Private investor Rcapital has completed a Franchisee-led Buyout of Cash Generator, a successful and well established retail business, focused on being the first place customers come to sell and buy second hand items.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £7 million investment in Northumberland based AVID Technology Group (“AVID”), a leader in the manufacture and design of components for electric and hybrid vehicles for an impressive blue-chip customer base.

The deal is led by Maven’s VCTs together with the North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven, and from AVID’s existing shareholders NVM Private Equity and Downing Ventures. The funding will enable AVID to increase production volumes of its current component product range and enable the firm to invest in further development of class leading electric motors, power electronics and battery systems. 

Swipii, the loyalty card app, has secured investment of £1.9m via a funding round led by award-winning Scottish venture capital firm Par Equity.

The latest version of the app removes the need for physical loyalty cards by linking to a debit or credit card and rewarding users with points as they shop at businesses signed-up to Swipii. The app’s original iteration had 1.1m users and its 1,700 affiliated businesses saw up to a 1.5x revenue boost, but it relied on using iPads to track visits only.

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.