Oddbox, the London company behind the UK's first sustainable fruit and vegetable box delivery service, is planning to expand nationwide after securing a £3m investment from the Northern Venture Capital Trust Funds (VCTs), which are managed by Mercia. The London company behind the UK's first sustainable fruit and vegetable box delivery service is planning to expand nationwide after securing a £3m investment from the Northern Venture Capital Trust Funds (VCTs), which are managed by Mercia.

YFM Equity Partners-advised funds have sold their shareholding in GroupBC to Bentley Systems Incorporated, a leading global provider of comprehensive software and digital twins services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, for an undisclosed sum.

GroupBC is a leading provider of enterprise-scale information management systems for construction-related projects and asset owners. Its UK-hosted Common Date Environment makes it easy for teams to collaborate, manage and share documents and data from a central, secure cloud-based platform.

Beauhurst takes a closer at the high-growth companies operating in Northern Ireland in its latest report, 'Mapping out the most ambitious businesses in Northern Ireland'.

Through its two funds, the London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF) and the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF), more than £5 million has been invested into 26 female led Tech companies. These 26 investments operate across multiple verticals within the London Tech ecosystem.  In the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) there are two exceptional female led companies.

Glasgow-based Visual Management Systems (VMS), a leading provider of bespoke Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) solutions, is working on a collaborative project with the University of Leicester. 

In conjunction with its recent annual Tech Nation report, Tech Nation,  the growth platform for tech companies and leaders, has announced the high-growth scaleups which have been selected to join the 8th edition of Future Fifty, the UK’s leading late-stage growth programme. 

BVA BDRC has published its latest quarterly SME Finance Monitor report. 

Peter Jones CBE, known for his role on Dragon’s Den, and BGF have joined forces to support two high-growth tech businesses, with plans for further collaboration in the future. An initial £9m has been invested across Localised Group, an ecommerce platform for global brands which recently signed British retailer Boden as its latest customer, and Retail Services Group, a business that provides in-store end-to-end retail experiences for some of the world’s leading technology brands. 

RLC Ventures has made an investment has led a £500k seed round in Labworks.

Labworks are Europe's leading voice games studio for Amazon's Alexa; with over 6 million people collectively spending over 100 years playing their 8 games. Their impressive traction has also been met with disciplined capital efficiency.

Glasgow-based Swipii has secured funding of £1 million into its cashback app. The investment has been made by Scottish private equity company Par Equity, which is an existing investor in the business. Swipii aims to be the simplest way for consumers to earn cashback as they shop. Once someone has securely linked their bank payment card to the app, they automatically earn cashback every time they pay with that card in a participating retailer. There is no need to scan codes or carry multiple reward cards. 

The latest AngelNews wine column from Caspar Bowes of Bowes Wine looks at the effects of experimentation on wines from single grape varieties.

Tech Nation, the growth platform for tech companies and leaders, has released its annual Tech Nation Report, providing a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the UK’s tech ecosystem, exploring the drivers that underpin and power economic growth within the sector.