s next billion-dollar startup and the partners joining the team in realising this goal include: Alistair Forbes, James Watt of BrewDog; Gavin Dutch, Paul Walton, Judy Wilson, Rob Dobson, Paddy Burns, Chris van der Kuyl, Paul Davidson, and Sir Tom Hunter. 

13 September

Sn-ap, an on-demand intercity coach travel service that is changing the face of coach travel, today announced that it has raised £2m in equity funding led by early stage VC fund Kindred Capital. The investment, which is supported by a number of private investors from the travel and finance sectors, will be used to expand its current service into new parts of the UK.

13 September

LeapFrog Investments (http://www.leapfroginvest.com/), the Profit with Purpose investment group, today announces its companies have reached 111 million people, marking an impact investing milestone. 

• Ten years on since founding, LeapFrog’s portfolio of companies reach 111 million people across Africa and Asia
• 93.8 million are emerging consumers earning less than $10 PPP per day
• Companies achieved 43% annual revenue increase per year from time of investment.
• Companies grew their emerging consumer base by 67% per year
• Companies deliver 184 financial and health services in the growth markets of Asia and Africa
• Proof of impact investing exceeds the ambitions set by President Clinton ten years ago
• LeapFrog named last week alongside Apple as one of Fortune Magazine’s top five companies changing the world

12 September

Foresight Group has invested £3 million from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund into the specialist engineering company ONFAB Limited, a leading designer and manufacturer of flexible containment solutions, primarily for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. 

12 September

A review of Venture Capital Trust (VCT) investment from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), ‘Transforming small business’, found that VCTs are important providers of scale-up funding and play a vital role in delivering transformational change for smaller UK businesses.

Download report here

12 September

Independent coffee shop chain Bob & Berts has become the third company in Northern Ireland to secure a major equity investment of £2 million from BGF, the UK’s most active investor in small and mid-sized companies.

12 September

Albion Capital is proud to have supported four British companies included in the annual Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table this weekend, ranking Britain’s private technology companies with the fastest-growing sales - Black Swan Data, Egress, Grapeshot, Symetrica. 

http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/league-tables/tech-track-100/

12 September

Hobs Group has received a further £4m investment from BGF to continue the expansion of its 3D printing, reprographics, facilities management and legal support services businesses in the UK. This brings BGF’s total investment in Hobs to more than £11m.

12 September

An international study by specialist global insurer Hiscox reveals a confident tone among small businesses, with two-thirds (67%) reporting revenue growth and more than seven out of ten (71%) expanding their customer base in the past year. US and Spanish firms top the revenue growth tables. By contrast, in the UK there is a modest decline in the numbers reporting revenue growth.

Download the full report - DNA of an Entrepreneur

7 September 

The European Investment Fund (EIF), with the support of InnovFin Equity and COSME, is investing €20 million in ACT Venture Capital’s latest fund, ACT V, in Ireland. The agreement will allow ACT to finance around 30 high potential early and expansion stage companies in the information and communication technology sector in the coming decade. 

7 September

Education software specialist Gecko Labs has secured an investment package of £1million to push its new technology and support global growth.

7 September

FiveAI, a start-up leading the UK’s charge to build technology for urban driverless vehicles, has closed a major £14M Series A equity financing round, adding to £12.8M in government funding for FiveAI’s consortium-led StreetWise project.  Lakestar Capital led the round, alongside existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Notion Capital and Kindred.

6 September

Funds managed by Foresight Group LLP have provided a £40 million secured loan note facility for Reward Finance Group Limited, an independent lender which provides secured loans to UK-based SMEs seeking more flexible finance.

6 September

Albion Capital, the leading independent investment manager, is seeking to raise up to £38 million through top up offers for its six venture capital trusts (VCTs). The fundraising targets £8m for Kings Arms Yard VCT and £6m across each of Albion’s other VCTs. 

5 September

Funds advised by Foresight Group LLP have invested £1.9m into Regency Design & Print Limited, is a designer and manufacturer of printed materials for the beverage equipment and retail point-of-sale sector.

5 September

Seedrs, the UK’s most active equity crowdfunding platform, has announced a £4 million investment by Woodford Investment Management (Woodford). The investment will be made through two Woodford-managed funds, Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc (WPCT) and Omnis Income and Growth Fund (Omnis).

5 September

The Greater Manchester Loan Fund has completed three investments, committing a total of £885,000 to support local businesses. The £500,000 investment in Estio Training, £265,000 investment in The Essential One and £120,000 investment in Intact Projects will safeguard existing jobs and create over 20 new positions across the three regional companies.

5 September 

Ski Solutions (www.skisolutions.com), the London-based luxury winter sports travel experts, has attracted over £6 million of investment from Mobeus Equity Partners as part of a secondary management buyout.

5 September

Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), a Cambridge-based investor in technology and healthcare companies, has led a £10 million Series A funding round for PROWLER.io, a company developing a world-leading, artificially intelligent decision making platform based on interpretable principles of mathematics and learning.

4 September

WaveLIFT Limited today announces that it has secured funding of over £1 million to further develop its innovative Artificial Lift pump technology for the oil and gas sector. The funding is led by Scottish business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, with co-investment from Scottish Enterprise and a private investor.

4 September

SMARTASSISTANT, the global technology provider for intelligent Digital Advice, has secured €5 million in Series A funding led by growth capital investor Beringea. The funds will further SMARTASSISTANT’s mission to make Digital Advice ubiquitous and help people make smarter decisions.

4 September

Foresight Group LLP announces the investment of £500,000 on behalf of the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund into Southampton-based Utonomy, a  ground-breaking intelligent gas grid solutions provider. The transaction represents the Fund’s first investment.

2 August

Stellar Asset Management halves annual management fees to just 0.75% on wrap platforms

• Stellar AiM IHT Portfolio is available on four of the UK’s leading wrap platform
• The portfolio offers investors full inheritance tax relief after two years

2 August

Mobeus Equity Partners has backed the management team of West Midlands based Arc Specialist Engineering in a buyout of the Group. The investment in Arc is Mobeus's latest and largest from its recently raised institutional fund and its fourth in the 12 months since the fund’s first close.

2 August

BGF has invested a further £7.3m in AdEPT Telecom Plc. Headquartered in Tunbridge Wells and listed on AIM, AdEPT is one of the UK’s leading independent providers of unified communications and IT managed services.

31 July 

Mark Brownridge, Director General of the EIS Association, comments on the believed to be imminent publication of the government's Patient Capital Review consultation paper and the measures and initiatives it could contain.

27 July 

Nearly four out five entrepreneurs are predicting growth over the next 12 months according to the latest Enterprise Index research by Smith & Williamson. However, it also reveals that expectations for the wider economy have plummeted with just over a third expectingn the economy to improve over the coming year, down from 50% in the previous quarter.

Download report here

27 July 

Libertine FPE Ltd, a Yorkshire company developing high performance linear motor-generator systems is set to target growth in commercial markets following a funding boost from NPIF - Enterprise Ventures Equity Finance, an NPIF product fund managed by Enterprise Ventures.

27 July 

Prosperity Hub Community Interest Company (CIC) has today received an investment of £70,000 from the Resonance Health and Wellbeing Challenge Fund, an impact led investment fund focusing on social enterprises in the South West. 

27 July

Provenance has secured £650K in private investment from investors including from Angel Academe, to complement ongoing grant funding, and enable a market launch in the UK and beyond.

27 July 

The first half of 2017 saw a record amount invested into UK high-growth businesses, despite deal numbers failing to recover from last year’s slump.

Key findings from the last six months:

• 74.7% increase in amount invested compared to H2 2016, to a record £3.03bn.
• Two of the three largest deals on record, involving virtual reality firm Improbable (£389m) and e-commerce site FarFetch (£313m).
• The number of deals involving non-UK funds rose 26.7% from the previous quarter.
• Deal numbers are down 3.54% compared to H1 2016.
• Later stage companies saw a 7.6% decline in deal numbers from the previous half.
• Deal numbers from crowdfunding platforms were up slightly (2.6%) from H2 2016, but have fallen by 18% in the last three months.

Download a copy of The Deal here

26 July 

Mobeus Equity Partners has provided £5 million of growth capital to Wetsuit Outlet, one of Europe’s leading online retailers of technical clothing and equipment for water sports.

26 July

Puma Investments, the specialist provider of tax efficient investment solutions is delighted to be named as a finalist in three separate categories at the 2017 Growth Investor Awards - Best BPR Investment Manager, Best AIM Investment Manager and Best EIS Investment Manager.

26 July

Maven Capital Partners, manager of the £20m Finance Durham Fund, is open for business in the North East after moving into Salvus House at Aykley Heads, the new £3.4m office building run by Business Durham.

26 July 

The London Co-investment Fund, the Mayor of London’s early stage business fund, has selected five new co-investment partners to join its existing Tech Fund - Albion Capital, Concentric Team LLP, Mustard Seed Impact Ltd, Startup Funding Club Ltd, Venture Founders. 

25 July

Promise Gluten Free, a highly innovative bakery which entered the gluten free market in 2012, is delighted to announce that it has sold a majority stake to Mayfair Equity Partners.

25 July

SuperAwesome, the technology company which powers the kids’ digital media ecosystem, has received new growth capital from Mayfair Equity Partners.

25 July

Ideal Flatmate, the UK’s first algorithm based flatmate matchmaker has closed its seed funding round, taking total investment into the platform up to £500k.

24 July

New business angel network, Dow Schofield Watts Angels, which aims to boost investment in the North’s technology sector has attracted over 50 potential investors and almost 40 companies within its first month.

21 July

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised Spence Johnson on its sale to world leading fintech company, Broadridge, in a deal that sees the creation of a unique single industry data source.

21 July 

Amadeus Capital Partners' portfolio company Graphcore has received funding from Atomico and a group of AI pioneers. Graphcore's processor has the power to realise the potential of artificial intelligence.

21 July

Palamon Capital Partners has announced the appointments of Oliver Hemsley,  founder and former CEO of Numis Securities, and Josyane Gold, formerly a Partner at SJ Berwin, to its Board of Advisors.

20 July 

Amicus Commercial Financehas provided a confidential invoice discounting facility to The Taunton Cider Company Ltd, one of the most famous British cider brands. The financing is set to help the century-old cider company make a triumphant return to the shelves.

20 July 

Kickstart Accelerator - one of Europe’s largest multi-corporate, zero-equity technology accelerators - an initiative of digitalswitzerland and operated by Impact Hub Zurich - has today announced its shortlist of 30 startups for its second cohort in the four verticals in Zurich.

20 July

SMEs in Britain are increasingly concerned over their ability to gain funding in the run up to Brexit, a recent survey has revealed. The study, commissioned by specialist insurer Hiscox, has found that recent economic and political uncertainty has adversely affected business confidence, and caused concern for the future as Britain’s withdrawal from the EU becomes nearer. https://www.hiscox.co.uk/business-blog/finding-the-funds-how-british-businesses-did-it/

20 July 

Northern Irish startup Intupod has recently received funding from Startup Funding Club. The early-stage company provides solutions for functional high quality, cost effective, multi-use living spaces. 

20 July 

Maven Capital Partners announces £30 million VCT fundraise, reflecting a strong pipeline of opportunities to invest in high-growth UK private companies.

20 July 

An overwhelming majority (74 percent) of institutional and family office investors expect to allocate capital into a venture capital (VC) fund in the next two years, according to a new survey from Ariadne Capital.

19 July

Altitude Two, a capital growth focused private equity fund, has been created to benefit investors with investments qualifying for two significant HMRC reliefs: Business Property Relief and Investor Relief. The fund is rapidly approaching its first close target. Overall, the fund is looking to deliver a final close of £20m by the end of the year.

19 July

Changing the face of working spaces: The Clubhouse, London’s leading business club, lounge and meeting space, has secured £3.5M growth capital from BOOST&Co.

19 July

Neurovalens, a health-tech start-up that specialises in combining neuroscience and technology to solve health issues, has secured funding of £1.1m – its largest investment to date. Angel CoFund and Beltrae Partners, join TechStart NI as the company’s primary investors.

19 July 

Entier, Scotland’s largest independent privately-owned catering company, is preparing to grab a bigger slice of international markets after a £6.5m investment from BGF.

