Foresight portfolio company, The Naked Deli, has opened its world-first airport outlet at Newcastle International Airport.

Oddbox, London’s biggest independent wonky fruit and veg box scheme, reached its crowdfunding target in record time to enable it to expand its unique service to even more customers. It initially hoped to raise £350,000 but investors saw the huge potential offered by the business and it over-funded to a tune of £520,000.

Beauhurst has published its analysis on the craft beer sector in the UK.

Mission Mars, the North West operator behind hospitality concepts including Albert’s Schloss and Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza, has received £10m from BGF to continue with its ambitious growth plans.

The North West BGF team has invested nearly £70m since late 2017. This includes new investments such as digital mapping company Gaist and brake manufacturer, EBS as well as additional funding for portfolio companies High Access, NWC Group and Kids Planet. This year, BGF became the first and only investor to be honoured for Innovation in the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Bean-to-bar chocolate company MIA is celebrating after exceeding its crowdfunding target of £100,000 on the Seedrs platform.  

Mimica Lab, a business that produces award-winning technology designed to reduce waste in perishable products such as food and pharmaceuticals, have received investment from Henley Business Angels members to contribute to their funding round.

Healthy food retailer MuscleFood.com, which is backed by BGF Ventures, has been crowned specialist online food retailer of the year at The Grocer Gold Awards.

The company beat off tough competition from other household names to scoop the accolade. The annual awards celebrate success across the £200 billion-pound grocery sector with entrants from the big multinationals, independent retailers, start-ups and industry disruptors.

Jenson has made an investment from the Jenson SEIS and EIS Fund 2017/18 in EBar Initiatives Limited. Jenson led an investment syndicate alongside Scottish investors including angel investor groups Gabriel and Equity Gap.

EBar Initiatives aim is to dramatically improve the consumer experience at music and sports events, using their innovative dispensing technology to reduce the time people spend waiting in bar queues. The EBar® is a consumer-operated beverage-dispensing unit capable of rapidly and continuously dispensing perfect pints of beer or soft drinks, taking payment and dispensing drinks up to 3 times faster than is possible at traditional event bars.

Foresight Group has invested £2.5 million of growth capital into The Naked Deli Limited.

Launched in 2014, The Naked Deli operates a number of sites in Newcastle, offering a health-conscious and clean-eating dining experience, with a tasty range of gluten and dairy-free, vegan and paleo dishes. The first site opened in Heaton and after a strong social media campaign, reached full capacity in the first week.

TriSpan, a global Private Equity firm, is pleased to announce that Rising Stars, its dedicated restaurant platform, has acquired a majority investment in Rosa’s Thai Cafe, the fast-growing UK-based Thai restaurant group. 

MiAlgae, a student-launched startup that aims to revolutionise the animal and fish feed industries with microalgae made from the co-products of whisky, has received £500,000 from investors.

The company, founded by Douglas Martin while a masters student at the University of Edinburgh in 2015-16, grows algae rich in omega-3 and other nutrients using co-products from the whisky distillation process.

Scale-up superfood brand, Creative Nature, based in Surrey and born out of the founder’s frustration