Afrikamart, a West African agritech start-up has closed a $850,000 seed round of financing from venture capital groups including the BLOC Smart Africa fund managed by Bamboo Capital Partners, Orange Digital Ventures, Launch Africa and Teranga Capital. The proceeds from the financing will allow the company to ramp-up its purchases

Black Swan Data – a data science and consumer behaviour prediction company – has closed an $18.5 million growth fundraise led by Oxx, a venture capital firm that backs Europe’s most promising B2B SaaS companies, with participation from existing investor AlbionVC. The funding will be invested in developing more advanced

US middle-market private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners has sold Mercury Healthcare, a technology and data analytics company, to WebMD Health Corp, an Internet Brands company and a leader in health information services for consumers, physicians and other healthcare professionals. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.    The

Trinsic, the leading infrastructure for building user-controlled identity products, has secured $8.5 million in a  seed funding round led by Georgian. Jon Gelsey (Founding CEO, Auth0), Frederic Kerrest (Executive Vice Chairman, Co-founder & COO, Okta), Kickstart Seed Fund, Founder’s Co-op, Osage Venture Partners, Forward VC, and a dozen additional angel

SFC Capital, one of the UK’s most active seed-stage investors, has received a further £5 million commitment from British Business Investments to invest into innovative early-stage businesses across the UK regions. This new commitment – part of its Regional Angels Programme, designed to reduce regional imbalances in access to early-stage equity

The Riverside Company, a global private equity investor focused on the smaller end of the middle market, has made a non-control investment in Apollo Interactive (Apollo). Founded in 1995, Apollo is a tech-enabled lead generation provider that delivers its customers leads of high-intent consumers who are actively searching online for

Pembroke VCT, a venture capital trust focused on backing early-stage businesses led by exceptional founders and management teams, has invested in My Expert Midwife, a midwife-founded brand for pregnancy, birth and beyond. The £2 million fundraise was led by Pembroke, who invested £1.5 million alongside existing shareholders and angel investors. 

Ophelos, a, AI technology firm and pending B-corp focused on the debt resolution process in the UK, has raised £5 million in a seed funding round led by AlbionVC.   Contributions were also made by Vast Ventures, an early investor in Coinbase and Tala, regulatory and public policy experts Form

Foresight Group (Foresight), a listed private equity and infrastructure investment manager, has made a £600,000 growth capital investment in Lillicoco Limited (Lillicoco), using equity finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF). Lillicoco is an e-tailer of women’s affordable luxury antique jewellery, including rings, bracelets, necklaces and pendants – ranging

Claira (www.claira.io), a document intelligence fintech, has secured a strategic investment from Citi Spread Products Investment Technologies (SPRINT), the strategic investing arm of the bank’s Global Spread Products division.