SICCAR has received an investment of £1.3m led by specialist technology investment house, Par Equity.

Scotland-based SICCAR, previously Wallet Services, connect organisations with reliable, protected data. The investment will strengthen its product development and customer teams as the company builds on its success in two industry sectors.

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has announced its investment in Visualsoft, a market-leading eCommerce platform provider.  Founded in 1998 by CEO Dean Benson and headquartered in Teesside with offices in Newcastle, Manchester and Dubai, Visualsoft provides SMEs with an industry-leading end-to-end eCommerce solution, including initial site development and ongoing support, alongside wrap around digital marketing services. 

A trio of Oxfordshire day nurseries have been acquired by a fast-growing independent education provider. Chatsworth Schools, which is itself headquartered in Oxfordshire, has purchased Tiny Toes Day Nurseries in a deal arranged by the childcare business transfer specialist Abacus Day Nursery Sales, a specialist division of Blacks Business Brokers.

Integrated Graphene Ltd,  the Scottish-based tech company, has fired the starting pistol on scaled production of its unique breakthrough 3D graphene foam, Gii, following the completion of a £3.1 million round of investment in the business, led by Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate, Archangels, with co-investment from Par Equity, Techstart Ventures and ESM Investments.

Whiterock Finance has made its first ever equity investment by backing specialist recruitment business Artemis Human Capital.

The Belfast-based investment team, comprising Paul Millar, Rhona Barbour, David McCurley and Neil McCabe, has taken a minority stake in Artemis for an undisclosed sum and will also work with the business in an advisory capacity.

Private equity house, Chiltern Capital, has completed an investment in a leading waste management incinerator manufacturer with support from a multi-million-pound lending facility from Shawbrook Bank.

Inciner8 Ltd, based in Southport, Merseyside, was acquired by Chiltern in a deal that will enable the business to capitalise on its strong market position as well as grow its product range, service offering and global reach.

Inciner8 designs and manufactures incinerators for a range of uses across the waste management industry, supplying incinerators to corporate, government and non-governmental clients globally. Its products are often used to safely reduce the mass and disposal of hazardous waste that would otherwise end up in landfill. Its incinerators are environmentally friendly thanks to their ability to retain and reburn harmful exhaust gases.

Ingenion Medical Limited has been awarded nearly £100,000 in grant funding from Innovate UK, the country’s innovation agency. Ingenion will use the proceeds over the next six months to gain a CE Mark for its CymActive™ urinary catheter, a novel medical device to treat male patients suffering from chronic urinary retention. 

The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market, welcomes Iain Leigh as the newest member of the Riverside Board of Advisors (RBA) upon his retirement as founder of the private equity business of APG Asset Management. Leigh is also well known for his prior role leading AlpInvest Partners in North America.  

In a significant boost for both the German and the wider Central European start-up ecosystem amidst a slow start to 2020, the global early stage capital firm Antler is opening a new office in Berlin.

Graphite Capital has made one promotion and two new appointments to strengthen further its investment team.

Mind Foundry, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that spun out of the University of Oxford’s Machine Learning Research Group (MLRG), today announced it has raised an additional $13.6 million in Series A funding led by Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd (ANDI) of the MS&AD Insurance Group and includes funding from existing investors Parkwalk Advisors, Oxford Sciences Innovation, the University of Oxford, and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund. With the new funding, the company has raised a total of $24.4 million to date. 

Purple Dot, the ‘worth-the-wait’ payment option for fashion brands, today announces its seed round of £1.35 million, led by Connect Ventures, with support from, AI Seed, Moxxie Ventures, Andy Chung and Philipp Moehring from AngelList, Vijay Pandurangan (ex-Twitter), Alex Roetter former SVP of Engineering at Twitter and the family office of Paul Forster, co-founder of Indeed.com.