Activate Capital, the Startup Studio, is sharing its business expertise with entrepreneurs as part of its second podcast season. With insightful and entertaining information, the eight ten-minute episodes guide listeners through key topics to consider when building a new company. To listen go to https://www.activatecapital.co.uk/activate-podcast.

So much has happened in the last two months that it is hard to absorb it all, but the recent acts of terrorism in the UK mean we must give a Shout Out this month to the Foundation for Peace.

Ian McGlinn wasn’t your typical angel, he didn’t have large sums of money to invest or any experience of investing more generally.

Seedrs  has closed its first secondary market trading window and announces impressive returns for some of the investors who took part.

• 138 share lots were listed from 80 different businesses in the first trading window on Seedrs
• 57 share lots have already been sold and 40 different businesses have had shares purchased

The “James Bond” bond is available  for investors on WiseAlpha, the UK’s leading online investment platform for secured institutional debt (www.wisealpha.com).  The Aston Martin (UK) secured bond offers a current yield of 5.5%, with the next interest payment due on 15th October 2017, and interest will be paid to investors every six months, until 15th April 2022.

The Icebreak film tax break scandal and its peers have left film as an investment opportunity sullied in the minds of many investors, but there are independent opportunities investors could consider. 

NowWeComply has re-branded to autologyx. The re-brand follows the evolution of the company’s proprietary SaaS platform to enable businesses to realise the benefits of intelligent Robotic Process Automation (iRPA) across complex operations, without the need for seven figure budgets and extensive teams of consultants, which has been the case to date.

Cambridge Capital Group and its sister overseas chapter, CCG International, have invested more than £1.5m this year to date, in six new investments, with a seventh in legals.

One of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries' heros of our industry, Howard Flight deserves acknowledgement. 

IPOS are much rarer than you think as a route to exit so the news last month that Octopus Ventures had successfully listed Eve Beds on the AIM market is a cause for celebration. 

Although it will not have been the largest angel investment round in May, the funding for Kymira (just over £120k) deserves to be put in the spotlight because it has been made by a relatively new angel group, Henley Business Angels. 

What are the entrepreneurial lessons from Mrs May’s disaster?