£18.2m new build development will bring 207 new beds to Stirling’s underserved and over-stretched student accommodation market.

Funding London – the Mayor of London’s SME investment organisation – has announced its investment into ‘Change Please’, a social enterprise which helps lift people out of homelessness by providing coffee vans, barista training and accommodation.  The investment has been through the Early Intervention Fund (‘EIF’).

So says Sven Balzer, Head of Investment Strategy at Coutts. This week’s stock market falls show a much needed market correction after a long period of strong performance, and little more. Global economic growth remains strong and there are no signs of a US recession, which usually heralds a wider sell-off.

Future Planet Capital has raised up to $200m for its inaugural fund, The Future Planet Capital Fund, from TW & Partners. FPC is the first global platform to invest in leading universities and the “centres of innovation” surrounding them and TWP is sponsored by some of the world’s largest conglomerates and investment groups.

BGF has announced its investment figures and key milestones for 2017, detailing another year of growth for the company. 

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).

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

Powerhouse Photography, a photography and video business whose clients include major supermarkets and food producers has secured £250,000 funding from NPIF – Mercia Debt Finance, which is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

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......

Ian Martin, Editor of Reaction, comments on the rise of rough sleepers in Britains major cities

Anyone with their eyes open who works in or visits one of Britain’s largest cities will have noticed the rise in rough sleeping in recent years. Near the National Portrait Gallery, in the heart of the capital’s theatre land, and on busy Tottenham Court Road, or in the centre of Manchester, or in numerous other cities, it is ever more apparent. 

https://reaction.life/rough-sleeping-scandal-shames-britain-dooms-tories/

A new report from VentureFounders, in conjunction with Beauhurst, has found that 56% of UK tech founders expect that their business will sell for £50m or less, but 80% want to re-enter the tech ecosystem and support it post-exit. 

See report here

New nationally representative research across 2,000 UK adults from Asset Match has revealed resounding consumer confidence towards British businesses in light of Brexit negotiations triggered on 29 March.