Deals
UK private equity house Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and Enso Ventures (Enso), a specialist early-stage venture capital firm, have invested GBP2million in Cognitive Geology (Cognitive).
The funding will accelerate the roll out of ‘Hutton’ to oil companies and enable Cognitive to develop its pipeline of advanced third-generation petroleum geoscience software modules. These are designed to further help geologists find, appraise, and develop both onshore and offshore conventional and unconventional oil & gas reserves.
Founded in 2014 by Geologist Luke Johnson, Edinburgh-based Cognitive recently launched ‘Hutton’, its first advanced geological data analysis tool. Petroleum geologists analysing the subsurface have to
Noerr has advised the Chinese motor manufacturer SEC Holding Co, Ltd, which also owns the publicly traded SEC Electric Machinery Co, on a strategic acquisition of drive technology specialist VEM, a member of the Merckle Group.
The VEM Group specialises in manufacturing electric drive systems, custom motors and special machines. The company, which is active worldwide and has 1,500 employees, had revenue of about EUR200 million during its most recent business year. In this transaction, the entrepreneurial family Merckle sold the shares in SEC that it had acquired in 1997. The sale includes all current worldwide locations of the electric
Secret Escapes, the London-based international online marketplace for affordable luxury travel deals, has closed a USD111 million (GBP83 million) Series D investment and debt facility.
This significant equity round was led by Singapore-headquartered Temasek, with participation from existing investors Idinvest Partners, and a debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.
With the additional funding, Secret Escapes has now raised almost USD153 million (GBP104 million) in capital since its 2011 launch. In July 2015, the company raised USD60m (GBP37 million) in a round led by Google Ventures and Octopus Ventures.
Since the brand’s arrival onto the global travel scene in
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
UK-based mid-market private equity investor LDC has backed the management buyout of ENSEK, a software supplier to UK energy providers.
After a significant number of recent customer wins, the multi-million-pound investment will enable the business to embark on the next stage of its growth journey.
Headquartered in Nottingham, ENSEK uses its market-leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to provide existing energy suppliers with its revenue assurance and gross margin accounting product. It also provides new market entrants with the end-to-end software solution required to enter and operate in the UK energy sector.
Led by CEO Jon Slade, the business has
Private equity firm Thomas H Lee Partners has closed the acquisition of a majority interest in Ten-X, a US online real estate marketplace.
Members of Ten-X’s senior management team, Stone Point Capital, and CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), among others, will continue to hold minority positions in the Company. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Irvine and Silicon Valley, California, Ten-X provides an online real estate marketplace that allows individuals and investors to buy and sell residential and commercial real estate properties using both desktop and mobile channels. By leveraging its market-leading
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
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
