Beauhurst has acquired Spinouts UK, the project and dataset run and collected by Jonathan Harris, to become a one-stop-shop for information on all of the UK’s spinout companies.

By Adrian Lloyd, Episode 1 Ventures

Getting venture investment is the first major turning point for a startup. All the months of work that went into pitching are over. There is money in the bank to turn plans into reality.

And there is now a VC firm (probably*) with a seat at your board meetings and a whole bunch of ideas for your business.

This is a challenging period for entrepreneurs who, understandably, will have established their own way of running their company. We come in with a lot of experience and advice, some of which might suggest very different ways of doing things.

The Midlands Innovation group of universities has launched the largest collaboration between university technology transfer offices in the UK, to attract investment and management talent to the region.

The Midlands Innovation Commercialisation of Research Accelerator (MICRA) will share best practice and share resources across technology transfer offices in Midlands universities. The partnership will support the development of spin-out companies, helping them to obtain finance and expertise, and accelerating the rate at which innovations are able to be commercialised.

UK-based tech firm, Gorilla in the room, has appointed Martin Fincham, the former CEO of global enterprise software company LANSA Group, as its chairman ahead of the company’s next funding round.

Following a seed investment from Mercia Fund Managers in January 2018, the business has launched Discover, a market leading immersive research mobile product, and is now raising further capital to transition from a service-based business to a subscription model.

European private equity and venture capital fundraising reached €45.6 billion in the first half of 2018, a 40% increase on the second half of last year, according to new data from Invest Europe.

This figure makes it the third highest six-month period since 2007, according to the European private equity and venture capital association. Invest Europe CEO Michael Collins will present the data on Friday at Invest Europe’s Venture Capital Forum in Paris. At this annual event, institutional investors meet the venture capital fund managers backing Europe’s innovative global leaders of the future. Venture capital investment in European start-ups surpassed €3 billion, reveals the new data, in the highest half-year result since 2007.

eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report, showing that LBO performance has fallen for three straight quarters from its 10-year high in 2017.

Key findings:

• After reaching a peak of 1.49x in Q3 2017, the average return multiple achieved by active LBO funds has continued its retreat, back to the level of Q2 2017, at 1.45x.
• Despite the fall, active global LBO funds have outperformed the average of 1.3x achieved between 2009-2018 by 0.15x.
• The dispersion of performance between the top and bottom funds has stabilised at 1.34x, following a general trend towards a lower dispersion of returns, equating to reduced risk.
• Q1 2018 recorded a sharp decrease of the average time-to-liquidity, to just 2.63 years.
• In terms of vintage years, 2009 and 2014 are so far delivering strong performance, while 2010 and 2013 are more subdued.
• Overall, the performance of US funds stands above or on the long-term average, while Western European LBO funds show a more volatile performance.

Mayfair-based alternative finance house IW Capital has invested in Eos Leisure. The Company manufactures and sells its own branded eliquid products (Vapemate, Soda Steam, Directors Cut) into the UK vaping market and provides manufacturing and scientific testing services for other suppliers in vaping and other markets. The EIS qualifying investment of £2 million will be used to support the company’s growth, with a focus on building sales and marketing resources, continuing scientific accreditation work and product development.

By Matthew Cushen, co-founder of Worth Capital

Anecdotally, traditional investment orthodoxy may have it that mature companies are lower risk than new businesses and pensions are the most tax-efficient way to reduce tax liabilities. However, big companies are failing to innovate and adapt and lifetime allowance restrictions on pensions means looking elsewhere for tax reliefs. Just two reasons for Matthew Cushen to share his experience of seed investing through EIS & SEIS.

Foresight Group has made an investment into Postworks Limited on behalf of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund. This mark’s Foresight’s third MEIF investment since its launch in February.  

Postworks is an online franking company providing small and medium sized businesses with a software-based alternative to franked business post.  Using Postworks’ software platform, businesses can ‘drag and drop’ their post for electronic sorting, printing and folding at Postworks printing centre before being handed over to the Royal Mail for delivery. 

The Northampton-based company was launched late 2016 by James and Marvee-Lisa Booker. With their extensive experience in the print, mail and media sector, they identified an opportunity to improve upon and disrupt the traditional franking model, using technology to deliver scalable mailing services to the SME sector.

HeleCloud, an IT consultancy and managed services provider specialising in highly sophisticated Cloud strategy, implementation, migration and operation services, has received a £2m minority investment from BGF to further accelerate its growth strategy. Thnding will support the company’s services portfolio expansion, the establishment of its presence into further European territories, and the development of new Cloud capabilities. HeleCloud was founded in 2016 and has grown rapidly and currently has more than 50 employees. It has an exceptional reputation and has already worked on projects with global corporations and household names, and references market disruptors such as Viber, the NEX Group, and Zopa.

Seraphim Capital has revealed the startups that are participating in Mission 2 for Space Camp, the world’s first dedicated accelerator for global startups in the SpaceTech industry. The cohort includes 10 companies, expanding on the six that took part in the successful Mission 1 earlier this year. Featuring startups from the UK, the US, Norway, and Sweden, Space Camp is being run from the offices of global law firm Dentons at London’s St Pauls.

Launched by Seraphim Capital and backed by corporate sponsors such as Inmarsat, Rolls-Royce, and Cyient, as well as the UK and European space agencies, SA Catapult, and Capital Enterprise, alongside Seraphim Space Fund partners including Airbus, Surrey Satellite Technology, SES, and Telespazio, Space Camp is a nine-week programme, culminating in an investor day on 20 November.

Gianluca Bisceglie, founder and CEO of Visyond, discusses why a lean startup model can help attract investment.