Augusta & Co., a specialist financial adviser to the renewable energy industry, has successfully overseen the sale of the 211.4MW Piiparinmäki onshore wind farm project in central Finland. Augusta acted on behalf of Ilmatar Energy, a joint venture between Finnish developer Ilmatar Windpower and Capenergie 3, a fund managed by Omnes, the Paris-based infrastructure fund.  The ground-breaking project, set to become Finland’s largest wind farm, and one of the largest unsubsidised wind farms in Europe, has been acquired by Glennmont Partners, one of Europe’s largest clean-energy fund managers. 

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) Debt Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s leading SME finance providers, has provided EarthSense Systems Limited, air quality monitoring and modelling data firm, with a £100,000 loan.

Deepbridge Capital, the tax-efficient investment manager and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) provider, has announced the exit of its holding in iPipeline Holdings Inc., with iPipeline being acquired by Florida tech-holding firm, Roper Technologies, for $1.63 billion.

Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s most active private equity houses, has led the £12 million investment in LIMA Networks Ltd and Data Centre UK Ltd (LIMA Group), a Managed Services, Hybrid Cloud and Data Centre solutions provider.  Established in 1997 and located in Salford, LIMA Group is a leading technology services and infrastructure solutions provider. With a team of highly experienced technical consultants, LIMA specialises in designing and implementing intelligent IT infrastructure solutions across a wide range of sectors and industries, from SMEs to enterprise level and public sector organisations.

Keensight Capital, one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout[1] investments, replaces CAPZA as majority stakeholder of Geodesial, a leading developer and distributor of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) software for infrastructure.

EIS Fund Manager Par Equity has realised its 17th company exit with the sale of the market-leading videogame data analysis firm, deltaDNA.  The terms of the acquisition are commercially confidential, but Par investors will receive a return of many multiples of their original investment.  This follows on from Par Equity’s exit from ICS Learn last year, which rewarded investors with a return of 76x money, before any tax benefits. 

ShieldIOT, an IoT security company, offers service providers network-wide cyber protection, increasing revenue streams and securing millions of connected devices.

ShieldIOT, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity software company, has raised $3.6M in a seed funding round.

The round was led by innogy Innovation Hub, the accelerator and venture capital arm of innogy SE, a leading German energy company. The round was joined by additional new and existing investors including Janvest Capital Partners, Danmar Capital, Minvest and private investors.

The first half of 2019 has seen automotive technology deal-making news led by major tech giants challenging traditional OEMs for ‘ownership’ of the vehicles of the future, says Hampleton Partners’ latest report on Automotive Technology M&A.

Hampleton Partners, the international technology mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance advisors, noted that deal volumes were stable at just under 50 transactions. In addition, investments by Uber, Amazon and Tesla – plus on-going rumours of Apple’s development of an autonomous vehicle software system – garnered the headlines. Not only did they invest in core automotive technology; they also targeted the supporting industries which will allow autonomous and electric vehicle technology to go mainstream.

Orbital Education has received a minority investment from BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, to support the group’s global growth ambitions.

Headquartered in Manchester, Orbital Education operates premium international schools for local and expat families looking to educate their children within an English-speaking, high-quality school environment. The group was started by serial entrepreneur Kevin McNeany, best known as the founder of Nord Anglia Education, which he led to an IPO in 1997 and is now the world’s largest private education business.

Ometria, the customer marketing platform for retailers, today announces that it has raised $21m in Series B funding to further innovate its AI technology which enables retailers to better understand and better communicate with their customers. The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with Sonae IM and a number of other investors participating as well.

Hampleton Partners’ latest global IT & Business Services M&A Market Report reveals that the sector’s total disclosed deal value reached a whopping $97 billion in 1H 2019 – the highest total on record for a six-month period.

Hampleton Partners, which specialises in international technology M&A and corporate finance, also noted a significant rise in valuations, with overall median disclosed deal amount reaching $43 million in 1H 2019, up from $23 million in 2H 2018.

Edge Performance VCT, the creative industries VCT managed by leading creative economy specialist Edge Investments, has exited its investment in deltaDNA by Unity Technologies, creator of the world’s leading real-time 3D development platform based in San Francisco.

Launched in 2011 by games industry veterans Chris Wright and Tim Christian, and big data expert, Mark Robinson, Edinburgh-based deltaDNA provides games developers and publishers with cutting edge analytics and a real-time engagement platform which drive the commercial performance of the games. Since inception, the business has continued to expand its activities and has developed to become the platform of choice for over one billion users looking to augment the gaming experience.