The Finance Durham fund, established by Durham County Council and managed by Maven Capital Partners, has invested £250,000 in pioneering automotive styling centre, Muss Media Ltd. Funds raised will enable the company to invest in its design, sales and marketing functions, roll out a national car dealership engagement strategy and employ additional wrap technicians to fulfil growing demand. As a result of the investment, the firm will establish its design, sales and marketing functions in County Durham.

The European Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have launched a Pan-European Venture Capital Funds-of-Funds programme (VentureEU) to boost investment in innovative start-up and scale-up companies across Europe.

Spectral Edge, the image fusion technology specialists, has secured $5.3 million in further funding from existing investors Parkwalk Advisors and IQ Capital. Based in Cambridge with deep academic roots, Spectral Edge combines cutting-edge imaging science with machine learning to improve pictures and videos on mass-market devices. This is done in real time with a pixel-level, embeddable technology that can be implemented in software or in silicon.

The technology behind the process can be used across a range of potential applications that rely on image quality for either function or aesthetics - from mobile to security, and from automotive to on-demand video or live broadcast.

The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has welcomed Calum Paterson, Managing Partner of Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), as its Chairman for 2018/19.

Chargifi, the foundational technology for scaling wireless power, has announced that it has raised a £5 million funding round.  The investment was led by Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV), with other investors including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and firstminute capital.

This investment will enable Chargifi to accelerate sales and marketing, and international growth across US and Asian markets at a time when the demand for wireless power is on the rise – according to Global Marketing Insights the wireless charging market is set to be worth $25billion by 2023.

Mercia Technologies PLC last month completed an all cash sale of Science Warehouse Limited, one of the Group's leading direct investments, to Advanced Business Software and Solutions Limited, for a total cash consideration of £16.9million. Mercia will receive proceeds of £10.5million (net of transaction expenses) and will recognise an immediate realised gain of £0.6million, compared with the holding value of £9.9million as at 30 September 2017. The sale represents a return to Mercia of 14.2% on its total investment cost of £9.2million.

Idinvest Partners, a leading investor in SMEs across Europe, has announced today the first close of its third digital fund at €180 million, as the 

New data from eFront shows that, once biases are eliminated, European venture capital has consistently matched the performance of US funds over the past 20 years.

The region’s newest investment arm, NorthInvest, reports significant growth of across the North following a 25% increase in membership.

One of Europe’s leading mid-market private equity investors, Equistone, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in MMC’s portfolio company Small World. Equistone is an independent investment firm wholly-owned and managed by it’s executives aiming to invest between €25m and €125m of equity in businesses. The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed and, as Small World is regulated in multiple countries, completion of the transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals.

Finnish digital health company Kaiku Health Oy, which provides intelligent patient monitoring software for healthcare providers across Europe, has closed a €4.4 million funding round. The investment was led by Debiopharm Innovation Fund SA and Tesi with participation from Prodeko Ventures Oy and existing investors Reaktor Ventures Oy, Metsola Ventures Oy, and Athensmed Oy.

Liverpool ChiroChem (LCC), the specialist Liverpool-based chemical intermediates company, has raised £1.5m in equity finance to support the Company’s growth plans and increase production capacity overseas. The new fundraise round was led by Praetura Capital and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), and supported by long standing investor Deepbridge Capital.

The Company, originally a spin-out from Liverpool University, has the capability to produce exceptionally pure chemical forms using its own patented technology and has already established itself firmly within the pharmaceutical and drug discovery supply chain. Founded just three years ago, it counts over 70 pharma, biotech and agrochemicals customers including Merck, Novartis, Domainex, Syngenta and Bayer.