Doug Barrowman & Baroness Michelle Mone OBE have joined forces to launch their most ambitious business venture yet, EQUI. A new cryptocurrency-powered investment platform, EQUI opens up venture capital to a wider audience, providing access to vetted, early-stage high-growth tech companies. Businesses on the platform have been hand-selected by a team of established venture capitalists, led by Doug Barrowman with his 30 plus years experience in identifying good investments that deliver outstanding returns.

NVM Private Equity has backed a management buyout of Dale Power Solutions, a leading providers of reliable secure power solutions.

Shields Energy, a ground-breaking company in the electricity management market, has netted investment from Green Angel Syndicate.

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.

Rcapital has backed an MBO and made significant working capital funding available to Edinburgh based Capital Cooling to allow the business to grow its core business throughout 2018.

Goji, the specialist Direct Lending investment manager and platform, today announced it has secured an undisclosed multi-million pound funding round from investors including Anthemis’s Venture Fund 1 (AVF1) and AXA Strategic Ventures (ASV).

Maven Capital Partners has completed a £1.95 million investment in eSafe Global Limited, which monitors online user behaviour and cyber bullying within a school or college digital environment. 

Maven Capital Partners has today announced its profitable exit from SPS (EU) Holdings Limited, delivering a 3x return on funds invested in 2014. This transaction is the second profitable exit for Maven investors in as many months, following the sale of Crawford Scientific for 4.7x the initial investment in October.

Oxford Capital has led a £3 million funding round for Wrisk, an insurance innovator which lets customers buy and claim on their insurance using a simple smartphone app. The initial funding was followed by a £500k crowdfunding round on the Seedrs platform, which was fully subscribed in just four days.  The investment will fund the business up to and through its market launch in 2018.

Suggestv, the intelligent video discovery platform for publishers, has today closed its seed investment round, raising a total of $1m. The investment round, led by Mark Pearson at Fuel Ventures, is being used to bolster the company’s UK business development plans, grow its publisher base and propel the company further into global markets.

WiseAlpha has raised £626,760 on Crowdcube, the UK’s biggest crowd investment platform, in just 7 days, 125% over its original target.  430 investors have invested so far in return for 8.92% equity. The highest amount from a single investor was £150,000. WiseAlpha’s pitch remains open for investment for another 17 days.

IT recruitment platform talent.io is on the verge of further expansion after securing a major wave of investment into the business. Paris-based talent.io will press ahead with growth plans in France, Germany and the UK fresh from receiving a boost of €8m from two of its original financial backers Alven Capital and Ventech.