Managed office platform Kitt has raised £2 million in seed funding and appointed former Fitness First CEO Oren Peleg as Chairman. The funding round was led by Proptech investor and YOPA co-founder Andrew Barclay who will also join the company’s board.

Founded in August 2018 by entrepreneurs Steve Coulson and Lucy Minton, the company is building a platform that transforms the office leasing experience for both tenants and landlords.

On the platform, tenants can visualise and design their space using virtual reality. By partnering with landlords, Kitt then delivers a fully customised fit-out with ongoing office management, all bundled into a single fixed price package.

Two female tech entrepreneurs who have developed the UK’s first software as a service (SaaS) platform to help companies manage rebate and pricing schemes have secured £950,000 from investors.

Leanne Bonner-Cooke MBE and Colette Wyatt have received funding from Mercia Asset Management, the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, and private investors. The funding will allow them to expand their sales and marketing activities and roll out e-Bate to a wider audience, creating a number of new jobs at their office in Leicester.

Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s most active private equity houses, has invested £2 million in high-growth FinTech provider Delio Limited. The funding will support the business scale its international sales team across key global financial locations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.

Keller Williams, the world’s largest estate agency, has entered into a partnership agreement in the UK with start-up Investerge to widen their service offering, giving their customers access to the UKs only property investment marketplace.

With widespread disruption from new and emerging technologies facing companies, the financial services sector is still lacking in CEOs with a background in technology, according to recent analysis from specialist recruitment firm, Robert Half UK.

According to the results of the annual Robert Half FTSE 100 CEO Tracker, not one of the CEOs leading the FTSE 100’s financial services companies has a background in technology. In contrast, the proportion of CEOs with a background in technology across all sectors has increased by 27% over the past year, as the impact of digitisation is felt across multiple industries and sectors.

Kantox, a leader in foreign exchange (FX) management solutions, has partnered with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors, to offer cutting-edge FX management software to SVB’s corporate clients across the United Kingdom.

Catley Lakeman Securities (CLS), the market-leading provider of defined-return investments to asset managers, has announced the launch of Verto MTF; the first and only multilateral trading facility (MTF) for structured products. Verto MTF is a fully regulated exchange, specifically developed to enable participants to buy and sell Private Placement Structured Investments (Structured Products) in the UK. 

British Business Bank has supported over 89.000 businesses with £6.6bn of finance, an increase of 27% over the year.

Broad Street Investment Management, a subsidiary of Broad Street Asset Management, the bespoke, independent wealth management business, has appointed Andrew Gibbs as its Chief Investment Officer.

With over 30 years’ investment management experience, focused on Asian, Emerging and Developed Market equities for major global institutions in Asia, America and Europe, Gibbs joins from Henderson Rowe Ltd. where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager and a member of their Investment Committee.

Mergermarket, the leading provider of M&A data and intelligence, has published its 2Q19 report that shows a reluctance among companies to acquire within Europe. Confidence among corporates to invest heavily across the continent has been replaced/spurred by political and economic uncertainty. Just USD 391bn was spent on European assets across 3,223 deals, down 38.8% compared to last year’s USD 638.9bn during the same period.

Fintech startup Joko has carried out its first fundraising with top-tier investors — Partech, Axeleo Capital, Lafayette Plug and Play, and several angel investors from the sector — to develop its simple and universal loyalty program integrated into credit or debit cards.

Traditional and single-brand loyalty programs are no longer appropriate for the customised buying experience that millennials want. With most brands, it is necessary to have the loyalty card with you and to scan it when you pay. Already existing programs are not or only slightly customised, and the consumer accumulating points on each of his programs has little visibility on the benefits he gets. As a result of this disappointing experience, millennials are increasingly abandoning these historical programs.

The British Business Bank has appointed Warren Ralls as UK Network Director, South and East of England.