18 July

Draper Esprit has significantly increased its equity stake in Perkbox, investing a further $8.6 million. Draper Esprit first invested in Perkbox in 2016 alongside the equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs, and, including the follow-on investment, has now invested over $12.0 million. 

18 July 

Maven Capital Partners has led the £3.5 million investment in Contego Fraud Solutions, to support the continued growth of the business. The transaction is being jointly funded by Maven and NVM Private Equity (“NVM”) which are investing £1.8 million and £1.5 million respectively. The remaining £0.2 million is being funded by existing investors.

18 July 

Privacy engineering software company, Privitar, today announces that it has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by Partech Ventures with participation from CME Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors IQ Capital, 24Haymarket and Illuminate Financial have reinvested. 

18 July

Form3, the cloud-based, end-to-end, secure platform for global payments processing, today announced it has secured a strategic investment from Barclays, the Angel CoFund and several individual investors who have joined the existing shareholders in raising $5m.

18 July

Ash TV, an award-winning Hull-based video advertising start-up has secured funding from NPIF - Enterprise Ventures Equity Finance. Ash TV will use the investment to hire additional staff to support its ambitious growth plans. It is the first investment in Humber by NPIF - Enterprise Ventures Equity Finance.

17 July 

Altitude Partners has sold its stake in VoIP provider Gradwell Communications to a management buy-in team with private equity backing. The exit has realised a strong 2.7x investment return.

17 July

Asset Match has surveyed 1,100 UK investors to uncover their sentiments towards British businesses and the private sector’s capabilities amidst the onset of Brexit and the formation of a Conservative minority Government. 

• UK investors rally behind post-Brexit business, but have NO faith in Theresa May and the DUP
• 57% of UK investors are backing SMEs as the champions of the nation’s post-Brexit economy
• But a staggering 59% have dwindling faith in the weakened Government’s ability to support the growth of the private sector

17 July 

YFM Equity Partners has invested £3m into Friska Limited, a Bristol based chain of food-to-go restaurants offering ‘feel good food’ throughout the day.  The funding will be used to support the roll out of the brand into new cities across the UK.

14 July

Crowdcube’s Q2 2017 update reveals the world’s first and largest crowdfunding platform has hit several key milestones as well as delivering further returns for investors. The quarter has also seen us accelerate our European expansion to consolidate our position as Europe’s most active equity crowdfunding platform.

14 July

NorthInvest, the angel investor platform that supports and mentors businesses in the North of England, has been recognised as ‘one to watch’ at the UK Business Angel Investment Awards 2017.  Founded in 2015 by aql CEO, Dr Adam Beaumont, NorthInvest is a not-for-profit platform owned by its angel investor members.  It was formed to address a gap in the funding ecosystem to provide easier access to mentorship and seed funding for start-up companies.

14 July

App commerce company Poq (https://poqcommerce.com/) has secured £3.5 million in its latest funding round, led by growth capital investor Beringea with additional funding from Meyer Bergman and Barclays. This round brings the total amount raised by Poq so far to £7 million.

14 July

Lein Applied Diagnostics, a company developing high precision measuring technology at the Reading Enterprise Centre has just closed on the first tranch of its current equity funding round.  The close saw a member of the Henley Business Angels participcate along with other angels and existing investors, raising a total of £440,000.

13 July

NVM Private Equity has invested £3m in London based Knowledgemotion the creators of boclips – a video platform designed specifically for the education sector.

13 July 

Cwmbran-based technology company Hudman has been acquired by Advanced, the UKs third largest software and services company. The deal sees investor Finance Wales sell its share in the company in the first exit from the Wales Technology Seed Fund.

13 July 

The investment company sector has experienced a strong first half of 2017. Industry assets reached an all-time high of £167.9bn at the end of May 2017. Secondary issuance by AIC members reached £3.3bn, a record level over a half-year period and a significant increase compared to £1.8bn over the same period last year. 

13 July 

Growth capital investor Beringea announced that APM Healthcare has been acquired by national pharmacy chain, Day Lewis Pharmacy. In the sale, Day Lewis will take over APM Healthcare’s 18 UK pharmacies, which it runs in Joint Venture Partnerships with GP Practices across the country. 

13 July 

Quill, the global leader in Primary Content production, has closed its latest round of investment, taking the total funding raised to date to £10 million. The investment is being used to accelerate the company’s rapid growth into new markets throughout the US and Europe, as well as to further develop its proprietary cloud technology platform.

12 July

Foresight Group LLP has launched Tranche A of its innovative Foresight Smart Bonds Fund, which offers investors the choice to invest over 1, 2 or 3 year fixed terms for between 4.07% and 4.83% rates of interest per annum.

12 July 

Tech North launches its biggest and best ever Northern Stars competition to find 10 of the North’s most promising tech startups. Over the last two years, Northern Stars has had great success in helping fast-growing startups and digital businesses to receive wider recognition and growth for their business, both within the region and beyond.

12 July

Berlin-based startup Caroobi, a platform that allows users to book car repair services online, has concluded its Series A financing round led by BMW i Ventures (BMW’s venture capital arm), DN Capital and Cherry Ventures.

12 July

Curve, the UK fintech startup that combines all your cards into one Mastercard®, connected to a mobile app, has closed a Series A funding round of $10m, bringing total funding to $13m. A group of global banks, leading VCs and industry veterans have joined the funding round. 

11 July

Foresight Group has completed a £3.45m investment into Mowgli Street Food Limited to fund the roll-out of restaurants around the UK. Mowgli Street Food is a chain of authentic Indian street food restaurants that offer food which is packed with flavour. The Company currently has restaurants in Liverpool and Manchester, with plans to expand to Birmingham and Leeds later this year. 

11 July

Octopus Ventures has announced that Priscila Bala, former Director of the Mentor Network at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, has joined its New York office. Priscila will work hand-in-hand with the firm’s London team and play a crucial role in supporting its existing portfolio scope, test and enter the US market as effectively as possible.

11 July 

Pro Steel Engineering Ltd has won the contract to redevelop the iconic East Stand at Twickenham Rugby Stadium, to support the project they have received a six-figure working capital loan from Finance Wales.

11 July

European venture capital fundraising last year hit €6.4 billion — the highest level since 2007 — according to a report launched today by Invest Europe. Nearly 10% of this capital was from North American institutional investors, as Europe’s growing economies, thriving investment ecosystem and the unprecedented rise of its tech industry make it an attractive investment destination, reveals the association’s new publication, The Acceleration Point: Why Now is the Time for European Venture Capital. 

10 July

Foresight Group has made a £2.25 million growth capital investment into Cinelabs International on behalf of Foresight VCT.

10 July 

Partech Ventures announces the final closing of its seventh venture fund at the €400M hard cap, thus completing a unique investment program spanning from pre-seed, seed, venture to growth stages over the past eighteen months. 

7 July 

Locum’s Nest, a mobile first platform founded by doctors which is revolutionising the way staffing shortages are addressed in the NHS, has completed a £1.1m funding round led by Albion Capital and IDO Investments, an innovation firm based in Oman. The investment will be used to expand Locum’s Nest nationally and add additional functionality to the service.

7 July 

Thursday evening (6th July) saw over 300 leading entrepreneurs and early-stage business investors gather at The Dorchester Hotel in London for UK Business Angels Association's annual UK Angel Investment Awards 2017.  Meganne Houghton-Berry was named ANGEL OF THE YEAR.

7 July 

Scottish Equity Partners has completed two new energy infrastructure investments from its Environmental Capital Fund (ECF).

6 July 

Despite fears that the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics into the workforce will usurp jobs, 85 percent of tech experts believe they will have a positive effect on the UK economy within the next five years, according to research from Silicon Valley Bank.

5 July

InnoEnergy, Europe’s sustainable energy innovation engine, is making its Investment Round, for supporting and launching revolutionary clean energy innovations, open year-round to offer flexibility to businesses to shorten the journey from lab to launch.

5 July

Octopus Ventures, one of the Europe’s leading venture capital investors, has announced that Stephen Morana has joined the team as a Venture Partner. Stephen brings with him 20 years’ experience working with some of the most successful UK digital businesses such as Betfair, Zoopla and boohoo.com.

5 July

Push Doctor has raised $26.1M in a Series B funding round led by a powerful syndicate of global investors: Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and Draper Esprit with participation from Oxford Capital, Partech Ventures and Seventure Partners. This marks the largest Series B funding achieved in Tech North to date.

5 July 

Beringea has sold its shares in Third Bridge - a firm that provides primary research and market intelligence to over 300 financial services clients globally. The exit is part is part of a deal with Pan-European private equity firm IK Investment Partners.

5 July 

The London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF) – the Mayor of London’s early stage business fund – has allocated more than £5.3 million into 32 high-growth tech companies since the EU referendum.

5 July 

BGF has successfully exited its minority stake in North-East chemicals manufacturer Chemoxy International Ltd.  The company has been acquired by a French based trade buyer, Novacap SAS, as it seeks to expand its Performance Chemicals division and geographical presence.

4 July

The Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) is stepping up efforts to support entrepreneurs and small businesses around the UK with a programme of regional funding information and advice workshops.

4 July 

CrowdRating (www.crowdrating.co.uk) has revealed the findings of research which shows that 96% of the companies whose crowdfunding campaigns closed at least a year ago and received a Gold Investment rating from CrowdRating, are showing demonstrable progress with positive ‘signs of life’.

4 July

The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association today launched a new category of membership, welcoming eight inaugural associate members who provide important professional and ancillary services that help support the growing peer-to-peer lending sector.

4 July

GMLF has invested £440,000 in School Lettings Solutions LTD, an outsourced lettings management service that hires out school and college facilities to local community clubs and organisations. Since inception the GMLF has provided funding for 28 local businesses enabling successful expansion and business innovation.

4 July 

UK-based P2P lender Kuflink has launched its Property-Backed Innovative Finance ISA, joining a handful of platforms offering the opportunity for savers to invest in property while taking advantage of the tax-free benefits on offer from ISAs.

3 July

Intertrust has announced six senior appointments across funds, capital markets and corporate services, spanning some of its key jurisdictions.  

3 July 

Gooseberry Planet and Dem Dx seek £750K via the platform.

3 July

Bank of Ireland to Facilitate Competitive Start Fund Programme

A total of €500k in funding for Fintech start-ups is available from Enterprise Ireland, the government organisation responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets, through its Fintech-dedicated Competitive Start Fund (CSF).

3 July

StoriiCare, a new care sector startup, backed by investors who exited to the likes of iZettle and Fanduel, has just opened a fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding site Seedrs.

3 July 

Go Banana, the UK’s first marketplace for building supplies, has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign via the Seedrs platform. Having already raised 34% of its £250k target, it is looking for those with a passion for the building industry to invest in its innovative online PropTech platform, one of the first of its kind worldwide.

3 July

Plum, the first Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered Facebook chatbot that helps consumers manage their personal finances today announces an equity crowdfunding raise on Seedrs to fund aggressive growth and expansion plans. 

29 June

Mobeus Equity Partners has provided £8 million to back the management buyout of Ludlow Wealth Management Group, an independently owned financial planning business in the North West of England.

29 June

MIP Diagnostics Ltd, a Midlands-based life sciences start-up that develops “plastic antibodies” for a variety of applications has received £300,000 of follow-on funding from Mercia Fund Management for working capital growth.

29 June

Startup Funding Club (SFC) has recently invested over £300K into three British startups: Curamicus, Dan Dan Digital, and Onkho. The early-stage companies operate in the healthcare, digital marketing, and fintech industries respectively. 

29 June

InMotion Ventures, the venture capital business powered by Jaguar Land Rover, has completed seed investments in four exciting mobility and transportation startups.  Early stage businesses By Miles, Dovu, Wluper and Zeelo join the Seed Programme and will spend six months working from InMotion HQ in London.

29  June

WiseAlpha, the UK’s first online lending platform that gives investors access to high yield institutional bond and loan investments, has overfunded its £500k target on Crowdcube by 258%, raising £1.29 million.

28 June

Four in 10 alternative asset managers have said they are under pressure to review their investment structures and potentially strengthen them in order to ensure they are BEPS-compliant, according to new research¹ commissioned by Intertrust, a leading global provider of high-value trust, fund and corporate services.

