Since opening offices in Newcastle and Durham in May 2017, Maven Capital Partners has invested a total of £10 million in dynamic, high growth businesses in the North East region, driving economic prosperity and safeguarding over 400 jobs.

This significant level of investment has mainly been achieved through Maven’s management of regional funds in the North East, the £20m Finance Durham Fund established by Durham County Council and the £27 million North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. To date, Maven has identified and completed investments to support the growth strategies of 14 dynamic local businesses, including the largest independent engineering business in County Durham, Dyer Engineering, shipping container operator and leading self-storage provider, Parsons Containers and reverse-auction marketplace for insurance products, honcho.

London Co-investment Fund's Flavia Richardson comments on why we need to change the landscape for female entrepreneurs.

This week we are celebrating the International Women’s Day, a reminder of the continuous struggle for equality of opportunity. A few major research projects conducted by Atomico VC, Diversity VC, and British Business Bank, have corroborated the narrative felt by many women while fundraising.

While the outcome highlighted hard truths for the investment sector and the innovation economy, it has also provided us with the key to a brighter and more inclusive tomorrow, if we change our approaches.

Inflexion Private Equity has acquired Times Higher Education (“THE”) from TPG Capital, the global private equity platform of alternative asset firm TPG. THE, formerly part of Tes Global, has been carved out as an independent entity as part of the investment from Inflexion. The investment was made by Inflexion’s dedicated mid-market buyout funds.

With the backing of an equity investment package of £500,000 from the Development Bank of Wales and a further £600,000 from private investors, OpenGenius has its sights on global expansion and stock market flotation.

Cardiff-based OpenGenius, which develops high-tech software for innovators and creative teams, has enjoyed increasing momentum over the past few years.

Task management app, DropTask, has attracted a worldwide customer base, with teams and individuals at Harvard University, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Coca-Cola and McDonald's, among others, all joining its client list. Whilst iMindMap is an all-in-one Mind Mapping and visual thinking tool – the software is used for creative ideation by a large number of varied industries; ranging from education to finance.

In 2017, OpenGenius became the first Welsh company to be selected for the international 'accelerator' training and networking programme (ELITE) at the London Stock Exchange. A scheme which has helped them develop their scalable business model as well as building new strategic partnerships, increasing sales and raising awareness of their brand and pioneering products.

Vortex IoT, a Swansea-based Internet of Things (IoT) company has received a six-figure investment from the Development Bank of Wales to help the business continue its impressive trajectory of international growth.

With an industrial focus, specialising in heavy industry, smart infrastructure and rail infrastructure, Vortex IoT builds sensors and networks for a variety of harsh environments where conditions are hostile, power supply is limited, AI is needed, or data security is critical.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is revolutionising the way many industries operate, with more and more products connecting to the internet, it is possible to have instant access to information and data which can vastly improve business operations.

Two in five (40%) private equity industry professionals believe that a change in UK government is the biggest risk to their investment appetite in the UK, compared to 20% who selected a no deal Brexit. This is according to new research* conducted by JCRA, the independent financial risk advisor which works with clients in the real estate and private equity sectors, amongst others, to develop hedging strategies that reduce costs and protect returns.

London-based investment manager Downing has appointed Torsten Mack as Investment Director to its growing healthcare investment team.

Nivaura, a regulated FinTech company focused on automating the issuance and administration processes for financial instruments, has closed a strategic funding round, raising $20m in seed and seed extension capital from a number of prominent partners.

YFM backed ACC Aviation has acquired global aviation consultancy Aerotask and has been recognised in the Sunday Times as one of the UK’s fastest growing international sales businesses 

Find out why Paul McNabb from Episode1 Ventures believes Ori’s edge cloud is enabling the next evolution of computing architecture.

Simon Hopkins, CEO of Milltrust International, believes the university tech  start-up sector has never been so exciting.  Read on to find out why....

Two niche property law firms, Equilaw and Thomas Legal, have received a multi-million pound investment from BGF, the UK’s most active investor in growing companies, to support business growth.

Set up in 2007, Equilaw is the UK’s only dedicated equity release legal adviser, working with homeowners and financial advisers to provide independent legal advice on the process of releasing home equity for a range of purposes including retirement planning, house improvements and care provision.