Sn-ap, an on-demand intercity coach travel service that is changing the face of coach travel, today announced that it has raised £2m in equity funding led by early stage VC fund Kindred Capital. The investment, which is supported by a number of private investors from the travel and finance sectors, will be used to expand its current service into new parts of the UK.

LeapFrog Investments (http://www.leapfroginvest.com/), the Profit with Purpose investment group, today announces its companies have reached 111 million people, marking an impact investing milestone. 

• Ten years on since founding, LeapFrog’s portfolio of companies reach 111 million people across Africa and Asia
• 93.8 million are emerging consumers earning less than $10 PPP per day
• Companies achieved 43% annual revenue increase per year from time of investment.
• Companies grew their emerging consumer base by 67% per year
• Companies deliver 184 financial and health services in the growth markets of Asia and Africa
• Proof of impact investing exceeds the ambitions set by President Clinton ten years ago
• LeapFrog named last week alongside Apple as one of Fortune Magazine’s top five companies changing the world

Foresight Group has invested £3 million from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund into the specialist engineering company ONFAB Limited, a leading designer and manufacturer of flexible containment solutions, primarily for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. 

A review of Venture Capital Trust (VCT) investment from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), ‘Transforming small business’, found that VCTs are important providers of scale-up funding and play a vital role in delivering transformational change for smaller UK businesses.

Download report here

Independent coffee shop chain Bob & Berts has become the third company in Northern Ireland to secure a major equity investment of £2 million from BGF, the UK’s most active investor in small and mid-sized companies.

Albion Capital is proud to have supported four British companies included in the annual Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table this weekend, ranking Britain’s private technology companies with the fastest-growing sales - Black Swan Data, Egress, Grapeshot, Symetrica. 

http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/league-tables/tech-track-100/

Hobs Group has received a further £4m investment from BGF to continue the expansion of its 3D printing, reprographics, facilities management and legal support services businesses in the UK. This brings BGF’s total investment in Hobs to more than £11m.

An international study by specialist global insurer Hiscox reveals a confident tone among small businesses, with two-thirds (67%) reporting revenue growth and more than seven out of ten (71%) expanding their customer base in the past year. US and Spanish firms top the revenue growth tables. By contrast, in the UK there is a modest decline in the numbers reporting revenue growth.

Download the full report - DNA of an Entrepreneur

The European Investment Fund (EIF), with the support of InnovFin Equity and COSME, is investing €20 million in ACT Venture Capital’s latest fund, ACT V, in Ireland. The agreement will allow ACT to finance around 30 high potential early and expansion stage companies in the information and communication technology sector in the coming decade. 

Education software specialist Gecko Labs has secured an investment package of £1million to push its new technology and support global growth.

FiveAI, a start-up leading the UK’s charge to build technology for urban driverless vehicles, has closed a major £14M Series A equity financing round, adding to £12.8M in government funding for FiveAI’s consortium-led StreetWise project.  Lakestar Capital led the round, alongside existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Notion Capital and Kindred.

Funds managed by Foresight Group LLP have provided a £40 million secured loan note facility for Reward Finance Group Limited, an independent lender which provides secured loans to UK-based SMEs seeking more flexible finance.