In 2016, Seonaidh MacDonald led his company mLED Ltd, a world leader in micro-displays for augmented and virtual reality products, through a successful trade sale to a US tech giant. A former EIE participant and now keynote speaker at this year’s event, Seonaidh shares his experience of how EIE contributed to mLED’s success and offers advice to companies pitching on 24 April in Edinburgh.

Award-winning Mexican quick-service chain Chilango is celebrating one of the most popular alternative investment offers of recent times.  The firm’s Burrito Bond 2^TM, launched in October, quickly smashed its initial £1m target, with over £3.7m invested as the offer closed last Friday; this comfortably surpasses the £2.1m raised by the original Burrito Bond in 2014.

Specialist property peer-to-peer lender CrowdProperty has closed a £1.1m equity funding round. The campaign, hosted on Seedrs, smashed the £600,000 target, over-funding by 81% with £1,089,000 raised from 575 investors based on a pre-money valuation of £15.7m.

Newable, a leading provider of professional services, financial support and property space to UK businesses, has signed a 

Guardian Angel, a free and private online platform that simplifies the bereavement process; connecting families, friends and funeral directors together, has closed its pre-seed round, raising £492,000 after investment from former Co-op executives.

The secure platform helps to reduce the stress in the immediate aftermath of a loved one’s death by enabling you to coordinate support from family and friends. There is a ‘Key times’ function which informs people when they can visit and when you and your family 

Chelverton Asset Management Limited, a specialist investor in sub-FTSE 100 quoted equities and unquoted SMEs, has confirmed a further investment in VeloVixen, the UK’s leading online retailer of and premier site for female-specific cycling apparel and accessories; VeloVixen has become the ‘go-to’ destination for the latest news, views, hints and tips for female cycling enthusiasts.

Rockstart is almost ready to close its first fund of €15 million for its AgriFood domain accelerator and fund. Staying true to its commitment to support and empower startups and provide unparalleled access to capital, Rockstart AgriFood now offers (follow-on) investments in participating startups up until Series B.

EMV Capital announced the acquisition and investment into Wanda Inc, a San Francisco-based digital health company commercialising advanced clinical decision support software powered by machine learning and real time patient data analysis.

EMV Capital’s investment will enable Wanda to accelerate its growth in the North American market, as well as to enter the UK and European markets. “I’m excited to welcome Wanda, an innovative digital health company into the EMV Capital family” said Dr. Ilian Iliev managing director of EMV Capital. “Wanda has shown impact and strong traction in the past couple of years and we are excited to support the company’s team through its growth phase. It fits in our investment thesis of backing exciting AI-powered technology platforms that can scale rapidly through industry partnerships.”

NVM Private Equity continues to expand the VCT team with the addition of Alex Wilson and Stephen Johnson. NVM’s recruitment strategy has been to build on their existing strong regional presence with a growing VCT team to help develop the business in a changed environment by bringing in people with experience in new, fast-emerging technology, finance and life science sectors.

PTP Funding Limited (“Welendus”), a peer to peer (P2P) lending platform focusing on short term loans, has recently raised funding from the Unicorn Ascension Fund (UAF). This is UAF’s third deal since its launch in the summer of 2018. UAF has participated in this round as a co-investor with Pontaq, a venture fund based in London which also focuses on cross border technology transfer between UK and India. 

This week sees entrepreneurial icons flock to Scotland as the second edition of CAN DO Fest, Scotland’s festival of impactful entrepreneurship, kicks off with EIE 2019 - one of the UK’s leading events for tech entrepreneurs and investors, at the McEwan Hall in Edinburgh on 24 April.

Astarte Capital Partners has established a £400m investment platform with a focus on transforming prime infill and edge-of-prime real estate into institutional-quality “future core” assets, predominantly across Greater London.

This new platform will initially create a closed-end structure of £400 million, deployed across 8-10 investment opportunities in the hospitality, entertainment, healthcare and education sectors that have the potential to be developed and/or re-positioned as core real estate assets. Astarte Special Opportunities Platform (ASOP), the firm’s discretionary co-investment vehicle, is leading the investment in the new platform and providing the model for its structure.