Foresight Group and Island Green Power have formed a joint venture (JV) to develop a pipeline of greenfield solar projects across the UK.  The JV aims to develop five projects located in England and Wales, with a total generating capacity of close to 700MW.

Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialised in scaling businesses driven by technology, customer insight or service excellence, has agreed the sale of its stake in Ten10, a leading independent software testing and quality engineering consultancy, on behalf of the Baronsmead VCTs.  The Baronsmead VCTs invested £4.25m in February 2015, supporting the business’ acquisition of The Testing People in December 2015.

The University of Liverpool has formed a new spin out company - Robotiz3d Ltd – to take forward new technology that has the potential to radically transform road maintenance.  Robotiz3d Ltd is a joint venture spin out company established in partnership with A2e Ltd and will receive investment from the University’s Enterprise Investment Fund, alongside private equity investment from a2e Ltd.

DSW Angels, the venture capital investment business of the Dow Schofield Watts group, has changed its trading brand to DSW Ventures to reflect the increasing scale and reach of the business at a time of a massive increase in market activity.

A new report released by BGF and academic Sir Anthony Seldon calls for urgent action to recapitalise 21,000 businesses – the UK’s growth economy companies. According to the report, backed up by data from PwC, there is a persistent shortfall in growth funding, which has a profound impact on the long-term prospects of the UK economy. This ‘growth economy gap’ is made worse by the UK’s regional disparities and there is a risk the Covid-19 crisis will turn this gap into a chasm.

Irish data driven VR simulation company VRAI is expanding its UK operations  following funding of €1.2 million from private investors, as well as  continued backing from Enterprise Ireland.  VRAI will open a new office in Gateshead’s PROTO centre, the UK’s immersive technology cluster.

Disease Screening and Diagnosis startup, Occuity has raised more than £1m, supported by Angel Investment Network, the world’s largest online angel investment platform. Occuity is developing products to screen for, diagnose and monitor major chronic health conditions including diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease. Reading-based Occuity has developed a non-invasive optical device that works by detecting markers that the body deposits in the eye. 

Graphite Capital, a leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, has backed the management buy-out of Ten10, a leading independent UK quality engineering and software testing services provider. 

Personify XP, the world’s first anonymous digital analytics and AI personalisation platform, has closed a £550,000 pre-seed round. Investors include Founders Factory, Touker Suleyman and other high-profile angels. As part of Founders Factory’s investment, its operations team across a number of core business functions are providing hands-on support to support the growth of Personify XP.

In his latest podcast (transcribed below), Seneca Investment Director, John Davies, discusses the outlook for VCTs in the current climate.

CRUX, the British-Israeli startup that has developed the world’s first Knowledge Quantification platform, has announced a £1 million seed investment round led by WENVEST Capital, the B2B SaaS venture capital firm, and includes A-Round Capital and Founders Factory.

With an overwhelming volume of information on both publisher and corporate platforms, CRUX’s groundbreaking deep tech supports digital media companies, financial services firms and management consultancies in helping users become more informed and more engaged. CRUX creates unique knowledge journeys around any topic, by measuring users’ knowledge build-up in real time, and directing users to the most valuable content for them.

European start-ups received 127% more growth capital than in 2016 and, according to a new infographic from Block-Builders.net.  Young entrepreneurs experience increasing opportunities on the European continent - and fewer see the need to relocate to the US.