SEED Innovations Limited, the AIM quoted company investing in fast growing and industry leading businesses with a focus on investing within the medical cannabis, health and wellness space, has participated in the latest financing round of US$9.7 million by its portfolio company, Yooma Wellness Inc. as announced by Seed on 27 July 2021. Yooma is a vertically-integrated global leader in the manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and sale of wellness products including hemp seed oil and hemp-derived cannabinoid ingredients. 

Walking on Earth is coming out of stealth to tackle the rising issue of workplace stress exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and remote working. The digital platform has closed a £3 million seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures, which supported success stories such as Cazoo, Depop and Graze. Walking on Earth benefits from further backing from renowned UK founders.

Equality Check, the crowd-sourced employee review platform, has completed a €1.25m seed investment to fund product development and international expansion.  The Norwegian venture capital fund Alliance Venture lead the round, together with several angel investors and the global early-stage VC Antler, which chose to invest in the Oslo-based start-up for a third time.

Keensight Capital, one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout investments, has entered into an agreement to sell its stake in Demetra Holding S.p.A. to Astorg.

Circular economy business CauliBox, which is the UK’s first tech-enabled reusable container scheme has secured £250,000 in a seed funding round led by SFC Capital, with Angel investors. CauliBox provides award-winning, digitally-enabled reusable solutions to disrupt the disposable food packaging market, an industry worth £45 billion a year globally. For its endeavours, CauliBox has been named in the FoodTech 500 and co-founder Josephine Liang was recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2021 - ‘Social Impact’ category.

Growth capital investor, BGF has announced a successful exit from J&B Recycling, generating a 2.4x return on its investment. The company is at the forefront of waste management and recycling in the UK, providing an end-to-end service for commercial and local authority customers across the North and England and Scotland. 

PALATINE-backed Construction Testing Solutions (CTS), a leading provider of construction consulting and testing services, has completed the acquisition of Silkstone Environmental Limited (SEL), a multi-disciplined consultancy specialising in minerals and waste management planning & permitting, site investigation, environmental monitoring and surveying.

BGF-backed Evoke Creative Ltd – the leading specialist in kiosk, digital signage and interactive solutions for the retail, hospitality and public sectors – has acquired Liverpool-based app design and development agency, Apposing Ltd, as part of their wider expansion strategy. 

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has announced  investment into North SP Group (North) and follow on acquisition of Data Techniques. North is a highly technical integrated technology specialist delivering end-to-end networking and IoT application design, implementation, support, and managed services throughout the UK. North prides itself on driving innovation and leading the industry in adoption of emerging technologies. Led by CEO, Glen Williams, North has over 270 staff, of which around 160 provide technical services.

One of the UK’s leading apprenticeship and adult education providers which secured private equity funding to become an independent business last year has significantly improved its performance over the last two years – despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayfair Equity Partners, the leading tech and consumer growth investor, has completed an investment in Tangle Teezer, the category-defining British haircare brand. Mayfair will hold a majority stake in the business. Additional deal terms have not been disclosed.

Venari Security, the defender of encrypted networks, has raised a Series A funding of £4.2m with a post money valuation of £14.2m. With some of the best known and most influential figures in the cybersecurity industry onboard including Paddy McGuinness, the UK’s former Deputy National Security Adviser for Intelligence, Security and Resilience; Lane Bess, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Palo Alto Networks; and Cris Conde, former Chief Executive Officer of Sungard, the company is primed for success by fundamentally transforming organisations’ ability to accurately and quickly spot threats concealed in encrypted traffic.