Ridgemont Equity Partners, a middle market private equity investor, has closed an investment in Backstage, a global platform that enables productions, brands, marketing agencies, and businesses to discover and work with creative talent. Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.   “Ridgemont is focussed on identifying data, information,

LBO France has acquired a stake in Moustache Bikes, a company that specialises in designing, assembling and distributing electric bikes. The private equity firm Initiative & Finance is selling its 55 per cent stake held since 2015, and the company’s founding managers, Emmanuel Antonot and Grégory Sand, who hitherto owned

Souter Investments has invested in the fintech interest-free-only credit provider, DivideBuy. The investment from Souter Investments and Jon Moulton through his family office Perscitus, alongside debt funding from Shawbrook Bank and Paragon Bank, will enable DivideBuy to grow further and offer many more UK retailers access to its market leading technology. DivideBuy

Planixs, a high-growth FinTech company, has secured an initial GBP3.5 million minority equity investment from BGF. The company will take advantage of a fast-growing market by using the funding to expand its global customer base, accelerate product development and support recruitment across the business. Founded in 2011, Manchester-based Planixs works

Oxx, a growth capital firm focussed on B2B software companies, has led a USD8 million growth equity investment in Stockholm-based Funnel, a software company delivering automated data collection and transformation software to advertising and marketing business users. Existing investors, including Balderton, Industrifonden and Zobito also participated in the round. The

FLOWERBX, an online, wholesale, flower-delivery service, has closed a GBP4.2 million (USD5.5m US) fundraising round. The new funding will pave the way for the company’s US launch, scheduled for May 2019. This follows a successful raise of GBP1.5 million of seed equity in 2017, which was used to invest in

Ironwood Capital has made an investment in American Roller Company (American Roller), headquartered in Union Grove, Wisconsin. The company is a servicer and manufacturer of industrial rollers and specialty coatings for use in web converting systems. “We were impressed with the company’s breadth of roller solutions and the outstanding management team,”

Ÿnsect, an ag-tech innovator that specialises in breeding insects and transforming them into premium ingredients for fish feed, pet food and organic plant fertilisers, has raised USD125 million (EUR110m) in a Series C funding round to scale up production by building the world’s biggest insect farm in Amiens Metropole, Northern

The SaaS video management platform, Imagen, which holds both current and archive footage for major sporting organisations and news outlets, including Premier League, World Tennis Association and the BBC, has secured GBP6.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Downing Ventures. The round also included capital from Guinness

European impact investor, Wermuth Asset Management, has completed its second round of funding under the Green Gateway Fund 2 (GGF2) portfolio, doubling its investment in NexWafe. Until recently silicon solar wafers have been the costliest single components of a solar module, accounting for around 40 per cent of the total