OnePlanetCapital, a new sustainably driven investment house, has launched a specialist sustainability EIS Fund to invest in businesses tackling climate change.

The new OnePlanetCapital Sustainable EIS Fund is broad-based, targeting investments that will tackle climate change and supporting businesses with a positive environmental impact. It aims to deliver industry leading returns whilst only backing companies and projects that will genuinely benefit the environmental prospects of the UK and the wider planet. 

BGF has completed a multi-million pound investment in Cirrus, an award-winning provider of omnichannel cloud contact centre solutions.

Founded in 2013 by Jason Roos, Cirrus’ software is used by private and public sector organisations looking to digitalise their customer service operations. The business has seen continued growth across the UK and North America making it one of the leading Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platforms.

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has bolstered its leadership team 

Liva Healthcare, a European market leader in scalable digital health coaching, has secured a new funding round of EUR 24.5 million, led by Verlinvest, the go-to investor for mission-driven entrepreneurs and category-defining global consumer brands. The investment will enable Liva to strengthen its position as a European leader in digital health and lifestyle coaching for chronic disease prevention and management.   

Scale Up Group has completed a £3.8 million 'Series A' growth capital investment into its client IMMJ Systems Limited by Foresight and SUG members. IMMJ is a rapidly growing electronic document management solution supplier, with a focus on healthcare.

Parkwalk has launched one of the first HMRC Approved Knowledge Intensive EIS Funds to open to retail investors, offering an opportunity to invest in ground-breaking deeptech businesses spun out of UK universities, but with a facility to carry back income tax relief to the previous tax year and reduced admin for investors. Launching in early January 2021, the Fund will close at the end of the tax year in April 2021.

Peptone, the computational physics company, has built the world’s first protein engineering operating system and, thanks to $2.5 million seed round led by Hoxton Ventures and supported by dRx Capital, a venture arm of Novartis Pharma AG, Founders Factory and a number of angel investors including Brent Hoberman, the next-gen supercomputing company is now looking to further develop its groundbreaking technology in order to take on the high-value protein targets and reduce the risk of failure in early stages of drug development.

Luxtripper, the fast-growth luxury travel business, has closed its latest investment round at £1.2m. The funding, raised from high-net worth individuals and former travel executives, will be used to double Luxtripper’s destination offering over the next three years, as well as further develop its proprietary technology platform and hire for roles across the business. The latest round brings total investment in the business to £3.1m since 2015, as it continues to bring cutting-edge technology to the luxury travel market.

Very few industries have been untouched by the COVID-19 crisis. With unemployment rates hitting an all-time high, many seasoned industry professionals who have built a corporate career for years or even decades, now find themselves forced to explore new avenues. Home Grown, the private members club for entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors, is recognising those that have decided to start their entrepreneurial journey inspired by a meaningful purpose. The London based Business Club is therefore launching its Green Shoots initiative to support new founders with business ideas that focus on solving environmental and sustainability issues.

Genius Group, the world’s leading entrepreneur education group, has today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire South Africa-based E-Square Education group, including its primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions: Ed-U College (Port Elizabeth), Ed-U Academy (Ed-U Academy), Private Schools, E-Cube Online and Ed-U City Campus.

The agreement is the latest in a series of acquisitions by Genius Group in their mission to provide an internationally accredited entrepreneur education curriculum for the 21^st century. It is the second acquisition by Genius Group in South Africa, after the acquisition of Tau Game Lodge, the luxury Safari Lodge and Conference Centre in Madikwe Game Reserve.

Par Equity, the Edinburgh-based investment manager that specialises in early-stage technology businesses with high growth potential, increased its new investment activity to a record £12.4m in 2020. Despite the challenges of a year dominated by Covid-19, the award-winning company also continued its run of successful exits, which means it has now returned cash to investors every year since 2013.

Industrial electrical engineering contractor, Process Control Services (PCS UK Ltd) has secured a £1 million ABL facility from Independent Growth Finance (IGF). After two years of growth the Derbyshire-based contractor required additional working capital resource to help drive further growth as they experienced increased customer demand following the first UK wide lockdown in spring.