Investors have pumped £300,000 into the company behind operations and issue management software used at golf’s Ryder Cup and athletics’ European Championships.

The funding for Glasgow-based Raven Controls is coming from business angels David Fletcher, Malcolm Jones and Clark Wilson.

The cash will be used to create up to five jobs at the company, adding to the teams in house development capability in addition to growing Raven’s sales and marketing.

Edge Investments, the leading creative industries specialist, has invested £3.5m into Festicket, the world's largest platform for music festival experiences, headquartered in London.  Edge’s investment follows a pivotal year for Festicket, which closed the year with an earlier series D funding round led by transatlantic venture capital firm Beringea.

Festicket partners with festivals to provide standard and VIP packages that combine accommodation, transfers and admission for festivals worldwide – creating a complete and hassle-free one-stop shop for festival-goers. It has four additional offices in the EU and US.

Startup Funding Club (SFC) has recently closed an investment into state-of-the-art eBike company Swytch Technology in an SFC-lead round of £800,000 coming from various entities as well as private investors. The funded company produces and sells eBike kits that convert existing bikes into electric power-assisted ones.

Farewill, the UK's fastest growing will writing service has announced it has raised £7.5 million to disrupt the death industry.  The latest capital raise sees further investments from listed fund Augmentum Fintech, Taavet Hinrikus, Transferwise and Tracy Terrill ex CTO of LegalZoom. Other investors include founders of innocent smoothies JamJar, SAATCHiNVEST, dmg ventures, Kindred Capital, Tiny VC And Venture Founders. They join the likes of Alex Chesterman, founder of Zoopla who invested in Farewill’s seed-round.

SimplyCook has announce that it has secured a £4.5m Series A funding from Octopus Investments, allowing it to continue its strong growth trajectory. SimplyCook is a direct-to-consumer subscription-based flavourings and recipe company, supplying customers on a weekly, fortnightly and monthly basis, helping them to cook tastier meals at home. Its meal kits contain recipes, seasonings, stocks and rubs prepared from up to 18 source ingredients.

This series of funding will enable SimplyCook to invest in sales & marketing, continuing to drive its strong growth across the UK, as well as investing further in its technology. SimplyCook chose to partner with Octopus Investments based on its ability to provide flexible capital and experience in successfully supporting high-growth firms.

Cycle.land, the bike sharing marketplace unlocking the assets of unused bikes, has announced that it has raised over £200,000, thanks to its highly successful second equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. 

In 1997 Benross’s CEO Jon Everitt set out with a singular vision: to launch a sports brand that would produce top quality golfing equipment, without the prohibitive price tag. Twenty-one years later, the golf brand has grown to become the largest golfing manufacturer in the UK. It remains privately owned and has become synonymous with quality and appeal. Now it is poised for European growth with a £2M boost to working capital funds from Independent Growth Finance, IGF.

Leading Sports and Media, a Cardiff based sports promotion and digital marketing company that provides commercial development for professional cycling races and teams, has secured substantial investment towards the Lead Cycle Tour (LCT) Euro Cup series of races it has planned to start in 2019.

Over 300 professional road cycling races take place in Europe annually attracting millions of spectators. Historically, there is an under capitalization on the advertising, sponsorship and merchandising opportunities created from this spectator interest. Founder of LSM, Eifion Weinzweig, a former professional racer previously based in France but from South Wales, realised the opportunity, and secured the business rights to 20 of the top races. An innovative commercialisation model, which will be known as the Lead Cycle Tour (LCT) Euro Cup, was developed and quickly attracted the attention of professional cycling’s governing bodies. However, the company required investment to exploit the opportunity.

Maven Capital Partners has provided Mansfield-based Proskins Limited, a manufacturer of sports and fitness apparel, with a £250,000 funding package from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

The investment will be used to implement an ambitious marketing strategy to capitalise on the growing demand for its products globally and help build the firm’s presence in Germany and the US, whilst creating 10 new jobs in North Nottinghamshire.

Proskins designs and manufactures high performance leisurewear, including a wide range of men’s and women’s clothing which uses ‘compression technology’ to address poor blood-flow and fluid retention. The company has also developed a range of cosmetic products aimed at the beauty market.

Festicket, the world’s largest portal for music festival experiences, is announcing $10.5 million in Series D funding. The round is led by transatlantic venture capital firm Beringea and joined by Jaguar Land Rover’s venture capital fund InMotion Ventures, Channel 4’s Commercial Growth Fund, Lepe Partners, U-Start and ex Spinnin’ Records CEO Eelko Van Kooten.

Eyal Malinger, Investment Director at Beringea, will join the Festicket board, along with Treatwell’s Chief Operating Officer, Ben Leaver. The company will be appointing an independent non-executive chairman in the near future.

Foresight Group has made a £1m investment into Nottingham-based Alpkit Limited on behalf of the Foresight Nottingham Fund, alongside bank funding provided by HSBC.

Alpkit is a fast-growing designer and retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment. Targeting the outdoor adventure enthusiast, Alpkit provides high quality clothing and equipment at an affordable price and offers over 500 lines across clothing, equipment and bikes. All products are designed at the Company’s HQ in Newthorpe, Nottingham, with a focus on technical performance, providing their customers with “gear that costs less but works harder.”

Dow Schofield Watts Angels has completed its second deal, with a £300,000 investment in Miribase Limited, the company behind the Shopblocks e-commerce platform.

Over 25 angel investors took part in the funding round, which will be used to accelerate Shopblocks’ revenues by investment in new sales and marketing resources.

The Shopblocks platform provides a hosted website and online shop solution for SMEs. Shopblocks makes it possible for businesses to launch a bespoke website in an easy and cost-effective way. It fills a gap in the market between inflexible, template-based platforms and custom-built websites which are typically developed by digital agencies at much greater cost.