Suffolk-based biotechnology company, PBD Biotech Ltd, has announced that its key technology patent has been granted by the European Patent Office, covering its Actiphage technology that allows the sensitive and specific detection of live bacteria within six hours.

Leading cyber security software specialist, ZoneFox, has been sold by its shareholders – including Scottish business angel investment syndicates, Archangels and TriCap, Scottish Investment Bank and Napier University – to US-based Fortinet.

Kindaba, a private visual messenger for families, has secured investment from Gareth Williams ahead of their CrowdFunding Campaign. Kindaba helps customers stay connected with the promise of no adverts and a commitment to respect privacy and protect their data. 

The company aims to globally launch their new visual intelligent messenger for families and establish themselves as thought leaders in the FamTech (family technology) space over the next 12 months.

Dow Schofield Watts Angels has completed its second deal, with a £300,000 investment in Miribase Limited, the company behind the Shopblocks e-commerce platform.

Over 25 angel investors took part in the funding round, which will be used to accelerate Shopblocks’ revenues by investment in new sales and marketing resources.

The Shopblocks platform provides a hosted website and online shop solution for SMEs. Shopblocks makes it possible for businesses to launch a bespoke website in an easy and cost-effective way. It fills a gap in the market between inflexible, template-based platforms and custom-built websites which are typically developed by digital agencies at much greater cost.

Further to an extensive national study commissioned by The UKBAA and The British Business Bank, nationwide data reveals clear regional disparity across the UK, with a staggering 63% of business angels based in London and the South East. Further insights include: 

• 63% of Business Angel investments made in London and the South East
• 75% of Business Angels aged over 45 and 21% aged over 65
• Healthcare, Life Sciences, Fintech and Software as a Service most popular sectors for investment 

The British Business Bank’s UK Business Angels Market report - produced with the UKBAA - reveals a clear regional disparity in terms of where Angel investors are based and where they invest. Supported by a further independent body of data commissioned by the UKBAA on regional, ethnic minority and gender based perceptions on what it is to be an angel investor, an overriding and acutely skewed assumption that SME investment is preserved for ultra-wealthy, white, male Londoners has emerged. While potential investors of differing regional demographics may feel isolated from the investing arena, the repercussions for regional SMEs reliant on this kind of funding may limit innovation and employment growth outside of the capital.

The team behind Lara Croft’s smile in the newly launched bestselling Shadow of the Tomb Raider video game are turning their technology sights on the customer service sector following a significant funding boost.

Speech Graphics is an Edinburgh and California based technology business which provides market-leading, real-time audio based facial animation, featuring in productions from video games to music videos and now, with a £2m investment from Archangels, the prominent business angel syndicate, Par Equity and Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) the company is targeting the customer service sector’s Intelligent Virtual Assistant market from its base in the San Francisco Bay area of California.

Dr Steve Garnett, the angel investor behind Fairsail which was sold last year to The Sage Group for $150 million, shares his experiences of angel investing, with Funding London.  

In partnership with The Invested Investor, AngelNews is publishing this recent interview with Simon King, a Principal at Octopus Ventures.

Calling women across the Northern Powerhouse to be part of the Women Angels of the North Investment Forum on 12^th November. Organised by UK Business Angels Association in partnership with NorthInvest and Growth Capital Ventures, this important event, held in the elegant Art Deco surroundings of the Queen’s Hotel in central Leeds, seeks to raise awareness among experienced women from business and the professions about the opportunities to back great entrepreneurs across the Northern regions.

Beauhurst has analysed the UK's leading angel networks. They have defined what makes an angel network stand apart from other types of investors, such as venture capital firms, private equity funds, and crowdfunding platforms. These collections of wealthy individuals play an important role in several localised high-growth ecosystems, such as Cambridge and Scotland. 

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has launched a new £100m Regional Angels Programme designed to help reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity finance for smaller businesses across the UK. Such finance can play an important role in funding businesses with growth ambitions.

This new commercial programme aims to address this issue by increasing the availability, supply and awareness of angel and other early-stage equity investments across the country, particularly in areas where this type of finance is less readily available.

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, and a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTrade Ireland, today announces that its MedTech Syndicate has led a €1.1 million Series A funding round in medical device start-up, Ostoform. HBAN Angels contributed €280,000, with venture capital investor, SOSV, Enterprise Ireland, and other angel investors making up the rest of the funding round.

Dublin-based Ostoform was set up to address the management of a stoma – a small surgical opening on the surface of the abdomen to divert the flow of waste. A common complaint is irritation, redness and discomfort around the skin caused by leaks of the acidic content contacting the skin. Ostoform has developed the Ostoform Seal with FlowAssist. This is a seal that is secured to the skin around the stoma to effectively guide the acidic stoma output into the ostomy bag, thereby preventing it from contacting the skin.