News & Market Deals

Boris Johnson, Seedrs and TCIO rally round to form £1 million prize pot for next big London tech start-up

Business News

A £1 million competition has been launched to encourage start-ups to move to London and highlight the capital as a 'prime location' for building global digital and technology businesses.

Third Dutch investment deal for UK technology firm m2fx

Fundraising Deals

Fibre cables business m2fx has gone back to the Netherlands to secure the equity investment it needs to build worldwide sales.

Atlantic Foods Group exit continues Maven Capital Partners disposal activity

Mergers & Acquisitions

Maven Capital Partners has sold its stake in Atlantic Foods Group through a transaction which represents a 1.8x return.

IP Group and the European Investment Fund partner on new spin-out fund for second time

Fundraising Deals

Capital market-listed intellectual property commercialisation investor IP Group has launched a new £30 million fund alongside the European Investment Fund.

Investment for business growth: Taking on capital for acquisitions

Merger & Acquisition Different strategies: We brought together four Business Growth Fund portfolio firms

Acquisitions form an important part of many company development plans, and is a strategy currently being supported by the Business Growth Fund. GrowthBusiness meets four of its portfolio companies to find out how.

Why the rise of angel investors provides a halo for the UK VC industry 

Venture Capital & Private Equity

In an era dominated by the struggles of SME funding, Alex MacPherson, head of ventures team at Octopus Investments, looks at how the rise of angels could be divine intervention.

Growing a Business

Stifling business: Regulation on markets like AIM makes it hard for SMEs

Light touch regulation: Friend or foe? 

Business Regulations

Sophia Harrison, director of financial and professional services at Grayling, looks at how a new exchange platform out of Sweden could strike the right chord of regulation for SMEs.

Drip, drip: Leaks within the corporate world can be costly on many fronts

Corporate leaks: How to prevent and investigate if they occur

Business Tools

Bob Mecrate-Butcher, partner at Charles Russell, looks at how corporate leaks can first be prevented and then plugged when they do occur.

Comment and Analysis

Davor Hebel

Davor Hebel

Partnering with larger businesses for growth

Building a high-growth business stage three: Choosing to partner with larger firms to collaborate on projects.

Hunter Ruthven

Channeling Instagram for start-up success

That a team of 13 could build a business worth $1 billion should be the inspiration that all entrepreneurs need.

Hunter Ruthven

Can Ontario mount a serious challenge to Silicon Valley?

With a pile of government cash behind it, Ontario is gearing itself up to compete on the global technology field.

Chris Ingram

Beware of death by a thousand questions in the private equity game

Private equity firms are very dangerous to know if yours is a small, fast-moving firm.

The Entrepreneur

Local appeal: Salmon & Trout is Cockney rhyming slang for snout (cigarette)

Acting quickly to capitalise on a new market

Time was of the essence when Mario Di Giorgio, CEO of e-cigarette brand Salmon & Trout, launched his business. He explains how being proactive worked.

Diversifying the client base at launch and learning to say ‘No’ 

David Barker reflects on resisting the temptation to say 'Yes' to the first offer when he opened his data centre, and how choosing instead to diversify his client base at launch has enabled 4D Data Centres to maintain rapid growth in a recession.

Promoting the brand directly to the consumer

To allow his brand to stand out in a crowded market, John Bramm decided that shaking up the marketing strategy was the best way to make it stand out.

Switching operations to purely business-to-business

Focusing on the right customer base is important for businesses – and for Omnifone CEO Jeff Hughes, it was a case of B2B is best.

Research

M&A on AIM 2012

M&A on AIM 2012

The 2012 M&A on AIM report examines valuation metrics, cash balances and financial performance to provide dealmakers with all the tools they need to pinpoint undervalued companies on AIM.

Directors' Pay 2013

Directors' Pay 2012

Details of CEO and total board pay are provided for the majority of AIM-quoted companies, and analysed by sector, company turnover and profitability.

Cash Shells 2012

The latest cash shells directory has identified 64 shells with total cash of more than £238 million between them. They are all quoted on the London markets and hoping to find an acquisition that will turn them into growth companies.

AIM Guide 2011/2012

2011/12 Aim Guide

The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) remains home to over 1,100 ambitious companies and professional services firms.

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