28 June

Nearly half (45%) of small businesses don’t have a cyber security plan for their business according to research by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group.*  The recent cyber attack crippled businesses around the globe.  However,  despite the well-publicised effect of what was a relatively low tech attack, recent research has indicated that many small businesses do not have a plan for their business should they find themselves in a similar situation.

28 June

A Hull company which specialises in high-end audio-visual systems and whose clients have included royals and celebrities has secured a £100,000 loan from NPIF - Enterprise Ventures Debt Finance to help fund its expansion. It is the first investment in Humber by the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

28 June

European Buy & Build activity in 2016 reached its highest level on record² with the largest number of deals in the UK & Ireland, according to Silverfleet Capital’s latest annual European Buy & Build Monitor¹.  

28 June

Hometree, a startup that intends to revolutionise the way that homeowners buy a new boiler, making it as easy as ordering a takeaway meal, has raised £1.9m in funding from four venture capital investors: LocalGlobe, DN Capital, Oxford Capital and FJ Labs - who between them have backed some of Europe’s leading start-up’s including Purplebricks, Zoopla, Eve, Shazam, Transferwise & Improbable. Veteran private equity investor Jon Moulton is also one of a handful of city backers.

27 June

Diffblue, a world leader in AI for code, today announces that it has raised $22 million in Series A funding, one year after its spin-out from the University of Oxford. This round is led by Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, alongsideOxford Sciences Innovations (OSI)and Oxford Technology and Innovations Fund (OTIF).  

27 June

OurCrowd has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with LetsVenture, India’s largest marketplace for startup funding.  As part of this partnership, OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform, giving selected Indian startups access to accredited investors globally and to business development opportunities.

27 June

Mobeus Equity Partners has appointed Amy Reyniers as Marketing Director. Amy will lead brand, marketing and communications for the business, as it moves into its exciting next phase of development, having raised its first institutional fund.

26 June

Calculus Capital will invest £2.4 million as a cornerstone investor in a £6.6 million institutional and private investment round into Blu Wireless Technology, a firm leading the way in bringing ultra-fast millimetre Wave (mmWave) wireless technology into homes and businesses through the roll-out of Wi-Gig® and 5G networks.

26 June

BGF has invested £3.85m in support of Dolphin Homes, a South Coast based specialist care provider for young adults with complex health needs. The funds will be used for the provision of two new care homes in Hampshire, as well as investing further into Dolphin’s existing homes. 

26 June

The Greater Manchester Loan Fund, which is managed by Maven Capital Partners, has invested £0.3m in Tactus Group which started its business as a brand developer and wholesaler for premium quality mobile phone and tablet accessories. The funding will enable Tactus to acquire a new lease for a site in Salford, Greater Manchester to expand its product range and further penetrate the hi-tech consumer electronics sector. 

23 June

Mobeus Equity Partners has led a £3 million funding round for MyTutor (http://mytutor.co.uk​), the leading digital platform with the potential to disrupt the £2 billion UK tutoring market, with participation from high-profile angel investors including Clive Cowdery (Resolution) and Thomas Hoegh (Arts Alliance).

23 June

IW Capital has successfully facilitated a £626,000 loan to Discovery Yachts to support the company’s acquisition of Southerly Yachts – a world renowned manufacturer of cruising yachts based in the UK.

23 June

Tech businesses remain optimistic about their prospects over the next 12 months according to recent research from Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group.  Nearly 90% of tech businesses were optimistic for their own prospects for the next 12 months with over half (55%) expecting the economy to improve in the next 12 months.

23 June

Foresight Group announces the acquisition of Port of Tyne 35MW battery storage project from RES (Renewable Energy Systems).

23 June

AllBright, the first funding and support platform of its kind in the UK for female entrepreneurs, is hosting FoundHER, a multi venue, two city programme of events aimed at founders, investors and anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Taking place in London from June 26th - 29th and Manchester from July 3rd - 4th, the festival will host a range of events in inspiring locations across the two cities.

To find out more or purchase tickets, please visit: https://allbright.co/foundher/

22 June

Voneus, a UK broadband provider, has secured a £4.8M Growth Capital loan from BOOST&Co alongside a £500k equity funding round raised by Jenson Funding Partners. Voneus makes super-fast broadband available to customers in UK rural and metro communities, using innovative solutions where alternative services may not be available.

22 June

EnteroBiotix, a privately held Scottish biotechnology company focused on using the body’s own microorganisms to prevent and treat disease, has raised £500,000 in an oversubscribed seed round of investment. The financing was led by Equity Gap and supported by the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise. 

22 June

HNW Lending, an alternative lender that provides individual loans of between £50,000 and £2 million to clients against their valuable assets, has announced it lent £14.4m in 2016, 334% higher than in 2015.  Since its launch in April 2014, it has lent well over £30m.

22 June

Octopus Investments has launched a £30 million joint fundraise for its two Alternative Investment Market (AIM) VCTs, with scope for the offer to be extended by an additional £10 million.

22 June

OurCrowd, a global leader in equity crowdfunding, today announced the launch of OurNetwork - a new collaboration program leveraging OurCrowd’s global network, providing multinationals with the ability to stay ahead of the latest innovation trends globally by providing access to Israel’s bustling tech startup community.

21 June

Experienced life sciences investment manager Deepbridge Capital has announced the launch of Deepbridge Syndicate, an online investment platform created to facilitate investment by elective professional investors in to healthcare innovation.

21 June

Obby, the community marketplace for people to list, discover and book learning experiences in London, recently closed a £250k angel funding round to help grow its class offering and reach more passionate Londoners.

21 June

Latest research from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) using Matrix Financial Clarity has revealed purchases of investment companies by advisers and wealth managers on adviser platforms hit a record level over the 12 months to end of March 2017 at £777m.  This is 11% higher than in the year to December 2015 (£698m), which was the previous record for a 12-month period. 

20 June

Social impact investment company Resonance has published the first annual social impact report for the Resonance Bristol SITR Fund – the first impact investment Fund of its kind using Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) to build a portfolio of investments into social enterprises in the region. 

20 June

BGF (Business Growth Fund) has invested an initial £2m in Milk Visual Effects, an Oscar winning independent visual effects (VFX) company which creates innovative and complex visual effects for high-end television and feature films. 

20 June

Graphite Capital, the leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, announces a number of promotions and appointments.  

16 June

Fintech Startup BABB Appoints Ripple Advisor, Dr. Anish Mohammed To Accelerate The Launch of the World’s First Blockchain-Based Bank Account.

16 June

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised LDC, the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investor, on its latest investment into Lucid Group Communications, a global specialist provider of strategic medical communications services to world leading pharmaceutical companies.

16 June

The 2017 EBAN Annual Congress featured 50 startups from 16 different countries pitching throughout the three days of the Congress and competing for some spectacular prizes, with the most coveted main prize being a seed investment from EBAN Member Marbella Tech Angels, led by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Andreas Mihalovits. 

16 June

The owner of a brand new data centre in Birmingham, GTP3 LLP, is raising £2.8m through crowdfunding platform, Downing Crowd, as the site enters its next phase of development.

15 June

Maven Capital Partners has made a £2.25 million investment via its Venture Capital Trust funds in ITS Technology Group, a leading alternative network (“Altnet”) provider. The funding will be used to expand the Company’s fibre network and to further strengthen the sales and operational capabilities of the business. 

15 June

Online investment platform SyndicateRoom today announces the closure of two lift rounds, for Peptinnovate and Alert Technology. Pekama closed its round in overfunding over the weekend. Peptinnovate raised £2.7 million, Alert achieved £1 million and Pekama secured £600,000. Funds from all three rounds bring the total value of all three raises to £4.3 million.

15 June

Jenson Solutions annonces that it has made 10 0new investments from the Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund 4.  

15 June

While a third electoral shock in less than a year has left the political arena reeling and there isn’t the sense of permanency we would want at the top in the UK, there is a silver lining for SME’s, scale ups and their advisers.  This group (pretty much) got the result they wanted. In new research conducted right up to polling day by Smith & Williamson, nearly two thirds of business leaders believed a Tory government would best benefit their ambitions.

14 June

Optoscribe, a world leader and global supplier of glass-based integrated photonics components, today announced that the company has closed a series B investment round of £1.8 million in line with its expansion and product supply plans. 

14 June

AIC stats for May 2017.  For full report download here

14 June

G.Network, the next-generation communications service provider exclusively focused on Central London, has received investment totaling £4.675m from Albion Capital, the leading independent investment manager. 

14 June

Activate Capital, the Startup Studio, is sharing its business expertise with entrepreneurs as part of its second podcast season. With insightful and entertaining information, the eight ten-minute episodes guide listeners through key topics to consider when building a new company. To listen go to https://www.activatecapital.co.uk/activate-podcast.

13 June

Today, leading equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs closes its first secondary market trading window and announces impressive returns for some of the investors who took part.

• 138 share lots were listed from 80 different businesses in the first trading window on Seedrs
• 57 share lots have already been sold and 40 different businesses have had shares purchased

13 June

The “James Bond” bond is available  for investors on WiseAlpha, the UK’s leading online investment platform for secured institutional debt (www.wisealpha.com).  The Aston Martin (UK) secured bond offers a current yield of 5.5%, with the next interest payment due on 15th October 2017, and interest will be paid to investors every six months, until 15th April 2022.

13 June

NowWeComply has re-branded to autologyx. The re-brand follows the evolution of the company’s proprietary SaaS platform to enable businesses to realise the benefits of intelligent Robotic Process Automation (iRPA) across complex operations, without the need for seven figure budgets and extensive teams of consultants, which has been the case to date.

13 June

Cambridge Capital Group and its sister overseas chapter, CCG International, have invested more than £1.5m this year to date, in six new investments, with a seventh in legals.

12 June

YEAY, an m-commerce platform using video to redefine shopping, has closed its convertible round of funding, raising a total of $4.9 million in seed funding to date. Funding from a number of angel investors and venture capitalists is being used to develop a breadth of new product features, to reach a wider global audience and gain more traction with ‘Generation Z’.

12 June

InMotion, Jaguar Land Rover’s mobility services business, today announced a $25m (£19m) investment in Lyft, the fastest-growing rideshare company in the U.S.

12 June

Albion Ventures, the leading independent investment manager with a long-term record of partnering ambitious business, has rebranded as Albion Capital.  The rebrand reflects the evolution of the Group, encompassing the growth of its venture capital, renewable energy, care home and IP commercialisation businesses, and the successful integration of OLIM Investment Managers, the value-oriented equity specialists acquired in September 2016.

12 June

Octopus Ventures is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month. Founded in 2007 with an initial fund of just £30 million, investing £10 million a year, Octopus Ventures now manages in excess of £660 million and invests £100 million per year.

121 June

Intertrust has announced the appointment of Ian Rumens as Global Head of Private Wealth Services. Ian is based in the Jersey office.

9 June

OurCrowd, a global leader in equity crowdfunding, today announced a partnership with Motorola Solutions, Reliance Industries and Yissum, to operate an innovation technology incubator to support growth of early stage startups in Jerusalem.

9 June

BGF has expanded its investment team into the Republic of Ireland with the appointment of Leo Casey who will officially join in September.

9 June

InnoEnergy, Europe’s largest sustainable energy accelerator, and EBAN, the European trade association for business angels, seed funds and early stage market players, have entered into a partnership to create EBAN Energy, a network that will drive more sustainable energy innovations to market.

9 June

Startups can apply to be specifically matched with corporates in first phase of new model for business creation and acceleration backed up some of the world's biggest brands and business leaders.

9 June

UltraSoC today announces the completion of a £5m ($6.4m) funding round to drive continued deployment of its technology and realize its vision of embedding intelligent analytics capabilities into every chip. Atlante Tech leads a strong line up of new investors including Enso Ventures, Oxford Capital, and successful CEO and serial entrepreneur Guillaume d'Eyssautier, who join existing investors Octopus Ventures and South East Seed Fund (FSE Group).

9 June

Edinburgh-based manufacturers of powerful micro compressors, Vert Rotors, won the ‘Venture-Backed Management Team of the Year Award’ at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Awards at the Balmoral Hotel last night.

