Foresight Group has sold Flowrite Refrigeration Holdings Limited to Airedale Catering Equipment Group Limited, a company focused on the design, installation and servicing of catering equipment throughout the UK.

Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners have banked a healthy return multiple of 2.25x within two years of their initial investment in EIKON Group, with YFM retaining a minority investment.

In March 2018, YFM initially provided £6m funding to EIKON, a London-based leading provider of digital mastering and localisation services to the international entertainment industry. This funding, from YFM’s British Smaller Companies VCT funds and Growth LP funds, was mostly used to expand the company’s execution capabilities through development of a major new facility in Los Angeles.

Mixergy, the award-winning Oxford University cleantech spin-out company, has raised £3.6m in Series A financing to fuel its next stage of growth in developing innovative and efficient hot water tanks to help decarbonise households and reduce consumer energy usage.

This new phase of investment from Foresight Williams Technology (FWT), Oxford Sciences Innovation and IP Group, builds on a previous investment with Centrica and will further position Mixergy as the leader in the development of residential smart hot water tanks. Powered by cutting-edge machine learning and engineering, the tanks can save up to 20% on hot water bills, provide up to 30% more usable hot water, and deliver hot water up to five times faster.

Abris Capital Partners, the leading private equity investor in Central and Eastern Europe, has announced the promotion of Paulina Pietkiewicz, Edgar Kolesnik and Adrian Stanculescu to Partners. 

Just under half of firms in the UK (46%) and US (45%) predict their country will go into recession in 2020, while the Chinese economy is expected to maintain a solid 6-7% growth rate, according to new research released today by trade finance provider Stenn.

Cowboy, the design driven electric bike company, has hit an impressive £3.7 million with four days of its crowdfunding still to go. The maker of the world’s best connected e-bike has funded 308% of its original target of £1.2m which was reached in just 12 minutes, making it Crowdcube’s most successful cleantech campaign. 

GP Bullhound, a leading technology advisory and investment firm, has acted as financial exclusive advisor to EcoVadis on a USD200M growth investment from CVC Growth Partners – the  largest transaction in the ESG space, and the largest equity fundraising in France in Enterprise Software to date.

Livingbridge is re-investing as a minority shareholder in Sykes Holiday Cottages, the UK’s leading independent holiday home provider with over 25 years’ experience in the market.

Livingbridge first invested in Sykes in January 2015, when the business managed 5,000 properties in the UK and Ireland.  Livingbridge successfully sold Sykes to private equity firm Vitruvian Partners in October 2019, at which time it managed over 17,500 properties, having successfully delivered market leading organic growth and completed 12 acquisitions underpinned by a highly effective digital transformation strategy. 

Ori Biotech Ltd, an innovator in Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) manufacturing, has successfully closed a $9.4M (£7M) seed round which will be used to bring their innovative manufacturing platform to market. The Ori platform will deliver scalable solutions to flexibly address the critical clinical and commercial manufacturing needs of CGT developers.

 The investor syndicate is comprised of some of the UK’s leading venture investors including Amadeus Capital Partners, Delin Ventures, Kindred Capital and a London-based family office, alongside a group of angel investors who have supported the company since inception.

Calculus Capital has sold their investment in London-based marketing agency Once Upon a Time (OUAT) in a deal that netted investors an expected total return of 1.8x, excluding the tax benefits associated with investing through EIS.

London Business School (LBS) and QVentures, a leading private network for sophisticated investors, have launched an exclusive professional development programme aimed at Venture Capital professionals, Family Offices and sophisticated investors.

Independent Growth Finance (IGF), a leading independent commercial finance provider, appoints Matt Shepherd as Commercial Director. Matt comes to IGF with nearly 20 years experience in finance, with a focus on business development and asset based lending.