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A Hertfordshire based importer and wholesaler of organic food products is the latest business to be supported by the East of England Regional Growth Loan Scheme.

Established in 2015, Bio Dima, work with farms across Europe, importing fresh seasonal produce. All of the food is organic, plastic is kept to an absolute minimum and all products are certified by the Soil Association. Fruit, vegetables, pulses, spices and olive oils are all delivered to businesses in the Greater London Area.

The £100,000 growth funding will be used to add another string to the businesses bow by enabling them to prepare produce in their own kitchen using the food waste created from other products. Whilst making financial sense this will also have a huge impact on Bio Dima’s environmental footprint by reducing their waste. The growth loan will be used to purchase the required equipment, hire kitchen staff and expand the associated business operations. 

Sivan Korren, Managing Director at Bio Dima, said: “We are passionate about supplying high quality organic produce, something we know is important to our customers as across the UK, shoppers spend almost £8.5 million on organic products every day. Food from our farms and other select suppliers is delivered to our base in Borehamwood, and we’re excited to be expanding this range to include more of our own preprepared items to meet rising demand within our sector. Our thanks go to The FSE Group for understanding our belief that we should work in harmony with every part of the supply chain to benefit not only our customers, but the environment too.”

Simon Elliott, Investment Manager at The FSE Group, which manages the loan scheme, added: “We are delighted to have supported Bio Dima’s application as the leadership team’s ethos of building strong relationships with clients is to be admired. Sivan and her team encourage communication and long-term planning, showing a level of willingness which has resulted in the vast majority of clients coming from recommendations. Their growth plans echo this and we wish them every success as they build on their existing foothold in the food sector.”

The Regional Growth Loan Scheme (RGLS) is managed by The FSE Group on behalf of Local Enterprise Partnerships in the East of England. Loans between £50,000 and £500,000 are available to established incorporated businesses based within the East of England that have a minimum annual turnover of £100,000. The funding can be used for a range of growth activities as well as to service short to medium-term trade and contract finance requirements. The scheme aims to stimulate job creation and economic prosperity and supports SMEs that have the potential to deliver high-growth and employment opportunities across the East of England region.

A software company that helps charities with their fundraising efforts has received a £325,000 equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF) via appointed fund manager, The FSE Group.

The CIOSIF investment is matched with funding from private investors and will support the growth of the business. Funds will be used to facilitate the development of new bespoke software, the recruitment of new staff and expansion into overseas markets.

The Kindness of Strangers, based in Liskeard, has created a fundraising platform specifically designed to assist small charities with their biggest challenge – raising money. It is estimated that there are over 400,000 non-profit causes in the UK alone, the vast majority of which operate at a local level, run mainly by volunteers who are not fundraising experts.

Mathew Neville, The Kindness of Strangers CEO, spent many years working in the voluntary sector where he witnessed how small charities play a crucial part in society, making a significant difference within communities but receiving little support.

Mathew said: “Smaller charities often miss out on funding opportunities to bigger charities, who can spend more and hire bigger teams. With The Kindness of Strangers, our aim is to level the playing field and give small charities the same expertise and technology as large charities. Our platform is already being used to connect with hundreds of UK charities across the UK and we look forward to working with FSE as we put this funding to use, increasing that reach both in the UK and globally.”

With the charity sector facing ever-increasing demand for its abundant and varied services alongside declining incomes, The Kindness of Strangers’ full-servicer platform is well-placed to help volunteers maximise their fundraising potential.

Anna Staevska, Investment Manager at The FSE Group commented: “The Kindness of Strangers have developed an innovative product with market disrupting technology that has the potential to make a real difference to charities across the globe. Mathew’s extensive experience comes with strong national and international connections that position the business well to serve evident demand in the sector. We’re delighted to be supporting this business as it expands into new overseas territories”.

The £40m Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund was established by the British Business Bank in partnership with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to provide debt and equity finance to help growing small businesses across the region.

