New research released from venture capital fund MMC Ventures, shows that while 2,700 blockchain companies have been created in the UK since 2008, only 9% of these  have been equity funded. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) had been the ‘go-to’ source of funding for blockchain companies until early 2018. As the ICO funding model has become increasingly difficult since the crash in crypto prices in the beginning of 2018, companies are shifting back to equity finance and placing a greater emphasis on company fundamentals.

The proportion of UK small businesses predicting growth has plummeted from 39% to just 14% in the last three months.

UK deal making has plunged to the lowest monthly total in almost 35 years according to research from Refinitiv.

Deal value involving a UK target totalled £409.1 million from 35 deals in April 2020 – lows not seen since September 1985 which saw £269.5m worth from 9 deals.

New research from global communications agency ClearStory International has analysed the rapid surge in interest in the most popular tech trends across media since coronavirus first emerged. 

According to new research conducted this month from proSapient, a machine learning executive research platform, over half (57%) of UK start-ups said they only had enough cashflow to survive a maximum of 6 months from now, even after undertaking cost-cutting measures.

Almost a third of businesses in the Midlands and the North of England are at high risk of collapse due to COVID-19 impacting on their supply chain, according to a recent report from Durham University Business School.

Demand for stocks and gold has topped the numbers of the 2008 financial crisis by as much as 335%, as can be seen on a new infographic by Kryptoszene.de. Since the beginning of 2020, the Google trend score for the search terms "buy shares" and "buy gold”, which indicates the relative search volume, increased five-fold. Other tangible assets, such as Bitcoin, are currently also in higher demand than they have been for over two years. 

Beauhurst has looked at the initial figures for Q1 2020, and more specifically at the last two weeks, to see what's happening now and what may come next.

Mergermarket has released its Global M&A roundup for the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, including its financial advisors league tables. Take a look at the report below and don’t forget to review the charts breaking down the activity by sector, value, year-to-year analysis. 

With vast swathes of the world in lockdown, the one question on everyone’s minds is how long will it take to develop a vaccine against COVID-19? The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has spoken to investment company and VCT managers about the prospects for a vaccine and how their portfolio companies are contributing to the fight against coronavirus.

New data reveals that 33 per cent of UK businesses say they lack the technology infrastructure to manage long-term remote working during the Covid-19 crisis. 

During 2019, Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) made new investments and commitments amount­ing to €133m. Tesi gave commitments totalling €89m to ten funds and made direct investments amounting to €43m in 25 companies.