Eka Ventures has reached the final close on a £68m ($95m) fund, making it the largest impact-driven early stage venture capital fund focused on the UK. Investors in the fund include British Business Bank, BSC, Isomer, Guys and St Thomas Foundation, Planet First Partners, Draper Esprit, Snowball and others, including 24 entrepreneurs, 12 of whom are founders the Eka partners have previously backed.

Fast growing facilities management company, Westgrove Group has secured funding £6 million from Independent Growth Finance (IGF). The funds will be used to provide working capital and support the growth of the business.

Based in Warrington, Cheshire, Westgrove Group has grown steadily since its formation in 1998, and provides security, cleaning, maintenance, customer service and operational support across some of the UK’s largest regional shopping centres, mixed-use destinations, corporate offices, business parks and airports.

John Davies has joined Pitalia Capital to launch a new investment fund in response to increased demand for capital and support from small to mid-sized businesses across the UK.

The Edinburgh-based business investment group, Archangels, has led investment of £12.4m in innovative Scottish tech and life sciences companies in the first half of 2021 (H1 2020: £9.5m)

Scotland-based HV Systems (HVS) has secured a £5 million capital injection from Beehive Equity Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EG Group (EG). Multiple award-winning HVS will now take its innovative hydrogen vehicle designs through prototyping and demonstration, allowing manufacturing to commence.

Climate X, a London-based purpose-driven startup, has completed its pre-seed raise of £1.1M – ushering in a new era of climate intelligence that will help businesses, governments and individuals around the world build a stronger, climate-resilient future.

IW Capital has made an investment in e-pharmacy company SimplyMeds, marking the first external investment in the highly scalable online platform.

SimplyMeds is an end-to-end digital pharmacy platform that provides a convenient method of ordering same day prescriptions and lifestyle products while empowering patients to have medical autonomy. While most online pharmacies are designed to service only one sector, SimplyMeds caters to both the private and NHS prescriptions market in what is believed to be a market first, having developed the distribution channels and a highly sophisticated platform to effectively serve both sectors. 

Innovate Finance, the industry body representing UK FinTech, today publishes details of the record-breaking investment secured across the UK FinTech sector during the first six months of 2021.

The UK FinTech sector raised a total of $5.7bn in H1 2021, outstripping the total investment secured in 2020 ($4.3bn) by 34% and breaking the record year set in 2019 ($4.6bn) by 26%.

The Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) will seek to commit at least £20 million of its capital to businesses led by female, ethnic minority or disabled entrepreneurs, The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced. The commitment represents 20% of the total £100 million fund, and will help to address the barriers faced by underrepresented entrepreneurs in accessing finance. 

Maven Capital Partners has raised £6.26 million to fund Oak Meadows, a new-build family home development consisting of 61 homes in Middleton St George, Darlington, in conjunction with Calmont Homes.

The transaction includes a £1.76 million equity fundraise from Maven's co-investor network, Maven Investor Partners, alongside a £4.5 million debt facility from TOC Property Backed Lending Trust PLC, managed by Newcastle upon Tyne-based wealth management and property lending specialists, Tier One Capital. This is the second transaction in eight months that Maven and Tier One have successfully concluded.

detected, the global mark of trust for eCommerce, has completed its latest funding round of £900k. This newest round demonstrates impressive industry backing and strong support for detected. Participants in this round include existing angel investors and institutional stakeholder EmergeVest, plus a new tranche of high-profile investors.

Liam Chennells, Chief Executive Officer at detected, said: “Twelve months ago, detected was an idea; the opportunity to build a business capable of solving an existential problem facing the entire eCommerce industry. Buyer trust, and for marketplaces, knowing who your sellers are. I couldn’t be prouder of our team and what they have achieved already.

Graphite Capital, a leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, has agreed to sell U-POL, a leading manufacturer and distributor of automotive repair and refinishing products, to Axalta Coating Systems. Headquartered in Philadelphia, United States, Axalta is a global manufacturer and distributor of coatings and the leader in the premium automotive refinish segment.