Plexus Innovation, which is based in Durham, has secured £300,000 investment from the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia; and £180,000 from the Finance Durham Fund, managed by Maven Capital Partners, established by Durham County Council and overseen by Business Durham. Plexus Innovation’s GUARDIAN technology remotely monitors and measures temperature, CO2, humidity and water systems, enabling insight-driven decisions, reduction of energy use and provision of real-time data for use in compliance reporting. The system also provides automated alerts to highlight potential health risks or failing assets that otherwise may be

OWYN (Only What You Need), a provider of plant-based protein beverages and other functional nutrition products, has closed a growth investment round led by Purchase Capital with participation from Hammock Park Capital LLC and existing investor PowerPlant Ventures. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Today’s news follows the acquisition of a majority ownership stake in OWYN last year by United Nutritional Brands, an affiliate of Purchase Capital—an investment firm led by Nicholas J Singer that provides patient capital for private and public companies. Proceeds of this latest funding round will be deployed to drive national expansion, increase distribution

Slate Asset Management (Slate), a global alternative investment platform targeting real assets, has acquired a majority stake in amperio, a specialist planner and operator of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in Germany. Since 2012, amperio has been supporting companies, cities, and communities in developing tailored charging concepts, installing charging stations, and providing backend management services for charging stations. To date, amperio has installed over 1,800 intelligent charging points. Amperio maintains, operates, and executes the billing for over 300 of these charging points on behalf of its customers. As part of the transaction, Slate created Slate Mobility, an entity that will

Keensight Capital, a private equity manager dedicated to pan-European growth buyout investments, has acquired a majority stake in BYG4lab, an independent provider of data management software for medical laboratories specialised in both biology and microbiology. Keensight Capital will invest alongside the management team and IRDI Capital Investissement.   Founded in 1982 and headquartered in France, BYG4lab develops software that enhances the efficiency of a laboratory. The Company provides a number of key benefits, including but not limited to: improving workflow management, making instrument integration more efficient, handling mega lab configuration, designing personalised dashboards, maximising automatic validation, and managing quality control. 

Decentralised finance (DeFi) trading platform Hashflow, founded in 2021, has raised $25 million in new funding bringing its valuation to $400 million. The round included returning investors Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, LedgerPrime, and Balaji Srinivasan, along with crypto-native new investors and market participants including Jump Crypto, Wintermute Trading, GSR, Kronos Research, and Altonomy. Other investors include Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Evernew Capital, Spacewhale Capital, and angel investors Meltem Demirors, Anthony Sassano, and Jason Choi.  This raise comes just over one year after Hashflow’s seed round of $3.2 million was announced in April 2021. The capital infusion will

H2 Equity Partners (H2) has invested in Motive Offshore Group (Motive) alongside its Founders and management team. Headquartered in Banff, Scotland, Motive is a Founder-owned and managed business which rents, certifies, inspects and sells winches and other back-deck equipment used in offshore energy infrastructure. The business is growing rapidly supported by the successful transition to renewables and its strengthening international footprint.   Following H2’s investment, Motive founders, David Acton and James Gregg, will continue to lead the business and work closely with H2 to deliver the next phase of growth and build on the progress made in transitioning to renewables.

An affiliate of alternative investment firm HIG Capital (HIG)m has completed the acquisition of Family Entertainment Group Holdings. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, Family Entertainment Group is an industry leading designer, developer, and operator of amusement facilities. The Company provides turnkey outsourced facility management services of arcade operations on behalf of resorts, hotels, casinos, and amusement parks. Through its market leading position and industry expertise, Family Entertainment Group enhances customer experience and maximizes revenue on behalf of its facility partners. Additionally, the Company owns and operates standalone family entertainment centers under the In The Game, Max Action,

Enhesa, a provider of global regulatory and sustainability intelligence, backed by CGE Partners (CGE), has completed the acquisition of RegScan, a platform for regulatory assurance and operational compliance content, supporting multinational corporations to improve their EHS practices. RegScan further strengthens Enhesa’s operations compliance offering, and in particular will deepen the group’s presence in the US market. The deal marks the fifth add-on acquisition for Enhesa since CGE backed the company in July 2020. CGE Partners and Enhesa were advised by Travers Smith and Holland & Knight (legal) and Houlihan Lokey (corporate finance).

Maven Capital Partners (Maven), one of the UK’s most active investors in growing businesses, has made a profitable exit from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software provider ProspectSoft through a sale to trade acquirer The Access Group.

Global infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital, through its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund III, is to acquire VLS Environmental Solutions (VLS) from Aurora Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm.