Birmingham and Aston universities join four other universities as backers of Mercia Technologies following successful December IPO.

The networking technology producer is set to invest $100m in French startups as part of a wider partnership with the French government.

Poxel, which is also backed by Bpifrance, will fund clinical trials for two of its drug candidates with the proceeds.

Elasmogen, a biotech spin-out of Aberdeen University, secures US patent for its immunisation technology derived from sharks.

Oxford spin-out Oxehealth successfully concludes trials into baby monitoring.

Existing investor British Gas has purchased the connected home company for $100m.

Financial services firm Barclays has partnered with accelerator Techstars to launch the programme in New York.

GlaxoSmithKline originally invested in the vaccine developer in 2012.