Ingenious' Real Estate Finance LLP has agreed a £19m loan facility with property developer Citu, to fund the next 120 units at the Climate Innovation District (CID) in Leeds.

The loan will fund the development of 120 new apartments and houses at what will become the largest sustainable residential development in the UK. Over 800 family homes are to be built in total over 4 phases, using Citu’s own off-site manufacturing facility, which uses an innovative timber framed system designed in collaboration with Leeds Beckett University to reduce carbon emissions at every stage.

LoveCrafts, a leading online crafts community, with millions of users across 140 countries worldwide, has secured an additional $22m funding and has acquired WEBS, America’s Yarn Store.  

The funding comes from existing investors including Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), Highland Europe and Balderton Capital, alongside Silicon Valley-based debt providers TriplePoint Capital, to facilitate the deal and further invest in LoveCrafts’ next chapter.

The investment and acquisition follow exceptional growth by LoveCrafts as interest in crafting surges globally. The company saw an increase in orders from new customers of  166% from March to November last year, compared with the same period the year before.

Foresight Group has sold FFX Group Limited, one of the UK's largest independent suppliers of high quality power tools, fixings and building supplies. 

FFX was sold to H2 Equity Partners, a leading hands-on investment firm focusing on mid-sized companies in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Benelux. H2 will be a strong strategic partner for FFX, allowing the business to continue its growth potential through further investment.

Since Foresight made its original investment in October 2015, Foresight has taken a proactive approach to supporting the senior management team, for example introducing Chairperson George Adams who has extensive experience in the sector, including sixteen years at Kingfisher, three of which as Chair of Screwfix.

Westbridge has completed its fourth transaction in seven months with an investment of £10m to support the MBO of London-based Channel 3 Consulting Limited, which designs, implements and optimises digital transformation programmes for the health and care sector.

BondAval has secured $1.64 million (£1.2 million) in seed financing led by Insurtech Gateway alongside True Sight Partners and prominent angel investors such as Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (formerly COO of GoCardless, now Partner at Index Ventures), Yi Luo (Greensill), Chris Adelsbach, Will Neale and Charlie Songhurst.  

Glimpse Protocol, the startup that delivers accurate digital ads with zero data disclosed, has announced a £1.3 million seed investment round with participation from Force Over Mass Capital, angel investors Simon Franks (Lovefilm) and Eric Salama (former CEO of Kantar), and with added support from Innovate UK. 

Glimpse Protocol’s privacy-preserving ad platform increases value and reach for an industry that is undergoing a once-in-a-decade period of disruption driven by privacy. Established mechanisms for tracking consumers across the web are being ruled illegal in a wave of global privacy legislation, and by the end of 2021, they will become technically impossible when Google removes the third-party cookie.

Esme Learning Solutions, a leading digital learning platform, has close of a $7.5 million Series A financing round led by Adit Ventures, a venture capital firm with a technology thematic investment focus. 

Sproud, the Swedish maker of a range of plant-based milks has raised £4.8M from growth capital investor, VGC Partners. 

The investment will be used to grow Sproud’s team, accelerate the brand’’s distribution and brand building activities in the company’s core markets - including the UK, US and Canada  - and for further development of its plant-based and 100% vegan product offering. 

BGF has made a further £4 million investment in fast-growth, lead generation technology business, ROI. 

This deal follows just seven months after BGF’s initial investment, taking the total invested to £7 million. In November 2020, ROI acquired the consumer finance assets of Raketech to accelerate the company’s growth in the financial services sector and establish a base in Norway.

Cleantech company Social Energy  has received funding that will allow the business to pursue rapid growth in the UK and Australia, while opening opportunities to scale outwards with its unique offering in new markets.  The green energy supplier uses its artificial intelligence platform and cutting-edge virtual power plant technology to optimise solar-connected battery storage. It learns about a customer’s energy usage and makes informed decisions about how to store, manage and distribute solar energy to minimise their energy bills.  

A Warwickshire-based manufacturer of fertility monitoring products, Fertility Focus, has secured further investment from MEIF through a £250,000 loan, enabling it to invest in its staff, continue research and development, while safeguarding against the impact of COVID-19.

BGF has invested $11 million in Genflow, a London & LA based Influencer brand building agency with a unique ecommerce and mobile tech platform, to support its global expansion plans.