Beauhurst has acquired Spinouts UK, the project and dataset run and collected by Jonathan Harris, to become a one-stop-shop for information on all of the UK’s spinout companies.

Listening to investors at the start of a new business can make the difference between success and failure, according to new research from the UCL School of Management that highlights the boost that crowdfunding offers.

Edison Strategic Insight: Market valuations improving in UK and Europe. There are risks, but valuation risk is slowly receding, with the exception of the US.

 A 2018 OECD report has shown that alternative investment companies are thriving, as increasing numbers of small and medium-sized businesses turn to alternative finance as opposed to traditional bank-loans to cover their costs. The report al

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.

By Adrian Lloyd, Episode 1 Ventures

Getting venture investment is the first major turning point for a startup. All the months of work that went into pitching are over. There is money in the bank to turn plans into reality.

And there is now a VC firm (probably*) with a seat at your board meetings and a whole bunch of ideas for your business.

This is a challenging period for entrepreneurs who, understandably, will have established their own way of running their company. We come in with a lot of experience and advice, some of which might suggest very different ways of doing things.

The Midlands Innovation group of universities has launched the largest collaboration between university technology transfer offices in the UK, to attract investment and management talent to the region.

The Midlands Innovation Commercialisation of Research Accelerator (MICRA) will share best practice and share resources across technology transfer offices in Midlands universities. The partnership will support the development of spin-out companies, helping them to obtain finance and expertise, and accelerating the rate at which innovations are able to be commercialised.

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.

Maven Capital Partners has exited from its investment in Cursor Controls Limited, a developer and manufacturer of human machine interface (HMI) devices for some of the world's most demanding environments. The sale to DiscoverIE Group plc has realised a return for Maven clients of 2.68x the initial investment in just over three years.

Cursor designs, manufacturers, and supplies a range of leading edge products, including trackballs, touchpads and ruggedised keyboards. The business, which is based in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, generates over 90% of its sales from international markets, exporting to over 30 countries. Its high precision products, benefitting from patented technology, are used by leading brands in the medical, defense and aerospace, marine and industrial sectors.

UK-based tech firm, Gorilla in the room, has appointed Martin Fincham, the former CEO of global enterprise software company LANSA Group, as its chairman ahead of the company’s next funding round.

Following a seed investment from Mercia Fund Managers in January 2018, the business has launched Discover, a market leading immersive research mobile product, and is now raising further capital to transition from a service-based business to a subscription model.

European private equity and venture capital fundraising reached €45.6 billion in the first half of 2018, a 40% increase on the second half of last year, according to new data from Invest Europe.

This figure makes it the third highest six-month period since 2007, according to the European private equity and venture capital association. Invest Europe CEO Michael Collins will present the data on Friday at Invest Europe’s Venture Capital Forum in Paris. At this annual event, institutional investors meet the venture capital fund managers backing Europe’s innovative global leaders of the future. Venture capital investment in European start-ups surpassed €3 billion, reveals the new data, in the highest half-year result since 2007.

eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report, showing that LBO performance has fallen for three straight quarters from its 10-year high in 2017.

Key findings:

• After reaching a peak of 1.49x in Q3 2017, the average return multiple achieved by active LBO funds has continued its retreat, back to the level of Q2 2017, at 1.45x.
• Despite the fall, active global LBO funds have outperformed the average of 1.3x achieved between 2009-2018 by 0.15x.
• The dispersion of performance between the top and bottom funds has stabilised at 1.34x, following a general trend towards a lower dispersion of returns, equating to reduced risk.
• Q1 2018 recorded a sharp decrease of the average time-to-liquidity, to just 2.63 years.
• In terms of vintage years, 2009 and 2014 are so far delivering strong performance, while 2010 and 2013 are more subdued.
• Overall, the performance of US funds stands above or on the long-term average, while Western European LBO funds show a more volatile performance.