Electric vehicle charge-point maker, Pod Point, which raised funds three times on Crowdcube, has announced it has been acquired by energy company, EDF. Pod Point successfully raised £3.71m with Crowdcube in 2015, 2016 and 2017, with its vision of a world where travel doesn’t damage the earth 1,428 people were inspired to invest. 

The sale to EDF tops AB InBev’s £85m acquisition of Camden Town Brewery, which had raised on Crowdcube in 2015.

Tech Nation, the UK network for ambitious tech entrepreneurs, has revealed the 10 early-stage scaleup winners of its nationwide competition, Rising Stars. 

The Rising Stars competition is the only national early-stage tech scaleup competition in the UK, and is designed to showcase the most exciting companies at Seed to pre-Series A funding from all areas of the country. Tech Nation’s Rising Stars are on track to become the world leading tech companies of tomorrow - the UK is a world leader in producing successful tech companies, and is now home to 77 billion-dollar businesses, double that of Germany and almost four times as many as Israel.

Silverfleet Capital, the European private equity firm, has acquired a majority stake in Collectia A/S, a credit management services provider based in Denmark. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Crowdcube, Europe’s leading crowdfunding platform, has achieved its eighth record-breaking quarter in a row, as revenue for 2019 surpasses the £8m watershed for the first time. Revenue is up 36% year-on-year, climbing to £8.22m, with a record 220 campaigns funded, up from 198 in 2018.

Crowdcube saw 41 campaigns raising over £1m in 2019, with JustPark, Freetrade, Curve and carwow each raising £5m or more. Curve, carwow, Chip and Freetrade jointly welcomed over 30,000 new shareholders. A trend towards larger funding rounds has been spurred by entrepreneurs understanding the benefits of engaging their customers and communities by inviting them to become shareholders through Crowdcube.

John Auckland, founder of TribeFirst, shares his predictions for alternative finance in the 2020s.

Praetura Ventures, the Manchester-based investor that backs early-stage businesses in high-value sectors, has successfully closed its second EIS fund at £7m in a move that brings the total raised by the firm to £22m in less than 12 months.

The £7m Praetura EIS 2020 Fund will enable the firm to continue to support the growth ambitions of high-quality scale-up businesses across the region and will now be deployed alongside the strategic support and guidance of the 25-strong team at Praetura Ventures.

The Development Bank of Wales has appointed Rhys Jones as a non-executive director. Rhys, 36, is a co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of SportPursuit Limited, a members only, sports focussed digital retailer. 

Leicestershire-based European Thermodynamics, an SME developer and supplier of thermal management components to the electronics, medical, telecoms and industrial sectors, has signed up to the national SPRINT business support programme.

SPRINT will provide European Thermodynamics with funded access to the expertise, research and facilities from the University of Leicester. This project will enable European Thermodynamics to develop the first space-qualified, UK-produced thermoelectric generators and coolers for space applications and other extreme/challenging environments.

The latest Fintech M&A market report from Hampleton Partners, the international technology mergers and acquisitions advisor

Dealroom has raised €2.75M Euros in a Series A round co-led by Shoe Investments and Knight Venture Capital. The funding will support the company’s continued international expansion in Europe and beyond including making key hires in these markets. 

Beauhurst has published The Deal - a review of publicly-announced equity fundraisings in 2019.  The report shows a record breaking £12 billion worth of equity was invested during 2019, but the number of deals completed continues to decline. For the second year in a row, early-stage companies have been hit the hardest.

Unmind, the workplace mental health platform, today announced it has raised 10 million dollars in a Series A funding round.

Led by Berlin-based Project A, with the continued support of Felix Capital, the funding – which is one of the largest series A rounds for a European mental health tech business – will support company growth, and its commitment to measurably improve the mental health of employees in workplaces around the world.