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The stock market has changed, and investors are going to have to sharpen their wits.

That's according to Dmitry Balyasny, the managing partner at the billion-dollar hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management. The firm managed $12.6 billion in hedge-fund assets at the start of the year, according to the Hedge Fund Intelligence Billion Dollar Club ranking.

Balyasny wrote in a letter to investors that the rise of passive investing and quant funds and a surge in hedge-fund assets had made the stock market more efficient, leaving fewer easy money-making opportunities.

It's certainly been true that as exchange-traded funds have increased their share of the stock market, they've been blamed for suppressing fluctuations and pushing a measure of volatility to near-record lows.

And while it's difficult to attribute the low-volatility environment to just one driver, ETFs, which allow for the easy purchase of huge swaths of stocks, may have made the market more monolithic and sapped it of price swings.

"We think the challenges, consolidation, and changes in the industry are due to one main factor: There isn't enough alpha to make everyone happy," Balyasny said in the letter, which was reviewed by Business Insider. Balyasny declined to comment.

He identified three key questions for equity long/short funds, or those that bet on and against stocks.

Can long/short strategies work in an ETF and index-flow-led market?

ETFs, which simply track an index, have hoovered up assets at a high rate over the past decade. US-listed ETFs saw $283 billion in net inflows during 2016, taking aggregate assets under management to $2.5 trillion, according to Citigroup.

Balyasny notes that passive investors now own more than one-third of the US stock market and fundamental stock investors make up only a small fraction of total trading each day.

This has a few implications, according to Balyasny — in particular, an increase in the relative importance of stock-price catalysts, such as earnings releases. From the letter:

"Day-to-day action is very ETF-driven. While this action won't change the ultimate valuation of individual companies, it will increase short-term correlations. Portfolio construction needs to be tight and tilts need to be very well managed to navigate these powerful flows. This makes catalysts, earnings, and other events extremely important to play — and play correctly — because that is when dispersion is most likely to occur."

Balyasny cites Japan as an example of what happens to markets with high levels of passive ownership. More than 70% of Japanese stocks are passively owned, according to the letter, given the Bank of Japan's stock-buying program, "yet liquidity in Japan is fine, and the fundamental stock selection opportunities remain robust," he said.

In other words, passive investing doesn't kill stock-picking. It just puts an emphasis on calling the big catalysts for stock moves right.

Can long/short investing work in a crowded field?

Another common complaint among investors: Everyone is chasing the same trades.

"While crowding has been reduced from last year's peak, most verticals are still pretty crowded," Balyasny said. "A correct, fundamentally variant view is hard to come by, and the alpha is short-lived as others catch on."

Still, it's possible to find unique ideas and deliver alpha, according to the letter.

"The market is just very competitive," he said. "While the business is tough in the short run, it is ultimately good for survivors."

Can long/short work in markets dominated by computers?

Quant funds have become popular with investors and are hoovering up assets. According to a recent Credit Suisse survey, about 60% of global institutional investors said they were likely to increase allocations to incorporate some quantitative analysis over the next three to five years, with pensions showing the most interest.

According to Balyasny, it isn't a case of fundamental investing versus quant investing; the two need to combine. From the letter:

"Some of our worst trades are caused by an over-reliance on data without a variant fundamental view (e.g., a short position in a fundamentally challenged business with deteriorating current data where results come in close enough in light of low expectations to cause a big squeeze).

"On the flip side, some of our best trades have been when our teams identify some fundamental inflection in a business that has not been picked up yet in the data. Each approach can be successful on its own if practiced by a top team, but combining the two will lead to the best results."

The letter said Balyasny's Atlas Global fund was basically flat for the year to date, while the Atlas Enhanced fund was up 0.78%.

"We believe that as we continue to scale up deployment and enter summer earnings season, returns should improve back to our target range," Balyasny said.

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Citigroup beat second-quarter earnings Friday thanks in part to its soaring fixed income business. 

The bank reported quarterly earnings of $1.28 per share, eclipsing Wall Street estimates of $1.21 per share.

“During the quarter, we saw
continued momentum in our
businesses, with loan and
revenue growth across both sides
of the house," Citi CEO Michael Corbat said. "Our Global
Consumer Bank posted revenue
growth in all three regions. Our
Institutional Clients Group had a
very strong quarter all-around,
including its best Investment
Banking performance in seven
years.

Here are the key numbers:

• Net income of $3.9 billion, or $1.28 per share.
• Revenues of $17.9 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $17.4 billion.
• Fixed income paced the strong quarter with earnings of $3.21 billion, beating analysts' prediction of $2.98 billion.
• Global consumer banking posted revenues of $8 billion, a 5% increase.
• End of period loans were $645 billion, up 2% from the prior year. 

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Thousands of finance jobs are available in New York City, and JPMorgan is trying to fill them with a new search tool.

On Wednesday, the bank and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning unveiled BankingOnMyCareer.com, seeking to help New Yorkers find "middle-skilled" financial-services jobs. Such jobs typically require a bit more training than a high-school diploma and a bit less training than a bachelor's degree. According to a news release, 7,500 of these jobs are open in New York City.

"We want New Yorkers to know there are thousands of good-paying job opportunities in the financial services sector just waiting to be filled by middle-skilled workers," said Chauncy Lennon, the head of workforce initiatives at JPMorgan Chase.

Available job opportunities on the site include anti-money-laundering analyst, which pays $60,000 to $80,000 a year, and customer-service representative, which pays $28,000 to $36,000 a year.

BankingOnMyCareer.com is a collaboration among JPMorgan, CAEL, CUNY, and Partnership for NYC, a nonprofit representing businesses in the Big Apple. JPMorgan's contribution of $580,000 for the project is a part of its $350 million commitment to address the so-called skills gap.

Firms across the US are finding it difficult to fill positions that pay good salaries but require more than a high-school diploma. This is an issue to which Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, has called attention.

"If you go to Texas, they need welders. If you go to other areas, they need people who can do construction, plumbing, electrical work," Dimon said in a recent interview with Business Insider's Matt Turner. "Business has to be involved locally with civic society, in this case schools, to get the kids trained to have a job."

SEE ALSO: A top Wall Street analyst explains why you should put just as much work into a LinkedIn message as an interview

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Wells Fargo announced earnings Friday, beating analyst expectations. 

The bank reported earnings of $1.07 per share, above the $1.01 per share analysts had predicted. 

But revenues came in at $22.2 billion, below the $22.5 billion Wall Street had expected.

"Second quarter 2017 results demonstrated the benefit of our diversified business model as we continued to generate strong financial results, invest for the future, and adhere to our prudent risk discipline," Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said. "We remain committed to reducing expenses and improving the efficiency of our company, and we are very focused on our recently announced goals."

Here are the key numbers:

• Net income of $5.8 billion, or $1.07 per share. That's up 5% from second quarter 2016.
• Revenues of $22.2 billion
• Net interest income of $12.5 billion, up $183 million from Q1.
• Credit quality improved. Provision expense was $555 million, down $519 million, and net charge-offs hit $655 million, down $269 million.
• Period end loan balances hit $957.4 billion, a drop of $982 million from the first quarter as auto loans declined.
• Auto loan originations of $4.5 billion, down 17 percent from the first quarter and down 45% from last year.
• Deposits held steady at $1.3 trillion thanks to growth from consumer and small business.
• Community banking profits fell slightly, with net income dipping to $2.99 billion from $3.09 billion the previous quarter while revenues increased to $12.29 billion from $12.09 billion.

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• Whole Foods courted seven separate potential deal partners.
• The company read a news story about Amazon's interest and reached out after feeling the heat from activist investors.
• Amazon played hardball, demanding secrecy and nearly walking away after Whole Foods made a $45-per-share counteroffer.

The day that Amazon and Whole Foods announced their $13.7 billion merger that shook the grocery industry, a giddy John Mackey couldn't hide his enthusiasm.

