UK equestrian start-up, Armaros, which has developed an innovative new type of flexible body armour for horse riders, has secured a £100k investment from British Design Fund.

The company was founded by Esmeralda Tuomi (pictured), a former Finnish showjumper who suffered a bad accident while riding. The body protector she was wearing at the time saved her life but like fellow riders, she found existing products to be very rigid and uncomfortable. In some cases, also impacting on balance.

All-in-one charge point and EV-friendly energy tariff comparison service Rightcharge, has raised £700k in a fully subscribed Seed funding round, to help accelerate the adoption of smart EV charging in the UK.

The number of acquisitions made by private equity-backed businesses across the UK shown signs of stabilising after a buoyant period, according to Rickitt Mitchell’s Buy and Build Barometer.

A food & drink producer based across Lincolnshire has secured £250,000 to upgrade its production facilities, create eight jobs and service its growing customer base.  Wild Jacks Ltd secured the finance from Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provided by The FSE Group Debt Finance Fund and backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). The MEIF funding will help to upgrade the company’s production facilities and create eight new jobs in the next year.

An independent evaluation of the British Business Bank Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme has found that the programme is helping to close the early-stage ‘equity gap’ 

GP Bullhound acted as exclusive financial advisor to SALESmanago, the leading no-code omnichannel customer engagement platform on its acquisition and growth investment by SilverTree and Perwyn. 

Infrastructure and construction veteran Haydn Mursell has been appointed as chair of fire protection specialist Checkmate Fire as part of a strategic plan to grow the business following the company’s acquisition of Rosse Systems earlier this year.

Sophie Weavers-Wright has joined Haatch Ventures as Head of Platform, from Quotient (previously Elevaate) where she led Self Serve Tier 1’s within the Sponsored Search platform. She helped them with everything from strategy to pacing and everything in-between.

The growth equity investor Gresham House Ventures has sold its stake in Vian Marketing, the holding company for successful stand-up paddleboard owner Tushingham Sails, best known for its Red Paddle Co. brand.

Cerbos, a new open source software startup helping tech scaleups and other companies manage user permissions more efficiently, has raised a $3.5 million seed round.

Coadjute, the blockchain network for the UK property market that aims to transform the ease and speed of home purchasing, has announced a £6m investment funding round led by Manchester-based Praetura Ventures.

Metaview - the pioneering Interview Intelligence platform - has announced its $6 million seed funding round, bringing the total amount raised to $7.6 million. Metaview’s platform enables fast-scaling businesses to harness data to strengthen and optimise the most important part of the hiring process - the interview.  The round was led by Vertex Ventures US, alongside additional investors Fly Ventures, Seedcamp, Village Global, PrimeSet, Moving Capital (Uber alumni fund), and Palumni (Palantir alumni fund)