The World Business Angels Investment Forum has appointed Gagan Arora, Founder & CEO of Vertex Group, as Senator for India. Senator Gagan Arora will represent India at the Grand Assembly of the World Business Angels Investment Forum. The inclusion of India in WBAF provides a wide range of opportunities for India’s start-ups, scaleups and high growth businesses and opens doors for economic development.

Vauban, the platform that provides venture capital fund managers with everything they need to raise a fund and invest capital quickly, has closed a £4.7m funding round.

Investors include co-leads Pentech and Outward, in addition to 7percent Ventures and MJ Hudson. A roster of high profile angel investors have also participated; This includes  the CEO of Nested Matt Robinson;  the founder of Grabayo, Will Neale; the founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, Charles Delingpole; Partner at Augmentum Fintech Perry Blacher; and Al Giles, from legal services provider Axiom.

FYLD, the London-based, AI-driven digital platform designed to revolutionise the safety and efficiency of field teams, has announced the successful completion of its £10 million Series A funding round.

The funding was provided by Koru, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s venture incubator, and corporate partner SGN, a leading UK gas distribution network operator. To date, FYLD has raised a total of £14.4 million.

British Business Investments, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary within the British Business Bank group, has made a £7m commitment to FOLK2FOLK, a specialist marketplace lender for rural and regional smaller businesses.

British Patient Capital has participated in Quell Therapeutics’ $156m Series B funding round. The deal is the first life sciences  investment from Future Fund: Breakthrough, a £375m programme where British Patient Capital co-invests with private sector investors in innovative R&D-intensive UK companies.

NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners and part of the Northern Powerhouse Fund, has invested a six-figure funding package in Margin Guardian Ltd, a platform that provides fashion retailers with data insight and targeting services. Funds will allow the business to invest in its platform, commercialise and develop an android version of its app, in addition to the iOS version, as well as fuel its marketing activities.

Latest British Business Bank market research finds that higher company valuations, combined with strong exit activity in 2020 and 2021, has contributed to a material uplift in venture capital (VC) financial returns since the Bank’s last published report.

According to the Bank’s latest report, UK Venture Capital Financial Returns 2021, UK VC funds with a 2008 to 2013 vintage have seen an increase in their pooled Distributions to Paid In Capital (DPI)[1] multiples of 0.26 points, from 0.79 in 2020 to 1.05 in 2021. Over the same time period, their pooled Total Value to Paid In Capital (TVPI)[2] multiple has increased by 0.28 points, from 1.81 to 2.09 in 2021. UK venture capital has also performed strongly over the longer term, with pooled TVPI multiples above 2 for most two-year periods since 2002.

Dent Reality, the London-based start-up behind a pioneering AR platform,  has raised £2.5m ($3.4m) in funding to expand its pioneering work across the retail sector.  The funding round was led by Europe’s most active proptech VC, Pi Labs, with participation from Silicon Valley-based commerce experts Sugar Capital and deep tech specialists 7Percent Ventures – one of the first backers of Oculus VR – alongside several notable angel investors.

Delio, the private markets technology specialist, has launched Ventures, a new initiative that will see them form strategic partnerships with marketplaces that offer investors direct access to alternative assets. Ventures partners will be able to utilise Delio’s technology, knowledge and expertise to accelerate the growth of their marketplace and enable greater investor access to private markets.

Haatch Ventures and Wealth Club have led an investment round of £1.67 million into Advanced Commerce, alongside other private and institutional investors.

Advanced Commerce is a provider of merchandising software for small and medium-sized online retailers. The platform, GrapheneHC™, helps retailers arrange their products on their websites to maximise results, the e-commerce equivalent of arranging shelf space in a physical store. This can help convert browsers into buyers, reduce bounce rates by taking customers to the products they are looking for, plus optimise up-sell or cross-sell opportunities – driving online revenues, higher order values, and lower returns and cancellations.

YFM Equity Partners has completed an investment from its Buyout Fund II into Cooper Software, a Scottish-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software specialist, as the fast-growing tech business continues to expand its customer base, develop its product offering and target overseas markets.

Founded in 2005 by current CEO Frank Cooper, Cooper Software is an independent provider of products, consulting services and 24/7 support for ERP, helping businesses manage day-to-day functions and bringing the flow of data between these processes into a unified platform. The business has provided more than 1,500 enterprise solutions for over 300 clients worldwide.

Turquoise, the UK merchant bank specialising in energy, environment and efficiency, has announced its 13th deal for the Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2), a £300,000 investment in Weeding Technologies. LCIF2 led the £890,000 equity round, which included Calculus Nominees and SFC Nominees as co-investors.