HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, and a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland, today announces that HBAN angels have participated in an oversubscribed €1.3M funding round in agri-tech start-up, CropBiome. Angels from HBAN Singapore and HBAN Bloom Equity syndicate invested €405K in the business, with other investments coming from DeepIE Ventures Management Company Ltd and Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-Ups Funding. 

Interest rates may be edging upwards, but the average interest rate on a savings account is still less than 1% according to MoneySupermarket.com. The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has released a list of the 42 investment companies with a yield above 3% and a five-year track record of increasing dividends. This represents 13% of all investment companies¹.

Hypetex, the world’s first manufacturer of coloured carbon fibre, has attracted £1.25 million in new equity investment and welcomes two experienced business leaders as both investors and advisers to the company.

The investment is the latest round of Hypetex’s seed funding, led by 24Haymarket, which will support ambitious growth plans and help scale the business’s footprint.

BGF has appointed Andy Gregory, current Chief Investment Officer as Chief Executive Officer, 

New data released by Innovate Finance, the industry body representing the FinTech community in the UK, reveals the global FinTech investment trends from the first half of 2022. 

Passionfruit has raised $4.3m with the support of firstminute Capital and Playfair who lead the round. They are joined by FJ Labs and Portfolio Ventures, along with scouts from Atomico, Accel, and Notion. Additionally supporting the round are founders and early execs from companies such as Stripe, AirBnB, Deliveroo, Turo, Trouva and Workday, plus operating partners from Softbank and L Catterton.

The latest figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) show that inheritance tax receipts received by HMRC increased by £300 million to £1.8bn in the three months period of April 2022 to June 2022.  This is an increase from the same period in the previous year, and continues the upwards trend over the last ten years.

Revolutionary synthetic diamond production business, Dyman Advanced Materials, based at the North East Technology Park (NETPark) in County Durham, is set to further disrupt the $12bn market in 2022 after raising over £882,000 after successful third and fourth rounds of investment this year. 

WiseWorks AI, the communications intelligence platform, has secured a $1.2m investment to build a one-stop solution for financial institutions to analyse surging virtual communications for compliance and to automate everyday tasks.

Demand for funding from early-stage businesses in Northern Ireland remains strong, with more than 20 co-investment deals closed in the second quarter of this year, according to the managers of the Co-Fund NI co-investment fund.

Investors with an interest in space innovation recently joined representatives from across government, industry and academia, at a special event held in Norfolk showcasing the developing area of 'Space as a Service'.

Hintsa Performance has raised €5.1 million funding from notable investors,