Tonkotsu, the Emma Reynolds and Ken Yamada-founded ramen restaurant group plans expansion after partnering with investment firm YFM Equity Partners.  The group, which is led by Managing Director, Stephen Evans, operates nine restaurants in London and one in Selfridges Birmingham, with two more due to open later this year in Peckham and Shoreditch.

Reynolds and Yamada continue to be involved in the business, and Yamada says: “This partnership will allow us to grow our business, enabling us to open a handful more Tonkotsus. Our commitment to the quality of our food, our homemade noodles and the way we treat our people, who are the heart of this business, has been fundamental from day one. We chose YFM as our partner as we felt they shared our ambition to grow the business in the right way to maintain the culture and the brand”

Digital livestock production, smart plants and 24/7 indoor salad production are some of the ways the digital revolution is driving rapid growth in the agri-tech sector. Start-ups 30MHZ, Breedr and LettUs Grow are part of a new breed of technology companies aiming to improve productivity and sustainability in agriculture, but they will be quick to stress at CWIC 2019 that domain knowledge has been essential for success. They are presenting in the Agriculture track of the conference, hosted by Agri-Tech East and Allia Serious Impact.

Independent Growth Finance (IGF), a leading independent commercial finance provider, today announces the appointment of John Allbrook as Non-Executive Chairman. John will continue to build on the successes of Matt Cooper, who, during three years as Chairman, helped IGF transition from a small financier to a major independent asset based lender.

Downing Ventures, part of London-based investment manager Downing LLP, has appointed James Nettleton as Principal of its 12-strong venture capital team.

Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners, the specialist private equity fund manager, has backed a £3.6m investment into Wooshii Limited, a disruptive video agency. YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc.

In partnership with The Invested Investor, this month’s Start-up Spotlight features an interview with Sarah Turner a technologist, entrepreneur and angel investor. She's spent most of her career working in and around digital technology in the UK, Europe, US and Asia. Sarah works as both an advisor and connector for start-ups as well as corporates. In 2014 she co-founded the award-winning angel network, Angel Academe. 

Business to business (b2b) telecoms provider Challenger Mobile Communications is targeting growth after a management succession buyout supported by a £1.4m loan from the Development Bank of Wales.

Kernel Capital and Par Equity have led a £1.2M investment in Datactics Limited, a Belfast-based provider of RegTech solutions for the banking and financial services sector.  This is the second round of funding secured by the company from The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI).  Datactics provides data quality and matching software to the financial services industry and government departments to help financial firms measure, clean and match data ahead of a regulatory reporting, business intelligence or analytics process. 

finnCap Group plc, a leading adviser and broker to ambitious growth companies, is delighted to announce that it has expanded its debt advisory team with two senior new hires. 

European Buy & Build activity reached its highest recorded level in 2018 with a total disclosed deal value of £9.5 billion, according to Silverfleet Capital’s European Buy & Build Monitor. Despite increased Brexit uncertainty, the UK & Ireland remained steadfast as the most active region for add-ons.

The London-based Venture Firm, Hambro Perks, has appointed Andrew Noyons as Managing Director.

To coincide with London Tech Week, global investment platform Funderbeam and Sensor City are co-hosting “The Liverpool Landscape” on Thursday 13th June at Sensor City from 5.30pm. This is the first in a series of events taking place across tech hubs in the North, including Manchester and Leeds which will be taking place later this summer.