Neotas, a ‘digital intelligence’ business which provides enhanced due diligence and HR screening, has closed a funding round of over £1m backed by Symvan Capital, Force Over Mass and a number of private investors.

OMass Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company using structural mass spectrometry to discover novel medicines, has announced completion of a £14 million Series A financing. New investor Syncona Ltd led the round, alongside Oxford Sciences Innovation. The financing supports development of a pipeline of drug development programmes.

HM Treasury has announced an action plan to increase the growth for UK SME's by aiming to spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs, directly or through the supply chain, by 2022, meaning that 33% of all money spent should go to SMEs. It is important to highlight that this action is aimed at breaking down barriers for SME's who want to supply the public sector. 

The UK online alternative finance market volume grew by 35 percent in 2017, to £6.2 billion (from £4.6 billion in 2016), as peer-to-peer business lending became an increasingly important part of overall financing of smaller British businesses, according to the 5th UK Alternative Finance Industry Report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF)

VCT & EIS Investor Forum sponsor CHF Entertainment has announced that superstar singer-songwriter, Gary Barlow is spreading festive cheer this winter season, by joining Jason Manford and the voice cast of hit pre-school animation, ‘Daisy & Ollie’, for a special musical Christmas episode, set to air on Cartoonito in December 2018.

The Take That front man has been animated by the team at CHF Entertainment and will star as himself in the magical episode ‘What’s so great about Christmas anyway?’, singing a song written by Jason Manford and the team.

The Christmas special is brimming with music and fun, and follows ‘Daisy’s Daddy’ (voiced by Jason Manford), a musician and single father, as he is asked to write a Christmas single for the world famous pop star, Gary Barlow, who’ll be performing it at the town Christmas concert.

Market Gravity, the proposition design consultancy, hosted its ninth annual Corporate Entrepreneur Awards on Thursday 22^nd November at the Design Museum London, celebrating big business innovation and recognising the individuals and teams behind it.

Fluidic Analytics, a Cambridge-based life sciences business, has secured a £24m funding package to continue its research and development plans after launching a transformative protein analysis tool. BGF is providing £5m of growth capital in a funding round with Delin Ventures and existing shareholders including Draper Esprit and IQ Capital.

ZOPA has stood by its decision to tighten its credit policy, claiming its loan performance has remained steady despite default expectations increasing slightly.

Award-winning Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust specialist Calculus Capital is to waive initial fees on its new VCT until the end of the year, making it one of the most attractive in the current marketplace. Most providers charge “promoter fees” of between 3% and 5% – Calculus will waive this fee if a subscription is made before the end of the year.

Data from eFront, the world’s leading alternative investment management software and solutions provider, shows that since the start of 2013, distributions from private equity secondaries funds globally have risen steadily to a record level. At the same time, capital calls have fallen to an historic lo

Mercia backed price management and optimisation company, BlackCurve, has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of software entrepreneur Martin Fincham as Chairman and Chee Wong, the former COO of Shazam, as Technical Advisor.

This follows a £500,000 investment from Mercia Fund Managers and software entrepreneur and investor, Nick Kingsbury, earlier this year. Since raising the seed round, BlackCurve has continued to bolster its team, expand its client base and make strong progress building out its product, including key integrations with BigCommerce, Magento and Shopify.