Keensight Capital, one of the leading European Growth Buyout¹ firms, has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Smile, the European leader in digital and open source. Subject to the completion of the information and consultation process of the employees representative bodies of the Smile group and the approval of the transaction by the French competition authority, Keensight Capital, which has built a strong partnership with Smile over the years having first invested in the company from 2013 to 2017, would replace Eurazeo PME as majority shareholder. Eurazeo PME would also be reinvesting in the company, alongside the management team and the employees.

Standard Cognition, which is building the next interface of retail, has raised a $35M Series B funding round led by the EQT Ventures fund with participation from existing investors Initialized Capital, CRV and Y Combinator. This brings Standard’s total funding to date to more than $86M, and its post-money valuation to $535M - more than a 2x increase since the company raised its Series A in Nov. 2018.

Machine learning start-up Futr. has secured £2.4m in seed funding in a round led by VC firm Praetura Ventures. The funding will be used to accelerate delivery of the firms’ ambitious tech road-map, with the team more than doubling this year to meet the large demand for Futr.’s products. Founded in 2017 by Andy Wilkins and Lee Skyrme, Futr.’s conversation-as-a-service is already powering clients across a range of industries, including the police, central and local government and a number of leading private sector organisations. Futr.’s technology simplifies how organisations deliver their services on the channels that their staff and consumers use every day, like Alexa, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, in over 100 languages.

Keensight Capital, one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout[1] investments, announces the acquisition of Infarco’s majority stake in 3P Biopharmaceuticals, a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) specialized in the process development and GMP manufacturing of biologics.

Cambridge Touch Technologies Ltd., the leading provider of piezoelectric UltraTouch multi-force-and-touch technology to the consumer electronics, automotive, industrial and military markets, today announced it has closed an oversubscribed $10 million Series B funding round, bringing the total amount raised to nearly $20 million. The round was led by Kureha Corporation of Japan, a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and plastics including piezoelectric polymer film, together with participation from existing investors Parkwalk, Downing Ventures, CM Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners, and new investment from top Chinese venture capital firm Puhua Capital and Japanese automotive touch panel firm, Futaba Corporation. The University of Cambridge is also an existing investor, while Ascendant Corporate Finance provided advice on the round.

Returns from global venture capital funds reached their highest level since the dotcom era, with Western European funds significantly outperforming the long-term average.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £900,000 investment in supercomputing technology specialist, ebb3 Limited. A total of £750,000 was invested by NPIF – Maven Equity Finance (‘’NPIF’’), managed by Maven and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, with a further £150,000 provided by the Maven VCTs. The funding will enable ebb3 to further scale the business, double its headcount and support the growing demand for the company’s complete high-performance virtual workspace. 

LGB Investments, whose offering includes secured high yielding investment opportunities for sophisticated private investors, family offices and wealth managers, is celebrating the third anniversary of its SME Fund. The SME Fund’s Net Asset Value has grown by 6.52% in the 12 months to the end of June and overall has delivered a 19.1% return for investors in the three years since it was established. Out of the total assets in the fund, 91% were invested in secured medium term notes at the end of the June.

Medical device company Flow, creators of the first and only medically approved treatment for depression of its kind in Europe, today announces it has raised $1.5m in an investment round led by Khosla Ventures to tackle the world’s most urgent mental health challenges. The investment will be used to support Flow’s European rollout, introduce Flow to healthcare clinics, and fund clinical studies.

Workshare, the document comparison and transaction management specialist for the legal sector, has been acquired by Chicago-headquartered Litera Microsystems in a deal set to drive further innovation across the global legal software market.

The acquisition secures an exit for BGF, who first invested in Workshare in 2012. 

Graphite Capital, the leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, has recognised the contribution of members of its investment team with a number of promotions.

Bluegem II LP, a European mid-market fund focused on consumer brands, exited from its participation in Liberty, the British iconic brand and flagship store, in a secondary recapitalisation led by Glendower Capital, a global secondary private equity manager.

The transaction valuing the company at ca. GBP 300 million enterprise value reflects the work that Bluegem started nine years ago to transform Liberty from a loss-making department store into a vibrant brand and an iconic destination for the most discerning customers in London.