Paul Beach, Head of Executives and Entrepreneurs at Arbuthnot Latham gives his perspective on the leading role entrepreneurs can play in driving the UK’s economic recovery.

Changes to EIS and SEIS schemes ‘could boost private investment in the sector and provide alternative to government loans’.

Situated in Southwark, South London, Hinterview has secured a £500,000 growth loan from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) which is managed by The FSE Group.

In the UK, the recruitment industry is currently bigger than ever, estimated to be worth over £35billion to the UK economy. Before the advancement of technology, recruitment followed a more traditional path; face to face interviews at the recruiters’ offices with paper CVs faxed off to hiring employers. The “time to hire” was a long process at circa 45 days. As technology came to the forefront and recruitment evolved, the industry modernised rapidly, however there were due to be even more advancements in the sector.

ilumoni, the fintech startup helping people to borrow better, save on unnecessary interest and time in paying off debts has raised $450,000 pre-seed investment backed by Move Ventures, and angel investors including Simon Moran, former CMO and now Non Executive Director, Premium Credit and Andy Deller, former CEO of Dunbar Bank plc, part of Zurich Insurance Group.

Online product discovery platform, Product Guru, has secured funds of £330,000 to disrupt the traditional retail buying process by re-inventing how products end up on shelves.

James Murdoch, an experienced investor in Equity Crowdfunding, asks what is at stake in the Seedrs and Crowdcube Merger.

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has announced a new commitment to Compass Business Finance enabling an increased flow of asset finance products into UK-based smaller businesses in the print, packaging and manufacturing sectors.

Graphite Capital, a leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, has backed the management buyout of Babble from LDC. The transaction values the unified communications, cloud contact centre and cyber security provider at £90 million.

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank, has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2019/20.

Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on building the brands of tomorrow, has made an initial investment of £1 million into Smartify, the app named by New Scientist as the ‘Shazam and Spotify for art’.

Smartify, founded in 2015 by four friends; Anna Lowe, Thanos Kokkiniotis, Nick Mueller and Ron Rijmoet, helps people make meaningful connections with art whilst providing museums with next generation digital technology.

Latest market analysis from the British Business Bank published today finds early stage venture capital funds have the potential to generate higher returns than later stage VC funds. Early stage VC funds generated a pooled Distributions to Paid In (DPI) multiple of 1.43 and pooled Total Value to Paid In (TVPI) multiple 1.99, which is 0.73 and 0.71 pp higher than later stage VC funds.

Angel Investment Network (AIN), the world’s largest online angel investment platform, has announced impressive growth,