National investment group Mercia Technologies PLC has announced that its direct investment, VirtTrade, is partnering with Valiant Entertainment 

Crowdcube, the world’s first and largest equity crowdfunding platform, is pleased to announce that over 100 fundraisings have now taken place on the site that have raised more than £1,000,000 each.

A winning combination of public and private sector businesses is helping to build Leeds into a major digital tech hub and encouraging startups right across the region. Leeds and surrounding Yorkshire cities and towns are seeing an explosion of startups and new enterprises, encouraged by organisations like NHS Digital and the Open Data Institute.

Martin Sherwood, a partner at Enterprise Investment Partners, highlights the attractions of SEIS investments in light of the recent changes to EIS rules.

Thincats has announced a new programme for up to £300 million with global asset manager Insight Investment to fund UK SMEs with commercial loans.

Zencargo, the digital freight forwarder has raised a seed plus round, led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Samos Investments and Picus Capital bringing total funds raised to over $4m. 

The company works with hundreds of businesses - from high-growth scaleups to FTSE-listed businesses and will use the new funding to accelerate its product development process and build a presence in China.

Oliver Jones from the impact investing platform SeedTribe looks at the issues around making impact investment more accessible to millennials.

The North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven Capital Partners, has completed its first deal investing £350,000 in Sunderland-based pharmaceutical manufacturer, Rokshaw Ltd.

Approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Rokshaw is a highly accredited Pharmaceutical Specials Manufacturer and NHS accredited Unlicensed Medicines Supplier.

Triple Point has launhced the Venture Fund, a new share class in the successful Triple Point VCT 2011 plc. The Fund is designed to generate significant returns for investors through a challenge-led investment strategy. 

Octopus Investment has announced a £10 million over allotment facility for its current AIM VCTs fundraise.  Octopus has rapidly reached the initial £20 million target* within just seven weeks and is now offering a further £10 million of fundraising capacity to meet investor demand.

Inverleith LLP, a Scottish headquartered private equity firm, has successfully closed its first institutional fund, Inverleith Limited Partnership, at its hard cap of €60 million, following strong support from leading European investors.

Brightman, the IT transformation and change management experts, has launched a new white paper aimed at addressing the challenges faced by SMEs when attempting to work with the public sector.

The new white paper, titled “Taking the brakes off: How SMEs can be unleashed to drive the rapid digitisation of the public sector,” provides an analysis of the government’s approach to IT procurement and focuses on ten recommendations to improve the fairness of procurement for businesses of all sizes in order to deliver better public services through the digitisation of the public sector.