Funds advised by Hilltop Credit Partners, a specialist funding partner for SME residential developers, have completed a £360,000 pre-development bridging loan on a greenfield residential development in the affluent village of Braunton, North Devon.  The facility will be used to refinance the development site and is expected to be followed by a £3.5m loan for a 20-month phased development of 11 private and 12 affordable residential units. 

Squire Patton Boggs has appointed David Milne as a partner in its Global Corporate Practice in Leeds. Mr. Milne joins from Eversheds Sutherland.

Data management software firm Azquo has appointed an industry heavyweight as its new Chairman.  Rhoddy Swire, the founder of global fund of funds Pantheon Ventures LLP, which has over £44 billion under management worldwide, has joined the team to help take the business to the next level. 

ACT Genomics has announced the completion of the first closing of the latest round of equity financing from a group of strategic investors including Aflac Ventures LLC and Kyoto University Innovation Capital.

Tech Nation, the growth platform for tech companies and leaders, has launched its Unlocking Global Tech report, assessing the value of UK digital tech exports and exploring the opportunities and challenges for digital tech companies to expand and scale in different regions around the world post Covid-19. 

Intertrust, a global leader in providing tech-enabled fund and corporate solutions, has appointed Nick Maton as Luxembourg Country Head and Managing Director.

Mercuryo.io - a fast-growing Estonian startup that bills itself as a European leader in cryptocurrency payment processing solutions closed a €2.5m seed funding led by Target Global, a major international VC fund with €800m+ under management. Mercuryo.io is a cross-border payments network that enables businesses across the world to send and receive payments for goods and services using cryptocurrencies. Its infrastructure provides solutions for virtual accounts, business payments, remittance processing, and mass payouts regardless of local payment methods and currencies. 

In a first phase of this funding round, Climeworks announced, in April, the successful raise of CHF 73 million (USD 75 million) in equity from private investors.  As of August 2020, Climeworks’ funding round has been completed with a total equity investment amount of CHF 100M (USD 110M) - the largest ever investment into direct air capture.

British Business Investments Ltd, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has made its fourth commitment through its £500m Managed Funds Programme.

The cornerstone commitment of up to €75m is being made to manager Isomer Capital’s second fund, Isomer Capital II. The fund will be targeted at early stage venture capital managers across Europe, that invest primarily into early stage tech companies. Isomer II will also pursue a co-investment strategy, investing alongside its fund managers, with additional capital made available for the most promising, high-growth companies from the underlying portfolio.

It has been a challenging few years for investors looking to draw income from financial markets.  Amid a multi-year trend of low yields in bond markets, and investor disinterest in dividend-paying shares in stock markets, 2020’s economic crash led to the sharpest cuts to global dividends in history.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, invested £15m into Yorkshire Wildlife Park (YWP) just before lockdown.  Despite the well-documented challenges facing the business and wider sector, BGF has supported the Park and enabled the expansion development to continue. Based on visitor reviews, this week YWP was ranked within the top 10% of visitor attractions globally by the Travellers’ Choice Awards.  

AIPUT (Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust)