Michael Stanes, Investment Director at Heartwood Investment Management

Global investors have had a love-hate relationship with Japan for many years. Effectively ignored for two decades since the bubble years of the late 1980s (with some short bursts of enthusiasm in between), the arrival of Shinzo Abe as prime minister in 2012 kindled hopes that this sleeping giant would find its feet, and help unlock the latent potential of its corporate and consumer sectors.

HM Treasury has announced an action plan to increase the growth for UK SME's by aiming to spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs, directly or through the supply chain, by 2022, meaning that 33% of all money spent should go to SMEs. It is important to highlight that this action is aimed at breaking down barriers for SME's who want to supply the public sector. 

Comment from UKBAA's Jenny Tooth

As of this week, the UK has been placed on the world's centre stage as Parliament discusses whether to agree upon the proposed Brexit deal. Succeeding resignations of key cabinet ministers, the pound has dropped and shares in UK companies have been negatively impacted. Whilst this can be expected in times of political uncertainty, it is important to question if UK SMEs are prepared for Brexit - whatever the end result.

By Damien Lane, Episode 1 Ventures

A lot of founders that pitch to us miss a fundamental point of venture funding – VCs are all about trying to find really big outcomes. They want to discover the startups that will grow into 200million, 300million, 500million, billion dollar companies. Such companies are – to borrow a phrase from current political discourse – the few, not the many. 

And so, as a founder, perhaps the most important part of the pitching process is convincing the investor that there is a chance that the idea you’ve got, the business you’re running, can get to that size. That’s difficult, especially as you might not yet have any revenues to speak of. But some entrepreneurs we see don’t talk at all about how big the opportunity could be.

By Belinda Thomas, Triple Point

Making the journey from start-up to scale up can be one of the most precarious and unpredictable times in the life of any firm.  Causes of failure are plenty, but research indicates there are three major factors that account for forty percent of early-stage business failures.

We won’t know if the Brexit deal is good, bad or ugly for another 10 years.  If you’re serious about creating, building and safeguarding wealth in the next decade, you need to consider global opportunities.

By Matthew Toms, Investment Manager at Heartwood Investment Management

Offering insight into UK investment markets feels like an impossible task, given the fluidity of the Brexit situation and ongoing political volatility. Instead then, let’s focus on a couple of the longer-term issues in UK markets facing investors today. First, the global nature of UK equities; second, the usefulness (or otherwise) of UK government bonds.

By Siobhan Clarke, Episode 1  Ventures

Over a series of blogs, Episodde 1 is focusing on the Seed to Series A step of GTM and sharing what it means to think through the customer experience. This is the 4th article in the series. 

CEO of Private investment house IW Capital, Luke Davis, comments on the introduction of a new EIS fund that focuses on knowledge intensive SMEs.

The term resilience has become synonymous for SMEs that can weather Brexit - but what does this actually mean in the context of one of the most seismic events to effect the UK economy and private sector? Jenny Tooth, CEO of the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) comments.

Arthur Krebbers reveals new research by a team of American and Chinese business academics* which shows that bribe-giving can be an entrepreneurial underdog’s plan B.

A week on from an Autumn Budget that failed to address the differences in opportunities for women in  compared to men,