The University of Warwick has received one of its largest donations from an individual to establish a new Fintech research centre.

The £3 million donation has been made by Clive Gillmore, founder and Group CEO of Mondrian Investment Partners and an alumnus of the University of Warwick.

The Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology will be housed at Warwick Business School and will bring together the school’s existing research in the area along with a host of new appointments.

YFM Equity Partners has backed a £4.5m investment into SharpCloud Software Limited to support the continued growth and roll out of its enterprise SaaS product. YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc, alongside YFM Equity Partners Growth II LP.

Technology company, Sennen, whose software increases the reliability and productivity achieved by renewable energy owners, has secured financial backing from investment firm Sustainable Accelerator in its first round of seed funding.

Experienced renewable energy business angels Colin Palmer and David Bunker are also investing in the business. Further investors will be announced soon with the total round expected to be nearly £400,000, double the initial target.

Apadmi Ventures has invested in studentnannies.com, an innovative new childcare platform which has just launched in Manchester, having already launched in London. 

Quantum machine learning company Rahko has raised a £1.3m (USD1.6) seed round led by Balderton Capital, Europe’s leading Series A tech investor. Balderton usually invests at Series A but makes rare seed investments when it discovers exceptional teams like that at Rahko. Balderton is joined in the funding round by venture firm AI Seed and angel investors Charles Songhurst (former Microsoft Head of Corporate Strategy), Tom McInerney (Founder, TGM Ventures), John Spindler (CEO, Capital Enterprise) and James Field (CEO, LabGenius). 

Browne Jacobson’s corporate finance team has advised Impala on its successful $11 million investment round.

Codacy, the Lisbon-based startup whose platform automates and standardizes software quality to increase the efficiency of developers and enterprise development teams, announces raising $7.7M in funding. This round is led by Join Capital, with participation from EQT Ventures, Armilar Venture Partners, Faber Ventures, and Caixa Capital.

Moorgate Benchmarks, the index company driving change, has closed its Series A funding round, securing a significant investment from ETFS Capital.  The investment will enable Moorgate Benchmarks to accelerate growth by building out its full-service offering to capitalise on a range of near-term opportunities. 

Tutorful, a platform that connects students with tutors across the UK has secured a £3.2 million investment from NVM Private Equity. The investment will be used to grow the rapidly expanding online tutoring business, by building out a suite of tools and curriculum-aligned content that helps tutors deliver exceptional quality lessons. 

Foresight Group LLP has announced a further £749k equity investment into Footfalls and Heartbeats Limited through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), leading a £1.5m round with additional backing from the University of Nottingham and several new and existing High Net Worth Investors.

The independent Iberian alternative assets manager GED Capital has taken a further step in the development of its multi-product strategy with the launch of its maiden venture capital fund Conexo Ventures. This new activity of GED Capital in the venture capital segment adds to the already existing strategies of the GP in private equity and infrastructure. With a target size of 40 million euros, Conexo Ventures will make around 20 investments, of which around 50% will be follow-up investments.

An entrepreneur who set out to help save struggling high streets has raised £325,000 to deliver his idea.  Chris Reed has secured investment from the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia, and former TV ‘dragon’ Jenny Campbell.