Albion Capital, the leading independent investment manager, has closed its 2020/2021 VCT top up offers earlier than scheduled and fully subscribed with strong support from both existing and new shareholders. 

To support their growth ambitions, London based Taylor & Hart has secured a total of £500,000 in loan funding  from The FSE Group, via The Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) this includes £250,000 in conjunction with the government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

BVA BDRC has published its latest quarterly SME Finance Monitor report; the largest and most frequent study of its kind in the UK. Research findings have been gathered across 38 waves of interviews since 2011 and are based on more than 160,000 interviews with SMEs.

Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on building the brands of tomorrow, has announced that portfolio company Boom Cycle, England’s first boutique cycling chain, has partnered with KOBOX to launch the boutique fitness ‘supergroup’ United Fitness Brands. 

500 Startups surveyed 122 investors to explore COVID-19’s impact on early-stage investment, serving as the third installment in a series started at the onset of the pandemic. This new survey sought to understand how COVID-19 has changed the investment landscape since early 2020, while also inquiring about investment plans in 2021. A significant number of respondents identified as angel investors (49%) followed by venture capital firms (32%), along with a smattering of corporate venture and family offices. The vast majority invest in the seed stage (75%), followed by Series A (58%) and pre-seed stages (56%).

Antler has appointed Orson Stadler as a Partner who will be co-heading its London operation. 

BGF has released the first ever report into the attitudes of female leaders at growth economy companies. According to a survey of 152 female executives, board members, senior managers, owners and partners of businesses, 72% of those surveyed are motivated to grow their business this year.

BGF has also been named the leading investor in female-led scale-up businesses last year, according to new research from the Scale Up Institute. In 2020, BGF investments were made into female-led companies in the fields of technology, clean growth, life sciences and retail.

Foresight Group has made a £2.35 million investment into RF Brown Limited, a shipping container hire, container sales and self-storage business.

Niklas Holck, the former Chairman of Nordic Eye Venture Capital, has launched his own boutique VC firm, based in Singapore. Tradeworks.vc is an investment syndicate that aims to build an ecosystem of “Digital Trade Enablers”, with the purpose of driving trade and economic development through innovation in Logistics primarily, crossing into e-Commerce.

Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has completed a significant growth equity investment in AutoRek, a leading provider of financial control, regulatory reporting and data management software. AutoRek’s cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) platform has experienced significant growth in the past three years and investment from SEP will enable the company to accelerate its product development plans and further extend its offering internationally.

Quva, a North-East based fintech firm, has been launched with the aim of digitally transforming the way private equity firms, venture capital funds and angel investment networks currently manage the end-to-end investment process.

Circularity Capital, the specialist private equity firm supporting growth stage European SMEs in the circular economy, has announced the divestment of its portfolio company ZigZag Global Limited to Global Blue Group, a leader in Tax-Free Shopping and Added Value Payment Services.