A tiny group of UK companies are punching well above their weight showing they can be a significant force in driving the country’s economic growth, increasing UK productivity, skills and employment, according to The Octopus High Growth Small Business Report 2018.

One in every five new jobs in the UK and more than 20% of economic growth was created by high growth small businesses between 2015 and 2016. Representing less than 1% of UK business, these 22,074 companies created on average more than 3,000 new jobs each week.

2018 has so far proven to be fairly promising in terms of the aggregate value of announced angel investment deals targeting Western European companies, according to Zephyr, the M&A database published by Bureau van Dijk. The first quarter of 2018 has already surpassed Q1 2016, Q1 2015 and Q1 2014 by value, despite the fact that there are 12 days still to go until the end of the quarter at the time of writing. 

Research from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) using Morningstar data shows which investment companies have performed best if you’d invested the maximum ISA limit on a lump sum basis annually, since the launch of ISAs.

Leading technology career platform Honeypot has released the 2018 Women in Tech Index which analyses the gender pay gap in the OECD and EU technology industry, revealing the best opportunities for women.

The Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE), the entrepreneurship think tank, has released a report calling on the UK to empower resettled refugees through entrepreneurship.

New research by SyndicateRoom has revealed that investment risk appetite is on the rise as lacklustre returns fail to match the goals held by nearly half of investors.

Aberdeen Standard Investments and 21 Partners have announced the establishment of a new UK based 50:50 joint venture (JV) – 21 Aberdeen Standard Investments Limited (21ASI) – with the intention of Aberdeen Standard Investments launching a direct €1bn private equity fund later this year.

eFront’s latest quarterly private equity data shows that LBO performance reached a 10-year high in 2017, while overall risk levels reduced and average time to liquidity improved.

63 per cent of CEOs are worried about the lack of digital skills among senior leadership, according to a report by PwC. A further 67 per cent are troubled about a lack of digital skills throughout their businesses.

BDRC has published its quarterly SME Finance Monitor. The largest and most frequent study of its kind in the UK, research findings have been gathered across 27 waves of interviews since 2011 and are based on more than 130,000 interviews with SMEs.

World Business Angels Investment Forum has become an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) SME Finance subgroup. Its participation has been approved by the GPFI Troika linked to the Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP).