Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialising in digitally-driven businesses in the consumer, healthcare, and service sectors, has committed to a £4.5 million investment in Orri, a specialist clinic for the treatment of eating disorders (ED). Currently operating from a single site in London, Orri offers both in-person and virtual services, having developed its online offering during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Its recovery-focused programmes fill the gap between primary and inpatient services, offering a step-down model to support the transition back to everyday life in recovery. Orri is rated as an ‘outstanding’ treatment provider by the Care Quality Commission

Cello has raised €2.3m in pre-seed funding, in a round led by byFounders, with participation from Tiny VC, Possible Ventures and Notion Capital; together with operator angels from Youtube, Personio, McMakler, and others. Cello is leading the creation of a new category of ‘User-Led Growth’ — a next evolution in customer acquisition strategies that harnesses existing user base to drive word-of-mouth growth, at a dramatically lower customer acquisition cost (CAC). Word-of-mouth is a key factor in evaluating traction in early- and growth-stage startups. Despite its importance, the channel is not well understood by founders. Cello aims to give SaaS businesses

Blackstone has agreed a £300 million deal to sell Butlins back to one of the previous owners it bought the UK resort operator from last year, according to a report by Private Equity Insights. The Harris family, one of three that founded former Butlins owner Bourne Leisure in 1964, has established a new company to acquire the business.  The families sold Bourne Leisure, which also operates the Haven and Warner Leisure businesses, to Blackstone last year in a deal worth around £3 billion last year while retaining a minority stake. Butlins operates family holiday resorts in Skegness, Minehead and Bognor Regis.

Swiss techbio company Hedera Dx, founded in 2021 by veteran healthcare entrepreneurs and executives, has raised€14 million a seed finding round led by Adam Ghobarah, founder of Top Harvest Capital and former longtime executive at Google and Google Ventures. Inventure, Air Street Capital, Amino Collective and GRIDS Capital also participated in the round with the funds set to be used to launch a new blood-based testing solution to profile cancer DNA circulating in the blood, helping patients access better treatments.  In addition to launching commercially, the company will use the funding to implement the first phase of a large oncology

Tenzing is to take a minority stake in Altum Group, a provider of fund, corporate, and family office solutions. Founded in 2000, Altum Group has a solid track record of delivering double-digit organic growth and is the sixth investment within Tenzing’s £400 million Fund II, which started investing in 2021, and is one of twelve high-growth businesses within the Tenzing portfolio.   The strategic partnership will support Altum’s continued focus on high-quality client service and outstanding value add to their existing and future clients while investing to extend its jurisdictional and product offering.  

Sardine, a provider of fraud, compliance, and instant settlement solutions, has secured $51.5 million in a Series B financing led by Andreesen Horowitz’s growth fund, to accelerate product development as well as marketing and sales across the globe. New and existing investors, including XYZ, Nyca Partners, Sound Ventures, Activant Capital, Visa, Google Ventures, Eric Schmidt, Vikram Pandit, The General Partnership, NAventures, ING Ventures, ConsenSys, Cross River Digital Ventures, Alloy Labs, and Uniswap Labs Ventures, also participated in the round. Sardine’s real-time fraud prevention products help customers reduce more fraud with fewer false positives, leading to faster user growth and higher

Prewave, an AI platform that helps businesses predict, find, understand and categorise the risks affecting their suppliers, has raised €11 million in a Series A funding round co-led by KOMPAS and Ventech, who renewed its support after the company’s Seed round. Early-stage investors aws Gründerfonds, IST cube, seed + speed, Segnalita, Speedinvest and Working Capital Fund also participated in the round.  Prewave uses its AI-powered platform to analyse millions of online sources in more than fifty languages to find, categorise and directly address the risks that might impact supply chains. The platform covers a wide variety of risks with suppliers

MiddleGround Capital, an operationally focused private equity firm that makes control investments in North American middle market B2B industrial and specialty distribution companies, has acquired HLC, a distributor of bicycle parts and accessories.  HLC’s President, Pat McGinnis, will continue to oversee day-to-day operations and its distribution centres across North America. Headquartered in Lévis, Quebec and Lexington, South Carolina, HLC honours the rich heritage of both the Hawley and Lambert families. The company, which was founded over 75 years ago, is considered a critical distribution partner to well established and start-up brands, providing unparalleled post-sales service. HLC distributes more than 170 leading

The Any Hour Group, a provider of home services in the Mountain West region, has partnered with four additional leading home services businesses – Grapids Heating & Cooling (Grapids), Precision Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical (Precision), Chandler Air (Chandler), and All Hours Air (All Hours) – to further expand its operations in the Mountain West region and in new markets.  Financial terms of the transactions have not been disclosed.   Founded in 1961, Any Hour offers homeowners peace of mind through a full suite of high-quality HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services. The Company has achieved a market-leading position through rapid

Cresset, a UK-based developer of drug discovery and design software, has secured a significant investment from Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), a technology focused growth equity firm.  With this investment, Cresset will accelerate its drive for exceptional talent to continue broadening the science platform. Additionally, the funding will be used to expand operations internationally, particularly in the US. Cresset’s computational methods enable its customers to accelerate drug discovery workflows by predicting molecular interactions and enabling prioritisation of drug candidates. Its computer-aided drug discovery (CADD) solutions are used by research chemists globally, including in 8 of the top 10 pharma companies. Cresset’s