Beckley Psytech, the psychedelic medicine company, has raised £3m of Series A funding to develop a pipeline of psychedelic drugs into licensed pharmaceutical medicines for treating psychiatric and neurological diseases. Investors in the round include prominent British businessmen Jim Mellon and Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks.

The Beckley Psytech team comprises talent from the psychedelic and pharmaceutical fields. It was co-founded by world-renowned leader in psychedelic research Lady Amanda Feilding and CEO Cosmo Feilding Mellen.

As of 1 July 2020, the Aston Lark Financial Institutions team will join the Protean Risk brand, making the combined team one of the largest dedicated brokers servicing UK and European financial services firms.

Since its launch in May 2019, the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) has invested £12.5m in 33 early-stage and high-growth companies through its equity and loan funds.  Although the fund was established to support high growth companies in achieving their potential, since the end of March SMEs have had to refocus their strategies on resilience until the UK is able to resume normal economic activity.  Therefore, GLIF has been working with FSE Group to enable our funds to support SMEs in this time of crisis.

Unicorn AIM VCT has closed its latest offer having raised the full £25m of available capacity including an overallotment facility of £10m.  Unicorn has been one of the leading institutional investors in the AIM market since its inception in 2000. The VCT, managed by Chris Hutchinson, is the largest AIM-focused VCT in the market with net assets of £229.10 million (as at 12 June 2020).

Thierry Baudon, 2019-2020 Chair of Invest Europe, is to continue as Chair, following the sudden and unexpected death of Roderick “Rory” Macmillan (Chair-elect for 2020-2021) last month.

Mia & Ben, the innovative kids' food brand sold nationwide in Sainsbury's, Ocado and Abel & Cole in the UK, as well as Dunnes Stores in the Republic of Ireland, has secured £2.5 million funding from impact food investor Blue Horizon Ventures to help grow its UK business.

Mia & Ben aim to revolutionise the kids' food category by using scientific research and the latest technology to offer fresher and more nutritious products. Their first range of pouches can be found chilled in the fridge, not in the ambient aisle, and are preserved with high-pressure processing (HPP) instead of heat to retain natural vitamins, colour and taste.

One year ago last week the UK’s 2050 net zero target was announced. Mike Jackson, Entrepreneur Success Director, Tech Nation comments: “The UK’s cleantech sector offers a unique opportunity to help the UK meet its 2050 net zero target. But to deliver a meaningful impact to whole sectors and drive a green economy, cleantech businesses must be supported to grow and scale in order to increase their supply of ‘green’ solutions.

Edge Investments, the leading growth investor in the UK creative economy, has appointed an Advisor Panel to provide specialist industry expertise and advice to assist Edge in helping UK’s creative economy to innovate, prosper, and grow.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growth businesses, has invested in Juriba, an industry-leading IT migration software provider, to accelerate product development and drive international scale.

Started in 2008 by co-founders Barry Angell and Julia Bell, and now led by Angell, Bell and Iain Fraser (Chief Sales Officer), Juriba is a fast-growth technology business that specialises in digital transformation software, providing innovative solutions for medium-sized to large corporates and multinational organisations.

Downing Ventures has appointed Warren Rogers as a Partner to its 14-strong team. Prior to joining Downing Ventures, Warren was a Ventures Partner at Airbus, where he led investments in various sectors related to aerospace, defence, and space technology.  Warren brings much of this experience to the Downing Ventures team, with his new role focusing on early-stage deep tech companies in quantum, cyber, enterprise, and materials.

Loopster, the online platform which closes the loop between the use and reuse of second-hand clothes, has secured a six-figure seed equity funding round led by the Development Bank of Wales.

Investing alongside the Development Bank is business angel Jim Lewcock, who owns the internet-focused venture capital Blue14, and experienced non-executive director and angel investor Kate Methuen-Ley. The funding will help Loopster to further develop and commercialise their technology, enabling their platform to catalogue second-hand clothes faster. The Newport-based company will also use the funding to recruit six members of staff. This process is currently underway.

Recruitment platform Tempo has secured £5 million in a Series A funding round led by the Adecco Group, a Fortune Global 500 company and leading HR solutions partner.

Tempo’s end-to-end platform uses technology to simplify the recruitment process, with machine learning used to match job seekers to potential employers and video interviews used for screening.  Businesses using Tempo are able to cut their recruitment costs by 65%, while reducing the hiring process to a matter of days rather than weeks.