Guernsey Finance has resumed a permanent presence in London with the appointment of Jo Kitcat as UK Representative.

Guy Rigby and David Murray will shortly attempt to become the oldest pair ever to row across any ocean as they prepare for their Atlantic crossing in this year’s Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. They will leave the Canaries on 12th December in their 24-foot ocean rowing boat, “The Entrepreneur Ship”, hoping to reach Antigua sometime in February 2022.

Latest British Business Bank market research finds that higher company valuations, combined with strong exit activity in 2020 and 2021, has contributed to a material uplift in venture capital (VC) financial returns since the Bank’s last published report.

According to the Bank’s latest report, UK Venture Capital Financial Returns 2021, UK VC funds with a 2008 to 2013 vintage have seen an increase in their pooled Distributions to Paid In Capital (DPI)[1] multiples of 0.26 points, from 0.79 in 2020 to 1.05 in 2021. Over the same time period, their pooled Total Value to Paid In Capital (TVPI)[2] multiple has increased by 0.28 points, from 1.81 to 2.09 in 2021. UK venture capital has also performed strongly over the longer term, with pooled TVPI multiples above 2 for most two-year periods since 2002.

Green Angel Syndicate (GAS) is preparing for its next phase of growth with several significant changes to its Board.

Current COO Cam Ross will take over the CEO role from Nick Lyth. In addition, new board appointments will lay the groundwork for GAS to further develop its EIS Climate Change Fund and future fund management activities.  More growth for GAS means a greater impact on the reduction and reversal of greenhouse gas emissions and a greater impact in the fight against climate change. 

Following the publication their latest White Paper, Brian Moretta of Hardman & Co delves into the tricky question of how investors should decide what proportion of their investment portfolio should be in angel investments.

Dent Reality, the London-based start-up behind a pioneering AR platform,  has raised £2.5m ($3.4m) in funding to expand its pioneering work across the retail sector.  The funding round was led by Europe’s most active proptech VC, Pi Labs, with participation from Silicon Valley-based commerce experts Sugar Capital and deep tech specialists 7Percent Ventures – one of the first backers of Oculus VR – alongside several notable angel investors.

Primary school children throughout the UK are being inspired to develop their enterprise skills with the help of a syndicate of 15 business angels who have completed a £400,000 investment in 2B Enterprising headquartered in Swansea, South Wales.

R&S Tonks, a Stoke-on-Trent-based joinery company has secured a £200,000 funding package to create new jobs and expand its operations.

Delio, the private markets technology specialist, has launched Ventures, a new initiative that will see them form strategic partnerships with marketplaces that offer investors direct access to alternative assets. Ventures partners will be able to utilise Delio’s technology, knowledge and expertise to accelerate the growth of their marketplace and enable greater investor access to private markets.

SME funding specialist One Stop Business Finance (OSBF) has further strengthened its finance brokering and operations management expertise with the appointment of Emma Harris.

Haatch Ventures and Wealth Club have led an investment round of £1.67 million into Advanced Commerce, alongside other private and institutional investors.

Advanced Commerce is a provider of merchandising software for small and medium-sized online retailers. The platform, GrapheneHC™, helps retailers arrange their products on their websites to maximise results, the e-commerce equivalent of arranging shelf space in a physical store. This can help convert browsers into buyers, reduce bounce rates by taking customers to the products they are looking for, plus optimise up-sell or cross-sell opportunities – driving online revenues, higher order values, and lower returns and cancellations.

Experienced tech sector executive Kieran Dalton has joined Catalyst as Head of Scaling, a new role that has been created for the purpose of helping ambitious, innovation driven companies in Northern Ireland to scale up beyond £10m in revenues.