Crowd2Fund has been formally granted their Advanced Assurance from HMRC for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief. This means that now up to £12,000,000 can be invested into the growth of Crowd2Fund under the scheme, from private investors or specialist EIS funds. It is a tremendously generous scheme, through which investors receive excellent tax incentives for investing in businesses, like Crowd2Fund, who offer benefits to the wider economy.

Shoosmiths has advised NVM Private Equity on its recent investment of £2 million into Duke & Dexter (D&D), an award winning men’s footwear label.

Launched in 2014, D&D offers a range of high quality shoes, all manufactured by hand in the UK and has developed into a leading premium men’s shoe brand.  It has collaborated with brands and personalities such as Tyson Beckford, Rolls Royce and in June this year, launched a collaboration with American rapper Snoop Dogg to create an exclusive line of 12 initial styles.

Bethnal Green Ventures, Europe's leading early-stage tech for good VC, has announced its latest cohort of teams using technology for good! The ventures joining the firm's Autumn 2019 programme range from companies tackling climate crisis, to helping people with visual impairments to live independently, to companies enabling people from all walks of life become well and stay healthy. Twelve amazing teams embarking on their journey to build, launch and scale their tech for good businesses.

In his latest article, James Murdoch looks in detail at The Seedrs Secondary Market (SM) and considers its significance investors in equity crowdfunding.

BEAT81, one of the fastest growing fitness tech companies in Europe, has raised a €6.4m Series A funding round, led by EQT Ventures. The company will use the investment to continue to help people build physical and mental strength via BEAT81’s systematic approach of training smarter with technology and within a supportive team.

BEAT81 combines high-intensity group training, motivational coaching and heart rate technology to ensure people hit their fitness goals, fast. The heart rate sensor worn during each workout shows people exactly how their heart is responding to every squat, sit-up and sprint in real-time. This is where BEAT81’s name originates from. People’s optimal training zone is at least 81% of their maximum heart rate and when they BEAT81 they maximise the fitness benefits.

EIS Fund Manager Par Equity has realised its 17th company exit with the sale of the market-leading videogame data analysis firm, deltaDNA.  The terms of the acquisition are commercially confidential, but Par investors will receive a return of many multiples of their original investment.  This follows on from Par Equity’s exit from ICS Learn last year, which rewarded investors with a return of 76x money, before any tax benefits. 

VCT & EIS Investor Forum platinum sponsor GrowthInvest invites you to join its award-winning GrowthInvest Adviser Hour as it goes live from Edinburgh with leading providers fund managers and advisers including Par Equity, Velocity Capital Partners, and Investing Women.

BGF has expanded its Reading team with the appointment of Guy Pope as an investor. Guy joins BGF from BCMS Corporate, where he specialised in all aspects of mid-market transactions for various sectors including engineering, retail pharmacy and exhibitions.

ShieldIOT, an IoT security company, offers service providers network-wide cyber protection, increasing revenue streams and securing millions of connected devices.

ShieldIOT, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity software company, has raised $3.6M in a seed funding round.

The round was led by innogy Innovation Hub, the accelerator and venture capital arm of innogy SE, a leading German energy company. The round was joined by additional new and existing investors including Janvest Capital Partners, Danmar Capital, Minvest and private investors.

London-based Lifted has raised £1.5m in seed funding to transform the home care sector. The startup has been founded by Zero 1, a new corporate venture builder which is working with FTSE 100 corporate partners, to build companies that can tackle the world’s biggest challenges. 

The first half of 2019 has seen automotive technology deal-making news led by major tech giants challenging traditional OEMs for ‘ownership’ of the vehicles of the future, says Hampleton Partners’ latest report on Automotive Technology M&A.

Hampleton Partners, the international technology mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance advisors, noted that deal volumes were stable at just under 50 transactions. In addition, investments by Uber, Amazon and Tesla – plus on-going rumours of Apple’s development of an autonomous vehicle software system – garnered the headlines. Not only did they invest in core automotive technology; they also targeted the supporting industries which will allow autonomous and electric vehicle technology to go mainstream.

The Financial services industry has entered into a period of unparalleled opportunity as our nation enters what many are calling the inheritance economy.

The inheritance economy represents the greatest transfer of wealth in history as capital of some £5.5trillion is expected to flow through the generations over the next 30 years.

For financial advisers it presents some outstanding opportunities to participate in this wealth transfer and Stellar Asset Management has launched a new service to help financial advisers and wealth managers to maximise these opportunities.

Stellar ICENI is a new service for advisers which provides them with the tools to unlock planning opportunities and offer a superior service to their clients.