8 June

InMotion Ventures, the venture capital business powered by Jaguar Land Rover, has partnered with global startup ecosystem Techstars.  InMotion will be working closely with the Techstars Mobility programme, based in Detroit. Launched in 2015, Techstars Mobility has to date invested in 22 mobility and transportation startups from all over the globe, collectively valued in excess of $100 million.

8 June

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised NVM private equity backed Kirton group on the disposal of its specialist seating division by way of sale of the entire issued share capital of The Kirton Healthcare Group Limited to Direct Healthcare Group.

8 June

A new business angel network aims to boost the North’s technology sector by bringing together early-stage companies with experienced entrepreneurs who can provide investment, mentoring and support.  Dow Schofield Watts Angels aims to provide a strong and active angel network similar to those in Scotland and Cambridge, where angels have played a key role in the growth of the tech sector. 

7 June

Angel Academe is delighted has backed Beamline Diagnostics. Beamline, developers of an innovative biopsy triaging system, founded by Dr. Liberty Foreman and Dr. Katherine Willetts, has closed a £650k investment round which was led by a syndicate of Angels in MedCity (AiMC) and other investors.

7 June

Draper Esprit announced this week that it has rasied a further £160 million to invest in Europe's best start-ups. The capital will be deployed over one year, rather than five, enabling Draper Esprit to realise its vision of providing long term, patient capital to help the best entrepreneurs build businesses that compete globally.

6 June

Reading University-based KYMIRA, a startup company developing energy-harvesting technology for performance enhancing sportswear and wearable devices in the medical and domestic healthcare markets, has closed its pre-seed funding round of £121k. The round was led by several members of Henley Business Angels (HBA), with participation of existing investors.

5 June

Capital Cell has launched in the UK, with value adding angel network partnerships, strong life science start-up links, and a new investment platform.  As Europe’s first equity investment platform specialising in life science, Capital Cell’s triumph in Spain during the past 2 years has fuelled their expansion into the UK market.

5 June

Maven Capital Partners announces a £2.5 million VCT qualifying investment in Horizon Cremation Limited, which is embarking on an ambitious growth strategy in a sector experiencing increased demand for better quality service and facilities. 

5 June

The National Australia Bank (NAB) today announced an innovative collaboration with Israeli company OurCrowd, a leading global equity crowdfunding platform that will provide NAB clients with direct access to exclusive OurCrowd startup investments together with domestic and global networks and events.

5 June

Rooks Nest Ventures, an early-stage, evergreen fund, with a unique network and industry knowledge, has newly launched - with £28m to invest initially. The new venture capital firm has a clear focus: to bring innovative media & entertainment companies together with impactful technology businesses. The fund will invest in technology businesses that are innovating in and around content, and media & entertainment companies who are creating highly licensable intellectual property.

5 June

Intechnica, a Manchester digital company which helps businesses manage high and variable website traffic demands for customers such as ao.com and Ted Baker, has secured a £900k investment in a syndicated investment round backed by Mercia Technologies PLC, the Greater Manchester Investment Fund and three business angels.

5 June

Nearly half (45%) of small businesses don’t have a cyber security plan for their business according to research by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group.*

5 June

Seedrs has joined a handful of leading alternative finance firms as the sole equity finance provider in an exclusive partnership with a new NatWest  programme for British SMEs called Capital Connections.

5 June

Maven Capital Partners has invested £1 million in ebb3, with the potential for an additional £0.5 million of follow-on funding.

24 May 

BGF has exited its investment in Statesman Travel Group, a high-end travel management company, following Statesman’s acquisition by US based Travel and Transport. Statesman was bought in whole by Travel and Transport in an undisclosed all-cash transaction.

24 May 

Oxford University Innovation (OUI), the research commercialisation office of Oxford University, has been named Technology Transfer Office (TTO) of the Year at the GUV Awards 2017.

24 May

Beringea has launched a new lending company, ProVen Legacy plc and closed its first two deals. Healthcare media and marketing firm Cogora and fintech company Celoxica have received £500k and £250k loans respectively to support them in their next stage of growth. 

24 May 

Healthcare booking platform DocPlanner has today announced the closing of a €15 million Series D financing round, just ten months after announcing a Series C round of $20 million and successfully merging with Spanish healthcare platform Doctoralia. 

24 May

IW Capital has successfully completed the first close of a £2.2m funding round for SaveMoneyCutCarbon – a UK-based business focused on enabling its clients to reduce their energy and water bills.

24 May 

SyndicateRoom today announces that independent UK film, Kat and the Band, has been fully funded at its target of £400,000 on the platform. The SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) investment is led by Boudica Indigo, a UK-based production company aimed at supporting female-centric films. 

24 May 

OurCrowd, a global leader in equity crowdfunding, today announced that it will invest $2.5m in Scopio Labs, a developer of an advanced digital microscopy and diagnostics platform. This is OurCrowd’s 23rd healthtech investment for a total of $80m, making it the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platform for healthcare investments.

23 May 

WiseAlpha has raised £626,760 on Crowdcube, the UK’s biggest crowd investment platform, in just 7 days, 125% over its original target.  430 investors have invested so far in return for 8.92% equity. The highest amount from a single investor was £150,000. WiseAlpha’s pitch remains open for investment for another 17 days.

23 May 

Britain’s investors are increasingly focusing their attention on traditional asset classes such as property in the current political climate, according to new research by peer-to-peer lending platform Kuflink Ltd. 

23 May 

Just two months after raising their latest round of funding, Sheffield startup Tutora are making waves yet again today as they celebrate ranking 77th on the Startups 100 List. 

23 May 

Mark Brownridge, Director General of the EIS Association, discusses the Conservative election manifesto proposal for new Enterprise Investment Scheme incentives for digital businesses.

19 May 

The Conservative Manifesto commits to “help innovators and startups, by encouraging early stage investment and considering further incentives under our world leading Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (page 78).  It also commits to “opeoffices of the British Business Bank in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newport (page78).

David Mott, Managing Partner of EIS manager, Oxford Capital, commented on the proposals.

19 May

Mobeus announces the latest closing of Mobeus Equity Partners IV LP taking total commitments to over £140 million and expects to complete fundraising by the summer. Fund IV is Mobeus’s first institutional fund, and alongside Mobeus’s existing VCT business, brings the firm’s total Private Equity Funds under Management to £360 million.

19 May 

Robocath, a medical robotics start-up that designs and develops innovative solutions for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, today announces the conclusion of a new round of fundraising worth €4.7 million ($5.2M) led by M Capital and Normandie Participations.

17 May 

Fintech firm Growth Capital Ventures is set to help ambitious businesses in the North access capital to grow from a £57.5m investment fund.  GCV recently secured a £1.1m investment from Maven Capital Partners and is now working closely with Maven to help other high growth businesses access capital to grow.

17 May 

IT recruitment platform talent.io is on the verge of further expansion after securing a major wave of investment into the business. Paris-based talent.io will press ahead with growth plans in France, Germany and the UK fresh from receiving a boost of €8m from two of its original financial backers Alven Capital and Ventech.

16 May 

Sugru, the world’s first mouldable glue, closed its second successful crowdfunding campaign at the weekend after raising £2m from 2740 investors with leading equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

16 May

Private equity fundraising for investment into companies across Europe hit its highest level since 2008 last year at €74.5 billion, a 37% year-on-year increase, according to new data released today by Invest Europe.

The full report is free to download from its website, investeurope.eu.

16 May

The developers of a communication platform that offers secure digital access to healthcare services have received £200,000 of seed funding in a deal led by Mercia Fund Management and involving the NHS-backed West Midlands Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) fund.

15 May

Maven Capital Partners has appointed three new Investment Managers and a dedicated portfolio administrator to its North West investment team, in support of NPIF Maven Equity Finance, which has a North West focus and is managed by Maven for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

15 May 

World number one tennis champion Andy Murray continues to back early-stage businesses in 2017 as part of his strategic relationship with Seedrs, today investing undisclosed amounts into ambitious British companies Den and Morpher as well as exercising preemptive rights in Landbay’s latest equity round.

15 May 

Mercia Fund Management (Mercia) is delighted to announce that it has been invited to partner with Innovate UK’s £8.5million Investment Accelerator initiative, a pilot programme which provides simultaneous grant funding and venture capital.

15 May 

Footfalls & Heartbeats today announce a strategic investment round of £1.25m with The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief. New product innovation is a key area of focus for Footfalls & Heartbeats, whose wearable technology is providing personalised, preventative healthcare, and solutions to aid the wellbeing of individuals.

15 May 

Octopus Ventures backed eve Sleep has announced its IPO on AIM, with a market cap of c.£140m - the first retail IPO of 2017 in the UK.  

12 May

White Bull Summits, producers of Europe’s exclusive technology entrepreneur and investment summits, Pathways, has today announced the 60 finalists for this year’s Bully Awards, recognising outstanding European startups. The finalists were shortlisted based on excellence in product innovation, leadership and performance, growth and growth potential.

12 May 

YFM Equity Partners (“YFM”), the specialist private equity fund manager, has closed its first buy-out fund, YFMEP 2016, at £45m, 50% above its initial target.

12 May 

Takumi, the leading European and original “micro-influencer” marketing platform which connects brands to these influencers to create impactful grassroot Instagram marketing campaigns, today announces the successful completion of a Series A funding round worth $4 million (£3.2 million) to fund its US and global expansion.

12 May 

Cult Wines, a specialist in the acquisition and investment management of fine wines, has today announced the appointment of Patrick Thornton-Smith as a Non-Executive Director and member of the firm's Global Management Team. Patrick’s appointment will support the firm’s record-breaking growth levels which have been driven by rising global demand, particularly in the UK and Asia.

11 May 

Innovation Birmingham Campus start-ups, Kaido and Quickcode Labs, have been announced as two of just three West Midlands businesses to top this year’s global Digital Leaders DL100 list.

11 May 

A Midlands-based digital logistics platform that bridges the gap between publishers and resellers of video game content, plans to scale up after receiving a growth investment boost of £400,000 from early-stage technology investor, Mercia Fund Management.

10 May 

Organised Health Technologies Ltd, a recognised company in the fast growing Digital Health startup market, has secured investment worth £150,000 and a multimillion pound valuation from a Scottish Angel Investor. This funding is in addition to the £500,000 of bank funding that Organised Health secured in 2016.

10 May

Downing-managed funds have invested £1.82 million in Populo Energy Ltd to acquire the entire share capital of C&G Renewables Ltd, which owns and operates two wind turbines in Ayrshire, Scotland.

9 May 

The Local Residue Energy (Loreen) project, which is developing a cost-effective combined heat and power (CHP) plant fuelled by the gasification of unprocessed, dry biomass residues from agriculture and wood-based manufacturing, is celebrating a stellar first year.  Milestones since the projects inception in 2016 have included securing €2.9 million investment from InnoEnergy

9 May 

The EIS Association (EISA) has produced a guide to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).  Grow your business with the Enterprise Investment Scheme is designed as an introduction to EIS and SEIS for businesses that are considering seeking external funding.

9 May 

ONLINE investment platform, InvestingZone, has added access to the Seneca EIS Portfolio service to enhance its offering for private investors.  The addition of the Seneca EIS Portfolio to the platform is the first stage of a strategic investment to broaden and reposition InvestingZone, which joined the North West-based Seneca Partners in early 2016.

9 May

YFM Equity Partners (YFM) has today announced the appointment of James Savage as Portfolio Director. Based in the London office, James will focus on actively managing YFM’s growth and buy-out investments as part of the portfolio team led by David Bell.

9 May

ThoughtRiver, a developer of contract intelligence AI software, has raised more than $1m from a group of investors, including former Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence and Michael Findlay, chairman of Morgan Sindall and former co-head of investment banking for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

9 May 

The Deal: Q1 2017

• Overall deal numbers increased by 2.7% from the previous quarter. However, deal numbers were still 6.72% lower than in the same quarter last year.

• The total amount invested increased by 2.2%, the highest amount since Q1 last year.

• However, growth in deal numbers was only seen in early-stage deals.

• Growth was seen in medical technology and life sciences, with 3 of the quarter’s 5 biggest deals in this space.

• Crowdfunding saw almost £45m invested over 80 deals, an 11% growth in deal numbers. Again, growth was only seen in early-stage deals.

Download the report here

8 May 

Pharmacy2u.co.uk, the UK’s leading NHS approved online only pharmacy, has secured a further £7m of investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund) and other shareholders to continue to support the rapid growth of its home delivery repeat prescriptions service for NHS patients.

