If the adage about waiting for a bus holds true then the last three weeks has been a purple patch for YFM as the firm has realised four investments for up to 4.2x.

Combined with further investments into the remaining portfolio, total deal activity topped £100 million in December. The backcloth of the most uncertain times in the UK’s recent political history, has not dimmed the ability of the UK’s small businesses to generate value, employment and boost exports.

The recent Autumn Budget has confirmed that, once pensions and ISAs have been fully used, EIS and Seed EIS are now very much the third pillar of tax planning, writes Andrew Aldridge from Deepbridge Capital.

AUTO-LENDING has been ranked as the most attractive feature of a peer-to-peer platform, research shows.  P2P analysts Robo.cash surveyed investors across 15 countries in Europe and found 79 per cent were attracted to platforms that offered auto-lending.

Backed by £9 million of investment capital from NVM Private Equity and a private US investor, Medovate is the first company dedicated to the development and commercialisation of innovative medical technologies from within the NHS, which will commercially benefit the NHS.

The Development Bank of Wales is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director and Board member. David Staziker has been promoted to the post of Finance Director and will take up his new role at the end of the financial year. 

European Braking Systems, a manufacturer and seller of air brake and vehicle control systems, has secured significant investment from BGF to support product development and accelerate international growth.

Dr. Brian Moretta, Head of Tax Enhanced Services at Hardman & Co outlines why investors in start-ups should be cautious about Brexit

While the UK venture capital industry is digesting the response to the Patient Capital Review, the budget this year was firmly aimed at Brexit. Others will comment on whether it hit the mark, but Brexit should be the hot topic for startup investors. One year ago I highlighted at an industry forum how noone was talking about it. This is still largely true, but now the areas of risk are becoming clearer. These are the largest ones that investors need to consider:

William Charlton, Managing Director at Pavilion Alternatives Group, on how 2018 is shaping up to be a year of challenges as well as opportunities. A major positive for the upcoming year is the recent increase in global growth expectations. Growing economies generally would be beneficial to most private equity fund managers with the possible exception of distressed managers. In any case, most institutional investors are maintaining or increasing their allocations to private equity which may aggravate capital deployment. Pavilion have highlighted five key areas for private equity in 2018......

Invesdor has appointed Daniel Laurén to lead its Swedish operations. Stockholm-based Laurén has been involved in founding more than ten companies and in investing in startups both as a business angel and venture capitalist.

GloveboxDirect.com, a pre-launch online automotive marketplace that will give consumers access to a wider range of car and bike parts, has completed its first round of fundraising – raising more than £180,000 from 119 investors in just three days - on leading equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

Mercia Technologies PLC has invested £3.5 million into Intechnica Limited, a business that provides scalable software solutions to manage high and variable website traffic demand, including the removal of unwanted traffic from bots, crawlers and spiders.

AuditComply has become the first business to benefit from technology and investment as part of the strategic partnership between First Derivatives and BGF. AuditComply will use the new funding from BGF and existing investors Clarendon/CoFundNI together with First Derivatives’ Kx technology to accelerate its growth.