Creative England will inject £24million of growth finance into the creative industries.  The scale-up finance will be directed to post-revenue creative businesses presenting promising growth potential.

Serving as the first initiative of its kind, the loan facility – backed by Triodos Bank UK – will be deployed across the length and breadth of the British Isles, encouraging sustained growth of a £100billion industry in which 75% of SMEs are predicted to grow in the next 12 months.

Latest market analysis from the British Business Bank finds that, contrary to widespread misperceptions, UK Venture Capital produces similar returns to that of the US.

The new report, Analysis of UK Venture Capital Financial Returns, draws together data from existing data sources including PitchBook and Preqin, and from the Bank’s own programmes, to provide as comprehensive a picture as possible of the asset class and its performance.

OpenLegacy, the leader in delivering microservices-based API integration and management for core and legacy systems, has expanded into Asia Pacific/Japan and hired General Manager Joseph Wong, who has spent decades building Asian success for international technology companies.

Cybersecurity company for connected vehicles Upstream Security has announced that a prominent syndicate of investors, including some of the world’s largest OEM automotive vehicle manufacturers, insurance and fleet operators, invested $30 million in a Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total investment to date to $41 million.  The round was led by Alliance Ventures and included Volvo Group Venture Capital, Hyundai, Hyundai AutoEver, Nationwide Ventures and others. Original Upstream investors Charles River Ventures, Glilot Capital and Maniv Mobility all participated in the round.

Disperse, the leader in AI-powered construction transformation systems, has raised $15 million of Series A funding in a round led by Northzone. The company’s solutions capture and process visual data from physical sites and deliver actionable insights, freeing project teams from repetitive administrative tasks and providing management with the resources and digital capabilities to fundamentally change the way their companies operate. 

Healthcare entrepreneurs Richard Anderson and Spencer Kerry have launched Impel Healthcare Catalysts, an investment company designed to be a catalyst for innovation and growth in the healthcare sector. 

Headquartered in Knutsford, Impel will provide growth capital along with strategic expertise, primarily to businesses based in the UK, making use of the management team’s broad healthcare knowledge and track record to deliver rapid growth and strong returns. It will typically invest in companies with enterprise values up to £50m initially, and also has the capability to co-invest with other debt and equity funders. 

eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report, showing that private equity funds globally have maintained a high level of performance, despite falling from the record level seen in 2017. Sharply reduced selection risk and shorter time-to-liquidity signal strong activity and a solid exit and refinancing environment.

Speechmatics, the leader in machine learning and automatic speech recognition, has raised £6.35m in Series A funding led by AlbionVC; IQ Capital followed on in this round along with several angel investors.      

Speechmatics has built one of the most accurate speech recognition technology engines in the world. The technology is currently available in 29 languages, either in the cloud or, crucially, on-premises ­– a critical feature for businesses who do not wish or are unable to share data in the cloud. The diversity of languages and accuracy of the technology sets Speechmatics apart from other global brands in speech recognition.

British Patient Capital has established itself as a major player in UK venture and venture growth markets after investing in 12 funds with £334m of new commitments in its first year.

Nu Quantum, a quantum photonics company, has completed a £650,000 pre-seed investment round. The over-subscribed round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from IQ Capital, Ahren Capital, Cambridge Enterprise and Martlet Capital, the investment arm of Marshall of Cambridge Group.

Idinvest Partners, a leading investor in SMEs across Europe, has announced the final closing of its third digital fund at €350m, having surpassed its initial fundraising target of €300m.

Process Mining software provider Minit has raised €7 million in a Series A funding round, led by Target Global, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and existing investors, Earlybird’s Digital East Fund and OTB Ventures. The funding will facilitate further product development and expansion into new markets, including the US.  Founded in 2017, Minit builds intuitive Process Mining software that gives its enterprise customers insight into complex processes - like order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, customer journey or service delivery – and more importantly how these can be improved.