The grocer's CEO regaled a crowd of his employees with a tale of "love at first sight," describing the moment the two companies met on a "blind date" six weeks earlier.

But in reality, the deal was far from inevitable, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing detailing how the merger went down.

In all, seven suitors were vying for Whole Foods. And though Amazon may have been the preferred deal partner, tough negotiations ensued, and the e-commerce behemoth came close to walking away from the deal.

Amazon arrived as a bidder in unusual fashion. Whole Foods read a news story from April suggesting the tech giant had been interested in acquiring Whole Foods but ultimately decided against it.

The organic-food retailer's management had since late 2016 been actively discussing strategies to improve Whole Foods' disappointing stock price, which had steadily declined along with profit in recent years.

Pressure to right the ship heightened in early April when the activist hedge fund Jana Partners announced it had acquired a nearly 9% stake in the company and was angling for a big shake-up in the top ranks.

Whole Foods' top brass had no desire to relinquish their control of the company without a fight, and a week later Mackey and his team hired a top defense banker from Evercore with more than a decade of experience battling activist and hostile investors.

Seven suitors

On April 18, inquiries started to trickle in. One industry competitor wrote a letter expressing interest in a deal, followed in subsequent days by inquiries from four private-equity firms.

That week, as interest from potential acquirers began to simmer, Whole Foods' management and an outside consultant mulled over a recent media report indicating Amazon had entertained the idea of buying up their company.

The Whole Foods consultant that Friday called Jay Carney, a former Obama administration spokesman who is now a senior vice president of corporate affairs for Amazon, to see if the tech giant might still be interested in pursuing the grocer. The next Monday, Amazon told the consultant it would be open to a meeting.

Meanwhile, pressure from Jana Partners intensified. That week, the hedge fund met with Whole Foods execs and made various demands, particularly insisting on an overhaul of the board of directors.

The Whole Foods board met that Friday, April 28, to discuss how it would respond to Jana. That's when Mackey informed members that he and other top executives were planning to jet off to Seattle to gauge Amazon's interest in acquiring the company.

They wasted little time, flying to Amazon's headquarters that Sunday for a meeting that Mackey later said lasted 2.5 hours and was "love at first sight."

"I think we coulda talked for 10 hours. And — when we huddled together, it was like we just had — we just had these big grins on our faces, like, 'These guys are amazing. They're so smart. They're so authentic,'" Mackey later told employees in a company town-hall meeting. "They say what's on their mind. They're not playin' a bunch of BS games. And it was like, 'This is gonna be so incredible.'"

But despite Mackey's optimism, a deal was far from certain, and Jana was breathing down his neck.

Whole Foods tried to placate Jana the next week by offering up two board seats in exchange for the activist investor's retracting its claws and giving the company 18 months to pursue strategic measures to revive itself.

Jana declined the offer, but Whole Foods nonetheless shook up its board, appointing five new directors on May 10.

Amazon emerges

Over the following weeks, Whole Foods' management continued to weigh its options. One competing grocery retailer suggested a "merger of equals," while another competitor proposed a commercial agreement, such as a supply-chain arrangement.

Then, on May 23, Amazon sent a written offer to buy Whole Foods for $41 per share, valuing the company at $13.1 billion — well above the $35 it was trading at. The tech giant communicated that it felt its bid was very competitive, and it demanded secrecy during the transactions. Any leak or rumor of a deal, and Amazon would be willing to terminate discussions.

Amazon was aggressive about the last point: protecting the secrecy of the "highly sensitive" negotiation. Goldman Sachs, representing Amazon in the transaction, separately called up Whole Foods' banker at Evercore two days later to reiterate: Confidentiality was crucial to a deal, and they would have no part in a multiparty bidding war.

Whole Foods' board met to discuss its options on May 30. It now had six suitors in addition to Amazon: two industry competitors and four private-equity firms.

Evercore advised the board that the buyout shops were unlikely to be able to top Amazon's price. And according to the SEC filing, the bank reminded the directors "that Amazon.com had re-emphasized in multiple communications that Amazon.com would not be willing to further engage with the Company in the event of a rumor or leak of a potential transaction."

