Benefex Holdings Limited, owner of the market leading employee experience platform OneHub, has announced that Bain Capital Private Equity has signed a definitive agreement for an investment in Benefex. As part of the transaction, BGF, which has backed Benefex since 2011, will exit its minority stake.

BGF is to exit its investment in employee benefits firm Benefex, the first company to receive BGF funding when it launched in 2011. BGF’s minority stake will be acquired by Bain Capital.

The acquisition will enable Benefex to benefit from synergies with Bain Capital’s investments in the HR technology sector as the company moves to the next stage of its growth strategy. Founder Matt Macri-Waller will continue as shareholder and CEO.

Private equity fund distributions have outweighed capital calls by a significant and striking degree over the past five years.

Data from eFront, the world’s leading alternative investment management software and solutions provider, shows that since the start of 2013, distributions from private equity funds have remained at historically high levels, while capital calls have fallen steadily to their lowest level on record, when measured as a proportion of committed capital. 

Download the full report, click here.

Benjamin Matthews, Investment Manager at Heartwood Investment Management, gives his views on the emerging biotech opportunities arising from demographic shifts.

Venture capital firm MMC Ventures has announced the appointment of senior advisers to help guide the firm’s next phase of growth. Following major investment from the firm into its research function over the last two years, the new advisory board and venture partners will enhance the firm’s capabilities and bring even deeper experience and domain knowledge to bear.

Mercia Fund Managers has been shortlisted for Growth Investor of the Year and Best EIS Investment Manager at the 2018 Growth Investor Awards.

Arix Bioscience plc, a global healthcare and life science company supporting medical innovation, has announced that its Group Business Artios Pharma Limited, a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company developing innovative treatments for cancer, has completed an oversubscribed £65 million Series B financing following strong interest from investors.

Hazy, the London-based AI company enabling ethical, effortless and GDPR-compliant data sharing for responsible businesses, has announced an additional $1.8 million seed funding led by UCL Technology Fund, alongside Nationwide Building Society, Pentland, Amadeus Capital Partners, AI Seed and other investors.

This takes Hazy’s total seed funding to $2.8 million following a $1 million investment from M12 and Notion, awarded to the company in May, after Hazy was declared the European winner of global startup competition Innovate.AI.

Hazy, founded less than 18 months ago, was spun out of UCL (University College London), and raised £340,000 pre-seed in October 2017 in a round led by the UCL Technology Fund, which is managed by Albion Capital in collaboration with UCLB.

UK agri-tech start-up PBD Biotech, developers of the first rapid test for live mycobacteria, has secured £400,000 in its first major strategic investment round to fund international trials and launch a suite of products.

NVM Private Equity (NVM) has invested £3m of growth capital into leading indoor climbing business The Climbing Hangar (TCH). Indoor climbing is a growing sport that blends socialising with health and fitness and TCH aims to provide access to its superior facilities at an affordable cost, catering to a growing community of highly engaged climbing enthusiasts and novices alike.

Profit with purpose food company Farmstand has raised $3 million, led by Kindred Capital.  The funding will support the compnay in its mission to make a healthier plant-powered diet accessible to all.

YFM Equity Partners (YFM), the specialist private equity fund manager, has invested £4.5m from its managed funds into Collaborative Project Management Services (CPMS) to support the continued growth of the business through ongoing new product and market development.  YFM’s investment is the sixth investment from its £46m buyout fund.  CPMS provides multidiscipline Project Management to the railway system across track, signalling, telecoms, civils, and overhead lines.  CPMS has built a very strong reputation for excellence and is one of only seven companies to be awarded top marks under Network Rail’s Performance Supplier feedback process.