Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on building the consumer brands of tomorrow, has successfully exited its investment in Pasta Evangelists, which delivers restaurant-quality pasta direct to customers by post. The innovative meal kit business has agreed a deal whereby Italian firm, Barilla Group, will acquire a majority stake. The value of the deal is undisclosed.  

Weezy, the UK’s leading on-demand superfast supermarket that delivers groceries in only 15 minutes, has raised $20 million in Series A funding to expand its grocery delivery service across London and the broader UK. The new investment was led by New York-based venture capital fund Left Lane Capital. Also participating are UK-based fund DN Capital, earlier investors Heartcore Capital and angel investors, notably Chris Muhr, the Groupon founder. The funding will help expand the company’s London-based team by 50 employees over the next four months, in addition to extra fulfilment centre staff. 

Gusto, a drink company which funded successfully via Crowdcube, has launched two new functional drinks: Super DC Blood Orange and Super DC Blackcurrant & Elderberry.  

BGF has made a further substantial investment in the expansion of Yorkshire-headquartered bakery business, Cooplands, as the 135-year-old business looks ahead to its next chapter of growth. 

Three years after BGF’s initial £8.5m investment, the business has grown to more than 165 stores, 12 cafes and 36 sandwich vans. Cooplands has opened seven new stores since March 2020 and plans to roll-out an additional 30 stores a year in locations such as South Yorkshire, as well as expanding further in the current geographical footprint. 

Two former Newcastle University students who developed a unique range of alcoholic tea drinks have raised £1.4m from investors to help them further expand their business.  NOVELTEA has already proved popular with customers in the UK, Germany and also China. The funding will allow founders Vincent Efferoth and Lukas Passia to target new overseas markets, expand their product range and create 20 new jobs at the company’s base in Newcastle.

Small business specialist investor IW Capital has completed a £3.7million investment into Rockwater Hove, a community driven hospitality venue on Hove’s seafront. Testament to its community ethos, over £1million of the funding was raised by local residents, many of whom have already been customers over the summer. 

Diageo has announced it has reached agreement to acquire BGF portfolio company Chase Distillery, the owner of Chase GB Gin and the award-winning Chase Original Potato Vodka. 

A £10 million funding package from the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) will help to scale the insect bioconversion sector, accelerating the transition to sustainable methods of farming.

As part of the project consortium, Better Origin will use the funding to focus on scaling their insect processing and value extraction technology to convert insects into products such as animal feed and human food. A result of years of research and development, their patented ‘Metamorphosis Technology’, which processes insects into different products, represents the most cost-effective,tailored processing line developed to date.

The world’s most awarded non-alcoholic spirits company, Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirit Co. has successfully closed a £9m seed round

Private equity-backed soft drinks manufacturer Clearly Drinks is to invest in a new canning facility at its Sunderland headquarters following support from NorthEdge.  The multi-million-pound investment is set to provide state-of-the-art canning capabilities, designed by BW Integrated Systems, allowing Clearly Drinks to manufacture 160 million cans each year. This will enhance Clearly Drinks’ product offering and packaging flexibility, allowing it to widen its customer base which currently includes Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Booker and One Stop. 

In November last year, Porky Whites, a premium British sausage brand that had been running since 1935, was at the brink of collapse. Independent Growth Finance (IGF) provided £750,000 of funding to the company after Porky Whites had been let down by its bank. This ensured that the family-owned business was in a position not only to survive, but to thrive.  IGF provides asset-based lending, which allows businesses to draw on the value of their own machinery, property and stock. 

Green Angel Syndicate has completed an investment in online, sustainable grocer, Good Club, as part of a £900k raise. Good Club is an online grocer, selling over 2,000 sustainable staples (70% ambient food, 30% non-food), delivered to consumers nationwide direct from wholesalers. The next step in its mission to help people live more sustainable lifestyles is to aim to become the world's first zero-waste online supermarket by developing reusable product packaging along with logistics technology to tackle the single-use plastic crisishead-on.