BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, has exited its investment in 3sun Group Ltd, a specialist provider of products and services to the global renewable energy industry. The business has been acquired by Worley Ltd, the Australian-listed supplier of project and asset services for the energy, chemicals and resources sector.  BGF first made its first investment in 3sun Group in 2014 with £10m to support the expansion of its Great Yarmouth base and advance further opportunities in the UK and northern Europe. 3sun Group was BGF’s first investment in the East of England.

SPOKE, the fast-growing direct to consumer menswear brand, has raised £8.5m of new equity capital. The Series B round was led by BGF and supported by existing shareholders Forward Partners, Oxford Capital, and 24 Haymarket.

The new funds will be used to accelerate growth in four core areas: technology, product innovation, brand building and international expansion.

Par Equity, the leading Scottish EIS Fund Manager, has appointed former Olympic skier Andrew Noble as a Partner.

Specialist eCommerce platform Online Poundshop Ltd has secured considerable investment from venture capital firm Midven, allowing the company to upgrade current warehouse systems, and create a range of new positions across the business – including marketing and distribution roles. The investment has come from the £35m West Midlands equity portion of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF).

New investment company Impel Healthcare Catalysts has announced its first deal by acquiring a majority stake in pioneering ostomy company Trio Healthcare. 

This is the first major deal for Knutsford-based Impel, which was launched earlier this month by entrepreneurs Richard Anderson and Spencer Kerry – previously part of the management team behind Crawford Healthcare - to be a catalyst for innovation and growth in the healthcare sector.

Aston Lark has acquired Lloyd's broker Protean Risk, a specialist Lloyd’s insurance broker focusing on the investment industry, financial services, fintech and technology sectors with clients ranging from start-ups to international organisations. Protean is the first acquisition that has completed for Aston Lark after an investment by Goldman Sachs in September.

Engineering design consultancy Hydrock has announced its acquisition of Yorkshire-based MRB Consulting Engineers, as the company further expands its footprint across the UK.  Hydrock is backed by BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing companies, who first invested in September 2018. Since then, Hydrock has seen significant growth, opening a new office in Birmingham and expanding its teams in Manchester, Cardiff and Southampton. BGF has provided follow-on funding to support the acquisition of MRB and to enhance Hydrock’s ongoing strategic development plans.

GP Bullhound has invested $10 million in RavenPack, a leading provider of alternative data and insights for financial institutions. The company’s database, comprising over 19,000 sources spanning over 20 years, is used by financial institutions who subscribe to the platform in order to enhance performance and manage risk. RavenPack will use the proceeds to expand in Asia, as well as to go into other sectors beyond financial services.

KPMG's Q2 Enterprise Venture Pulse report for 2019 has been published and shows European VC deal value reaching record levels, despite a fall in the volume of deals during the period.

An innovative new investment vehicle to provide funds to support UK property deals – commercial and residential – has been launched by one of the UK’s leading private equity firms in conjunction with a financial technology (fintech) firm.

MAVEN Bonds has been designed to provide investors with the chance to diversify their investment portfolio while earning annual tax-free returns of up to 7.75%.

Launched by Britbots earlier in 2019, the British Robotics Scale-Up Fund is soon to close, raising funds to accelerate a select set of fast-growing businesses encompassing a wide range of business sectors.

Sukhendu Pal has worked with some of the iconic leaders of our generation.  In this interview he talks about the unique qualities of these legendary leaders.

What do Larry Ellison, Sandy Weill, Steve Jobs, Ralph Lauren, Indra Nooyi, Marc Benioff and Satya Nadella have in common? All of them are known for being extremely talented and successful in their respective fields. All have reputations as innovators, who pioneered new business models, products or services that created billions of dollars in value. However, how do you measure these leaders’ impact? We met up with Sukhendu, who has worked with some of these amazing leaders for his view from the close quarters, and this is what we discovered.