Birmingham-based Hollywood Monster has secured a £250,000 loan enabling it to safeguard 40 employees whilst creating seven new positions over a three year period. The business received the funding from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provided by The FSE Group, Debt Finance Fund and backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

SoMo, one of the UK’s leading specialist lenders, has set itself a target of lending £250m over the next 12 months and has set the wheels in motion with newly announced premises in London, which will act as a central hub for future expansion and to further cement their presence across the UK.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor, has appointed industry veteran Nicol Fraser to lead its investment team in London and the South East.

James Murdoch draws some conclusions  and poses some questions from his experiment in investing in the Future Fund through Equity Crowd Funding.

A new survey of 1,479 UK-based investors has revealed how they have responded to the financial disruption caused by the pandemic, as well as their outlook for the year ahead. 

TrustedHousesitters, the world’s largest pet-sitting network, has secured $10m in Series A funding to continue expanding into the US market and, despite travel restrictions over the last 18 months, is already seeing revenue at twice pre-pandemic levels.

BGF – the UK and Ireland’s most active growth capital investor – has announced its successful exit of Magma Global Limited, the leading provider of composite pipe technology to support the Energy Transition.

The Portsmouth-based company has been acquired by TechnipFMC plc, a leading technology provider to the traditional and new energy industries, delivering fully integrated projects, products, and services.

Calculus portfolio company, CloudTrade, has been acquired by Advanced, a leading provider of business software, delivering a 4x return to Calculus investors in just over 3 years. 

3DEO, whose new interactive 5D mapping platform that makes it easier to monitor and manage complex infrastructure has raised £750,000 from the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia.

3DEO’s system is already being used by BT on 5G projects and by ports and harbours to monitor and manage day to day operations. The cloud-based system combines data and information from diverse sources such as satellites, cameras, sensors and vehicle tracking, visualising it on a single screen to provide a live 5D model of the area.

DSW Ventures, the venture capital investment business of the Dow Schofield Watts group, has promoted Eleanor Boardman to Investment Manager in a period of significant growth for the regional VC.

The first automated RPA management platform, RPA Supervisor has raised $5m in a Seed round led by MMC Ventures. It also welcomes its newest board member and investor Pascal Baker, formerly founder of Symphony Ventures and pioneer in the Intelligent Automation Market. The investment will boost the startup’s innovation capabilities, feeding into Research & Development and expansion across EMEA and the US. 

Founders Factory and the innovation agency Nesta have joined forces to create new commercial ventures which will tackle some of the UK’s biggest social and environmental challenges. 

Mission Studio is a first-of-its-kind partnership designed to drive forward Nesta’s 10-year mission to halve obesity rates, tackle loneliness, and slash household carbon emissions by 28%. The venture builder will support Nesta’s broader objective to help people live healthier lives and create more sustainable futures.