QVentures portfolio company Go Instore has been acquired by Emplifi, a leading unified customer experience platform. Go Instore enables live commerce by connecting online customers with in-store product experts using immersive HD live video. Go Instore’s cutting-edge video technology provides brands with a new channel via which they can engage with and serve their customers.

72 countries celebrate the World Business Angel Investors Week, 18 – 24 October 2021.

WatchMyCompetitor (WMC) has secured £2 million in an investment round through Blackfinch Ventures and Praetura Ventures. Blackfinch and Manchester-based Praetura Ventures have both committed £1m investment to the deal.

WMC’s platform enables organisations to automatically monitor competitors, clients, regulators and key partners. The innovative software uses the latest cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, combined with data analysts’ input to track anything available online, including websites, social media, press and other sources. The service automatically identifies commercial changes such as new product launches, promotions, price changes and organisational changes.

Innovation in North West England, already home to 14 ‘unicorns’ companies, received a major shot in the arm today as Fearless Adventures comes out of the door with a multimillion-pound fund and a novel, one-stop shop of support services to grow the next generation of direct-to-consumer (‘D2C’) startups in the UK. 

Tech Nation, the UK’s leading growth platform for tech scaleups, has announced the 31 mid-stage scaling tech companies that have been accepted into Upscale 7.0 - the seventh iteration of the Upscale programme, which supports the UK’s fastest-growing mid-sized (Series A) tech companies to overcome common growth challenges and scale faster. This is a critical time in every scaleup’s journey, as around 60% of companies that raise Pre-Series A funding fail to make it to Series A or beyond.

On Thursday 24th November, 2021, Playfair Capital and 120 of the world’s leading venture capital funds, including Accel, Amadeus, Atomico, Balderton, Creandum, EQT, Notion, Partech, Project A and Seedcamp will be holding remote office hours for more than 300 female founders from across Europe.

Dispensing with the need for warm introductions and breaking down the barriers to investment, each founder will have the opportunity to meet four investors during one hour of remote office hours to discuss their tech business idea, ask for advice, pitch for investment or find a mentor. 

Par Equity has won Best EIS Manager at the prestigious 2021 EISA (Enterprise Investment Scheme Association) awards.

The Edinburgh-based VC, which specialises in investing in innovative technology companies in the North, was also highly commended in the EISA Impact Award.

Circularity Capital, the specialist private equity firm supporting growth stage European SMEs in the circular economy, has announced the appointment of Maximillian Bork as a new member of the firm’s investment team.

Visit Funding for Entrepreneurs for more information.

Zouk Capital has committed an initial £30m investment to launch a new public EV charging company called Zest, supported by the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF). Zest intends to democratise EV ownership by rapidly filling the gaps in the UK’s maturing EV infrastructure.

Today’s EV infrastructure has evolved to serve early adopters, prioritising home driveway and rapid en-route charging. The Zest mission is to make the shift to EV a realistic option for everyone, by rapidly growing a network that makes fast charging available where people regularly park for more than 30 minutes, whether it is when shopping, at leisure or at work.

The world’s most entrepreneur-friendly cities have been revealed in a new report by the personal finance experts at money.co.uk.

North west-based multi-family investment office Arete, has led a £1.6m investment into Travel Seen, an early stage business co-founded by award-winning entrepreneur and travel professional, Jen Atkinson.