IK Investment Partners, a Pan-European private equity firm, has signed an agreement with Trallfa, founding owner Gard Lauvsnes and other shareholders to acquire a majority stake in Norwegian Colosseum Dental, a provider of dental care in Scandinavia. Lauvsnes will reinvest a significant proportion of the sale proceeds alongside IK to

Research into companies in the developing world published by CDC, the UK’s development finance institution, shows a strong link between good financial performance and good environmental, social and corporate governance practices.   The research is part of a report detailing the developmental impact of CDC, which is owned by the UK

M/C Venture Partners has closed the sale of the firm’s portfolio company Fusepoint, a privately held managed hosting and collocation services company, to Savvis, a cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions provider. The base all-cash consideration for Fusepoint’s stock was valued at the previously-announced USD124.5m, or 10.4x annualized Q1 2010

Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, has applauded President Obama’s 15 June call to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. He says the President remains committed to finding the most promising clean technology innovations and building companies around them, creating millions of US jobs and

LifeShield Security, an all digital home security system, has closed its second round of funding. Formerly InGrid Home Security, LifeShield is the first national, professional grade and professionally monitored wireless security system that can be set up through a "plug and protect" process. Since December 2009, LifeShield has raised nearly

Soligenix, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, has entered into common stock purchase agreements with existing and new investors totalling approximately USD5.16m. Soligenix’s North American commercial partner, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, participated in this financing. Upon closing of the private placement, Soligenix will issue approximately 25,178,180 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase

NovaSparks, a provider of data packet processing solutions, has secured series A financing of USD2m from venture capital firm Partech. Partech invests in technology and internet firms, including Business Objects, DailyMotion, Informatica and Digitick.  Jean-Marc Patouillaud, partner at Partech, joined the NovaSparks board of directors earlier this year. NovaSparks offers

HarbourVest Global Private Equity, a closed-end investment company, had an estimated economic net asset value of USD717.0m or U.S.D8.64 per share as at 31 May 2010, unchanged from the 30 April 2010 estimated economic NAV per share. While valuation increases for underlying holdings resulted in a USD0.22 increase per share

BNC Bancorp, the parent company of Bank of North Carolina, has closed on a USD35m private placement anchored by Aquiline Capital Partners, a New York based private equity firm investing in financial services. Aquiline purchased shares of BNC Bancorp common stock and preferred stock at USD10.00 per share. Other investors,

Albion Ventures has exited its investment in RFI Global Services following the sale of RFI to Underwriters Laboratories for an undisclosed sum. RFI is a provider of testing, approval and consultancy services to the technology market, including data security, cellular, wireless and smart card technologies. The company tests and certifies