Real Business

Only a little deal, but an interesting one, takes my eye this week. No, not just because he shares my name.

Mark Rock, founder of Audioboo ("Twitter without typing") has secured investment from Imagination, the makers of Pure radios, and UBC Media. The deal means that Audioboo technology (in essence, it's a podcasting, or "social voice" platform that enables users to post short voice clips onto the web) will be built into some Pure radios. It's an idea that divides opinion: follow Mark Rock on Twitter and you'll wonder whether this is the next step in the "informalising" of media. After all, if Nick Robinson files quick thoughts on Audioboo before filing his full reports on the BBC, who am I to argue? Others argue that it's a "pointless product" and, with the "boo" suffix, it does make you think of Boo.com, the internet's grandest ever failure. Interests: wants an organic garden.

We're fans of Huddle.net, the collaborative software business ("lets you connect and work securely with other people in the cloud") that's raised $10.2m from Matrix Partners, with participation from Eden Ventures and Charles McGregor, Huddle’s chairman. Huddle CEO and co-founder Alastair Mitchell is a trained naval engineer and professional tea-taster turned software entrepreneur (previously worked at dunnhumby). Personal interests: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, diving and driving. He tweets occasionally. Co-founder Andy McLoughlin leads global business development. He's a trained computer scientist, who was one of the founding team at management consultancy KnowledgeCenter. Interests: "fencing and skiing (both rather badly) but excels at sitting in sunny beer gardens discussing films, music and cool stuff he recently saw online". He's also on Twitter @bandrew

Sean Sutcliffe, CEO, is the lead player at microbial specialist Green Biologics, whose technologies enable chemicals producers to produce cleaner products. The firm recently raised £4.9m from Capricorn Ventures. Sutcliffe, a mechanical engineer by training, previously ran Biofuels Corporation and Tidal Generation. He's a non-executive  of You Broadband, an Indian ISP, and a trustee of Practical Action, an international development charity. Other notables at Green Biologics are founder and CTO Dr Edward Green, a biochemist and academic, who founded the business in 2004. The chairman is Dr Andrew Rickman OBE, the eminent entrepreneur who founded fibre-optics business Bookham.

Great to see a traditional British business on the growth path. Bill Scott is CEO of Wilton Group, which builds and manages subsea, marine, offshore and renewable energy projects. Privately owned, based in Teesside and Aberdeen, Wilton has taken on £16m from Barclays Private Equity. The Wilton Group was set up in 1994 and has grown organically and through acquisition. In 2008, the firm acquired PD&MS in Aberdeen. Scott recently told the Northern Echo: "The next stage of the development of the group is to further penetrate the UK sector, and to focus on expanding into a number of overseas markets.” Scott founded the business in Middlesbrough, with Steve Glenn, in 1994, and is a much-respected business figure in the north-east.

Water is "the global problem", says the Arvia Technology website. Its technology, it claims, "offers a significant breakthrough in truly cost-effective removal of organic micropollutants." Behind the firm is chemical engineer and CEO Martin Keighley, who's come on board as part of a recent MTI Partners investment. He was previously MD of Brunner Mond's European chemicals business and part of the Tata Chemicals executive team following the acquisition of Brunner Mond in 2005. Keighley schooled at LIverpool Blue Coat, did chemical engineering at Cambridge; a year at Harvard on a management development programme. Personal interests: sailing, skiing, mountain biking, yoga, cooking, travelling and bell ringing. He's a trustee director ofiof St Luke's Hospice and governor of Audlem St James School. Arvia's founder and now technical director is Nigel Brown, who's a long-term water industry expert who's led projects in China, Poland, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Talking of liquids, Samantha Faircliff, managing director of traditional ale-maker Cairngorm Brewery, has recently secured £250,000 funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise to help it build its own bottling plant. She told the Strathspey Herald (oh, yes!): "Rising demand has outstripped the capacity of our small scale two-head bottle filling machine so we currently have to send the beer south to be bottled in the quantities we require."We are also running out of space and have had to move our offices into a portable cabin so we've really outgrown our premises." Cairngorm produces award-winning beers, including UK 2009 Supreme Champion, Black Gold. Other brews include Nessie's Monster Mash.

Dr SB Cha is CEO at fuel cell developer Acal Energy (FlowCath is its core technology), which has just raised £3.5m from from existing investors led by Carbon Trust Investments and also Solvay, Porton Capital and an unnamed Japanese car business. Dr Cha is a chemical engineer who did a PhD in statistical thermodynamics (yikes!) at Imperial College, London. He's worked at some serious blue-chips, including Texaco, Boston Consulting Group and Philips. Acal was originally founded by Dr Andrew Creeth, who still serves as chief technical officer. Creeth cut his R&D teeth at Unilever and has 17 patents to his name.