8 May 

• In response to huge investor demand, the Neil Woodford-backed equity crowdfunding platform announces the launch of a secondary market.
• Investors will have the opportunity to sell shares of companies they invested in through Seedrs, thereby realising early returns. Meanwhile, investors who want to add to their position in a Seedrs company will be able to buy shares through this market.
• Entrepreneurs will benefit from the flexibility this provides their investors, reducing pressure to exit the business prematurely.
• Businesses considering raising money through Seedrs are likely to find that the prospect of secondary sales makes it easier for them to attract capital.

5 May 

Okappy, has announced the launch of its investment pitch on the AngelsDen equity crowdfunding platform. Aiming to raise £500,000 from the crowd, the pitch is open to anyone interested in supporting Okappy’s innovative new communications platform.

4 May

MPP Global, a high growth technology business delivering digital monetization services to the media, sport and retail sectors, has completed a £12m ($15M) Series B financing round from Albion Ventures and Grafton Capital.

4 May 

Enterprise Ventures, part of Mercia Technologies PLC, has expanded both its debt and equity teams with four new appointments in its Yorkshire offices as a result of the £108m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) contracts which it secured in February.

4 May 

Vyaire Medical, the healthcare industry's largest pure-play "breathing" company, announced it has acquired Ciel Medical, a medical device company focused on solving unmet needs of medical professionals caring for intubated patients.

3 May 

Crowdcube enabled 29 fast growing business to raise over £23 million, 2.7 times the nearest competitor according to the latest figures from Beauhurst (full report to be announced this week). The Q1 figures put the business on a trajectory to beat last year’s investment record of over £80 million raised.

3 May   

Oxford Capital has backed online market research platform Attest in a US$3.1m funding round.  Oxford Capital and Episode 1 led the round, alongside new angel investors. The investment will be used to roll out the full version of Attest’s platform, and expand its offering to new sectors and use cases.

3 May

The fund with the target size of €40 million will invest mainly in Finnish startups offering software to B2B customers. The investors are Finnish institutional investors, foundations, family offices and private investors.

3 May

Tagtronics Limited, a business that specialises in the delivery and maintenance of software solutions for the domiciliary care industry, has secured six figure funding from the Enterprise Ventures SME Loans to support the acquisition of a London-based company.

3 May 

Olympic Fixings Group – the Lancashire-based business which supplies hardware products to the merchant trade throughout the UK and Ireland - is all set for growth after a £6m combined investment from PHD Equity Partners and Secure Trust Bank.

2 May 

Mobeus Equity Partners has appointed Josh Levy as Investment Executive to join the growth investment team. Josh joins from Mercia Technologies PLC where he spent three and a half years investing in venture and growth stage technology companies. Sector experience includes Software, Virtual Reality, Gaming and E-commerce.

2 May 

Mark Brownridge, Director General of the EIS Association, comments on the 2015-16 Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) statistics, issued by HMRC.

The figures show a drop of some £230m in EIS fundraising in 2015-16 compared to the previous year, though the figure raised of £1.65bn was still the second highest ever amount raised since EIS began in 1993. There was a reduction of £8m in SEIS fundraising, which fell to £169m.

2 May 

Ablrate, the online lender who specialising in asset backed transactions announced that the platform has gained authorisation from HMRC to become an ISA manager.

28 April 

Figures published by the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) today, covering lending volumes for its nine member platforms for the first three months of 2017, underscore the continued development of the sector with the maintenance of impressive expansion in lending volumes and investor participation.

28 April 

Winton Group has invested £750,000 as part of a £1.25m investment round into Exonar Limited, a British company that is redefining how organisations can map and understand their data to minimise risk and ensure compliance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). Amadeus Capital Partners has joined Winton and existing angels in providing investment for Exonar.

28 April 

HMRC Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme Statistics for April 2017.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611200/April_2017_Commentary_EIS_SEIS_Official_Statistics_v5.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611201/Combined_tables_to_publish.pdf

28 April 

Smith & Williamson comment:

Statistics released today [27/04/2017] by HMRC* demonstrate a near 20% decline in the amount raised by companies using Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief, year on year. The number of companies using EIS scheme has decreased slightly while the total amount raised fell by over £200 million.

26 April 

Scotland’s entrepreneurs are set to benefit from a major new partnership between Cazenove Capital, the premier provider of personalised wealth management services, and Entrepreneurial Scotland, the country’s leading organisation for entrepreneurial leaders.

26 April 

GrowthEnabler has announced its GrowthEnabler Scoring System for the Internet of Things (IoT) market in the UK. The rating is revealed in the company’s new Market Pulse Report on IoT, which uncovers key trends and insights on what is rapidly becoming one of the UK’s most innovative technology sectors.

26 April 

This expansion will enhance the capabilities of Humaniq to solve critical and chronic issues of the world by repurposing Artificial Intelligence and DeepTech for social good and enabling leading scientists and entrepreneurs to solve the most critical problems facing humanity.

25 April 

Chessable, the chess trainer lauded by YouTube chess star John Bartholomew, is ready to make a major push into the e-learning market after attracting nearly £100,000 of investment.

25 April 

Mobeus Equity Partners has provided £2.9 million of growth capital to Buster + Punch, a London-based interiors brand founded in 2012 by architect and industrial designer Massimo Buster Minale.  

25 April 

LoveCrafts, the creator of online crafts communities, with millions of users across 140 countries worldwide, today announces completion of a £26 million funding round led by Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), together with current investors Balderton and Highland Europe.  

25 April 

Over 180 investors and entrepreneurs will gather tonight (Tuesday, 25^th April, 2017) to celebrate a quarter of a century of early stage investing by business angel syndicate, Archangels, and will hear that the syndicate has led more than £222m of investment by Archangels and its partners in 82 Scottish companies, creating over 3,500 high value jobs since launching in 1992.

25 April 

The Enterprise Index, a quarterly barometer testing the views of over 200 business leaders and entrepreneurs, reveals that 85% of entrepreneurs and small business owners are planning for growth and 80% are optimistic about their own prospects over the next 12 months. Crucially, they are nearly 30% more positive about their own growth than at the end of 2016, the highest point since mid-2013

25 April 

Beauhurst releases it's new report on Funding Innovation – the first study of how combined grant and equity funding affects innovative businesses. 

Download report here

24 April

New nationally representative research across 2,000 UK adults from Asset Match has revealed resounding consumer confidence towards British businesses in light of Brexit negotiations triggered on 29 March. 

24 April

A new global survey conducted by Ipsos and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Internet Society, reveals that Internet users are increasingly concerned about their online privacy, and that 49 percent of users polled say lack of trust is their main reason for not shopping online.

24 April 

FiveAI, a UK start-up applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to accelerate the arrival of fully autonomous vehicles, today announces that its ‘StreetWise’ consortium has been awarded £12.8M in grant support for its £23M project.

24 April

Maven Capital Partners has completed the £6 million management buy-out of ProspectSoft Limited to support the roll-out of the new cloud-based SaaS software – Prospect365.

24 April 

BGF has provided £5m of long-term funding for Renegade, a London headquartered business which is developing a major whiskey project on Ireland’s south-eastern coast. The funding will be used for continued development and production of single malt whiskey at Renegade’s Waterford distillery in Ireland.

21 August

August Equity, the UK lower mid-market investor, has raised £224m for its latest vehicle, August Equity Fund IV. The Fund will continue August’s longstanding strategy of backing management teams to build UK businesses of scale in service-led companies which are sourced and created through the firm’s self-origination model.

20 April 

Tantalum Corporation announces a significant investment by Korean automotive technology company Handysoft, part of the Dasan group. Further funding is also coming from Disruptive Capital, a long-standing investor in Tantalum.

20 April

Innovation Birmingham Campus-based start-up, Liquidity Exchange, has announced a partnership with international debt collection firm, Atradius Collections.

19 April 

Private equity fund manager Calculus Capital has invested a total of £3.5m in Scottish biotechnology company Synpromics, alongside Scottish Entreprise.

19 April 

Keensight Capital, one of the leading players in European Growth Private Equity, today announces that Magdalena Svensson is promoted as Partner.

19 April 

The Angel CoFund, launched at the end of 2011 with an initial Government-backed funding of £50m to support the UK’s angel market, today celebrates reaching its fifth birthday. 

£175m invested, 71 companies funded, four successful exits and three IPOs: five years of the Angel CoFund. Strong performance sees 3x return on investments on average.

19 April 

NorthEdge exits Utiligroup Ltd to Energy Services Group LLC NorthEdge Capital has sold energy technology provider Utiligroup to Energy Services Group (ESG), a leading provider of technology solutions to the retail energy and utility industries, for an undisclosed sum.

18 April 

New research among 1,000 UK investors by IW Capital reveals how the beginning of Brexit and the new tax year have affected the risk profile of the UK investor community.  See the full findings below.

13 April

Ascension Ventures is pleased to announce its investment from the ASCEND Fund III into software start-upLooop, a B2B Online Learning platform that lets businesses and corporates distribute digital content to their employees.

13 April

Global digital learning platform HowNow, which lets users learn anything from anywhere in the world over live interactive video, has secured £1.2 million in investment from a number of private investors and investment fund Fuel.Ventures.

13 April

Tool manufacturer Keencut has secured investment funding from a new firm of investors as it pushes forward with ambitious expansion plans.  The investment will allow the company to launch new products and pursue export growth plans.

13 April 

Mettrr Technologies has become the first company to provide financial returns for its crowd investors through a secondary share sale via a crowdfunding platform. It comes just six months after Crowdcube announced that it would pioneer secondary liquidity on its platform, delivering on its mission to help investors realise their investments.

12 April 

Nearly nine out of ten (88%) business leaders believe that the UK needs a comprehensive industrial strategy according to BGF’s Growth Climate Index – a survey of over 280 business leaders and entrepreneurs measuring confidence in the UK’s business growth environment has revealed. 

12 April

Crowdcube, has announced another return for investors, after innovative biotech firm Celixir offered its backers an opportunity to realise a proportion of their initial investment. 18% of shareholders choose to sell shares, with the remainder holding on to their full stake. Total returns provided to backers by Crowdcube-funded businesses exceeds £5m.

11 April

Tuition marketplace startup Tutora have successfully raised £700,000 from over 500 investors via crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to support their continued growth within the £6bn UK private tuition industry.

11 April

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has today published the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) fundraising figures for the 2016/17 tax year, which reveal that the sector has raised £542m. This is the second highest amount raised and an 18% increase on last year’s figure (£458m).

10 April 

NVM Private Equity has exited from Coventry based telecommunications and security systems integration provider Optilan following a secondary management buy-out by Blue Water Energy, delivering a 3.1x return on funds invested.  

10 April 

Tenzo, the leading data-driven hospitality tech platform has successfully closed a seed investment of £600k led by Acequia Capital, Force Over Mass and angel investors Charlie Songhurst, Michael Orland and Getti Restaurants.  

7 April 

Foresight has invested £2.15m from Foresight VCT PLC into Fresh Relevance Limited (“FRL”), a leading marketing technology platform for eCommerce businesses.

7 April 

Small Pharma has raised £830,000, supplemented by a £140,000 grant from Innovate UK, The round was led by Chris Torrance, co-founder of Horizon Discovery and PhoreMost, with the Angel CoFund and a number of other investors also participating.

7 April 

Intertrust has four new client-facing directors following a recent set of promotions within the firm. Roger Bolan, Alex Di Santo, Shane Hugill and Stephen Langan have all been promoted to directors across Intertrust’s Private Wealth, Funds, Capital Markets and Performance & Reward Management service lines.

7 April 

The GM&C Life Sciences Fund, managed by Catapult Ventures, has led a £4m investment in Proveca, a European paediatric speciality pharmaceutical company. The investment will fund the commercial launch of Sialanar™ and the development and commercialisation of its paediatric product portfolio. 

7 April 

BDRC Continental has published an update to its half-yearly SME Finance Monitor. The largest and most frequent study of its kind in the UK, research findings date back to the start of 2011 and are based on more than 100,000 interviews with SMEs. Download the report here

7 April 

New research carried out among over 1,000 UK investors by Market Financial Solutions has revealed how they are approaching their investment strategies as Brexit negotiations begin.

