Machine learning start-up Futr. has secured £2.4m in seed funding in a round led by VC firm Praetura Ventures. The funding will be used to accelerate delivery of the firms’ ambitious tech road-map, with the team more than doubling this year to meet the large demand for Futr.’s products. Founded in 2017 by Andy Wilkins and Lee Skyrme, Futr.’s conversation-as-a-service is already powering clients across a range of industries, including the police, central and local government and a number of leading private sector organisations. Futr.’s technology simplifies how organisations deliver their services on the channels that their staff and consumers use every day, like Alexa, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, in over 100 languages.

New research⁽¹⁾ from fast growing Shearwater Aero Capital, the global corporate aviation finance specialist, reveals the trend for family offices to pool their investments in order to gain greater exposure to the private debt market, and potentially better terms, is set to increase.

New evidence shows that the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) has increased the availability of finance in the region and this is already making a positive impact on performance of those businesses.

Keensight Capital, one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout[1] investments, announces the acquisition of Infarco’s majority stake in 3P Biopharmaceuticals, a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) specialized in the process development and GMP manufacturing of biologics.

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), delivered by British Business Bank, has invested over £11m into ambitious, high-growth small and medium sized businesses in the Liverpool City Region in deals that have attracted an additional £8.2 million invested from the private sector.

Cambridge Touch Technologies Ltd., the leading provider of piezoelectric UltraTouch multi-force-and-touch technology to the consumer electronics, automotive, industrial and military markets, today announced it has closed an oversubscribed $10 million Series B funding round, bringing the total amount raised to nearly $20 million. The round was led by Kureha Corporation of Japan, a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and plastics including piezoelectric polymer film, together with participation from existing investors Parkwalk, Downing Ventures, CM Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners, and new investment from top Chinese venture capital firm Puhua Capital and Japanese automotive touch panel firm, Futaba Corporation. The University of Cambridge is also an existing investor, while Ascendant Corporate Finance provided advice on the round.

Deepbridge Capital has announced the appointment of two new Business Development Managers (BDMs) covering both the North West and North East regions.

Lingua Custodia, the specialist in Machine Learning applied to financial translation, has closed a €1.1m fundraising operation. This brings the total amount of funds raised since its inception in 2011 to € 2.4m.

Returns from global venture capital funds reached their highest level since the dotcom era, with Western European funds significantly outperforming the long-term average.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £900,000 investment in supercomputing technology specialist, ebb3 Limited. A total of £750,000 was invested by NPIF – Maven Equity Finance (‘’NPIF’’), managed by Maven and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, with a further £150,000 provided by the Maven VCTs. The funding will enable ebb3 to further scale the business, double its headcount and support the growing demand for the company’s complete high-performance virtual workspace. 

UK SMEs must create a tech-friendly culture to attract and retain top tech talent, according to a new white paper from Robert Half UK

LGB Investments, whose offering includes secured high yielding investment opportunities for sophisticated private investors, family offices and wealth managers, is celebrating the third anniversary of its SME Fund. The SME Fund’s Net Asset Value has grown by 6.52% in the 12 months to the end of June and overall has delivered a 19.1% return for investors in the three years since it was established. Out of the total assets in the fund, 91% were invested in secured medium term notes at the end of the June.