EMV Capital announced the acquisition and investment into Wanda Inc, a San Francisco-based digital health company commercialising advanced clinical decision support software powered by machine learning and real time patient data analysis.

EMV Capital’s investment will enable Wanda to accelerate its growth in the North American market, as well as to enter the UK and European markets. “I’m excited to welcome Wanda, an innovative digital health company into the EMV Capital family” said Dr. Ilian Iliev managing director of EMV Capital. “Wanda has shown impact and strong traction in the past couple of years and we are excited to support the company’s team through its growth phase. It fits in our investment thesis of backing exciting AI-powered technology platforms that can scale rapidly through industry partnerships.”

Touch Biometrix has received a £2million investment from Deepbridge Capital.

The Series A funding through the Deepbridge Technology Growth Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund follows initial seed funding of £150,000 last year.

North Wales based Touch Biometrix is developing a new class of fingerprint sensor for application to consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops.

Great Point Investments, the UK’s leading media production and investment company, has acquired a minority stake in Brightlobe, a pioneering game-based platform that supports children’s growth and development.

The £580,000 investment is the first deal from the Great Point Ventures Fund, an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) launched in Q4 2018 which offers investors the opportunity to invest across a portfolio of UK based businesses operating in the media creative industries.

IW Capital has invested in PlayMoreGolf. PlayMoreGolf is the first flexible golf membership linking individual golf clubs across the United Kingdom under one membership providing an alternative to golfers who may not be able to justify the expense of a full golf membership but desire more choice, more value, more flexibility and more convenience whilst enjoying the benefits of golf club membership. The EIS qualifying investment of £1 million will be used to accelerate growth through the recruitment of additional staff, focused on sales and marketing.

Praetura Ventures is raising money for its first Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund, as part of its mission to bridge the estimated £300m venture capital funding gap for scaling businesses in the North West of England. The company plans to raise £15m of EIS capital to fund around eight to 10 early-stage companies in the region.

Foresight Group has invested £249,000 in Usheru Limited, the firm behind a pioneering technology platform operating in the £50bn film distribution market.

The investment from Foresight, using finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, has been made alongside £224,000 from Enterprise Ireland, taking the total package to £473,000 and allowing the firm to relocate its head office to Milton Keynes. This is an important step for the business after successfully creating a technology platform to power direct ticketing and marketing data insights for film distributors.

Vala Capital expects to invest all the capital raised by the Vala EIS Portfolio before the end of this current tax year on April 5.

Deepbridge, the tax-efficient investment manager, has appointed Alison Maughan as Investment Manager in the Life Sciences team.

Growth in the UK private sector remained stagnant in the three months to February as momentum in early 2019 remained subdued, the latest Confederation of British Industry Growth Indicator showed on Sunday. Looking ahead, further decline is anticipated with private sector activity expected to fall slightly, in the quarter to May, with a negative balance of 4%.

Two trade associations, who work at policy level to help small businesses secure growth funding, and a private investment house specialising in alternative investment for SMEs, discuss the reasons behind the slowdown and the support needed for small businesses to prop up the private sector.

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.

SyndicateRoom's EIS fund, Fund Twenty8, has finished deploying capital ahead of schedule.

The second iteration of Fund Twenty8 has invested £3.2 million into 32 early-stage British companies across 12 sectors. The fund’s algorithm analysed the investment decisions of 1,427 private investors on the SyndicateRoom platform when deciding how to deploy capital.

Andrew Aldridge from Deepbridge Capital considers why EIS is so vital to the health of the NHS.