Deals
DOB Equity, a leading Dutch family-backed impact investor in East Africa, has invested in Natural Extracts Industries (NEI), a natural vanilla flavour manufacturer, based in Moshi, Tanzania.
Since its inception in 2011, NEI has partnered with small-holder farmers by encouraging them to grow vanilla next to their existing crops, thereby providing extra income.
NEI provides training in good agricultural practices for over 5,000 farmers across five regions in Tanzania in vanilla husbandry (following organic principles) and traceability. As a result, farmers have earned up to 50 per cent additional income from vanilla farming.
NEI sources green vanilla pods
Varagon Capital Partners (Varagon) is serving as Administrative Agent, Lead Arranger and Bookrunner on a senior secured credit facility to support the acquisition of AIM MRO by AE Industrial Partners (AEI).
Headquartered in Miamiville, OH, AIM MRO is a leading manufacturer and supply chain manager of highly engineered consumable repair products and materials used primarily in the aerospace engine aftermarket.
“We are excited to partner with AE Industrial in its acquisition of AIM MRO,” says Keith Carter, Managing Director for Varagon, “We look forward to supporting management and AEI as they continue to grow the business.”
One World Fitness, an owner and operator of Planet Fitness clubs in the Philadelphia metropolitan and New Jersey markets, has acquired BMC Mgmt Inc and affiliates (San Diego Fitness).
The acquisition expands the One World Fitness footprint to include the densely populated and high-growth San Diego county area. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
San Diego Fitness was founded in 2013 and now serves more than 60,000 members across seven clubs in southern California. The transaction represents One World Fitness’s first add-on acquisition since forming the platform in March 2019 in conjunction with an investment from Centre Partners, and
Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) and Rock Rail have closed the financing of new Hitachi intercity trains for the West Coast Partnership rail franchise.
ASI, lead equity provider, and Rock Rail, rail investor-developer and asset manager, together led the transaction of more than GBP350 million. The fleet will be financed through Rock Rail West Coast PLC and leased to West Coast Partnership, a joint venture between First Group and Trenitalia. First-Trenitalia will take over the franchise from 8 December 2019, operating intercity services as Avanti West Coast.
As with ASI and Rock Rail’s previous new UK rolling stock deals, senior debt
Jaguar Land Rover’s venture capital arm InMotion Ventures has invested in Apex.AI. a software start-up with offices in Palo Alto, California, and Munich, Germany, which is preparing to launch its flagship product – Apex.OS – to the automotive sector in early 2020.
InMotion joins Volvo Group Venture Capital and HELLA Ventures as one of Apex.AI’s most recent strategic investors. Existing investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Toyota AI Ventures and Airbus Ventures.
Apex.AI was founded in June 2017 to build a safe and certified version of ROS (Robot Operating System), which is currently the de-facto standard in robotics and
Sun Capital Partners’ affiliated portfolio company StonePoint Materials (StonePoint) has completed the acquisition of Road Builders, one of Kentucky’s oldest materials and paving construction operations. Terms of the private transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in 1948, Road Builders is operated by third and fourth generation family owners. Road Builders will complement StonePoint’s Clarksville, Tennessee-based subsidiaries, Winn Materials and McIntosh Construction.
“The acquisition of Road Builders continues to demonstrate our thesis of investing in founder-owned companies with strong market share that want to partner with one of the leading independent aggregate producers in North America,” adds Aaron Wolfe, Managing
Private equity firm Thompson Street Capital Partners’ (TSCP) portfolio company Marmic Fire & Safety Co (Marmic) has acquired Charlotte, North Carolina-based Fire Control Systems of Charlotte (FCS), a provider of commercial fire protection services.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
This is the fifth add-on acquisition completed by Marmic since partnering with TSCP in August 2018.
FCS specialises in testing, inspections, service, and sales of portable fire extinguishers, alarm systems, restaurant fire suppression systems, and exit and emergency lighting fixtures. FCS services thousands of locations across the eastern half of the United States.
According to Michael
Visible Capital, a new Scottish fintech company founded by three Scottish tech veterans has secured GBP500,000 seed funding from TechStart Ventures and a group of eight private investors.
Preston Rabl, co-founder of the advertising and public relations giant WPP plc will join the board, whilst Ian Steel, former senior partner of Deloitte in Scotland and Northern Ireland; and Iain Mackay, an experienced director and NXD are joining the Advisory Board.
Launching in early 2020, Edinburgh-based Visible Capital, led by Richard Braidwood, Ross Laurie and Christian Burgin, has developed technology that will help clients of intermediaries, such as wealth managers,
Relay Network, a personalised mobile engagement company for the enterprise, has completed a USD30 million growth capital investment from LLR Partners.
The capital will be used to accelerate innovation of its breakthrough customer engagement platform and growth within its three primary vertical markets: healthcare, financial services and home services.
At a time when customer retention is critical, Relay enables businesses to proactively deliver education and support through individualised mobile feeds that guide customers to take specific actions during key moments like onboarding, billing and account renewals. Users receive text messages that link directly to their secure web-based feed, reducing friction
Aquila Capital Holding (Aquila Capital), a manager of real asset investments, has entered into a strategic partnership with Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure Co (DEI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Daiwa Securities Group (Daiwa).
The partnership will enable Aquila Capital to further strengthen its position for real asset investments in Europe and capture additional attractive investment opportunities for investors in the Asia-Pacific region.
Roman Rosslenbroich, CEO and co-founder of Aquila Capital, says: “My partner Dieter Rentsch and I are delighted to welcome Daiwa as a shareholder. We will gain a long-term oriented partner who appreciates what we have achieved and wants
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
