Syncona Ltd has founded Quell Therapeutics, a new cell therapy company, with a £35 million commitment in a Series A financing of which Syncona has committed £34.0 million with a further £1.0 million being contributed by UCL Technology Fund. Syncona will have a 69.3 per cent stake (1) in the business, with the first tranche of the Series A commitment of £8.3m paid in May 2019.

YFM Equity Partners has invested £3.5 million in in Elucidat Limited, an elearning software business.  The investment from YFM’s advised funds will be used to accelerate product development so that Elucidat’s customers can produce learning content faster and at a higher quality. The funds will also be used to invest in their team and drive growth in North America, which currently accounts for 35% of Elucidat’s revenue.

The Development Bank of Wales’ first full year has helped even more Welsh businesses to grow.  In the financial year ending 31 March 2019 the Development Bank of Wales invested a total of £80m, an increase of nearly 18% on the year before.  420 investments were completed across the whole of Wales during the year – 30% more than the previous 12 months.

Angel backed novel diagnostic developer PBD Biotech has appointed new CEO Mark Hammond to drive the company’s expansion. 

A new initiative to support Business Angels looking to invest in the North East was launched yesterday at FinanceCamp, the region’s annual investment conference.

The Newcastle Angel Hub will form part of the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) wider Hub network across the country, and will be delivered by the Innovation SuperNetwork, in partnership with Invest Newcastle.

In this month’s Start-up Spotlight, Invested Investor spoke to experienced, dynamic and philosophical serial investor, David Gammon. Through his work as an Invested Investor and as the CEO of Rockspring, he has supported entrepreneurs through some extraordinary successes. In his podcast with the Invested Investor, he talks about how crucial collaboration is for investors, and how he works with his family to make investment decisions.

Great Point, the UK’s leading independent media and investment firm, has invested in Seven Seas Films, an independent TV production company whose team has a track record of producing high-quality scripted drama and comedy that has led to a number of hit TV shows.

Great Point’s backing will combine financial investment with its unrivalled media industry expertise and contacts to help Seven Seas take advantage of the buoyant market for high-end scripted series and build a valuable slate of IP and a production hub for returning series and new formats.

Triple Point Venture Fund has led a £1.3m investment in UK-based messaging company Augnet Limited (“Augnet”). Triple Point invests alongside a number of industry experts. The funds will be used by Augnet to further develop the platform, support the testing stage and invest in its sales and marketing channels.

Immense Simulations, the intelligent mobility software provider, has announced that it has secured $4.6m in Series A funding. The investment will aid the continued growth and development of its AI-driven ‘Simulation as a Service’ platform, which is disrupting traditional transportation modelling.

An on-demand removals marketplace aiming to bring on-demand technology to the removals and deliveries sector has secured investment from leading London-based VC fund, Fuel Ventures.

Panoramic Growth Equity, the leading equity investor in fast growth, entrepreneurial companies today announce that portfolio company Quill has been acquired by French media group Webedia.

Blu Wireless has raised £12.7m ($16.6m) in a growth funding round led by existing investors Arm, Calculus Capital, Kendall and MGL, and including major new investor Guinness Asset Management. The investment will be used to scale the worldwide deployment of devices exploiting Blu Wireless’s HYDRA mmWave technology across a range of 5G applications.  Blu Wireless is already working with tier-1 telecoms infrastructure providers and leading semiconductor companies in the US, Japan, the UK and mainland Europe as they look to deploy HYDRA based devices within applications demanding 5G levels of bandwidth and low latency connectivity.