This is a week to cherry-pick, as the number of investment rounds that have completed is significant – which means we can focus those that really piqued our interest. Here are the deals that caught our eye:

• Equity investment into smaller UK businesses grew by 9 per cent last year. That equates to £8.8bn of new money into our small-business economy

• Axial Capital joined (and successfully closed) and the pre-IPO round for the September public listing of RXLive

• A government taskforce has urged Boris Johnson to shed a range of UK regulations on investment to unlock more than £100bn of capital to flow into smaller UK businesses by allowing pension funds to invest in earlier stage (and therefore riskier) growth companies

• French fintech startup Pennylane has secured €15 million in funding to grow its array of bookeeping and financial management tools

• Upflow, a Paris-based startup that helps B2B companies get paid, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round

• MyYogaTeacher closed on $3 million in seed funding to tap into the in-home fitness industry that gained traction in the past year. MyYogaTeacher’s app streams interactive lessons directly to students in the U.S. from more than 120 experienced teachers in India