6 April 

Triptease, a travel SaaS start-up that provides a platform to hotels seeking to increase direct bookings, has raised $9 million in Series B funding. The funding round was led by new investor BGF Ventures, with participation from existing investors Notion Capital and Episode 1 Ventures.

6 April 

A novel antibiotic, which has been developed in Scotland for the treatment of Clostridium difficile, will take a step closer to being brought to market following the completion of a further round of funding led by prominent angel investment syndicate, Archangels, for MGB Biopharma.

6 April 

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network) announces its five-year business angel outlook that predicts business angels will invest €85 million in 264 high potential start-ups in the period running 2017 to year-end 2021. It will mark a 79% increase in investment over the previous five years, which saw €47.4 million invested in 244 companies.

6 April

The InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition launches for 2017, to find upcoming business talent.  Register at www.intertradeireland.com/seedcorn.

5 April 

Foresight Group has completed a £3 million investment into Ollie Quinn Limited, a branded retailer of prescription glasses, sunglasses and non-prescription polarised sunglasses to fund the rollout of additional stores throughout the UK and Canada.

4 April

Repositive, the company that created the world’s largest portal for accessing human genomic research data, has closed a Series A funding round of £2.5m. The investors include lead investor, Ananda Social Venture Fund, Force Over Mass Capital and sees Amadeus Capital Partners and Jonathan Milner increase their investments, having previously participated in seed funding Repositive.

4 April 

NVM is delighted to announce that it has strengthened its investment team with two new Investment Associate hires, Victoria Howarth and Jason Warren.   These appointments continue the growth in the investment team over the last 12 months following on from the recruitment of Charlie Winward in 2016.  

4 April

Startup Funding Club’s Fund and its angel syndicate invest £200K into fintech startup Future Mobile Money.

3 April

Two of the finalists for the 2017 Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) awards are entrepreneurs based at Innovation Birmingham Campus. Dan Rice, Chief Technologist at Turn Partners has been shortlisted for Technology and Ria Blagburn, Founder of GrowBeyond is up for the Marketing and Communications category.

31 March 

Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) is pleased to announce two new appointments to its investment team. David Stevens joins as a Senior Adviser and Taylor Rampton as an Analyst.

30 March 

UK Bond Network, the alternative finance provider that specialises in structuring secured corporate bonds and distributing them via its online platform, announces the launch of its Innovative Finance ISA (IF ISA) – and a bonus for early adopters.

30 March 

30 March 

NVM has delivered a £3 million investment in Intelling Limited, a communications business which provides customer services support for companies such as Telefonica and Missguided.

29 March 

Scotland’s first dedicated pre-seed tech accelerator is to open in Edinburgh with a mission to trigger Scotland’s next billion dollar startup. Seed Haus is raising an innovative new angel-backed fund to create the hot-house environment needed to produce scaleable startups in emerging markets, such as fintech and internet of things (IoT). 

29 March 

Airangel, the Warrington-based company which is the leading provider of guest WiFi solutions to the hospitality sector - has secured a £1.7m funding package from Santander Corporate & Commercial to support its further growth.

29 March 

29 March

Low-carbon, clean-technology innovators due to exhibit at Cleantech Innovate 2017 have welcomed the £270 million investment into the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund announced by Chancellor Phillip Hammond in the 2017 Spring Budget. The fund is expected to foster innovation in clean technologies, in particular electric vehicles and offshore wind. Further details on the disbursement of the funds are expected to be announced soon.

29 March 

BGF Quoted has provided Accsys Technologies plc with a £12m investment to support its ambitious growth strategy including the development of the world’s first Tricoya® wood chip manufacturing plant in Hull, along with expansion of its existing Accoya® facility in the Netherlands. 

28 March

Reactec, has completed a further £700,000 round of fundraising for the ongoing development of its innovative HAVwear personal monitoring equipment and reporting technology, led by Archangels.

28 March

Vantage Power, the London-based hybrid powertrain manufacturer for buses, has announced it has taken £2.5m in funding with the former CEO of Barclays Corporate Banking, Mr. John Winter leading the round, and which also sees investment from the Angel CoFund.

28 March 

National law firm Shoosmiths has expanded its Venture Capital offering with the appointment of corporate partner Steve Barnett to its London office, from international law firm Orrick.

27 March

Bethnal Green Ventures (BGV) - Europe’s first impact investment start-up accelerator - celebrates the fifth anniversary of its accelerator by announcing £1.3m new investment from Big Society Capital, Nominet Trust and Nesta.

27 March 

AccuRx has completed an SEIS/EIS round raising a total of £355,000 from a number of business angels including Anvil Partners LLP.

27 March 

SyndicateRoom today announces that it will support the IPO of Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Trust PLC (DSM) on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, which opens for investment today. 

24 March 

Quantexa Limited today announced that it has closed a $3.3 million investment, led by Albion Ventures and HSBC. Quantexa’s rapid growth has underpinned a Series A fundraising within its first year, with the new capital used to further accelerate product development and international expansion. 

24 March

• Notion Capital, Partech Ventures, Tribal VC, Enterprise Ireland
• Team growing 25 to 40, US offices, 40% of business in US
• To build on pure organic growth - 500 existing gyms and studios

23 March

Catapult Ventures is delighted to announce the acquisition of Monica Healthcare, a leader in wearable digital foetal monitoring, by GE Healthcare. The transaction delivered a cash return of 3.5x for Catapult’s East Midlands Regional Venture Capital Fund.

23 March 

Florismart, the online marketplace for professional florists throughout Europe,has announced that Beaubridge is leading a £2.5 million investment into the company. Beaubridge has chosen CoInvestor to make this EIS investment opportunity available to investors to access directly and invest in online. 

22 March

Oxford University Innovation (OUI), the research commercialisation company of Oxford University, has named its new Chief Operating Officer. Dr Adam Stoten, the current Head of Technology Transfer Life Sciences at OUI, will be taking up the newly created position from 1^st April 2017. 

22 March 

Capital Cell’s crowdfunding campaign - Bionure - overfunds with more than €1M and becomes Spain’s largest ever life science equity crowdfunding campaign.  Following the success of Capital Cell in Spain, the company is currently in the pre-launch phase of expanding into the UK market.

22 March 

​Elvie,​ the female-led British company dedicated to developing smarter technology for women’s health and lifestyle, announces today that it has raised £5 million from ​Octopus Ventures and with a participation from female focused VC AllBright​. 

22 March

Goji today announces the launch of the UK’s first diversified peer-to-peer lending proposition, opening access for financial advisers and wealth managers to the fast-growing and attractive P2P and direct lending market.

21 March 

Archangels, has appointed Shaolei McKie as its Investment Executive. Shaolei will support Archangels’ executive team in undertaking due diligence, business performance analysis, legal and investor liaison both for Archangels’ existing portfolio of investee companies and for new investment opportunities.

21 March

The money raised from Draper Esprit will fast-track RavenPack’s mission to transform the way investors gain insights from unstructured data. International investment banking firm EOC Partners acted as advisor to RavenPack on the transaction.

21 March 

French-American start-up Akeneo has raised £10,5 million from Partech and Alven Capital. Akeneo is the leading provider of open-source product information management (PIM) software, a resource that is becoming increasingly important for companies competing in e-commerce. 

21 March 

BrainWaveBank has secured funding from Angel CoFund, techstart NI, Innovate UK and Invest Northern Ireland totalling just over £1m. The majority of the funding is equity-based, with Innovate UK and Invest Northern Ireland providing grant support via their much-coveted innovative R&D schemes.

21 March 

HNW Lending, an alternative lender that provides individual loans of between £50,000 and £1million to borrowers against their valuable assets, has received FCA approval to offer Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISA), with minimum investments of £5,000 per loan.  

20 March 

BGF has backed Sentric Music with an initial investment of £3 million to help accelerate the publisher’s international expansion plans, as well as forming a strategic partnership to fund future acquisitions.

20 March 

Business Durham has appointed Maven Capital Partners as Fund Manager for its Finance Durham LP, the £20m investment fund set up to help businesses located in County Durham. FDLP will commence the investment process from May 2017. 

20 March 

MarketInvoice, the world’s largest peer-to-peer invoice finance platform, has today announced the appointment of Giles Andrews as chairman of the board of directors. He will work directly with co-founders Anil Stocker and Ilya Kondrashov to drive scale in the business as well as chairing and managing the board of directors.

20 March 

17 March

On 3rd March, Oxford Capital launched a new EIS, investing in the UK creative sector. The Oxford Capital Media EIS aims to achieve a tax-free return of up to 120% after four years, plus income tax relief of 30% of the amount invested.

17 March 

 Tennis champion, world number one Andy Murray continues to back early-stage businesses in 2017 as part of his strategic relationship with Seedrs, today identifying three ambitious British companies, MacRebur, VPAR and Bijou Commerce, investing undisclosed amounts into each.

6 March

Members of Wild Blue Cohort, the London-based network of angel investors, have made three new investments, taking the total invested by members of the early stage venture to £1.4m.

15 March

Two thirds (65%) of small and medium-sized tech and telecom firms plan to grow dramatically or moderately over the next two years, according to a new report* launched by Albion Ventures, one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK. Only 7% think they will shrink or wind down.

Download the 2016 Albion Growth Report

15 March

Goodlord, the comprehensive rental transaction platform, has attracted the attention of leading Silicon Valley fintech investor Ribbit Capital, raising £7.2 million from the Palo Alto team, alongside new money from existing investors LocalGlobe and Global Founders Capital. 

15 March

Rokk3r Labs has launched its first major fund: Rokk3r Fuel, a global $150M fund that will invest capital into early stage ideas that go through the Rokk3r Labs platform. Rokk3r Fuel will also invest in exponential companies at large, and make selective investments in growth and exit rounds.

15 March

Jellynote, an AI powered Music Edtech Platform, has secured $800K to drive user acquisition and production of exclusive Artist Masterclasses. The latest round is led by Danish Fund Nordic Eye with participation of existing investor Partech Ventures and Jellynote's CEO Martijn Tjho.

15 March

LivingLens, a software provider of video mining and analytics technologies, has announced a further £1.3m in funding. Participating in the round is the Angel CoFund, angel investors from LivingLens’ 2014 involvement in the Collider Accelerator programme, plus further angels including successful marketeers and ex-city financiers.

15 March 

MMC Ventures has announced significant senior appointments, most notably promoting two new partners - Simon Menashy and Ameerul Miah, who also becomes Chief Operating Officer. MMC has also added to its executive team with Victoria Ferguson becoming General Counsel and Anna Slemmings stepping up to the role of Director of Marketing and Investor Relations.

15 March 

SyndicateRoom has today announced the successful capital raise of £350,051 for Active Needle Technology, overfunding to 140% of its £250,000 target. Active Needle has developed a device designed to help doctors perform needle-based procedures with greater accuracy and reliability.

14 March 

• Over £40m invested in to campaigns presented on the platform since launch in late 2014
• 85% of the portfolio has institutional backing from leading venture capital firms
• 87% of all businesses put forward on the platform have had successful campaigns
• Strong portfolio performance with first monetisation event expected in 2018

14 March 

Freetrade, an app-only stockbroker service designed to democratise access to the stock market by offering zero commission on global transactions, or account minimums, has raised £1.1 million within 12 days of its second Crowdcube, crowd fundraising campaign.

13 March 

Streetbees, a global research platform that is being used by the world’s biggest consumer companies, has raised $5.1 million in Seed funding to date. BGF Ventures led the round and early investors including Octopus Ventures and LocalGlobe also participated.

13 March 

Jenny Tooth, CEO of UKBAA, comments on last Wednesday's Budget Statement.

13 March 

Payfont, the UK’s next-generation cybersecurity innovator, is in early trials of its breakthrough solutions for online identity protection and data privacy. The company, headquartered in Edinburgh, is tipped as one of the UK’s next high-growth stars...

10 March 

Cloud.IQ, has raised £4M Series A funding round, led by London based pan European fund Nauta Capital and advised by Armada Ventures. Finance Wales also participated in the round, alongside existing investors Juno Capital.

9 March 

Technology breakthroughs announced for startups incubated by VN Capital Partners and supported by the UK government's SEIS and EIS tax reliefs for alternative investments.