Whole Foods decided to pursue Amazon, but it wanted to sweeten the deal. It made a counteroffer of $45 per share, or nearly $14.4 billion. Amazon wasn't pleased.

From the SEC filing:

"The Goldman Sachs representatives expressed their disappointment at the price specified in the Company's counter proposal as they had previously informed the Evercore representatives that Amazon.com believed that it had made a very strong bid."

The next day, Goldman Sachs told Whole Foods that Amazon was now looking at other opportunities — and it was considering whether to reply to the counterproposal or just walk away.

As a last-ditch effort, Amazon offered $42 per share, emphasizing that this was its best and final offer. The tech giant was clear: It wanted a swift response, and it didn't want any other bidders meddling in the process.

From the filing (emphasis added):

"Goldman Sachs also made it clear again to the representatives from Evercore that Amazon.com would disengage from its efforts to acquire the Company and pursue other alternatives and initiatives if the $42.00 per share price were not accepted and that Amazon.com expected that the Company would not approach other potential bidders while the Company was negotiating with Amazon.com (although they understood that the Company's board of directors would have a customary fiduciary out in the merger agreement), and requested that the Company promptly give a yes or no response to the $42.00 offer.

"They signaled Amazon.com's willingness to move forward on the transaction quickly if the Company responded favorably to the offer as well as Amazon.com's resolve in discontinuing discussions with the Company if the Company did not find the revised offer to be attractive."

Whole Foods adhered to Amazon's demands. The companies spent the next two weeks quietly performing due diligence on the deal before approving a merger on June 15 at Amazon's final offer price of $42 per share — $13.7 billion including debt.

With the whole process successfully kept secret in accordance with Amazon's request, the deal, announced the next day, sent tremors across multiple industries and sapped billions from the market caps of grocery stores and pharmacy companies.

Not long after, shares of Whole Foods surged above the deal price, suggesting investors thought — or hoped — that a rival bidder would emerge. But in reality, six other companies had already inquired about Whole Foods, and Amazon had made clear it would under no circumstances engage in a bidding war or exceed a price of $42 per share.

Whole Foods sealed its marriage with Amazon, and this week shares shot back down toward the deal price as investors confronted the realization that the tech giant had won and no competing bid would emerge.

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Do-it-yourself investing can be scary for a lot of people, especially young wanna-be investors.

The financial markets are complicated and so most people prefer to give their money to someone else to manage.

When Brian Barnes graduated from Stanford in 2012, he had a hard time finding a tool with which he could invest in the stock market on his own. This prompted him to start his own online brokerage site, M1 Finance, at 25 years old.

"What I was trying to do seemed relatively basic," Barnes penned in a recent post on M1's site. "I wanted to be able to pick my investments, and have recurring deposits automatically added to those allocations."

And that's exactly what M1, which currently has $60 million under management, allows users to do. M1 users can pick the stocks they want to invest in and then they can determine what percentage of their portfolio they want each position to make up. M1 automatically updates as you put in more money and as stock prices fluctuate to maintain your preferred portfolio allocation. So if you want Apple to make up 25% of your portfolio, M1 will balance your portfolio as such.

Unlike most brokerage sites, M1 doesn't not charge a fee for users to buy a stock. It does, however, charge users an annual percentage-based fee on their assets.

We recently asked Barnes for three investment tips recent grads can consider when investing. They are as follows:

1) Embrace individual stocks - It's important that young investors learn to think broadly about what drives a company's value, expanding their understanding and revisiting to improve decision-making. The personal finance fad of the moment is that you should not invest at all in individual stocks and instead buy index ETFs. While this guarantees market performance, it doesn't teach you anything about what makes for a good investment. Just remember to stay diversified.

2) Pick a couple investments that will get you excited - The most important determinant of your long-term financial success is not whether you outperform or underperform the benchmark, but how much money you actually put away to save and invest. If you get excited about investing, you might increase a monthly contribution from $100 to $110. If you're not excited, maintaining behavior becomes more challenging.

