Palamon Capital Partners has partnered with the management team of IDH Group to enter into a binding share purchase agreement to acquire The Carlyle Group’s shareholding and the shares held by the other minority shareholders in the Company to become the sole equity sponsor.  The transaction is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2021 following receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals and will be accompanied by a full refinancing of the Company’s third-party borrowings.

Port Talbot-based Deer Technology has secured equity investment totalling £1.32 million and announced a £2.5 million contract win with Wave, a leading retailer in the non-household water market.

Intelligent AI has secured £400,000 in seed funding led by RLC Ventures following successful graduation from the Lloyds Lab Accelerator. The round also saw participation from FomCap, The Gupta Group and a number of UK based angel investors from leading private equity, insurance and property firms.  The company has also been successful in winning £295,000 in Innovate UK grants, matched with its own funding.

Marlin Equity Partners has signed a definitive agreement to complete a growth investment in iBanFirst SA, a cloud-based, financial services provider delivering solutions across banking borders.

Invest Europe, the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure sectors, as well as their investors, has published its ‘Private Equity at Work’ report. 

Penfold, the pensions challenger making saving for the future easier today, has raised a £6million investment round to accelerate growth and expand its team. The round was led by Bridford Investments Limited, and concluded with a recent crowdfunding campaign on CrowdCube, which reached its £3.1m maximum target in less than 24 hours.

Asset Class, a fintech company headquartered in Dublin, with offices in New York and London, announces a strategic investment from Angel Oak Ventures, the technology venture arm of Angel Oak Companies, which is headquartered in Atlanta.

Deepbridge Capital, the UK venture capital investment manager, has announces that it has secured a £15m commitment from British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, to fund early-stage businesses across the UK.

Warwickshire based manufacturer of energy storage solutions, Off Grid Energy, has secured a £1.25m investment to scale-up its operations, further developing its product offering whilst creating new jobs in the area.

Off Grid Energy secured the finance from The Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provided by The FSE Group, Debt Finance Fund and backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Bright Star Studios has secured over $2 million in funding from multiple investors for its forthcoming free-to-play MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game) Ember Sword. This investment comes ahead of the game’s first Solarwood land sale of 12,000 plots on May 27th. Bright Star Studios intends to use the funding to further Ember Sword’s development, enabling it to deliver on its vision of a high-quality and immersive player-first gaming experience supported by an innovative play-to-earn economy powered by the blockchain.

The Riverside Company, a global private investor focused on the smaller end of the middle market, has signed a definitive agreement to sell Greenphire, the global leader in financial lifecycle management software for clinical trials, to Thoma Bravo, a software focused private equity firm. 

Foresight Group has made a further investment into Fresh Relevance, following  on a record quarter of growth for the Company, to accelerate product roadmap roll out and support scaling. Some of the management team have participated in the funding round, demonstrating strong support for the business and its growth.