9 March

VN-H Power Generation Ltd (VN-HPG), a UK energy start-up, today announced a technology breakthrough with the potential to turn loss-making gas-fired power stations back to profit and greatly reduce their environmental impact, making them once more commercially viable for operators and a realistic contributor to national power generation strategies.

8 March

Hollywell Housing Trust, a social enterprise set up to offer bespoke housing services for vulnerable people in Devon & Cornwall, will receive £90,000 from the Health & Wellbeing Challenge Fund (South West) – the first investment from the Fund, which was set up in July 2016.

8 March  

Innovation Birmingham will host this year’s annual Blockconf UK event at the landmark iCentrum building, an event in collaboration with regional blockchain technology investment club, Decrypto.

7 March

BrickVest, the London based online real estate investment platform, has announced the launch of its first commercial real estate debt investment opportunity in partnership with Venn Partners, a leading investment manager of real estate and other asset-backed loans.

7 March

Beringea has sold a majority stake in long term investment SPC international, a global IT hardware support company to TVS Rico Supply Chain Services Limited. 

8 March

Blu Wireless Technology Ltd, the leading supplier of semiconductor and system IP for millimetre wave (mmWave) and high bandwidth wireless communications markets, has received a significant investment from ARM and other strategic and private investors. 

6 March

From today, investors on Seedrs will be able to access their individual portfolio IRR for the first time in another pioneering first by the Neil Woodford-backed investment platform.

6 March

Former Chairman and CEO of Capital Radio Group, David Mansfield, has been appointed as Chairman of the Advisory Board for Shadow Foundr. David brings 30 years’ business experience to the Shadow Foundr team, encompassing a wide range of companies and sectors.

6 March

Booksy, the fastest growing scheduling software company for appointment-based businesses, today announces the successful completion of a Series A funding round worth $4.2 million (£3.4 million).

6 March 

The first investment fund specialising in UK-based robotics start-ups focuses on delivering returns to Investors by making targeted investments in promising UK-based seed-stage robotics companies wrapped within a fund format that is highly tax efficient (under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, “SEIS”).

3 March 

Edison, the investment research and advisory company, issues its latest report on Listed Private Equity (LPE) which finds that the sector displays a similar risk-reward profile to major equity indices, US real estate investment trusts (REITS) as well as other equity classes over the longer term. 

3 March 

2 March 

At a media roundtable held yesterday by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), Patrick Reeve, Managing Partner at Albion Ventures and David Hall, Managing Director at YFM Equity Partners, managers of British Smaller Companies VCT and British Smaller Companies VCT 2, discussed where they are finding opportunities now, demand from investors and the outlook for the sector.

2 March 

Dukosi, the battery management systems innovator, today announced it has secured a further £2 million in funding, led by IP Group plc.

1 March 

Online equity investment platform SyndicateRoom today announces the successful capital raise of £459,871 for Squirrel, which overfunded to 115% of its original £400,019 target. The fintech company has developed a personal financial management and savings app designed to help people regain control of their money.

1 March

Three quarters (74%) of tech entrepreneurs and business leaders are forecasting growth in 2017 according to recent research by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group.

1 March

Leading cyber-security software specialist ZoneFox, has today closed a £3.6 million Series A funding round. The round is led by Scottish business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, with co-investment from The Scottish Investment Bank, and TriCap and follows the £2.5 million in seed funding the company has taken since 2010.

1 March

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network) set up 202 start-ups with angel investors in 2016. The all-island group is responsible for the promotion of business angel investment in Ireland and last year’s match-making efforts resulted in 50 relationships blossoming.

1 March 

BrickVest, the London-based online real estate investment platform, has raised £2 million. The company is backed by 44 angel investors. These investors include prominent real estate, finance and tech industry figures.

1 March 

New research from the AIC shows the top 20 VCTs up an average of 141% and paid an average tax free dividend of 87p per share.

28 February 

• Former Chief Executive of Zurich UK General Insurance, Guy Munnoch, joins as Chairman;
• Former HSBC Senior Executive Alan Hughes, joins as deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director, and
• Anne Whitaker completes a trio of high-quality hires bringing 30 years' experience at EY together with other financial services and public sector roles as Chair of the Audit Committee and Independent Non-Executive Director;

28 February 

Dealflo, the leading provider of end-to-end financial agreement automation services, today announced a £10 million investment round, led by Holtzbrinck Ventures, with follow on investment from Notion Capital and participation from Frog Capital.

27 February 

Before joining BGF James spent five years at EY, most recently in the corporate finance team where he advised on a number of transactions including the sale of IPL to Civica and the acquisition of Transtank Pty by Western Global.

27 February 

Maven Capital Partners has completed a £6.5 million management buy-out of Healthpoint Limited, which sources and supplies healthcare and beauty products into the retail sector. The equity investment was funded through Maven’s co-investment network for professional clients ‘Investor Partners’, with debt and working capital funding provided by Barclays plc. 

27 February 

Members of the Co-Investor Circle (CIC) has completed a follow-on funding round into Push Doctor, Europe’s largest online GP marketplace.  CIC members have invested alongside Oxford Capital, Draper Esprit and Partech as part of a £3.5m round to support Push Doctor’s continued growth in the digital healthcare market.

https://www.pushdoctor.co.uk/ 

27 Februuary 

A recent study commissioned by online printing company, instantprint, which polled the time-keeping habits of 500 SME business owners, has revealed sub-optimal time management as a major barrier to business growth.

24 February  

London-based startup Banvard & James has received a £200K investment through Startup Funding Club’s award-winning network of international investors. The funds will be used to aid the high end men’s fashion accessories brand’s fast-paced growth and its international expansion.

24 February

Europe is much further behind the US in late stage tech investing than it appears, according to analysis by Magister Advisors.  Late stage tech funding is far behind the US, and surprisingly over ⅓ of funding rounds in Europe target non-tech e-commerce or marketplace businesses.

24 February

REalyse, the property analytics company, launched this week having raised £500,000 in seed capital. The round was led by Mr Rajiv Nathwani, who runs property specialist private finance company, Quivira Capital Ltd, with participation from prominent investment groups including Round Hill Capital, Pi Labs and Anthemis Group.

24 February 

Rapid growth at Moneyfarm matched by strong performanceMoneyfarm, the digital wealth manager, today announces a 16% month-on-month average growth and another new senior hire as it celebrates its one-year anniversary of launching in the UK.

23 February 

Maven Capital Partners has been appointed by the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (“NPIF”) to manage the £57.5m NPIF Maven Equity Finance fund as part of NPIF’s £400m of capital available to support growing SMEs.

23 February

Enterprise Ventures, part of Mercia Technologies PLC, has been successful in its bids to manage two of the British Business Bank’s (“BBB”) new Northern Powerhouse Investment Funds (“NPIF”).

23 February

More money will be invested in small businesses, creating jobs and growth if The Chancellor makes it easier for people to invest through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) in The Budget, says Oxford Capital. The firm believes the EIS needs a period of stability, with no further changes to the rules, to encourage investment.

22 February 

With the retirement of Rob Dick after eleven years as TRI Cap's Chairman, Jamie Andrew has been appointed with immediate effect.  Jamie has been an active TRI Cap member since 2005 and more recently a board member.

22 February

Media intelligence leader Meltwater acquires Oxford University AI spinout Wrapidity to boost media monitoring capabilities.

22 February

Idinvest’s UK Entrepreneurship Barometer measures the concerns of the next generation of entrepreneurial talent and therefore addresses the health of the UK’s innovation ecosystem. In its first year, the Barometer poses questions about Brexit consequences, personal motivations, fundraising challenges and economic climate. 

22 February 

The British Business Bank has today launched its £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), aimed at boosting the North of England’s economy and helping the region’s businesses realise their growth potential.

22 February 

POD Point, the UK electric vehicle charge point supplier, has launched a new ￡1.5m crowdfunding round, part of a larger ￡9m fundraise led by Venture Capitalist Draper Esprit.

21 February

Members of the Chelverton Investor Club – a syndicate of High Net Worth private investors – have raised a significant sum of growth capital to support the continuing and rapid development of Qualification Check Limited.

21 February

Browne Jacobson is to launch a legal support service aimed at both supporting start-ups with high-growth potential and developing its junior lawyers into future partners.  "Grow" is being officially launched on 23 February.

21 February

The UK’s first team of student venture capitalists are all set for their new role - scouting for businesses that could become the technology stars of the future.  The 18 students, who are all from The University of Sheffield, will be working with Campus Capital, the innovative venture capital firm that operates in partnership with universities.

20 February 

20 February 

Lending Works, the first peer-to-peer lending platform to have insurance protecting lenders against certain borrower default risks, today announces that it will be reopening the window of opportunity for ISA applications and subscriptions to investors via the platform, just over a week after the launch of the new product.

20 February 

SBRI contract awarded to snap40 for “game-changing technologies with the highest potential value to patients and the health service”..........

17 February

The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA), recognised as a beacon for good standards of business conduct in the alternative finance sector, has welcomed Folk2Folk into its membership, increasing the number of member platforms to nine.

16 February 

Asset Match has surveyed 2,000 UK adults, revealing the widespread feelings of discontent being experienced by the nation’s community of private company shareholders. It found: 

• 10% of UK shareholders said they have never been given the opportunity to discuss options regarding their shares since making their original investment
• A further 9% feel locked-in due to an inability to sell or trade the shares they own in a private company – equating to over 600,000 trapped and frustrated investors
• Post-Brexit sentiment towards stocks and shares is resoundingly positive – 23% of UK investors said they intend to invest in stocks and shares in 2017, trumping property (11%), bonds (7%) and commodities (7%)
• 27% of respondents – the equivalent of 1.8 million shareholders across the UK – do not know the current value of the shares they own
• More than a million shareholders (16%) would like to invest in other high-growth businesses but cannot because of an inability to sell their existing shares

16 February

Ascension Ventures has made an investment from the ASCEND SEIS Fund III into Rotor, a cloud-based content platform for creating promotional videos quickly and easily.  Additional backers in Rotor’s £300,000 seed round include Finance South England (FSE Group) and a group of angel investors.

15 February

SyndicateRoom Research out today reveals EIS trends for 2017 and identifies knowledge gap among retail investors.

Download the report here

15 February

New research from national audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, together with the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies (CCFS), suggests that fraud is costing the UK £125 billion each year.

Download report here

14 February 

Perfect Channel, a leader in marketplace transformation technology has secured £2m in funding from its long-term investor Beringea, and new partner UIL Limited, an investment company jointly managed by ICM Limited and ICM Investment Management Limited.

14 February

Foresight Group announces the completion of a £1.7m investment into Midlands-based Online Poundshop Limited as part of larger growth capital investment of more than £2.0m.

13 February 

Bloom & Wild, the UK’s top rated online flower company, has taken £3.75m in a new round of funding with Burda Principal Investments, Hubert Burda Media’s investment unit, leading the round, and previous investors MMC Ventures and the company’s other angel investors also participating.

13 February 

London based action.ai, the developer of an advanced AI platform for the launch of high quality chatbots, has closed a £515K investment round which included participation from Angels in The City (AiTC), LBA private investors, and the London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF). 

13 February

Advizzo, a B2B customer engagement software & Smart Home specialist, has closed a pre-series A investment round from LBA and other investors which included participation from the LBA EIS Roundtable Syndicate Fund 2016 and the London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF).

13 February 

Beans Entertainment (Beans), the developer of Bean&Gone, a new interactive brand that delivers shared engagement experiences for children across digital and physical media formats, has secured £300,000 of seed investment raising its valuation to £1.3m.

9 February

Crowdcube has seen a strong upswing in investment through the platform since the decision to leave European Union (EU) last June. Crowdcube finished 2016 on a high with its best quarter since the platform launched in 2011 and investment up 20 per cent in the six months following the Brexit vote.

9 February 

Angel Investment Network (AIN) are delighted to announce that they have recently completed four deals through their network. 

9 February 

Startup Funding Club has launched a new initiative for early-stage startups in partnership with experienced entrepreneur and angel investor Andy Yates, the SFC Academy.

8 February

Edition Capital today launched an exciting new EIS fund (Enterprise Investment Scheme). The First Edition EIS offers investors tax efficient access to a portfolio of pre-identified companies in the dynamic and fast growing media and live entertainment sectors.

