Shoosmiths has advised the intermediate capital team of Octopus Investments on its latest growth capital investment, into leading global clinical trial solutions provider Triumph Research Intelligence (TRI).

A TEAM of private equity experts at national law firm Shoosmiths has advised world leading GeoPrediction software 

Foresight Group has made an investment into Postworks Limited on behalf of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund. This mark’s Foresight’s third MEIF investment since its launch in February.  

Postworks is an online franking company providing small and medium sized businesses with a software-based alternative to franked business post.  Using Postworks’ software platform, businesses can ‘drag and drop’ their post for electronic sorting, printing and folding at Postworks printing centre before being handed over to the Royal Mail for delivery. 

The Northampton-based company was launched late 2016 by James and Marvee-Lisa Booker. With their extensive experience in the print, mail and media sector, they identified an opportunity to improve upon and disrupt the traditional franking model, using technology to deliver scalable mailing services to the SME sector.

HeleCloud, an IT consultancy and managed services provider specialising in highly sophisticated Cloud strategy, implementation, migration and operation services, has received a £2m minority investment from BGF to further accelerate its growth strategy. Thnding will support the company’s services portfolio expansion, the establishment of its presence into further European territories, and the development of new Cloud capabilities. HeleCloud was founded in 2016 and has grown rapidly and currently has more than 50 employees. It has an exceptional reputation and has already worked on projects with global corporations and household names, and references market disruptors such as Viber, the NEX Group, and Zopa.

Ventrica, a European, award-winning, outsourced contact centre, has attracted a £9 million investment from Mobeus Equity Partners.  Ventrica provides intelligent, multi-lingual and omni-channel outsourced customer contact services to a range of global ‘blue-chip’ brands.

BVA BDRC has published its quarterly SME Finance Monitor. The largest and most frequent study of its kind in the UK, research have been gathered across 29 waves of interviews since 2011 and are based on more than 140,000 interviews with SMEs.

The data to year ending Q2 2018 data published today provides further updates as negotiations over Brexit continue. The survey has been expanded to provide information on a wider range of financial products, not just loans and overdrafts, but current demand for finance (from any source) remains limited. SMEs expressed a degree of caution due to the future feeling uncertain, and three in ten said their need for finance was reduced by using trade credit and/or holding £10,000 or more in credit balances.

Capify, an alternative SME finance provider that has helped almost 10,000 UK SMEs to grow and to thrive is eyeing a £125 million+ funding target over the next few years, as it celebrates 10 years in business.

Set up during the height of the credit crunch in 2008, Capify, based in Greater Manchester, has defied the odds to help almost 10,000 SMEs and retailers to raise funding, delivering much needed access to working capital in the form of merchant cash advances and alternative business loans to benefit the UK economy.

Seven new Prosperity Partnerships projects that will build links between the UK’s research base and leading industry partners such as AkzoNobel, AstraZeneca, Google, Rolls-Royce, Tata Steel, and Weir Group, plus small-to-medium enterprise, Oxford PV have been unveiled by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This EPSRC £20.4 million investment has leveraged in £16.8 million from industry partners and a further £4.9 million from universities.

Zencargo, the digital freight forwarder has raised a seed plus round, led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Samos Investments and Picus Capital bringing total funds raised to over $4m. 

The company works with hundreds of businesses - from high-growth scaleups to FTSE-listed businesses and will use the new funding to accelerate its product development process and build a presence in China.

Brightman, the IT transformation and change management experts, has launched a new white paper aimed at addressing the challenges faced by SMEs when attempting to work with the public sector.

The new white paper, titled “Taking the brakes off: How SMEs can be unleashed to drive the rapid digitisation of the public sector,” provides an analysis of the government’s approach to IT procurement and focuses on ten recommendations to improve the fairness of procurement for businesses of all sizes in order to deliver better public services through the digitisation of the public sector.

CIEE has expanded its portfolio of worldwide education and cultural exchange programs with the introduction of eLab, an entrepreneurship certificate program for post-graduates who are interested in learning the skills needed to develop, launch, and operate a new business.

Downing Ventures has committed £4.2 million of funding to Rated People Limited, to help the company accelerate growth by investing in marketing and sales and continue driving innovation in its product offering.

Rated People is an online home services marketplace that aims to connect homeowners with high quality local tradespeople. The company offers access to more than 50,000 tradespeople, representing over 30 trades, and covering the whole of the UK.  It is free for homeowners to post jobs on the platform. Trades customers pay a subscription fee, along with transactional revenues to access the marketplace and provide quotes for homeowners’ jobs. Its annual membership offering reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to helping tradespeople run successful businesses, providing trades businesses with inbuilt features that help them stay organised and track the work they’re doing. Annual membership also provides trades businesses with access to over 200 personal and business discounts to cut costs on everything from tools at Jewson, to fuel and free mobile phone insurance.