3) Stay consistent - Days and weeks may seem long, but months and years get short the farther away from graduation you get. If you put away a few hundred dollars a month, you'll find in no time that you have real money. You just have to cultivate good habits and stay consistent.

SEE ALSO: A top exec at one of America's oldest banks explains why Ethereum holds so much promise

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Investors have a new opportunity to bet on the companies that sponsor the big four US sports leagues: the MLB, NHL, NFL, and NBA.

SportsETFs, a California-based firm, has launched its Pro Sports Sponsors ETF, which tracks the firm's Pro Sports Sponsors Index. It began trading Tuesday morning under the ticker FANZ on Bats, the Kansas-based US stock exchange operator

The logos of the 66 companies covered by the index, which include the likes of  Pepsi, McDonald's and Coca-Cola, are ubiquitous at American stadiums and arenas. 

"The equally weighted index seeks to take advantage of the growth potential of companies that partner with professional sports leagues and offers broad market exposure with holdings in several sectors, including consumer discretionary, information technology, financials, energy, and healthcare," according to a news release.

Cofounder and chief strategy officer, Jim Kozimer, is a sports broadcast Swiss Army knife for NBC, covering everything from local Californian soccer teams to the Olympics. He told Business Insider the idea for SportsETFs stemmed from a desire to create a financial product that would expose investors to the highly-profitable sports industry.

"As a sports broadcaster I noticed how much money could be made from this industry, and that's how the idea came to fruition," he said.

"Companies that are affiliated with the major American sports leagues are some of the most recognizable and trusted companies in the world," he added.

Kozimer said he and cofounder Nick Fullerton are certain investors will pour into FANZ because people like to invest in what they know.

“Following the investment strategy of the famed portfolio manager Peter Lynch, who said, “invest in what you know,” sports fans now have the opportunity to invest in a diversified portfolio of brands that they recognize in one fund," Kozimer said.

To be sure, investing in what you know is not always a good idea. Snap, which has been popular investment choice with young investors familiar with firm's messaging application, is now below it's IPO price.

The index is set to rebalance about four times per year, according to Fullerton, as sports teams change their corporate sponsors throughout the year.

ETFs, which simply track an index, have hoovered up assets at a high rate over the past decade. US-listed ETFs saw $283 billion in net inflows during 2016, taking aggregate assets under management to $2.5 trillion, according to Citigroup. 

The appeal is obvious. ETFs provide cheap and easy access to asset classes and sectors, without having to buy an individual stock or bond of a company.

Hundreds of industry and sector-specific ETFs, covering everything from coal to gold to biotech, have come to market in recent years. And US exchanges have been fighting hard for them to list on their platform. They see ETF listings as a saving grace amid an otherwise weak IPO market.

But many of these industry and sector-specific ETFs fizzle out after they begin trading and become what is known in the industry as "zombie ETFs." Such funds are traded infrequently and so their investors, as a result, have very little liquidity.

Fullerton told Business Insider, FANZ won't be another zombie.

"This isn't like a whiskey ETF tracking large and small companies exposed to the whiskey industry, for example," Fullerton said."People are going to be attracted to FANZ because of the breadth of companies it covers."

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UBS is cementing its position as one of the go-to banks for sustainable investment solutions.

The $2.7 trillion Switzerland-based money manager has made sustainability one of the cornerstones of its wealth-management business. On Monday, it announced that UBS Wealth Management and UBS Wealth Management Americas have raised $325 million for The Rise Fund, an impact investment fund led by private equity firm TPG Capital. 

"The sum raised represents the largest investment in the private equity impact investment vehicle," according to a press release on the news. 

The Rise Fund was founded by Bill McGlashan, the cofounder of STX Entertainment, singer-songwriter Bono, and Jeff Skoll, a billionaire Canadian engineer. The fund has an investment cap of $2 billion.

