The BlackRock Foundation has committed £1.5m to Nest Insight to build on its work to boost UK savings.

The commitment was announced by Nest Insight managing director, Gavin Lewis, at Nest Insight's event, 'Boosting UK Savings Inclusion'. The three-year partnership renewal will see Nest Insight build on its work as part of BlackRock's emergency savings initiative, with the goal of millions more households building savings and progressing towards greater financial security. The announcement strengthens the long-standing collaboration between the two firms, which have partnered since 2019 when BlackRock launched the initiative amid increasing awareness of the financial precarity facing low- and middle-income households. BlackRock's support for Nest Insight has since enabled major trials and research programmes with UK employers and providers, with over 150,000 employees offering workplace savings to date.

Aviva Investors has completed a €11.4m venture capital investment with Lakestar.

The commitment from Aviva Investors means it will invest in Lakestar's Growth Fund II, which targets investment opportunities in growth-stage companies across Deep Tech, Healthcare, Fintech, and Digitalisation. The fund has already begun deploying capital, with investments including Neko Health, an early detection company for patient health examinations, and Isar Aerospace, a European company building low-cost solutions for launching satellite constellations. It is the third venture and growth capital investment to be announced by Aviva Investors and follows the launch of its Venture & Growth Capital Long Term Asset Fund (LTAF) in February, which aims to provide pension funds and wealth markets with better access to innovative growth companies.

M&G has partnered with FNZ to expand access to the £64bn PruFund range across UK platforms.

The partnership means that the PruFund range will become available later this year on FNZ-powered platforms, supported by FNZ's Q-Hub technology, allowing M&G to expand its distribution reach onto third-party platforms for the first time. Over the past 20 years, PruFund has gained around £64bn of investment from more than 450,000 individual policyholders in the UK, advised by 5,000 advice firms. The range has grown to meet various customer needs and risk appetites across major tax wrappers.

HALO Invest has unveiled a research product to help individuals find better investment opportunities.

The HALO global investment research tool will offer institutional-grade content made accessible to everyday investors. It aims to build on its success in the Australian market to give users a better understanding of the widest possible options of what, when and how to invest. The service will provide in-depth financial data, analytical tools and insight to enable investors to develop bespoke models, track performance and invest in global megatrends and thematic portfolios. Users can explore over 35,000 companies across 30 exchanges and access worldwide stock markets. HALO suggested that financial advice firms could also use the service to aid discussions with clients so that they feel armed with the relevant information and knowledge about their investment decisions.

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