An investment programme that has raised more than £220 milliion for North East SMEs, creating over 1500 jobs, is looking for more businesses to apply for investment. In its first four years of operations, the North East Fund has helped 350 businesses to raise more than £200 million of funding. The £80 million provided by the North East Fund helped those companies to secure a further £140 million from other investors and funders. The North East Fund plans to invest a further £40 million in at least 150 more companies over the next two years and is calling for businesses

Employee benefits platform Juno has raised $4 million in a fun ding round led by Hoxton Ventures and joined by angels including Juno early adopters Tony Jamous, CEO of OysterHR and Christian Owens, CEO of Paddle. Other angel investors include the CEOs of Learnerbly, Captify, Jungle Creations, SuperAwesome and Heights. Founded by British-Iraqi entrepreneur Ally Fekaiki, Juno’s modern benefits marketplace empowers workers to choose experiences and services they actually want, using credits allocated by their employer.   This new injection of capital will enable Juno to fine tune the product and add additional services such as physical debit cards for

Floreat, an independent and privately held investment group, has completed an investment in energy from waste technology firm Standard Gas Technologies Limited on behalf of Principal Investing Fund I Limited. The initial £3 million from Principal Investing Fund I Limited (a fund advised by Floreat) will go towards developing Standard Gas’s first full-scale commercial plant in the UK.    Standard Gas provides a low-cost, sustainable alternative to landfills and incineration and can make an important contribution to decarbonisation and the development of the circular economy on the path toward Net Zero. 

Leasecake, a cloud-based operating system for lease and location management, has raised $12 million in an oversubscribed Series A round led by PeakSpan Capital, a New York City and Silicon Valley based investment firm focused on growth-stage B2B software companies. Las Olas Venture Capital and other existing investors participated in the round, along with new strategic investors including Branded Strategic Hospitality.   Leasecake allows tenants, brokers and landlords to manage location-related services, from lease management and lease accounting to insurance agreements and franchise operations. Leasecake’s platform provides centralised access to lease and location information, integrating data from multiple sources to

OneVest, an embedded wealth management platform serving fintechs, digital banks and financial institutions, has secured CAD$5 million in venture financing to expand the team, grow sales and drive product development. The round was led by Luge Capital, a leading fintech-focused venture firm, with participation from OMERS Ventures, AAF Management, FJ Labs, National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm NAventures, Panache Ventures, and strategic angels.  As part of the round, Karim Gillani, former PayPal executive and current General Partner of Luge Capital, will join the OneVest board. Atul Tiwari, former CEO of Vanguard Canada, will become a strategic advisor to

Global private markets investment firm Northleaf Capital Partners (Northleaf) has acquired a majority interest in Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, London’s leading river boat service, from AEG, the world’s leading sport and live entertainment company. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, London’s fourth mode of transportation, is integrated into the Transport for London (TfL) network with a shared ticketing system and a diverse ridership base. It operates a fleet of 21 purpose-built vessels, supported by pier network and dry-dock facilities and has a 20-year track record of organic growth through route and fleet expansion. Northleaf’s acquisition brings new investment to support

Sogelink, a provider of software solutions for infrastructure, construction, has completed the acquisition of the LOCATIQS Group and Focus Software. Headquartered in Nieuwegein in the Netherlands, LOCATIQS was founded through the combination of Dutch software companies GOconnectIT and Geodan in 2021. It has since established itself as the Netherland’s leading specialist in product software solutions and complementary consultancy in the geographic information systems (“GIS”) and field service management (“FSM”) markets. Established in 1996 and headquartered in Billingstad, near Oslo (Norway), Focus Software is a market leading Building Information Modelling (BIM) software company. It provides its software solutions to a wide

Ironwood Capital has made subordinated debt and equity investments in Hickory Holdings (Hickory), a combination of outdoor buildings distributor Sheds Direct and manufacturer Homestead Buildings. Ironwood provided junior capital investments in support of AHR Growth Partners’ recapitalisation of Hickory alongside Sheds Direct’s Founder and CEO, AJ Kirby.      The combined Company is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of a variety of outdoor storage buildings including sheds, cottages, barns, chicken coops and playhouses. Hickory predominately serves North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio as well as Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York through an exclusive network of 70-plus

Decarbonization Partners has invested in biomaterials company MycoWorks as part of a $125 million Series C financing round. The round was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from other new and existing investors, SK Networks, Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation Fund, DCVC Bio and Novo Holdings.  Founded in 2013 MycoWorks is recognised globally as having unlocked a breakthrough in material science. The company’s patented Fine Mycelium process harnesses mycelium – the thread-like network that mushrooms fruit from – to produce a natural material with the performance of the finest animal leathers. Luxury partners choose Reishi, the company’s flagship product

Baseload Capital’s subsidiary, Baseload Power Japan, has completed a third geothermal power plant. Developed in partnership with Furusato Power generation and the Sansui hot spring inn, Sansui Geothermal Power Plant will produce 350 MWh annually, equivalent to the annual power consumption of roughly 100 households. The electricity generated by the new plant will be sold to Kyushu Electric Power through a feed-in tariff (FIT) mechanism. The surplus of hot water will be provided to the Sansui hot spring inn to be used as bathing water for its hot spring operations.