Funding Focus, the social enterprise seeking to level the playing field for female and ethnic minority entrepreneurs, returned on Wednesday 25 November with its second annual event. The conference supports the Funding Focus mission to raise awareness of the inequalities and biases that inhibit fairer fundraising by providing education to founders, investors, NGOs and governments worldwide.

Entrepreneurial Champion & Atlantic Rowing Philanthropist Guy Rigby has joined ScaleUp Group to #GrowGlobalChampions 

Reflecting the growth in tech for good companies in the North of England, Bethnal Green Ventures and Leeds-based investment non-profit NorthInvest are partnering to increase the access to funding for early stage businesses in the sector.

TIME Investments, a specialist real assets investment manager focused on secure income strategies, has appointed Tony van Gool 

Fintech business lender MarketFinance has appointed The Rt Hon. Baroness Susan Kramer and entrepreneur Shalini Khemka to the MarketFinance Grant Supervisory Committee. These appointments follow a £10m grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund. The grant will be used to bring more choice and competition to the business lending industry.

Fourteen of Sweden’s leading companies have come together to form Restart the Future, a one-year initiative to help build 1000 new companies, 

The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market, welcomes Iain Leigh as the newest member of the Riverside Board of Advisors (RBA) upon his retirement as founder of the private equity business of APG Asset Management. Leigh is also well known for his prior role leading AlpInvest Partners in North America.  

Graphite Capital has made one promotion and two new appointments to strengthen further its investment team.

20 scaleups from 10 countries (4 from UK) compete in the finals of Europe’s flagship scaleup competition in digital to win international growth support totalling €350,000. 

To coincide with National Mentoring Day on 27 October, NatWest and Be the Business have launched a free mentoring programme for female entrepreneurs to provide greater access to sponsors and mentors, in response to findings that show female business owners are at a disadvantage due to a lack of relatable role models and mentors. This pilot programme seeks to address this challenge and help female business owners access high quality mentoring to help build their businesses.

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has appointed Adam Kelly as Managing Director from 1 November, following the retirement of Peter Garnham.   

– VG, one of Jersey’s largest independent and privately-owned providers of fiduciary and administration solutions, has appointed Steve Langan as a Director* of VG.