Maven Capital Partners has hired Carolyn McEwan to the property investment team as Investment Manager. The strengthening of the team reflects Maven’s continued commitment to expanding its property investment capabilities and the increasing demand for property investment opportunities that Maven identifies for its clients.

Shoosmiths has advised NVM Private Equity on its recent investment of £2 million into Duke & Dexter (D&D), an award winning men’s footwear label.

Launched in 2014, D&D offers a range of high quality shoes, all manufactured by hand in the UK and has developed into a leading premium men’s shoe brand.  It has collaborated with brands and personalities such as Tyson Beckford, Rolls Royce and in June this year, launched a collaboration with American rapper Snoop Dogg to create an exclusive line of 12 initial styles.

Edge Performance VCT, the creative industries VCT managed by leading creative economy specialist Edge Investments, has exited its investment in deltaDNA by Unity Technologies, creator of the world’s leading real-time 3D development platform based in San Francisco.

Launched in 2011 by games industry veterans Chris Wright and Tim Christian, and big data expert, Mark Robinson, Edinburgh-based deltaDNA provides games developers and publishers with cutting edge analytics and a real-time engagement platform which drive the commercial performance of the games. Since inception, the business has continued to expand its activities and has developed to become the platform of choice for over one billion users looking to augment the gaming experience.

Triple Point, a leading UK alternative investment manager, today announced a top-up of its Venture Fund, a share class in the successful Triple Point VCT 2011 plc. The fund seeks to raise a further £10 million with an overallotment facility of an additional £10 million.

As Triple Point’s 20^th VCT fundraise to date, this share class targets income and capital growth by drawing on its distinctive ‘Challenge-Led’ approach; driving returns for investors while looking to mitigate the risks of traditional venture capital investing.

Entrepreneur and investor Nick Jenkins, who founded moonpig.com and is a former star of BBC TV's "Dragon's Den", is to be the opening keynote speaker at this year's VCT & EIS Investor Forum on 21st November.

Voxpopme, a Birmingham-based leading video feedback and analytics company, today announced that it has closed a £7.5m Series A1 equity financing led by Origin Ventures, with participation from Mercia Technologies and NVM Private Equity. The Company intends to use the capital to meet the growing enterprise demand for real-time video feedback and to fund further investment in the platform.

Voxpopme’s SaaS platform helps business leaders build great brands, products and experiences with real-time, consumer-recorded video feedback. The impact of video feedback and real, human stories in modern businesses has driven the rapid adoption of Voxpopme, resulting in triple-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth. The platform is trusted by Airbnb, Clorox, Mars Wrigley, Mondelez, and many more of the world’s leading brands.

Maven Capital Partners has strengthened its UK investment team with a senior appointment in the South of England. Luke Matthews joins Maven as an Investment Director, bringing with him two decades’ experience in investment and corporate finance, helping potential high-growth businesses access finance.

Duke & Dexter (D+D), an award-winning footwear label has secured a £2m investment from NVM Private Equity to continue disrupting the men’s footwear market and build its global community of fans. Since launching in 2014 D+D have received international recognition, selling to over 120 countries and working with reputable international retailers including Harrods,  Selfridges, the KaDeWe Group and Level Shoes.

innogy Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of innogy Innovation Hub, has invested in Teralytics AG as part of a $17.5 million funding round. innogy Ventures and innogy Innovation Hub are backed by innogy SE, a leading German energy company. The round was led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC), the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group. Other participants included Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures, LBBW Venture Capital and Liil Ventures, as well as existing investors Atomico and Lakestar.

CyberSmart, a GCHQ Cyber Accelerator alumni, has secured £1.3 million in new financing led by deep-tech investor IQ Capital, after two years in stealth mode. This funding will allow CyberSmart to further accelerate its rapid growth, build next-generation technical capabilities and secure Britain’s future as a leader in cybersecurity.  CyberSmart’s core mission is to protect and empower SMEs, often the weak link in cybersecurity, but at the same time, the bread and butter of the UK business landscape. CyberSmart’s platform and products allow any size SME, with or without technical resources, to protect itself and its staff, easily and affordably. The exciting platform is bringing cybersecurity standards to the masses, with millions of UK SMEs in its sights, a truly scalable cybersecurity solution.

Thriva, the proactive health company, has secured a £6M Series A funding round. The funding will support Thriva as it builds towards it’s ambitious vision: to put optimal health in anyone’s hands.  The round, from a range of investors including Pembroke VCT and Guinness Asset Management, takes the total raised by Thriva to £7.5m since its launch in 2016.  Thriva offers affordable, clinical-grade insights based on the latest research and has helped over 100,000 people understand how their lifestyle is impacting their health.

Foresight Group has invested a further £4 million growth capital investment into portfolio company ONFAB to fund the acquisition of Lancashire based designer and manufacturer of clean air containment products, Envair Holdings Limited.

ONFAB produces flexible clean-air enclosures and consumables, designed and manufactured in-house from sites in Cheshire and Spain. Founded in 2005 by Oliver Nulty, ONFAB received investment from the £60 million Foresight Regional Investment LP fund in September 2017 to facilitate a majority buyout of the business. Since then, with an enlarged team and renewed focus on sales, margins and new products, it has grown by over 30% per year and continues to benefit from ever stricter safety standards protecting workers across the globe.