Governments that invest in businesses, but then have no say on any decisions made by company managers, are much more likely to see their investments be a success, according to new research by Vlerick Business School.

As we enter the final week of political campaigning for the upcoming general election, we could potentially enter the new decade with a new government. 

eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest research on private equity, venture capital, real estate and other alternative asset vehicles, comprising data from more than 4,000 funds globally.

Israeli agritech startup Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture has successfully completed field trials in almond orchards in Israel using its unique mechanical pollen harvesting and pollination system. The field trials are crucial for advancing the company's planned entry into the huge almond market in California. The trials resulted in a substantially increased yield in Israel. Additionally, Edete has recently tested its technology in Australia and proved its ability to produce high-quality viable pollen.

Aberdeen Standard Investments’ AIPUT fund (Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust) has signed a pre-let agreement with its long-standing customer, dnata, promoting the continued growth of its industry-leading air cargo facility at dnata City East, located immediately south of Heathrow Airport. 

European Buy & Build activity in the first half of 2019 reached the highest level ever recorded, led by the Nordic region, according to Silverfleet Capital’s European Buy & Build Monitor

Invest Europe has teamed up with the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EU’s leading venture capital (VC) investor, to release new research that highlights venture capital’s positive impact on fostering innovation, growth and job creation at start-ups across Europe.

The report entitled The VC Factor: Data-driven insights about VC-backed start-ups in Europe is the result of an ambitious research collaboration between the EIF and Invest Europe, the association representing venture capital, private equity and infrastructure sectors and their investors in Europe. The ground-breaking report tracked and analysed data on almost 9,000 young companies between 2007 and 2015, as well as some €35 billion of VC investment flows, offering new insights into Europe’s burgeoning start-up scene.

Tel-Aviv based venture capital firm Crescendo Venture Partners is launching its new VC fund planned to raise $80 million-$100 million. The new fund has completed its first closing and is planning to have its final closing in the first half of 2020. The fund is managed by a group of seasoned venture capitalists with over 75 years of cumulative experience on both sides of the table, partnering with the Switzerland based Crescendo Group, which manages client assets in excess of USD 3 billions of dollars from across its eight offices in Geneva, London, Guernsey, New York, Miami, Madrid, Hong Kong, Montevideo and most recently Nassau. 

 WSR Medical Solutions Limited (‘Rothband’), a specialist manufacturer and distributor of x-ray protective equipment for use in radiology environments, has been sold via a management buyout led by company Managing Director and existing shareholder, Paul Dixon.

DeckSender.com, the startup platform that aims to democratise access to investment has analysed the gender diversity of the 1400+ startups that have used it’s platform to raise money in its first year operating in Beta and the results are in. This is the first annual DeckSender report into gender inequality for female startups.

New regulations being introduced by the FCA later this year will restrict individual investors new to the property investment platform sector to investing a maximum of 10% of their investable net assets through these platforms.

KALEAO has become Bamboo Systems, a provider of transformative ARM server architecture designed to power the next generation of sustainable data centers. With a new management team in place, Bamboo Systems is poised to introduce its radically different approach to servers in a market with rapidly evolving requirements.