Jenson has made an investment from the Jenson SEIS and EIS Fund 2017/18 in EBar Initiatives Limited. Jenson led an investment syndicate alongside Scottish investors including angel investor groups Gabriel and Equity Gap.

EBar Initiatives aim is to dramatically improve the consumer experience at music and sports events, using their innovative dispensing technology to reduce the time people spend waiting in bar queues. The EBar® is a consumer-operated beverage-dispensing unit capable of rapidly and continuously dispensing perfect pints of beer or soft drinks, taking payment and dispensing drinks up to 3 times faster than is possible at traditional event bars.

Bowmark Capital, the mid-market private equity firm, has backed the buy-out of The Instant Group, a global leader in independent flexible workspace solutions.   

Founded in 1999, Instant provides alternative methods of office procurement and management, with specific focus on flexible workspace and medium-term lease solutions, employing 250 people in 11 cities around the world.

Newable, the one-stop shop for growing businesses, has launched a specialist international trade consultancy to help small and medium-sized British companies develop their business in overseas markets.

The EIS sector has new rules, a new risk profile and still stands at the start of a new tax year so, believes, Tom Hopkins, now is the time to re-educate clients on growth EIS investing and its associated risks.

Browne Jacobson’s corporate team has advised on another InsurTech venture capital deal – assisting crowd insurance pioneer Laka on its £1.1m (US $1.5m) seed round. The round was led by Tune Protect Group Berhad (Tune Protect), a financial holding company listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange. Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm 500 Startups also participated, alongside new and existing angel investors from across the insurance industry.

The right business apps can benefit small business tremendously by making work more efficient, teams more aligned and information more organized. Cutting down on tedious and time-consuming tasks can help business owners and theirs staff become more productive and focused, allowing business to grow on solid foundation of good business practices. So what are the 15 must-have business efficiency and productivity apps of 2018? 

NACO has published the 2017 Canadian Angel Investing Activity report.

Unique equity crowdfunding platform Stakeholderz has announced the success of its first fundraising campaign. This first venture deal saw Welsh start-up Vortex IoT raising £500k to fund its work in delivering innovative "Internet of Things" solutions into the Heavy Industry, Smart Infrastructure and Rail Infrastructure sectors.

ABN AMRO Commercial Finance has delivered a £16m receivables funding line to national education, healthcare and social care recruitment company Affinity Workforce Group.

Foresight Group has invested £2.5 million of growth capital into The Naked Deli Limited.

Launched in 2014, The Naked Deli operates a number of sites in Newcastle, offering a health-conscious and clean-eating dining experience, with a tasty range of gluten and dairy-free, vegan and paleo dishes. The first site opened in Heaton and after a strong social media campaign, reached full capacity in the first week.

Zebra Medical Vision, the leading machine and deep learning startup, is announcing today it has raised $30M in C round funding, bringing the total investment in the company to $50M. In addition, the company is unveiling its Textray chest x-ray research today, the most comprehensive AI research conducted on chest x-rays to date, which provides a glimpse into a future automated chest x-ray analysis product being developed by the company.

Venture capital fund Downing Ventures has participated in a £4 million Series A1 funding round for Cambridge Touch Technologies Limited (CTT).

Spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2011, CTT is a leading developer of AI-powered 3D touch technologies that can be used across a wide range of smart devices, from smartphones and tablets to automotive and industrial technologies.