8 February 

The Electrospinning Company has secured a £650,000 investment from a network of UK angel investors, including Angels 5K, LBA, Minerva, Wroxall, Angels in MedCity and OION, as well as from tChoose Filehe Rainbow Seed Fund.

8 February 

Oxford University Innovation’s management consultancy division to restructure as separate entity to scale up interactions and business on the world stage. Isis Enterprise, the global innovation management consultancy division of Oxford University Innovation, will be joining Oxford University’s ever-growing list of innovative companies as it rebrands to Oxentia and establishes itself a separate entity later this year.

8 February 

Seed investor and former long-term chairman of King Digital (creators of Candy Crush) Mel Morris, has invested £3.8m in Audiense, a software-as-a-service developer which delivers unique consumer insight and consumer engagement capabilities to many of the world’s biggest brands and agencies. 

9 February

SPNV Ltd announces the launch of the Space Net Ventures (S)EIS fund. The fund, targeting early stage investments in Satellite Applications and the Internet 0f Things, is uniquely positioned to take advantage of a very high growth and highly strategic sector for the UK economy.

9 February 

Lending Works, the first peer-to-peer lending platform to have insurance protecting lenders against certain borrower default risks, today becomes the first major UK platform to launch an Individual Savings Account (ISA).

9 February 

London/Macedonian-based startup Cognism has secured $500,000 in seed investment. The round, which was led by Netcetera alongside other investors including Startup Funding Club, SC Ventures, Tsingbay Venture Capital, Tom James, James Hodson, Usman Khan and others.

9 February 

• Nearly half of UK investors POSITIVE about Brexit, two fifths fearful of Trump and a staggering 73% lack faith in Theresa May
• Seven million investors believe UK entrepreneurs will drive the economy back to strength

7 February 

The Augentius Annual Industry Survey is based on the views of more than 200 GP and LP respondents from Asia, the US and Europe. 

Download report here

7 February 

Beer & Young has raised £2.2million for a company who was the first free smart navigation and traffic app on iPhone. As a leading provider of connected navigation solutions they are positioned to become the largest 3D-mapping company in the world by the end of 2018. 

7 February 

Exonate, an early stage biotechnology company has been awarded a £4.9m Seeding Drug Discovery award by the Wellcome Trust to continue development of an eye – drop treatment for wet age–related macular degeneration.

7 February 

Refract, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) start-up based in Newcastle, has received funding of £0.5m from Mercia Fund Management and the Finance For Business North East Technology Fund, managed by IP Group plc. This is one of a number of investments made in the North East of England by the Mercia Group.

7 February 

Campus Capital, the new and innovative UK venture capital firm, has signed up its second key university partner.  The latest deal with the University of Manchester comes just one month after it signed its initial partnership with the University of Sheffield and just before it starts raising its first £2m fund.

7 February 

First Derivatives plc (FD) has agreed a partnership with BGF, the UK’s leading investor in small and mid-sized companies.  The partnership, aimed at developing companies, will combine access to FD’s technology and support with access to BGF’s £2.5bn balance sheet and network of board level executives.  

7 February 

Amati Global Investors is delighted to announce that Mattioli Woods plc has acquired a 49% stake in the Company. This is a strong endorsement of Amati’s capabilities and reputation as a specialist fund manager focussed on UK quoted small and mid-sized companies.

6 February 

BGF has appointed Fiona Gibson to support its growing portfolio in the South West of England.  Fiona joins BGF from Lloyds Banking Group where she was Head of Equity Investments, responsible for the bank’s portfolio of more than 250 legacy equity assets. 

6 February 

Europe’s start-up ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade.  Yet it risks being choked by the lack of later stage financing for Europe’s tech industry, which has hardly budged in five years. 

The result is a yawning, and growing, chasm between the number of ‘grown up’ European tech companies eligible for late stage growth money, and the capital available in Europe to back them. 

We believe it is already hurting growth prospects for European tech, while opening a hugely valuable gap in the funding market, which new funds could fill profitably.

6 February 

PhysioWizard, a Scottish early stage company whose expert system has the potential to revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered, has received backing from Scotland’s top business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, with support from Scotland’s leading medtech and digital health incubator, MediCity Scotland, part of the BioCity Group.

6 Februray 

CoInvestor has announced the addition of funds to their platform building on its existing service allowing direct and advised investors to co-invest alongside leading tax-efficient fund managers on the same terms.

2 February 

UK-based startup Spoke, an online clothing brand making better fitting menswear, has closed a $1.8m funding round. The round was led by VC firm Oxford Capital, with Forward Partners, Seedcamp and a number of angel investors.

2 February 

The winners of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association’s (EISA) annual awards, which recognise outstanding investment performance, excellent service and valued contributions to the EIS sector, have been announced.

2 February 

EIS specialist, Oxford Capital, has launched an easy-to-read guide which explains the EIS in detail.  

EIS demand could massively outstrip supply at tax year-end.

2 February 

Calculus Capital, the private equity fund manager and Enterprise Investment Scheme and VCT specialist, has been named Best EIS Manager in the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) Awards.

2 February 

University of Edinburgh Business School has announced this year’s programme of events for Startup Festival 2017 next month. It’s the city’s biggest festival for entrepreneurs and students, to celebrate Edinburgh and Scotland as great places to start a business. 

1 February 

The Virtual Technology Cluster Group, which connects small innovative companies with blue chip organisations seeking innovation, is raising capital to support the high growth businesses within its network.

31 January  

Smart technology company Camfridge have overfunded to £640,254.78 on online investment platform SyndicateRoom. This equals 128% of the original target, £499,990. Camfridge is developing energy-efficient, gas-free, lower-cost technology for refrigeration appliances.

31 January 

30 January 

Scaling up and not starting up is now the biggest challenge for technology businesses, according to the CEO of Mercia Technologies PLC, one of the most active investors in UK technology.

30 January

New research* by CIL Management Consultants conducted amongst 100 high performing mid-sized businesses with sector-leading levels of growth and profitability, shows that one third (33.5%) are actively focusing on US expansion as part of their post-Brexit growth strategy.

30 January

BGF, the UK’s leading growth capital investor, has invested £10m in Frontrow Energy Technology Group to support the company’s growth plans, alongside a £3m investment from the Group’s founders.

27 January 

• People aged 18-34 are four times more likely than over-55s to have money invested in a peer to peer platform
• One in four millennials have had P2P recommended to them by a friend
• Recent P2PFA figures show close to a £1billion (£844m) of new loans in the final quarter of 2016

27 January 

UK Bond Network, the alternative finance provider that specialises in structuring and distributing investment opportunities in secured corporate bonds, has moved a step closer to offering a tax-efficient individual savings account (ISA), having been authorised as an ISA manager by HMRC.

27 January 

Lending Works survey reveals that over 1 in 5 Brits think they will never be financially secure enough to retire …

See results in this infographic

25 January

Data published today by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) demonstrates continued confidence in the VCT sector.  Fundraising for the 2016/17 tax year to 31 December 2016 was 53% up on fundraising to 31 December in the 2015/16 tax year.

25 January 

Global Alternatives, an independent owner-operator of cross-border marketplaces for alternative investments, has announced the first deal open for crowdfunding on its re-launched Property Crowd platform.  The platform is offering professional investors and HNWIs an 11.2% IRR via investment in a Bond issue with pass-through exposure to a short-term senior loan. 

26 January

Angels in MedCity has supported London scale-up Jupiter Diagnostics to raise £1.6m to develop its reader, allowing anyone to perform quick, affordable blood tests. Invesors included the LBA EIS Roundtable Syndicate Fund 2016 and the London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF).

26 January 

Startup Funding Club is excited to announce that it has led an SEIS funding round of over £250k into Petalite Ltd and another of £150k into Kashing Ltd. The investments have been syndicated between members of the Startup Funding Club award-winning angel syndicate and the SFC SEIS Fund.

26 January

Astia Angels has closed its first Irish investment taking part in a €1.2 million seed fundidng of Dublin-based startup Soapbox Labs. 

26 January

Working with the management of Rentivo, MyVAN has helped fund Rentivo’s recent fundraise on Crowdcube, which overfunded by 30%.

26 January 

My 1st Years, the children’s gifts personalisation site, has secured £5m in growth funding led by venture and growth investor Beringea, and supported with funds managed by Hargreave Hale. The investment will be used to drive developments in operations, marketing and international expansion into the US.

26 January 

The fourth annual Albion Growth Report reveals that two-thirds of business owners aged under 35 (66%) predict their business will grow over the year ahead of which 18% are predicting dramatic growth compared to 61% and 7% respectively among older generations.  As a result, over half (52%) of younger CEOs are planning to hire more staff compared to a much lower all-age average of 35%.

26 January 

Oxford University Innovation (OUI), the research commercialisation company for Oxford University, launched an unprecedented 24 high-tech firms in 2016, attracting a combined total of £52.6m in seed stage funding and punctuating OUI’s strongest calendar year to date.

24 January 

Mobeus is delighted to announce that Justin Maltz has joined the team as Portfolio Director.  This is part of a significant expansion at Mobeus as the firm pursues a broader investment strategy which includes growth and buyout capital on behalf of retail and institutional investors. 

24 January

Beringea has put $4.6 million into Whistle Sports, a digital entertainment media company. The investment is part of Whistle Sports’ recently-concluded Series C, with Beringea joining leading names in sports broadcasting and digital media in a round worth $27.5 million in total. 

24 January

BiVictriX Therapeutics (“BVX”) has today announced the completion of a successful fundraise to develop a new class of targeted cancer drugs. The company’s ‘Dual Targeting Approach’ is designed to give superior selectivity towards blood cancers. Acceleris Capital Ltd provided corporate finance advice to the Company.

24 January

24 January 

Welcoming today’s publication of [Industrial Strategy], Stephen Welton, CEO of BGF, the UK’s leading provider of investment to growing companies said, "The Government’s commitment to a long-term industrial strategy is welcome news.” “Today’s Green Paper is the beginning of an important conversation. I truly hope that this will lead to a strategy that all British business can get behind. “Challenges and upheaval can bring opportunities for ambitious and innovative businesses. We have no shortage of either in the UK, so there is reason to be optimistic about our future.

24 January 

Following the publication of the Government’s 10 pillar plan for its UK Industrial Strategy, James Codling, Co-Founder and MD of scale-up financing platform, VentureFounders, has made the below comment on how he thinks the proposal will impact companies looking to scale in the UK.

23 January

The world’s prominent angel investors gather in Istanbul for the World Business Angels Investment Forum 2017 from 12-14 February 2017, bringing together key players of the equity market to debate the benefits and challenges for the angel investment community in achieving successful growth for their businesses and to discuss what more can be done to connect the early-stage market ecosystem.

Find out more

20 January 

Thrive, a software company that develops mobile apps to empower people to manage their mental health independently, has raised more than £500,000 with the help of ClearlySo, Europe’s leading impact investment bank.

20 January 

Mercia Technologies PLC, the national investment group focused on the creation, funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions, has led a £1 million investment into Smart Antenna Technologies, a University of Birmingham spinout.

20 January 

A strong Q4 for equity crowdfunding and P2P lending kept both sectors growing in 2016 according to the latest data from the OFF3R Index. Equity crowdfunding grew by a steady 9% whilst the total amount via P2P lending grew by 38%

Read full report here

19 January 

Evonik Industries has invested through its venture capital arm in Nanotech Industrial Solutions, Inc (NIS), an EcoMachines Ventures portfolio company.

•     Venture Capital investment includes commercial agreement

•     Unique particle technology reduces friction and wear to significantly contribute to engine efficiency

•     Evonik’s Oil Additives Business Line expects access to this unique technology to bring high strategic advantage for future market opportunities

19 January

The disruptive mobile tyre fitting company TyresOnTheDrive.com today announces that it has secured up to £8m investment from Halfords, the UK’s leading retailer of motoring, cycling and leisure products and, through Halfords Autocentres, a leading independent operator in vehicle servicing, maintenance and repairs.

19 January

From Davos, Richard Muirhead, 3x software entrepreneur and now General Partner, OpenOcean - a European early-stage software company venture firm, says the PM needs to act quickly to put in place a plan around objective 10 - keeping the UK a leader in science and innovation.