We chat with Susie Fisher, Investment Director at Kelvin Capital, about the angel scene in Scotland and how Kelvin fits into it.

Body armour start-up Vikela Armour has been named as the winner of this year’s INVENT Awards, Northern Ireland’s premier competition for innovative start-ups.

Since establishing in 2002 Invest NI has provided 66,000 offers of support to almost 15,000 businesses, and helped to create 125,000 jobs, with over two thirds of these outside Belfast.

Acknowledging the milestone, Mel Chittock, Invest NI Interim CEO, said: “Our core role has always been to grow the Northern Ireland economy. This has stayed at the forefront of all we have done in the past 20 years.

A newly launched series of business support tailored to the needs of aspiring female entrepreneurs has been launched by MENTA Business Support across Norfolk and Suffolk

Occupational therapist Martina Tierney from Limavady has been named the Catalyst Impact Award Winner 2022 for her exceptional work with Seating Matters, designing therapeutic chairs to meet the wide-ranging needs of patients with disabilities.

Seedrs,  the leading private investment platform with over £2BN in investments recorded to date, has today launched the inaugural Seedrs Venture Partner programme, a new curated community for VCs, accelerators, ecosystem builders and serial entrepreneurs.  Seedrs’ Venture Partner community will bring together established and emerging investors and influencers in private investing to support one another through global deal flow, mentorship, and collaboration to help founders get further ahead. 

A specialist business support organisation is celebrating after leveraging more than £25m in investment for North East companies in the last three years.  Through the Newcastle Angel Hub, the Innovation SuperNetwork has supported 58 North East businesses with investor readiness activities and helped them leverage £25m in equity investment since launching in July 2019.

As the fourth round of the British Design Fund comes to a close at the end of July it has welcomed two experienced investors to its Investment Committee. Meeting regularly to select the very best British purpose-led product design and manufacturing start-ups, the Committee welcomes the breadth of experience and knowledge that the two new members bring.

BGF has appointed Andy Gregory, current Chief Investment Officer as Chief Executive Officer, 

The 2022 UKBAA awards recognise the outstanding achievements of early stage investors and the businesses they back.

Startups across the UK are being invited to enter a competition to practice their pitching skills, get connected with investors, and win prizes worth more than £10k plus a money-can’t-buy mentoring package.

Ten start-ups from Northern Ireland have each won £10,000 proof of concept grants to further develop their innovative ideas after successfully completing Catalyst’s Co-Founders Programme.