Independent Growth Finance (IGF), a leading independent commercial finance provider, has appointed Paul Whitaker as chief risk and operating officer.

YFM Equity Partners has appointed David Wrench as an investment director as it continues to expand its investment team. 

David is joining the team to invest in growth capital and buyout opportunities, and his appointment follows the recent raising of a new £80m YFM buyout fund, the investment to support the buyout of Worcestershire-based Innovative Safety Systems (ISS) and the recent trade sale of Business Collaborator in Reading.

Leading US universities including Harvard and Arizona State University have engaged British tech start-up StageClip to facilitate “virtual graduations” for their seniors in light of in-person ceremonies having to be postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Innovate UK has launched a £20m competition looking for business-led innovation in response to global disruption, closing 17 Apr. Up to £50k/project.

Kickstart, one of Europe's largest innovation platforms, is welcoming applications for the fifth iteration of its annual B2B scale-up programme aimed at late-stage start-ups interested in entering the Swiss market. 

Around 100 entrepreneurs will join the three-month programme in September to connect and create specific
pilots and commercial projects with one of Kickstart's 50 corporate and public sector partners, which include
businesses like AXA, Roche, Credit Suisse and Lafarge Holcim.

BetaDen, Worcestershire’s dynamic commercial technology accelerator, has selected the next eight emerging technology entrepreneurs to join them for cohort 3.0, starting June 2020. 

Yorkshire based SME funding specialist One Stop Business Finance has expanded its client servicing team with the appointment of Carey Scargill as Business Development Manager for South and West Yorkshire.

Following the announcement of its dividend heroes last week, the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has released a list of the next generation of dividend heroes. These are the investment companies that have raised their annual dividends for at least ten years but less than the 20 consecutive years needed to achieve dividend hero status.

The Turnaround Management Association UK has appointed BTG Advisory partner Paul Davies as president of the association from January 2021.

In conjunction with its recent annual Tech Nation report, Tech Nation,  the growth platform for tech companies and leaders, has announced the high-growth scaleups which have been selected to join the 8th edition of Future Fifty, the UK’s leading late-stage growth programme. 

Peter Jones CBE, known for his role on Dragon’s Den, and BGF have joined forces to support two high-growth tech businesses, with plans for further collaboration in the future. An initial £9m has been invested across Localised Group, an ecommerce platform for global brands which recently signed British retailer Boden as its latest customer, and Retail Services Group, a business that provides in-store end-to-end retail experiences for some of the world’s leading technology brands. 

Growth Capital Ventures, a growing North East financial technology company has hit a series of milestones as it celebrates its fifth anniversary.