Paragraf, the graphene technology development company, a recent spin out from the University of Cambridge, has closed a £2.9 million seed round to support the development of its first major products. The round is led by Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, with the participation of Parkwalk Advisors, Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital Partners and angel investors.

Jenson SEIS and EIS Fund 2017/18 has made an investment into myBaker (Homebaked Ltd), an online cake concierge service connecting independent bakers to individuals and businesses, throughout the UK, enabling them to order customised baked goods.

Jenson SEIS and EIS Fund 2017/18 has made an investment in Whitehall Finance, a new and innovative supply chain finance provider unlocking the potential for businesses and suppliers to obtain immediate payment for their approved invoices on competitive financial terms bringing benefits to both parties.

Foresight Group announces a £3 million development capital investment from Foresight Funds into managed services provider Luminet.

Luminet is an award-winning provider of connectivity and managed IT services to businesses and organisations in London.  Founded in 2005, the Company was one of the first to offer commercial wireless broadband solutions to businesses and has grown its client base in London to more than 550 businesses.

As one of the keynote speakers at The Great British Private Investor Summit on 24 May, we talk to OurCrowd's Andy Kaye about why the firm recently opened an office in London and the opportunities they see in the UK early stage investment market.

The call is out from UKBAA to find this year's most innovative growth businesses and the investors that have backed them as nominations open for the 2018 UK Angel Investment Awards.

A new competition from the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult will, for the first time, enable innovative SMEs working in the offshore renewables sector to prove their technology and connect them with investors and potential clients.

The Offshore Wind Innovation Competition calls for technological solutions to specific industry innovation challenges, with successful companies able to access ORE Catapult’s world-leading market knowledge and test and validation facilities to de-risk their technology, as well as pitch their ideas to investment group Green Angel Syndicate and wind farm owner/operator ScottishPower Renewables.

GTM II – Playful Customer Dynamics: Connecting with People.

Shoosmiths has advised private equity investor LDC on its £13 million minority investment into Paladone, one of the UK’s market leading designers and suppliers of giftware products, to assist in the acceleration of its international growth.

Beauhurst has published its latest data on equity investment trends in the UK, analysing every publicly-announced equity fundraising in Q1 2018, to spot emerging trends and patterns in the market.

TradeDepot, the innovative SaaS platform for FMCG distribution in Africa, announced today $3 million in funding. Partech’s recently launched Africa Fund led the Series A round which will support the expansion of TradeDepot’s footprint in Nigeria and development in other countries. Since its founding in 2016, TradeDepot has successfully developed a 360° solution integrating all participants in the trade value chain: manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The solution quickly convinced first rank FMCG companies and has been deployed all over the country in distributors’ warehouses.

Foresight Group has announced the £1.68 million investment from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund into Geospatial Insight.