Syngenta Ventures has made an equity investment in Metabolon, a privately-held US biotechnology company focused on the use of metabolomics in research and diagnostics. This is the first direct investment by Syngenta Ventures, Syngenta’s newly-established corporate venture capital subsidiary. "The creation of Syngenta Ventures will complement our in-house R&D work

Varicent Software, a provider of sales performance management and incentive compensation management solutions, has raised USD35mn in additional funding led by San Francisco and New York-based FTV Capital.   RBC Venture Partners and EdgeStone Capital Partners, current investors in Varicent, also participated in the new round of funding. The deal

Washington State’s venture capital community shows a slightly more optimistic outlook for the coming quarter, according to the results of the Q4 2009 Venture Capital Outlook Survey from the Washington Technology Industry Association. In what may be a reflection of the beginnings of a broader economic recovery, for the third

Octopus Investments has made a GBP2m investment from the GBP30m Octopus Capital for Enterprise Fund into Monkey Bizness, a UK operator of family entertainment centres. The Octopus investment will be used to strengthen the business’ balance sheet and to finance additional new sites across the UK.  Monkey Bizness currently operates

MidOcean Partners, a private equity firm with offices in New York and London, in combination with Allant management, has acquired The Allant Group, a provider of marketing optimisation solutions. "We have been following the developing trends in the marketing services space for several years and became increasingly impressed with Allant,

Black Opal Equity has been launched as a privately held investment firm that specialises in acquiring and actively managing established middle-market businesses in the US. The firm will invest in companies that service or partner with the infrastructure, essential service and government sectors in the US. It looks to acquire

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and AXA Private Equity have entered into a partnership to better support Québec- and European-based businesses with international development prospects. Through this joint effort, the partners will share their respective market knowledge and networks in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle-East

International Biotechnology Trust, the investment trust managed by SV Life Sciences, outperformed the broader equity markets over the 12 months to 31 August 2009. IBT is the only biotech focused investment trust to carry both quoted and unquoted stocks in its portfolio. Over the 12 months ended 31 August 2009