Praetura Ventures is raising money for its second Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund, the Praetura EIS 2020 Fund. The company plans to raise up to £10m to invest in around six to eight early-stage companies predominantly in the North of England. This comes less than six months after the VC firm’s record-breaking £15m maiden EIS fundraise.

Ahead of launch later this year, Desana, an Edinburgh and London based startup that gives subscribers access to a UK-wide network of quality workspace to use whenever and wherever they need it - has closed a seed round of £550,000 with Techstart Ventures.  Desana is the first UK-based platform designed to give organisations and individuals  by-the-hour access to a quality network of coworking workplaces through a single monthly subscription. This investment will enable Desana to grow its existing network of instantly accessible work spaces across Britain as well as beginning to position the network overseas

Blackfinch Ventures has appointed Dr Nic Pillow, co-founder of tech start-up Rhizome Live, as Ventures Manager.

The Riverside Company has invested in TOOLPORT, the leading European online provider of professional tents and spare parts for the consumer and industrial markets. Based in Norderstedt, Germany, the company operates an online direct-to-consumer model supported by a specialized and high-quality customer service team and decided to partner with Riverside to pursue an ambitious international growth strategy.

Stefano Maifreni, Founder of Eggcelerate, a B2B growth experts for British SMEs, shares his insights on how small comapnies can operate effectively without needing to have layers of bureaucracy slowing them down.

Wayland Additive Limited has raised a £3 million Series A funding round, led by Longwall Ventures with the Angel CoFund (ACF), as well as a number of high-calibre angel investors. Wayland Additive is a West Yorkshire based company pushing the boundaries of electron beam 3D printing with systems that can work faster and with greater precision than existing laser-based technologies. 

The startup’s goal is to bring to market, manufacture and sell metal Additive Manufacturing (“AM”, otherwise known as 3D printing) machines to end-users who require high precision and complex components (often made from advanced metal alloys) in areas such as the aerospace and medical industries.

Three in 10 office workers (29%) are considering moving jobs in the next year, driven by the demand for a better work-life balance, higher remuneration and flexible working hours.

New research from specialised recruitment consultancy Robert Half UK¹ reveals the desire to move jobs is being fuelled by the current war for talent, especially in technical areas such as software development and cyber security.

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has made its first cornerstone commitment through its £500m Managed Funds Programme.

The €100m commitment is being made to the first European fund of funds to be launched by Top Tier Capital Partners LLC (TTCP). Investments from the fund will be targeted at the technology and healthcare sectors. TTCP is a venture capital specialist headquartered in San Francisco. In 2018, it expanded its operations in Europe by opening an office in London.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £750,000 equity investment into innovative ecommerce platform, Aero Commerce Ltd.

A total of £550,000 was provided via the North East Development Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven, £200,000 was provided by existing shareholders in this round taking the total investment to date to over £1m. The funding will enable Aero to invest in its sales and marketing activities and open an office in Newcastle. This will also allow the business to create a number of new roles and deliver on its ambitious expansion plans, while continuing to roll out several exciting product enhancements.

Elliptic, the leading provider of crypto-asset risk management solutions for crypto businesses and financial institutions, today announces that it has raised $23 million in a Series B round led by Tokyo-based SBI Group, along with new investment from AlbionVC, and participation from existing investors including SignalFire, Octopus Ventures, and Santander Innoventures. Tomoyuki Nii from SBI Group will be joining the Board of Directors, along with Ed Lascelles of AlbionVC.

A Teesside business which has developed a new way to generate fuel and chemicals from waste biomass has secured a further £2.3million investment to commercialise its technology.

Nova Pangaea Technologies has completed a funding round led by NPIF - Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, with additional funds from existing investors including Cambridge Angels and venture capital firm Par Equity.

London-based dairy free cheese producer, Kinda Co. has been named as The Seed Fund’s 2019 champion, picking up the award at the Great Taste Golden Fork Dinner on Sunday 1 September. A one-woman enterprise, founded by Ellie Brown (pictured above) in October 2017, Kinda Co. will now embark on full year of business support and mentoring with the food and drink industry’s only philanthropic start-up accelerator.