Sustainable investment solutions, which aim to both deliver outsize returns and remedy societal and environmental ills, are becoming more and more popular. The bank's $325 million commitment is part of a greater goal to raise $5 billion for impact investments designed to advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

The $325 million in contributions come from across UBS' wealth-management network, according to Jason Chandler, head of investment platforms and solutions at UBS Wealth Management Americas. The money will be invested in companies and projects that benefit society and the environment, he said. 

"The investments considered span multiple industries across the globe," Chandler told Business Insider."An independent firm assesses the positive impact which is reported to UBS clients in addition to the financial return on their investment."

The move is a reflection of a major development in the wealth-management industry. Sustainability is a key issue for millennials, as reported by Business Insider's Raul Hernandez. Investors under the age of 35 are roughly twice as likely as other age cohorts to withdraw from investments that have sustainability problems, according to UBS. And with millennials poised to inherit roughly $30 trillion from Baby Boomers, according to a UBS white paper, catering to the preferences of the younger generation will be key for wealth managers and financial advisers.

Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of UBS, told Business Insider that it's not just millennials, however, that care about sustainability. 

"We have recognized through our research that people of all ages want their financial adviser to meet their sustainability needs and this desire is growing," Haefele said.

The Switzerland-based bank told Business Insider its sustainable investments grew by about 40 billion Swiss francs in 2016. Those investments now make up about 35%, or more than $970 billion Swiss francs, of the bank's "total invested assets."  

UBS made its $5 billion commitment in January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The announcement was made in tandem with the release of a white paper titled "Mobilizing Private Wealth for Public Good." There, UBS outlined how to "channel private wealth towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," which cover issues such as health, hunger, and the environment. 

UBS' pledge followed a $471 million contribution to its UBS Oncology Impact Fund in 2016. 

Haefele thinks the future of financial services will be rooted completely in sustainability.

SEE ALSO: Wall Street is waking up to a key demand of millennial investors

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LONDON — Global fast food chain Wok to Walk faces embarrassment after a UK franchise was named and shamed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as a deliberate tax defaulter.

Wok 2 Walk Ltd, which operates a franchise of the Dutch chain in the UK, was included on a list of "deliberate tax defaulters" published by HMRC last week.

Wok 2 Walk Ltd was found in a civil court to have evaded £61,539.00 worth of tax it should lawfully have paid. HMRC says Wok 2 Walk Ltd defaulted on payments between April 2012 and March 2015, and it has been charged £34,461.84 in penalties.

Wok 2 Walk Ltd is a franchise of Amsterdam-based Wok to Walk — which was not investigated — the pan-Asian takeaway that has restaurants around the world.

Cris Piera from Wok to Walk International, which owns the Wok to Walk band, said they had been "totally unaware" of the situation until Business Insider brought it to their attention.

Piera confirmed after speaking to Wok 2 Walk Ltd that the franchisee has been paying a monthly fee to HMRC since January and provided evidence of a direct debit payment made in June of £3,000. Piera said the franchise had "implemented changes and improvements on their accountancy."

HMRC investigates and penalizes taxpayers who deliberately provide incorrect documents or otherwise intentionally take steps to illegally reduce the amount of tax they are obliged to pay. HMRC says it will only publish a case's details if the defaulters fail to fully disclose their records during or before an investigation.

According to HMRC, franchisor Wok to Walk was not contacted as part of the investigation into Wok 2 Walk Ltd. It said discussing the case with the franchisor would have been inappropriate and a breach of taxpayer confidentiality.

"The case is already fixed and settled and soon to be closed by HMRC once the remaining monthly payments are completed," Piera said.

The franchise joins a list of other businesses and individuals who have been subject to civil proceedings and fined for tax evasion.

HMRC was unable to discuss the case in any detail, but said what it publishes is strictly in line with legislation. It said it does not publish any additional details, such as summary judgments.

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LONDON — Online mattress startup SIMBA Sleep has raised at least £2 million to fuel growth since February, accounts show.

SIMBA raised £9 million in February but accounts filed with Companies House show the startup, which is advertised by Real Madrid footballer Gareth Bale, has already gone back to investors for more cash.

Directors and investors gave the business a further £2 million in May 2017 in the form of convertible loans and interest-free, unsecured loans, accounts show.

