Basic economics tells us that markets are efficient when supply and demand are in balance. Too many goods brought to market, and prices fall. Too much demand for scarce supply and prices rise. Although we can appreciate that reality is more complex, it’s easy to believe most real world markets eventually adjust to find an equilibrium where markets clear.

Beauhurst comments on the ICAEW’s Small Business Taskforce manifesto to government with ten recommendations for things that they believe need to happen in order to keep Britain one of the best countries to start and grow a business in. These recommendations, outlined in the Small Business Manifesto, will be presented to ministers in upcoming meetings with the relevant policy makers over the next few weeks. 

As we close the doors on yet another eventful tax year, it was fitting that at the Spring Statement 2018, Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer should comment that the UK “are the champions of small businesses and the entrepreneur”.

Barclays UK has launched a new unit that will focus on developing new business lines, promoting innovation and driving returns within Barclays UK. 

GSK and Orchard Therapeutics have announced a strategic agreement, under which GSK will transfer its portfolio of approved and investigational rare disease gene therapies to Orchard, securing the continued development of the programmes and access for patients. This acquisition strengthens Orchard’s position as a global leader in gene therapy for rare diseases. GSK will continue to invest in the development of its platform capabilities in cell and gene therapies, with a focus on oncology.

Calculus has completed two follow-on investments into portfolio companies Weedingtech and Quai. These investments represent further funding and support for businesses we have previously backed as they continue to grow. Weedingtech is a multi-award winning cleantech company and Quai are specialists in digital administration.

Foresight Group has invested £1.05m from Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund into Codeplay Software Limited.

Codeplay is 

Founders fight.  It’s how they fight that matters.  Do they fight like a married couple (staying together), a married couple (wanting a divorce), siblings, in the primary school playground, as in politics or in an apocalyptic environment or even within themselves?  Or do they bottle up and then explode?  Why does this matter? 

Diffblue, the Oxford-based world leader in AI for code, today announces that Jane Silber has been appointed Chair of the Board of Directors. Silber was most recently CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu - the marketing-leading Linux based operating system, where she remains on the board as a non-executive director. Silber has unrivalled experience in running and managing open-source software enterprises globally.

Reality Zero One has secured £285,000 investment from startup funders and private investors  including the British Robotics Seed Fund, Startup Funding Club, and the London Co-Investment Fund.  The funidng will enhance its new digital reality capture platform. The tech makes it easy to capture ultra-high-definition 3D versions of real-world objects for use in any virtual or augmented-reality application.

With the virtual/augmented reality market predicted to hit $215 billion dollars by 2021 and an estimated ten billion commercial and cultural objects ripe for conversion, potential demand for the tech is huge. However, the high cost and difficulty of mass 3D capture has put potential users off - until now.

A new mission-led investment venture aimed at stimulating social entrepreneurship in Scotland has been launched by leading responsible finance provider Social Investment Scotland (SIS).

SIS Ventures plans to provide the tools and mission-aligned investment required to help early stage businesses and social enterprises grow and deliver social impact at scale. The company is in the process of seeking authorisation from the FCA, under a wholly owned subsidiary of SIS.

Quarterly data covering the period up to the end of March 2018, published today by the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA), reveals that cumulative lending by P2PFA members is fast-approaching £9 billion, with almost 150,000 investors currently providing loans facilitated through P2PFA platforms to more than fifty-thousand businesses and 221,000 consumers.