ForeVest Capital Partners (“ForeVest”), a leading private equity fund manager operating primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, announced the close of a general partner-led secondary transaction of a fund it advises, PineBridge New Europe Partners II, L.P. (“NEP II”). 

Go Beyond Investing and Bamboo Capital Partners have announced a strategic partnership that will see the firms combining expertise to target early stage growth businesses across Europe, with some exposure to US and Israel based companies.

Nosto, a leader in ecommerce personalization and artificial intelligence (AI) tools for retail, has raised USD $7.4 million led by European investment companies Tesi, Open Ocean and Idinvest. Nosto’s innovative retail personalization solutions have fueled a three-year growth rate of 260 percent in North America driven by deep relationships with 2,500 of the world’s fastest growing retail brands. To date, Nosto has raised more than $25 million from investors to further expand its leadership in artificial intelligence and deep learning for retail.

Durham County Council and Blaenau Gwent Borough Council have launched a call for technology businesses to develop innovative solutions that can capture and analyse data to transform Local Authority service delivery. Development funding is provided under the GovTech Catalyst Fund scheme and the competition opens for applications on 24 September.

Full competition documentation will only be available to applicants who register via Innovate UK’s website once the competition opens on 24 September. Further information can be found https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/245/overview.

Scottish Equity Partners has been named as one of the world’s most consistent, top performing venture capital fund managers by Preqin, the data and intelligence specialists for the global alternative assets industry.  

See the full rankings here.

Optoscribe, a leading supplier of glass-based integrated photonics components, has raised £2.8 million. This funding will facilitate an expansion of current manufacturing capacity, the hiring of key engineering resource and allow the business to meet the demands of a growing customer base.

NPIF - Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, has invested £200,000 as part of a £700,000 funding round in Biorelate, a technology platform using artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently curate data in biomedicine.

Existing investors, Catapult Ventures via the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund, provided £150,000 and the Manchester Tech Trust Angels provided £350,000. The funding will be used to expand the team, and to develop its product offering, including three new SaaS products.

Divido, the consumer finance platform for retailers, lenders and payment intermediaries, today announces a $15 million USD Series A raise led by Dawn Capital and DN Capital, with additional participation from Mastercard, American Express Ventures and previous investors. The Divido board has also appointed Renier Lemmens as chairman. Mr. Lemmens has previously served as Chief Executive Officer of PayPal EMEA and Chief Operating Officer of the International Retail & Commercial Banking Division of Barclays.

Talis Capital, a London-based venture capital firm focused on technology companies, has invested $2.5million into Learning People, the UK’s leading online training company, and SkillsFox, its B2B arm serving corporate training and development needs. 

Seasalt, the Cornish lifestyle and clothing brand, has announced a £16m investment in the company to support future growth and development in the business. The investment will see BGF invest £11.5m, with Santander Corporate & Commercial providing an additional £4.5m in funding.

In the last three years, Seasalt’s turnover has grown from £28m to £51m. The company now employs 869 people and is one of the largest private employers in Cornwall. In March, Seasalt opened its 50^th store in the UK, bucking the recent prevailing trend on the British high street.

With this new investment, Seasalt is set to open another 40 stores over the next 5 years, employing an additional 700 people across the UK and Ireland. By early 2019, the company will have over 1000 employees. As well as developing new career opportunities, the investment will support Seasalt’s ongoing drive to improve customer experience, both in-store and online.

The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Early & Growth Stage Funds have invested €1.7M in Sytorus Ltd, this is in addition to simultaneous investment from Enterprise Ireland and private investors.

A novel anti-bacterial agent which has been developed in Scotland by MGB Biopharma for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infections, is to enter Phase II clinical trials following a newly-completed £1.3m fund raise from existing and new investors, supplementing a £2.7m grant awarded earlier this year by Innovate UK.