eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report, showing that LBO performance has fallen for three straight quarters from its 10-year high in 2017.

Key findings:

• After reaching a peak of 1.49x in Q3 2017, the average return multiple achieved by active LBO funds has continued its retreat, back to the level of Q2 2017, at 1.45x.
• Despite the fall, active global LBO funds have outperformed the average of 1.3x achieved between 2009-2018 by 0.15x.
• The dispersion of performance between the top and bottom funds has stabilised at 1.34x, following a general trend towards a lower dispersion of returns, equating to reduced risk.
• Q1 2018 recorded a sharp decrease of the average time-to-liquidity, to just 2.63 years.
• In terms of vintage years, 2009 and 2014 are so far delivering strong performance, while 2010 and 2013 are more subdued.
• Overall, the performance of US funds stands above or on the long-term average, while Western European LBO funds show a more volatile performance.

Shieldpay, the secure payments provider, has been awarded an Innovate UK grant.  

The funding will be used to scale up Shieldpay’s Third Party Managed Account (TPMA) solution in the UK and lay strong foundations for Shieldpay to expand into the global real estate market.

In May this year, Shieldpay successfully completed the UK’s first fully digital real estate transaction with MyHomeMove and Barclays, with the support of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and other industry stakeholders. The solution also enables parties to complete on transactions at anytime from anywhere, that includes completing a house purchase on a weekend or bank holiday.

Mayfair-based alternative finance house IW Capital has invested in Eos Leisure. The Company manufactures and sells its own branded eliquid products (Vapemate, Soda Steam, Directors Cut) into the UK vaping market and provides manufacturing and scientific testing services for other suppliers in vaping and other markets. The EIS qualifying investment of £2 million will be used to support the company’s growth, with a focus on building sales and marketing resources, continuing scientific accreditation work and product development.

By Matthew Cushen, co-founder of Worth Capital

Anecdotally, traditional investment orthodoxy may have it that mature companies are lower risk than new businesses and pensions are the most tax-efficient way to reduce tax liabilities. However, big companies are failing to innovate and adapt and lifetime allowance restrictions on pensions means looking elsewhere for tax reliefs. Just two reasons for Matthew Cushen to share his experience of seed investing through EIS & SEIS.

Maven Capital Partners has completed a £2.15 million investment in Boiler Plan (UK) Ltd, a market disruptive platform that sells, installs and services boilers.  

The transaction includes a £1.65m investment from the Maven VCTs and a £500,000 investment from the North East Development Capital Fund, managed by Maven and supported by the European Regional Development Fund. The funding will help accelerate Boiler Plan’s growth, allowing the business to increase its geographic coverage and invest in its sales, marketing and digital functions.

Boiler Plan provides an innovative online platform for the purchase of a new boiler. Its ‘digital first’ solution offers consumers a quick and convenient way to complete the quote process online, with the installation able to take place within 48 hours. The platform supports the entire boiler sales process, handling everything from the choice of appliance, the initial home survey, finance payment options, installation by a qualified engineer, and the ongoing maintenance and aftercare service.

Foresight Group has made an investment into Postworks Limited on behalf of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund. This mark’s Foresight’s third MEIF investment since its launch in February.  

Postworks is an online franking company providing small and medium sized businesses with a software-based alternative to franked business post.  Using Postworks’ software platform, businesses can ‘drag and drop’ their post for electronic sorting, printing and folding at Postworks printing centre before being handed over to the Royal Mail for delivery. 

The Northampton-based company was launched late 2016 by James and Marvee-Lisa Booker. With their extensive experience in the print, mail and media sector, they identified an opportunity to improve upon and disrupt the traditional franking model, using technology to deliver scalable mailing services to the SME sector.

HeleCloud, an IT consultancy and managed services provider specialising in highly sophisticated Cloud strategy, implementation, migration and operation services, has received a £2m minority investment from BGF to further accelerate its growth strategy. Thnding will support the company’s services portfolio expansion, the establishment of its presence into further European territories, and the development of new Cloud capabilities. HeleCloud was founded in 2016 and has grown rapidly and currently has more than 50 employees. It has an exceptional reputation and has already worked on projects with global corporations and household names, and references market disruptors such as Viber, the NEX Group, and Zopa.

Forward Health, the app working to reinvent healthcare communication, has raised a $3.9m seed funding-round led by Stride.VC, with additional backing from Albion Capital. The funds are joined by an impressive roster of angel backers, including healthtech founders Jay Desai from US company Patient Ping and Melissa Morris from UK-based Lantum.

Forward was founded in 2016 by UK doctors Barney Gilbert and Lydia Yarlott, alongside serial entrepreneur Philip Mundy. Their mission is to connect healthcare systems around the world, making communication secure, transparent and flexible for healthcare professionals and patients.

New research now offers a unique road map for all emerging and start-up hedge fund managers as they make their way to $1bn AUM. This has been achieved byanalysing the path to growth and crucial insights of larger, more established managers who blazed a trail in building billion-dollar hedge fund businesses.

Produced by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), alternative prime broker GPP and Edgefolio, ‘Making it Big’ is informed through an industry wide survey and a series of roundtable discussions posed to asset managers and industry allocators representing an estimated $500bn in total hedge fund AUM. Hedge fund representation in the report includes responses from 155 managers and, crucially, also reflects the opinions of 60 hedge fund allocators, accounting for approximately $89bn.

Seraphim Capital has revealed the startups that are participating in Mission 2 for Space Camp, the world’s first dedicated accelerator for global startups in the SpaceTech industry. The cohort includes 10 companies, expanding on the six that took part in the successful Mission 1 earlier this year. Featuring startups from the UK, the US, Norway, and Sweden, Space Camp is being run from the offices of global law firm Dentons at London’s St Pauls.

Launched by Seraphim Capital and backed by corporate sponsors such as Inmarsat, Rolls-Royce, and Cyient, as well as the UK and European space agencies, SA Catapult, and Capital Enterprise, alongside Seraphim Space Fund partners including Airbus, Surrey Satellite Technology, SES, and Telespazio, Space Camp is a nine-week programme, culminating in an investor day on 20 November.

Gianluca Bisceglie, founder and CEO of Visyond, discusses why a lean startup model can help attract investment.

The team behind Lara Croft’s smile in the newly launched bestselling Shadow of the Tomb Raider video game are turning their technology sights on the customer service sector following a significant funding boost.

Speech Graphics is an Edinburgh and California based technology business which provides market-leading, real-time audio based facial animation, featuring in productions from video games to music videos and now, with a £2m investment from Archangels, the prominent business angel syndicate, Par Equity and Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) the company is targeting the customer service sector’s Intelligent Virtual Assistant market from its base in the San Francisco Bay area of California.