Heartwood Investment Management, the asset management arm of Handelsbanken in the UK, 

By Robert Crowter-Jones, Head of Private Capital at Saranac Partners

Families now tend to allocate 10-30% of their total assets into private capital investments, with debt/equity exposure via funds and direct investments growing year-on-year

Chronomics, a pioneering company in health-tech innovation, has just launched the world’s first consumer epigenetic testing kit. Chronomics has successfully secured more than £1.12 million in funding, including significant investment from venture capital firm Anthemis, and follow on funding from SOSV, one of the world’s most active early stage biotech investors.

The four founders of Chronomics are leading in their respective fields. Dr Tom Stubbs and Daniel Herranz worked at the forefront of epigenetics research at the University of Cambridge, where they collaborated with Dr Toby Call, a Bioenergy and Industrial Biotechnology expert, to define the first models. The team brought on board Charles Ball whose extensive commercial experience has helped to explain the intricacies of epigenetic science to the public.

Foresight Group has invested £1.5 million from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund into Open Bionics Limited.

The investment has been made alongside an identical commitment from Downing LLP and Ananda Impact Ventures of £1.5m each and Rathbone Nominees to complete the £4.66m round.

Open Bionics is an award-winning designer, manufacturer and supplier of bionic limbs with ambitions to become a market leader in a range of bespoke prostheses and assistive technologies and a global supplier of prosthetic and orthotic products and services.  Based in Bristol, the Company was founded just four years ago by CEO Joel Gibbard and COO Samantha Payne, since when the team has grown to 23

Simon Murdoch from Episode1 Ventures reflects on what 2019 might bring....

Superfood Bakery, a company that makes delicious gluten-free dairy-free baking mixes and snacks sold at over 100 retailers, have closed their £240k round that includes investment from one member of Henley Business Angels.

Superfood Bakery sell at several prominent chains, including selected Boots, Ocado, Selfridges, Planet Organic, Revital and Gousto. The company’s goal is to help consumers improve their food habits by producing delicious, naturally gluten-free, nutritionally superior and free from refined sugar alternatives to the traditional baked goods.

Ingenious, the alternative investment manager that specialises in the media sector, has announced the launch of Ingenious Vision VCT. The focus of Ingenious Vision VCT is to provide early-stage funding to unquoted companies with high growth potential that develop, produce or exploit television and other forms of audio-visual content.

Analysts, accountants and digital marketing specialists top a list of in-demand roles in 2019, as employers focus on navigating an increasingly digitalised business landscape and a shortage of key skills among the UK workforce, reveals Robert Half UK.

The Unicorn AIM VCT plc has announced the intention to launch an offer for subscription to raise £15 million, through the issue of new ordinary shares, with an over-allotment facility to raise up to a further £10 million. The prospectus for the Offer is expected to be available later this month.

The UK’s leading peer-to-peer ethical investment company Abundance has started the year with the closing its largest fund raise to date, raising £7 million for innovative Scottish tidal energy company Orbital Marine Power (Orkney).

LettUs Grow, creator of advanced aeroponic technology for indoor farms, has announced it has secured £1 million in funding to build world-leading indoor growing facilities, to help feed the growing global population.

The UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, has awarded the agri-tech company a grant of £399,650 to lead a £700,000 project – which will help increase food resilience and security in the face of climate change. LettUs Grow will work alongside ECH Engineering, industry leaders in controlled environment technology, and urban agriculture experts from Grow Bristol.  This is alongside a further €100,000 from the Green Challenge and several additional research grants.

BGF has announced the exit of its minority investment in Petrotechnics, a global leader of software solutions for hazardous industries, following its acquisition by US-based Sphera Solutions Inc.

BGF invested £6m in the Aberdeen-based company in 2013 to support the development of Proscient – the first software enterprise platform for operational excellence in hazardous industries.

The funding was also used for geographical expansion, with the company’s software now being used by more than 80,000 people from some of the biggest businesses in the oil and gas, rail and petrochemical sectors, across 22 countries. Since BGF’s investment, the company has invested over £15m in creating and bringing to market the broadest and most insightful operational excellence software package in the sector.