Silicon Valley technology company Stellar Labs (Stella) has raised USD26.3 million in Series A equity financing from Global Jet Capital – a provider of corporate aircraft financing solutions capitalised by The Carlyle Group, Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners, and AE Industrial Partners, Columbia Equity Partners (CEP), and Expa. Together with previous equity rounds and funding from Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL), Stellar is investing over USD50 million in its next-generation technology platform for business aviation. Business aviation contributes USD150 billion to US economic output and employs more than 1.2 million people. It accounts for nearly 29 per cent of all consumer spending

Yorkshire-based Nationwide Window Cleaning has received new investment of GBP1.5 million from BGF to support its organic growth strategy and the acquisition of Reflekt Cleaning Company. The investment follows a period of significant growth at NWC, with revenues increasing by close to 100 percent since BGF’s first investment, from GBP7.5 million in June 2014 to more than GBP14 million in June 2017.    Founded in 2009 by Thornton Tasker, NWC is now the largest window, gutter and high-level cleaning business in the UK. The company provides simple and complex cleaning services to customers including Heathrow Terminal 5, Royal Bank of

Security recruitment tech start up Broadstone has become the first Manchester business to receive Northern Powerhouse Investment Funding (NPIF) for its Broadstone Engage platform. City centre based Broadstone offers an online recruitment marketplace for both jobseekers and employers in the private security industry. Broadstone has received GBP200,000 from Maven, one of the UK’s most active SME investors, and the NPIF, which aims to enable dynamic regional SMEs with innovative products and services to access funding which will develop their business.   Tom Pickersgill, director and founder at Broadstone, says: “We are proud to be the first Manchester-based business to receive

Edge Investments (Edge), a specialist investment house focused on the creative industries sector, in particular media and entertainment, has taken a minority stake in Dial Square 86 Ltd, the holding company for The RightsXchange Ltd (TRX). TRX is an online deal-making platform for TV rights licensing. It enables TV programme buyers to search for content, access instant rights availabilities, negotiate a deal and sign the contract entirely online. Presently transactions in this market happen offline and person-to-person, leading to long deal times and operational inefficiencies. TRX is bringing established marketplace technology to the global secondary TV rights export market, estimated

Employee benefits firm SalaryFinance has completed a GBP40 million funding round (subject to Financial Conduct Authority approval) led by Legal & General with founding investor Blenheim Chalcot also participating. SalaryFinance specialises in technology to help employees improve their financial health, consolidate debt and start saving. This investment signals growing recognition of the impact that financial concerns have on work and life, and the potential of workplace benefits to improve the lives of employees.   With 17 million UK employees having less than GBP100 in savings the problem is stark. Leading employers are recognising this and adopting solutions like SalaryFinance to

PremFina Ltd, a UK-based company that increases access to insurance by providing financing options for the purchase of insurance premiums, has secured USD36 million in equity funding and a debt facility. Rakuten Capital, the investment arm of Japan’s Rakuten, a global leader in e-commerce and fintech services and the main global partner of FC Barcelona and the UK’s Draper Esprit Plc led the financing, and were joined by global investors Thomvest Ventures, Emery Capital, Rubicon Venture Capital, Talis Capital and the company’s founder.   PremFina is the first premium finance company in the UK to receive venture funding, with the

Wala, a blockchain-powered financial services platform for the unbanked and underbanked, has secured an equity investment from Newtown Partners, the venture capital firm founded by Llew Claasen and Vinny Lingham. Claasen is the Managing Partner of Newtown Partners and also the Executive Director of the the Bitcoin Foundation. Lingham is best known as the Founder of mobile gift card company Gyft, sold to First Data in 2015 and more recently, Civic, a Silicon Valley-based startup that completed a USD33 million token sale for a digital identity management platform in July 2017.   Newtown Partners previously assisted their portfolio company Augmentors,