Angels love to invest in high risk “next big thing” opportunities.  So, should you be investing in ICOs?

Juliet Brine looks at what will be the top investment trends for the coming year.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights' 2017 MoneyTree report highlights the latest trends in venture capital funding globally.

In new data released by industry research company Beauhurst, Crowdcube was found to be the number one equity crowdfunder, raising more capital through its platform in 2017 than any other company. With its 2017 fundraisings holding a total value of £95m, it is £10.9m ahead of its nearest competitor.

Crowdcube saw this £95m raised through 33 deals of £1m or more - another industry-leading figure - making it the most active company providing funding for Series A funding for business and helping to fill the ‘funding gap’.

Jim Duvall has been appointed as Executive Director of The UK Science Park Association (UKSPA, networking science and technology parks, research and innovation sites, incubators and accelerators).

The P2PFA has published data showing that in the period ending in the fourth quarter of 2017, cumulative lending transacted through P2PFA member platforms exceeded £8 billion.

Calculus Capital reported a record year in 2017, with £30m invested and over 500 companies reviewed over the 12 months to 31 October.

Calculus believes this is evidence of the strong appetite for EIS and VCT investments and the robust health of the UK’s SME sector, which provided the team with a diverse range of attractive opportunities across a broad spread of business areas.

John Glencross, Chief Executive of Calculus Capital, said: “We’ve been investing in SMEs for almost 20 years and have a highly experienced team, with very demanding investment criteria. The range and quality of opportunities we identified over this 12 month period, which is our financial year, was striking though.

Busbud, the online marketplace that enables global travellers to shop for and book intercity bus tickets on over 1.4 million bus routes worldwide, today announced the close of US$11 million in series B funding.

Content marketing and digital strategy agency blueprint.tv has launched a new digital marketing tool that will cut the time it takes listed businesses to connect with potential investors by directly targeting the investment community through social media.

Specialist engineering business, Northern Escalator Installations, has secured a £6.4m investment from BGF to support its expansion in the UK and Europe.

This may be remembered as the week Donald Trump headlined at Davos (speech this lunchtime), but it’s also the week that Facebook created a new unit of time – a Flick – to help VR developers deal with delays between frames, and Nigel Farage suggested that disgraced successor Henry Bolton emulate Jeremy Corbyn, in order to “win the day”. https://www.off3r.com/

Deepbridge has announced three new recruits joining the business in both Investment and Business Development Manager (BDM) roles.