eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest research on LBO and VC performance during crises: “Private Markets in Downturns: 3 Observations”. 

Ikarovec, which is developing novel gene therapies to treat major ophthalmic indications, has been awarded £458,740 by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to accelerate development of its wet-form age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) product. The grant, made under the UKI2S Innovate Accelerator Programme (1), is being matched by investment made into the company by LifeArc, Parkwalk and UKI2S in its recent seed round. This new funding for Ikarovec’s early stage wAMD product provides additional resource with which to accelerate its development, while the seed funds are being used primarily to advance the company’s lead programme in diabetic macular edema.

London based cleantech company Powervault has secured an additional £2 million of funding to support its continuing innovation in the vital field of energy storage. This includes a £725,000 growth loan from the Greater London Investment Fund, managed by The FSE Group.  We can’t control when the sun shines or the wind blows – so energy storage is absolutely key to our transition from fossil fuels to renewables. Right now, there are times when wind turbines have to be switched off because more energy is being generated than the grid can cope with. Equally, as a nation we are still firing up fossil fuel powered stations during times of excess demand.

EQT Ventures has appointed a new deal partner, Rania Belkahia, to its new team in France.  Joining EQT Ventures’ team of former founders and operators, Rania will be leading all investments in France and brings her first-hand experience in consumer, B2C e-commerce and marketplaces, international scaling and operational strategy to the next generation of founders.

Zelluna Immunotherapy, a T Cell Receptor (TCR) cell therapy company, has completed a fundraise to fully focus on the development of its proprietary TCR guided Natural Killer (NK) cell therapy platform (TCR-NK) for the treatment of cancers.  

A total of approximately EUR 7.5 million has been raised in equity financing and public grants. Zelluna’s strategy is to concentrate on the development of TCR-NK cell therapy products based on its proprietary technology platform, where TCRs are functionally expressed in NK cells. The combination of the broad target range of TCRs with the inherent anti-tumor activity and allogeneic nature of NK cells could offer novel, safe, and effective “off the shelf” cell therapy treatments for solid cancer patients. 

No women in private equity report that they see starting their own firm as part of their future ambitions, according to Investec’s 10th edition of their global GP Trends Report.

Down from just 2.3 per cent of women who claimed they would like to start their own firm in 2018, 0 per cent of female respondents for the 2019 survey said that if they left their current firm, they would start their own. This is compared to nearly 15 per cent of male general partners.

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has invested in TitanHQ, a fast-growing, global, cloud security vendor. Headquartered in Galway, Ireland and with offices in Tampa, Florida, TitanHQ provides Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and businesses with advanced web filtering, email security and email archiving solutions.  The company has over 20 years’ experience in the cyber security sector and protects over 8,500 businesses and 2,500 MSPs across 150 countries, including Virgin, O2, ViaSat, Pepsi and Datto.  It has demonstrated year on year growth with this momentum propelling ARR to more than $15m today.

Following the launch of Blackfinch Asset Management, investment specialist Blackfinch Group launches four Adaptation Funds. 

Axiom is launching with an enterprise-grade solution to manage and analyse machine data at any scale, across any type of infrastructure. Axiom gives DevOps teams a cloud-native, serverless solution to store and query their data all the time in one intuitive interface - without the overhead of maintaining and scaling data infrastructure. 

Catherine Lewis La Torre has been appointed Interim CEO of the Government-owned British Business Bank and will take up the role from 1 September. 

Redwigwam, the UK’s leading provider of flexible workers, has secured investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund to fuel the next phase of its expansion.

The Liverpool-based company received the funding from NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

Redwigwam was founded four years ago by serial entrepreneur Lorna Davidson, who had previously founded and sold Tactical Solutions, one of the UK’s leading field sales and marketing companies, for £29million.

An overwhelming majority (92%) of private equity fund managers expect to see a rise in the volume of distressed fund transaction activity over the next 12 months. Says Intertrust's Global Private Equity Outlook Report 2020. Due to the impact of COVID-19, almost half (46%) of respondents believe that mismatches in valuation expectations between buyers and sellers will restrict deal flow.