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

The Craftory is the first UK-based investment company, investing exclusively in purpose-led consumer goods, to achieve B Corp certification.

YFM Equity Partners has closed its Buyout Fund II, ahead of target, with £80 million of committed funds and a wave of new high net worth and entrepreneurial investors.

Buyout-Fund II will follow on from YFM’s first Buyout Fund that closed on £45 million in April 2017, and which recently completed its investment programme, with ten investments made within three years.

Data streaming platform Ably has raised $7m in Series A funding, led by MMC Ventures, with Forward Partners co-investing. Building on the successful delivery of 1.5 trillion messages by Ably, this round will be used to scale, as demand for real-time around the world escalates. 

Board evaluation and board development specialists Better Boards has secured a £250,000 equity investment from the Development Bank of Wales and £125,000 from a panel of four angel investors.

Better Boards was first established in 2014 by Dr Sabine Dembkowski in response to increasing regulation and compliance for Board Directors.  After five years of academic and market research, the business now utilises advanced software to provide evidence-based Board evaluations for Governing Boards and Executive Committees. With a portfolio spanning the FTSE 250 and 100, clients include Easyjet, National Grid and the Go-Ahead Group.

Foresight Group has made a £800,000 growth capital investment into Substantive Research Limited, a provider of research analysis to asset managers.  This is the fourth investment made by the £20 million Foresight Scottish Growth Fund which is financed by the Scottish Growth Scheme through a combination of Scottish Government funds and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The Prince’s Trust and NatWest have announced the launch of a £5million fund to help young entrepreneurs across the UK to keep their businesses afloat during the coronavirus crisis.

Brookfield Asset Management, through its Strategic Real Estate Partners III Fund, has acquired a 50% stake in Harwell Campus, as private shareholder partner of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus Limited Partnership, the public/private joint venture that manages and develops Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. Brookfield has acquired the stake formerly owned by U and I Group PLC (“U+I”) and Harwell Oxford Partners Ltd.

The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) has launched the region’s first social enterprise incubator – designed to nurture entrepreneurs who want to use business as a force for good. 

Innovate for Good is a facility designed to hothouse entrepreneurs who share an aim to change the world for the better with their ideas, products, processes or services. 

Based within the BIC’s new Innovation Zone at its Sunderland business park, the incubator is designed to provide the collaborative working space, practical tools and specialist support to stimulate new ideas and solutions to challenges of today’s world. 

Smart Separations, a leading specialist in innovative microfiltration (MF) technology, has signed up to the national SPRINT business support programme. SPRINT will provide Smart Separations with funded access to expertise from programme partner, the University of Surrey, to collaborate on the development of a unique approach to producing monopropellant thrusters for small satellite launches.

Big Society Capital and Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity have partnered to fund Good Food Fund, a new Accelerator and Venture Fund which will be backing food and drink challenger SME and start-up brands to help tackle childhood obesity. Business owners are invited to apply for a cut of the £1.8m Good Food Fund to come together in the fight against childhood obesity. The prototype fund will provide business support and allocate finances to brands committed to bringing healthier children’s brands to market. The Accelerator will be run by Mission Ventures and the Venture Capital Fund will be managed by Ascension Ventures.

A syndicate of investors including Banque des Territoires, Caisse des Dépôts, Engie Rassembleur d'Énergies, A/O PropTech, and Groupe Casino, have invested €6 million in Qarnot Computing to support its future growth.