Ryft, a PSD2 compliant payments system, has raised a large seed round, led by SFC Capital, one of the UK’s most active seed-stage investors. Additional investors include the ex-founder of Shutterstock and the founder of LoveFilm. Ryft enables automated next day payouts for marketplace businesses and their merchants, for a single flat fee per transaction. The Ryft solution processes payments and then automatically diverts funds to merchants and sub-merchants (minus any commissions) the next working day. Think Stripe Connect without the high fees and lengthy payout wait times. The solution is completely PSD2 compliant. Ryft’s end-to-end solution handles everything from

Funds advised by Permira, in partnership with the Marcucci family and supported by their co-investors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Ampersand Capital Partners, have completed the joint acquisition and combination of Kedrion and BPL, alongside Kedrion’s existing shareholders, including FSI and CDP Equity and other minority investors. The combination of BPL and Kedrion creates a global player for medicinal products derived from human blood plasma, which treat patients with rare and life-threatening conditions. Ugo Di Francesco, currently CEO of Chiesi Group, has been appointed the new CEO of the combined company, effective January 2023.

PsycApps, a UK-based developer of evidence-based mental health game for teens and young adults, eQuoo, has raised £1.5 million in seed funding from US-based Morningside Ventures. The funds will enable PsycApps to grow its team and accelerate the development of its mental health platform to address the roughly 50 per cent of teens and tweens who self-report struggling with one or more mental health issues.  The funding news follows a recent report from Frontiers in Psychiatry2 that describes low engagement and attrition from digital mental health applications as the field’s Achilles heel. PsycApp’s platform offers an accessible, scalable, and sticky

Solid, a fintech-as-a-service platform that offers modern infrastructure for any company to launch and scale fintech products, has raised $63 million in a Series B funding round led by FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity firm. Existing investor Headline also participated in the round. The funding will accelerate Solid’s expansion into fintech-ready verticals such as travel, logistics, construction, healthcare, education, and the gig economy. Existing investor Headline also participated in the round.   Solid’s vision is to make it easy to embed fintech products, with a fully abstracted fintech-as-a-service platform that provides modern developer interfaces and experiences.  This announcement comes

Cairngorm Capital Partners (Cairngorm Capital) has added Matt Ansted, Maria Mikhailova and Mark Robson to the firm’s investment team. All three will be based in the firm’s Edinburgh office. Cairngorm Capital has over £400 million of committed equity capital. These appointments enhance the firm’s capacity to continue its disciplined investment selection, value creation and transformation strategies, which have delivered strong returns since the firm’s inception in 2014. Anstead joins as Managing Director following eight years with EV Private Equity and will focus on investments that support the energy transition to Net Zero. He brings considerable experience of the energy sector,

Brightstar Capital Partners (Brightstar), a private equity firm focused on partnering with families, founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams, has closed its previously announced investment in WindsorONE, a US-based manufacturer of highly-crafted fabricated wood products for interior and exterior applications. The Company’s products primarily serve the rapidly growing repair and remodel market. Craig Flynn, CEO of WindsorONE, and his senior management team will continue to lead the Company moving forward. The signing of the transaction’s definitive agreement was announced on 27 July. Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP acted as legal advisor for WindsorONE along with financial advisor Wells Fargo Securities,

Apex Group has acquired Mainspring, a UK-based provider of venture capital fund administration and accounting services.   Mainspring provides outsourced administration and accounting services to small and medium-sized venture fund managers in the UK.  Mainspring also operates an FCA-regulated custody business for fund managers offering managed account investments such as EIS funds.   The addition of Mainspring adds 70 employees in two UK offices, and assets under administration (AuA) of £9.7 billion to Apex Group. This is comprised of £3.7 billion on Mainspring’s Investment Platform which provides private markets funds and deal custody, and £6.0 billion of venture capital fund

Caju Benefícios, a flexible benefits management platform, has raised $25 million in a Series B round led by K1 Investment Management, a Los Angeles-based investment firm focused on high growth B2B software companies.

StepFunction, a specialist in SaaS revenue growth solutions, has secured $5 million in a post-seed raise led by Dallas Venture Capital (DVC) with participation from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners, and Z5 Capital. Using machine learning, StepFunction helps leading SaaS companies substantially improve the amount and predictability of their subscription revenues based on a data-driven, real-time understanding of customer intent.    Launched in 2020, the StepFunction Customer Intent Engine (CIE) ingests an extensive range of customer behaviour signals — for example, product usage, support tickets, survey feedback, CRM, social media signals — over a long period of time.

Thoma Bravo is to sell Frontline Education to Roper Technologies, a provider of administration software purpose-built for K-12 educators, in an all-cash deal worth $3.725 billion, according to a report by PE Insights. The software investor first acquired Frontline Education in 2017 and has since supported six bolt-on acquisitions which have helped the business expand its product portfolio from 16 to 30 solutions and significantly both revenue and headcount. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.