The number of UK deals announced so far this year has increased 49% to the highest year-to-date tally since our records began in 1980, driven by a 54% increase in the number of deals targeting UK companies according to Refinitiv Deals Intelligence.

Civo, the first pure-play cloud native service provider, and THG plc (THG), a global technology platform that specialises in taking brands direct to consumers, have announced that THG Ingenuity, the technology Division of THG, has invested £1.4 million to take a minority stake in Civo. Civo’s developer-focused Kubernetes platform will strengthen and accelerate development of the technology stack that underpins THG Ingenuity, its cutting-edge proprietary technology platform.

Bowmark Capital has further strengthened its portfolio management and value creation team with the appointment of Ben Hollowood as a portfolio director.

EGYM, a leading global fitness technology developer, has received 41 million US dollars in a Series E financing round from Mayfair Equity Partners, a leading tech and consumer growth investor. Following the investment, Mayfair Equity Partners will own a minority stake, along with existing investors HPE Growth, Highland Capital Europe, Kreos, and others. Additional financial details have not been disclosed. 

Graphite Capital, a leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, has made several promotions and new appointments which reinforce the strength of its investment and value creation teams.

James Markham, Omar Kayat and Humphrey Baker have been promoted to senior partner, John Western has become a partner and Zoe Jackson has been made an investment manager. Graphite has also recruited three investment executives: Edgar Borg Rodriguez, Tom Llewellyn and Alex Hearne.

Luke Davis, CEO of IW Capital, discusses what can be done to encourage Unicorn creation, including extending EIS

The last 15 months has provided every aspect of society with an unprecedented challenge, not least to small firms and founders. The response of this section of business, however, has been nothing short of inspiring, with nearly 800,000 new firms incorporated in 2020. The response of the investors who back them has been equally stirring, new figures showing that small firms received a record breaking £8.8 billion worth of equity investment last year.

Tech Nation, the UK’s leading growth platform for tech scaleups, has announced 32 climate tech companies who have been accepted into Net Zero 2.0 - the second iteration of the Net Zero programme.

Net Zero 2.0 is the first government-backed programme designed to support the most promising climate tech companies to accelerate the UK’s path to net zero. This year’s successful companies were assessed by 40 judges across key industries. These included climate specialists, investors and senior representatives from companies such as Google, National Grid, Sky Ocean, Bulb and B Corp, including Hayden Wood, CEO and Founder at Bulb, Azeem Azhar, Founder of the Exponential View, and Pippa Gawley, Founder & Director of Zero Carbon Capital. 

Companies were judged based on their scalability and potential to help the UK reach its high-priority net zero goal. The chosen companies are actively decarbonising key sectors across energy and electricity, transport, buildings and cities, and agriculture. Carbon removals and space-tech are two emerging focus areas this year in the race to zero.

Legitify has experienced a peak in demand for its Remote Online Notarization solution. After launching a Beta solution early this summer, Legitify is currently processing notarizations across various jurisdictions in Europe and the UK, with a focus on: Sweden, Ireland and the UK in the first phase. The start-up founders were both part of Antler STO4 cohort in Stockholm in the Fall of 2020 and launched the company those days.  Fast forward, in June 2021, Legitify was among 2% of the start-ups selected to join the NDRC Accelerator in Dublin, Ireland. Legitify, as part of NDRC, will present their company and solution in the NDRC Demo Day on September 28th.

Essentially Yours, a Kidderminster-based skin care supplier, has secured £200,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) West Midlands Debt Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners, backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme Loan (CBILS).

London-based startup, BEPPS Snacks, are all about their pea, pulse and grain snacks, whilst hero’ing the black eyed pea; the Great Taste Award winning brand is pioneering healthy, plant-based snacks that are loved by the whole family. 2021 sees the announcement of £400,000 investment from early-stage venture capital investors, Ascension Ventures, who seek to back entrepreneurs making healthy eating accessible to all with the ‘Good Food Fund’ (a fund also backed by challenger brand builders, Mission Ventures and Big Society Capital).

Print and Digital media business, Country and Town House, has secured a £400,000 loan from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF).  The funding will enable the company to recruit additional staff across their marketing and sales departments and upgrade their web platform.

Pictet Alternative Advisors (PAA), the alternative investment specialist of the Pictet Group, has completed the final close of its debut thematic private equity fund focused on technology at its hard cap of $350m.