Funding through CIOSIF came to an end in December but wider funding is now available through the British Business Bank’s £200m South West Investment Fund providing loans from £25k to £2m and equity investment up to £5m.

CIOSIF has been supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

Signapse, a Generative AI Sign Language translation software company, today announced the closing of a new seed funding round of £2 million with £1.5 million from investors and £500k from Innovate UK. This round of funding was led by Soulmates Ventures and Deeptech Seed Fund, with participation from other investors, including the Royal Association for Deaf people, Empirical Ventures, CEAS Investments, and The FSE Group.

“I couldn’t be more excited and proud about this next stage in our growth. It is a landmark opportunity, a once in a lifetime moment, to build a transformative product. I would like to thank everyone that is, and has been, part of our amazing team.”, says Sally Chalk, CEO and Co-Founder at Signapse.

“This is an important chapter for Signapse, where we can expand our AI messaging from limited domains of discourse such as Transport to more open ended markets such as Website and Video Translation.”, says Ben Saunders, CTO and Co-Founder at Signapse.

This new round of funding will be used to improve Deaf accessibility through building unconstrained translation for Sign Language. Specifically, the areas that the company will focus on are:

• Expanding into the Video Translation market to improve Deaf accessibility globally

• Building unconstrained translation for BSL with the ability to translate from any English sentence into BSL using AI

• Improve the quality of Signapse AI-generated Sign Language Videos

“We at Soulmates Ventures are proud and excited to be a part of the Signapse endeavour in building unconstrained generative AI sign language translation. Their innovative solution is reflecting the daily challenges and needs of the Deaf people. We are looking forward to supporting the Signapse team through our acceleration programme to amplify their distinctive real-time solution and enhance accessibility for the Deaf community globally.”, says Michal Sikyta, Investment Director at Soulmates Ventures.

"We're very proud to have backed the Signapse team since the spinout stage and really pleased that their great progress has allowed us to co-lead this round.", says Pearse Coyle, Founder and Partner at Deeptech Seed Fund.

Over the past two years, Signapse has used Generative AI to create 5,000 BSL train announcements daily throughout the UK, as well as delivering over 4,000 manual BSL translations for clients in the website and video markets. More recently, Signapse has delivered Deaf accessibility to transport companies such as LNER Train Stations in the UK, and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) Airport in OH, USA. 

Read the full article: Signapse Closes Seed Funding Round of £2 Million to Accelerate Accessibility for Deaf People

A MedTech business that is working closely with Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT), has received a £200,000 equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF), managed by The FSE Group.

The funding is part of a £0.4million funding round and will be used to support job creation and the overall growth of the business.

Peninsula Medical Technologies (PenMed) produces medical equipment and technology to improve the safety and outcomes of patients in the critical care environment. The company has been awarded an Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Grant for project costs of £1.2m to take its modular ventilation/anaesthesia device into clinical trials. 

The PenMed modular system provides ventilation and anaesthesia without needing to disconnect the patient, improving patient safety and workflow.  It was developed following work by PenMed in the final stages of the UK Ventilator Challenge at RCHT and addresses many of the needs of pandemic ventilation so that such a challenge would not be needed in a future pandemic.

Dr Sebastian Brown, PenMed founder, said: “With the grant funding in place to take the device through the next two years of testing and clinical evaluation, this CIOSIF investment will allow us to create the jobs needed to undertake this process. It will also support the development of a further medical device based on the same architecture, helping move towards our goal of delivering more innovative solutions to the healthcare industry and providing high-quality medical devices for the benefit of patients. We are delighted to be working with FSE on this journey.”

Ralph Singleton, Head of Equity South West at The FSE Group, added: “PenMed’s management team has a strong background of successful product development in the medical sector and impressive knowledge and expertise of the ventilator market. This, and their close ties with the industry, leave them poised to make a significant impact in the medical sector. They have received promising feedback from expert reviewers in their NHS market research and we are thrilled to be supporting them on their journey to revolutionising the use of ventilators and anaesthesia equipment in hospitals.”