The accounts also suggest SIMBA has raised £2 million in equity funding since February, although the timing of this investment is not clearly worded.

If it did happen since February, it would mean SIMBA has raised a further £4 million in the last four months. That would take the total raised to over £20 million.

SIMBA, which manufactures mattresses and sells them online, says in its accounts: "In order to maintain the Company's continuing pace of growth, the Company is continuously raising finance."

Cofounder James Cox told Business Insider that SIMBA remains "open to new funders and investment," despite the recent raises.

The company's existing backers include investment giant Henderson, London stockbroker Numis Securities, the husband of the sole heir to the Heineken family fortune, and advertising guru Sir John Hegarty, who is also SIMBA's creative director.

The large sums are being used to fuel ambitious growth plans for the startup. Business Insider reported earlier this week that SIMBA, which launched last year, promised investors revenue growth of 460% this year, fueled by expansion to Europe, the US, and Asia, and the launch of new products.

Cofounder James Cox says in an emailed statement:

"SIMBA continues to build and grow as a global sleep technology brand. By delivering an excellent product through a hybrid of sales channels – both retail and direct to consumer – we will not only be profitable in the UK by end of 2017, but continue to grow at speed across the world.

"As we expand we are open to new funders and investment. SIMBA now operates in 15 countries and is market leader by 50% across Europe. By September this year, we will have a presence in over 1750 retail outlets globally and plan to roll out to over 30 countries in the next year as we focus on our longer-term strategy to continue to innovate the sleep category."

The loss-making business' accounts also show that February's fundraising was not an equity investment but a convertible loan note, with 6% interest. This means SIMBA must pay interest to its investors and could ultimately have to pay back the £9 million. However, the debt can be converted into shares in the business at a later date.

SIMBA says in its accounts it is "looking to raise additional funds to further speed its expansion." The company adds: "Whilst these funds have not been received at the date of signing, the directors are satisfied this funding is to accelerate growth rather than to support the going concern assumption.

"Based on forecasts and budgets prepared by the directors, they are confident that the company could manage its discretionary spending in order to continue to trade for the foreseeable future in the unlikely event that future fund raising was not immediately forthcoming."

SIMBA's accounts are abbreviated and, as a result, don't give much insight into its performance last year. A leaked investor deck prepared in January seen by Business Insider suggests the startup lost £6.4 million on net revenue of £9.1 million last year.

Eve Sleep, a rival online mattress business, said on Wednesday that revenue grew by 126% to £11.5 million in the first half of the year.

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LONDON — Brexit is now directly affecting the investment decisions of British firms, according to a survey from the Confederation of British Industry.

Its survey of 357 businesses found over 40% of businesses said Brexit has affected their investment decisions. Of those, 98% said the impact has been negative.

The companies which reported Brexit had negatively influenced their investment decisions cited general uncertainty over the UK's future.

The only positive impact they reported was the relative weakness of the dollar against the sterling.

Almost 60% of firms that responded to the survey said that Brexit had not affected their investment decisions.

The CBI, which represents 190,000 UK businesses, has been emboldened in its calls for a softer Brexit since Prime Minister Theresa May lost her parliamentary majority in June's general election, which many saw as a loss of her mandate for a hard Brexit.

Last week it doubled down on its call for Britain to stay in the Single Market and customs union until a final EU deal is in force.

Rain Newton-Smith, CBI's chief economist, said:

"It is reassuring that the majority of businesses that responded to our survey do not feel that Brexit has changed these vital spending plans.

"But we must have our eyes wide open: an overwhelming number of those that did report an impact said it was negative. Government must do all it can to reverse this. Today’s investments are tomorrow’s jobs.

"The Government’s increasingly clear commitment to a single transition stage is welcome. Firms are making investment decisions right now, that will last for years to come. They need more sense of clarity and continuity to support jobs and prosperity.

"To help British business remain optimistic and keep uncertainty at bay, the Government must work quickly to agree the terms of the transition and future trading arrangements."

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