Seneca Partners, the SME focused investment firm has announced that it completed seven new growth capital investments in Q1 2019 into fast growing UK based SMEs, totalling in excess of £10m of funds invested. With these recent investments, Seneca’s equity investment team has now supported over 50 SMEs to date.

Weedingtech, the world-leader in supplying herbicide-free systems for controlling unwanted vegetation, has received an investment from environmental fund manager, Earthworm.  Earthworm only backs companies that have a positive social or environmental impact. Working with a variety of industry professionals across multiple sectors, a core part of Earthworm’s investment ethos is that companies within the Earthworm community must be ethically driven and contribute to the circular economy.

Great Point Media, a UK leader in entertainment development, production and distribution, announced it has invested in three UK companies from its recently launched Great Point Ventures fund.

High-flying firms across the UK will benefit from a further £200 million of government support to ensure that innovative British firms can access the finance they need to grow.

The Exchequer Secretary, Robert Jenrick, has marked the launch of the new funding that will be made available to innovative businesses through funds supported by the British Business Bank. He said Ministers were determined to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. This type of funding has traditionally been sought by fast-growing firms in the science and technology sectors.

Fasteners and tools company Spotnails Ltd has new owners after the Development Bank of Wales supported a management buy-out (MBO) of the business with a multi-million pound equity investment.

Spotnails, based in Bedwas, Caerphilly is a long-standing independent distributor of tools and fastener products to the UK building industry with more than 60 years trading history. It has a national salesforce as well as a manufacturing base with servicing and repair facilities at the Caerphilly headquarters.

Imandra Inc, creator of the Imandra cloud-native automated reasoning engine, has completed a $5 million Seed investment led by AlbionVC, IQ Capital and LiveOak Venture Partners. The capital will be used towards further growth in financial services and fast-growing applications of their AI technology to autonomous vehicles, robotics and machine learning. Imandra democratises deep advances in symbolic AI for making algorithms safe, explainable and fair. Imandra’s “Reasoning as a Service ®” platform makes these techniques widely accessible to those without specialised background in these fields.

West Midlands business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors have welcomed the launch of a new angel investment network for the region. 

Minerva Birmingham, a new collaboration between Aston University, University of Birmingham and Minerva Business Angels, part of the University of Warwick Science Park, held its inaugural pitching event at Aston University on 9 April.

By Hasna Haidar at Carphone Warehouse 

Whether you are a start-up owner or a business leader, your mind is the best tool you can use when creating your business empire.

No matter how much of your capital is directed towards personnel, marketing or attracting further investors, neglecting your mind can spell catastrophe. Which is why giving it challenges like optical illusions quizzes, difficult crosswords and strategy or problem-solving games might just be the secret key to business success.

Kantox, a leader in FX management solutions for businesses, has just closed its second venture debt financing deal with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative businesses, enterprises and their investors. 

The €5 million loan package is the second deal agreed between Kantox and SVB, with the first announced in December 2017. The new financing agreement underscores the appeal of Kantox’s growth story and SVB’s track record of investing in disruptive companies.

Cytora, a provider of AI-powered solutions for the commercial insurance industry, has completed its £25 million Series B funding round led by the EQT Ventures fund. Other participants include existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, Parkwalk, and a number of angel investors. The funding will be used to accelerate the expansion of Cytora’s product suite and scaling into new geographies. Cytora was founded and spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2014 by a team of machine learning scientists, data engineers and strategists.

London-based growth capital investor, VGC Partners, has appointed Andrew Lister as Investment and Portfolio Director as the firm looks to invest from its £50m Fund II 

Credit Kudos, challenger credit bureau and leader in commercial applications of Open Banking, has raised £2.2m in their latest round of funding.

Funding is led by Ascension Ventures, through its social impact fund Fair by Design, with additional investment from existing investors NFT Ventures and Entrepreneur First’s Next Stage Fund.

New backers include Dragons’ Den star Sarah Willingham; prolific angel investor Charlie Songhurst (investor in Affirm, ClassPass, and Coindesk); and key figures from the credit industry, including both the former CEO and MD of Callcredit, now TransUnion, John McAndrew and Graham Lund. The investment will be used to drive further growth within the UK and support expansion into Europe, alongside further investment into Credit Kudos’ platform.