The global ventilator and anaesthesia market is worth around £2.5bn. Boasting several advantages over its competitors, including enhanced patient safety and data-driven healthcare advances that ultimately lead to better patient outcomes, PenMed is well-positioned to capture its targeted 9% share of the £124m UK market by 2028.

The £40m Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund was established by the British Business Bank in partnership with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to provide debt and equity finance to help growing small businesses across the region.

Funding through CIOSIF came to an end in December 2023 but wider funding is now available through the British Business Bank’s £200m South West Investment Fund providing loans from £25k to £2m and equity investment up to £5m.

CIOSIF has been supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

The British Business Bank’s Investment Fund for Scotland has agreed £5 million of deals to support the growth of small businesses, just six months since the fund was launched to improve access to finance and provide a boost to the Scottish economy.

The milestone comes as five new debt funding deals – managed by FSE Group – have been confirmed to give businesses in the drinks, healthcare, recruitment, and creative industries access to funding for growth.

Cosmetic surgery group, Elanic Clinic; oat milk cocktail brand, Panther M*lk; life sciences recruitment firm, Entrust Resource Solutions; graphic design consultancy, John Young Group; and a whisky labelling business have collectively secured £3.25 million of loans from the fund.

Earlier this year, the Bank announced the first equity deals from the Investment Fund for Scotland through fund manager Maven Capital Partners, supporting med-tech firms Carcinotech and Calcivis, while Kedras Clinics benefitted from the first loan from the fund via DSL Business Finance.

Based in Glasgow city centre, Elanic Clinic plans to use a £2 million funding package to support the development of its private healthcare facilities on Bath Street, with a new hospital space set to open towards the end of the summer. The expansion will see the clinic open the most advanced operating theatre in the west of Scotland, triple its capacity to treat self-pay and private medical insurance patients and create 75 new jobs over the next couple of years.  

Vivek Sivarajan, director at Elanic Clinic, said: “FSE Group and the Investment Fund for Scotland have provided a welcome boost to help with our expansion project. The state-of-the-art facilities will give the clinic new in-house capabilities to look after patients overnight, as well as enabling us to offer different types of treatments with industry-leading equipment for the likes of keyhole surgery. This funding has been critical in getting us one step closer to being ready to welcome the first patients.”

Also in Glasgow, drinks producer Panther M*lk agreed a £200,000 loan from the Investment Fund for Scotland to support the development of a first-of-its-kind small pack and other products. Over the last year, the business has secured a range of grocery and on-trade listings for all four flavours of its alcoholic oat milk cocktails and is currently in talks with other major retailers to help scale up the brand and reach even more customers.  

Paul Crawford, the founder of Panther M*lk, added: “I’d previously received funding support through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, which was a big benefit in the development of the brand two years ago. We’ve experienced rapid growth since then through our on-trade networks and retail deals but sought additional capital to help scale production and develop new products. We’re also looking at future export opportunities and partnerships with bars and hotels in major cities across the whole of the UK.” 

The £150 million Investment Fund for Scotland was launched in October 2023 and offers loans ranging from £25,000 to £2 million and equity investments up to £5 million. The fund is part of the British Business Bank’s commitment to fostering sustainable economic growth by supporting businesses across Scotland.

Mark Sterritt, Director, Nations and Regions Funds, at the British Business Bank, said: “It is great to see the impact that the Investment Fund for Scotland has delivered for smaller businesses across a diverse mix of sectors in only six months. The latest loans via FSE Group bring us to a milestone £5 million, which is helping several businesses to achieve ambitions for growth and expansion. The fund was established to support new and growing businesses with investment strategies that best meet their needs, whoever they are and wherever they are based.”

Norrie Cook, Head of Fund Scotland at FSE Group, said: “We are pleased to announce our first deals completed from the Investment Fund for Scotland. Since the fund launched our team have been inundated with enquiries from businesses across Scotland varying in size, sector, funding requirements and background. We are already seeing how hugely beneficial this fund is for the Scottish SME landscape and encourage businesses seeking finance to reach out to our team directly.”