Wine’s at a curious crossroads and the future is as foggy as an especially opaque Tyne morning.

Richard di Benedetto, the current President of Aetna International, one of the world’s largest health benefits businesses, has been appointed as a director and non-executive chairman of Mercia Fund Managers investment Braintrain2020.

Innovative Finance ISAs (IF ISAs) have seen significant take-up in the first year of being widely available to customers, according to data published by the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association.

Molson Construction Equipment, the UK’s largest distributor of capital equipment, has received a £6.3m investment from BGF to support its growth strategy. Headquartered in Bristol, Molson will use the investment to build a new national parts centre and additional depots across the UK.   Founded in 1996 by Jonathan Wilson and Robin Powell, the business provides sales and aftersales services for heavy construction equipment – such as excavators, material handlers, crushers and loaders – to the construction, quarrying and waste management industries.

TransferMate, a leading cross-border B2B payments technology solution, is delighted to announce today a €21 million investment from ING Group N.V., one of Europe’s leading banks, for a small minority equity stake in the Company.

The Berlin-based startup Grover, which offers pay-as-you-go subscriptions as an alternative to technology product ownership, has raised €37 million in Series A funding, one of the largest Series A rounds in Europe. 

Oddbox, London’s biggest independent wonky fruit and veg box scheme, reached its crowdfunding target in record time to enable it to expand its unique service to even more customers. It initially hoped to raise £350,000 but investors saw the huge potential offered by the business and it over-funded to a tune of £520,000.

Crowdcube, the world’s first and largest equity crowdfunding platform, has had its strongest quarter ever in Q2 2018. The unprecedented 58 businesses securing finance on the platform (Q2 2017: 318 businesses) led to a record £47.4 million invested and took the total pledged on the platform to over £490 million.

Revenues of £1.46 million were up 43% on Q2 2017. Coming after a record Q1, this takes H1 revenue to £2.67 million, up 32% on H1 2017. This rapid revenue growth was achieved while maintaining costs at 2017 levels.

Beauhurst has published its analysis on the craft beer sector in the UK.

EISA's Mark Brownridge outlines his thoughts as to how we could make our industry bigger and better. 

Symvan Capital has been shortlisted for the Best EIS Investment Manager and Best SEIS Investment Manager awards at the 2018 Growth Investor Awards. These prestigious awards celebrate the UK’s investment provider community in championing tax-advantaged investments, spotting growth potential and backing outstanding UK small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

Maven Capital Partners has led the £2.5 million investment in Bright Network, a media technology platform which enables blue-chip employers to reach, identify and recruit high-quality graduates and young professionals. The transaction includes a £2.15m investment by Maven VCTs, together with £0.4m from existing and new angel shareholders.