Funding London recently interviewed Stephen Kelly, until recently CEO of FTSE100 company Sage Group, and angel investor about his own investment strategy and what he looks for in a company before investing.

In his second article, James Murdoch considers the substantive advantages of SEIS/EIS for UK investors and whether the administrative aspects of these reduce some of the benefits or add to the risk of investing.

In 2018, 70% of equity deals were not announced to the public, and although these deals are often much smaller than those that are announced, they can be just as (if not more) interesting. Beauhurst has taken a data deep-dive to shed some light on the more secret ones. 

The global biomedical market is in the midst of a period of stable growth and Catalonia, one of the most dynamic healthcare hubs in the world, is also enjoying this trend. 2018 was a positive year for the Catalan biomedical business fabric, in terms of funding, R&D alliances and advances, and launching new drugs and medical technology.

Bowmark Capital, the mid-market private equity firm, has agreed to sell Aston Lark, a leading independent insurance broker, to Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division.  Completion of the transaction is expected to occur following receipt of approvals from the Financial Conduct Authority and the Central Bank of Ireland, and antitrust approval.

Calculus Capital hahs mamde a £2.5m investment in Wazoku. Wazoku’s main product is Idea Spotlight, an idea management platform used by enterprise clients including the UK Ministry of Defence, John Lewis & Partners, HSBC, and Aviva. The goal of the platform is to capture, evaluate, improve and implement ideas from across any audience, whether that’s employees, customers, partners, the general public or another group of stakeholders altogether.

By Estelle Blanks,  Executive Director of the Innovation SuperNetwork

The British Business Bank’s ENABLE Guarantee programme is now accepting applications from new types of lenders, with the aim of increasing the diversity of both supplier and type of finance available to smaller businesses.

NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund has invested in Bolton-based eLearning company, Digital Training Solutions.

A total of £125,000 was invested from NPIF – Maven Equity Finance with a further £125,000 invested by the Angel investment division of The Growth Company, GC Angels. The funding will enable the business to continue to develop its software, support its marketing strategy and create up to 17 new jobs over the next two years.

Rich Brits and wealthy international investors fear a Corbyn government more than Brexit, with an increasing number considering moving their wealth overseas.

This is the assessment of Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations with more than $12bn under advisement.

Tech Nation, the leading scaleup-network for UK entrepreneurs, has today announced the release of its annual Tech Nation Report with data from partners including Companies House, PitchBook, GitHub, the OECD and Streetbees, and in association with the World Economic Forum.

Hampleton Partners’ latest analysis of the Artificial Intelligence M&A market reveals that over 150 deals were disclosed in 2018, up from 105 deals in 2017. The first half of 2019 is also showing impressive AI-related M&A momentum, with 65 deals already recorded and a total of near 100 deals forecast for the half-year only. In terms of market value, AI is forecast to grow from $21.46 billion in 2018 to $190 billion by 2025 – in other words, to grow nine-fold over the next seven-year period.