A company which has designed a software platform that helps businesses optimise online recruitment has raised £630,000 to support its growth plans.  Smart Recruit Online secured the funding from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), and private investors.

North West-headquartered Tactus Group, a specialist in the development of consumer technology products, has expanded into the US market with an investment into pi-top, the coding and robotics firm that specialises in improving digital skills in education. 

The Top Tier Impact (TTI) Group has announced the launch of its inaugural Global Impact Awards to celebrate start-ups around the world at the cutting edge of sustainability and positive impact.

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.

Private equity house YFM Equity Partners, which has offices in London, Birmingham, Leeds and 

Just a few weeks after their merger, Keensight Capital portfolio company Sogelink and Geodesial Group has announced the acquisition of France-based company ILTR which develops the GEODP solution facilitating the management of public domain occupations. The obvious synergies with the Sogelink - Geodesial Group range of services dedicated to these issues were the guiding force behind this new operation, which also underlines the ambition of the group to cover the entire value chain in the construction sector, with around 40 solutions now at its disposal.

The survey of returns conducted by Tesi shows that the Finnish venture capital and private equity market is performing well at present. Returns from Growth and Buyout funds have stabilised at a good level, and investment value is being realised at a steady rate. The venture capital market is also flourishing and returns from Finnish venture capital funds have risen to an excellent level in recent years.

Limitations on wind turbine design lifetimes are hampering efforts to manage costs in asset lifecycles, reducing the effectiveness of long-term decision making and disrupting the effectiveness of offshore wind energy in low carbon power generation. 

Qualus, the leading provider of sustainable solutions to the leather industry, has secured £1 million of financing in a round led by Irrus Investments, an Ireland based angel syndicate. Co-investors in the round include CPI Enterprises and angels from Cambridge Capital Group and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of London.  After years of optimising its solution through in-field trials at tanneries, Qualus now has multiple customers transitioning all production to its innovative system and a strong pipeline of potential customers in Asia, Europe, and Latin America that have successfully applied its system at a pilot scale.

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