Blue Horizon, a pure play impact investor in the future of food, has made a seed investment in Core Biogenesis which uses plants as biofactories to scale the production of high-value bioproducts like growth factors. Blue Horizon invested in Core Biogenesis, a French startup focusing on the production of growth factors for applications in both cell therapy and cultivated meat. Core Biogenesis’ plant-based production platform has delivered several functional growth factors to date and provides unique  cost-efficiency at large scale.  The current funding round will enable Core Biogenesis to expand the team that scales up production in a new facility

Yokoy Group, a European all-in-one enterprise spend management platform, has raised USD80 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital. Speedinvest, Visionaries Club and Zinal Growth, existing investors Balderton Capital, Six FinTech Ventures, Left Lane, Swisscom Ventures and well-known business angels also participated in the round.  Powered by machine learning developed in Yokoy’s own cutting-edge AI research lab, the platform automates spend management using artificial intelligence. It combines expense management, supplier invoice management and corporate credit cards into one single intuitive tool, underpinned by the most up-to-date security. 

Relative Insight, a fast-growing text analytics platform, plans to expand its operations in the US and strengthen new product development following a GBP5 million growth capital investment by YFM Equity Partners (YFM) through its managed British Smaller Companies VCTs. With offices in London, New York and Lancaster, Relative Insight has a growing international client list including leading global companies such as Sky, Nespresso, Starbucks, General Mills, MetLife and Sony.   The investment from YFM will enable Relative Insight to further grow its customer base as well as continuing to develop the platform to provide greater customer insights and data integrations

Lantum – a UK-based healthcare workforce management platform – has raised USD15 million in a funding round led by Finch Capital. Piton Capital, Samos, and US-based Cedars-Sinai Hospital also participated. Lantum is considering increasing the round size, due to significant oversubscription.    This new investment will enable Lantum to fuel its growth, increase staff count, and invest in building new products that will make it possible for the NHS to make vital and substantial savings to staffing costs, of which over £30 million has already been achieved. Over 30,000 clinical and non-clinical staff, and 50 per cent of GP practises in

Vitruvian Partners (Vitruvian) is partnering with German private equity platform Moonfare, investing USD35 million in the company’s unique business model. The partnership represents another important milestone for Berlin-based Moonfare after having just recently announced a USD125 million series C financing round led by Insight Partners and consolidating its global footprint by launching operations in the US. As the democratisation of private markets continues to gain momentum so does the trend of “Private Equity goes Retail1”. High Net Worth Individuals, retail investors and their advisors are increasingly looking to alternative investments to benefit from high returns. This development has been heightened

Sourceful, an all-in-one platform for sustainable sourcing, has secured a USD20 million Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, backers of Deliveroo, Dropbox and Just Eat. Founded in 2020, Sourceful works with brands across the globe to shrink their environmental impact by helping them find, create and deliver products that are better for their business and the planet. Coatue and Eka Ventures also participated in the round.

Pixxel, a specialist in earth-imaging technology, has secured USD25 million in a Series A finding round led by Radical Ventures, a Toronto-based firm known for investing in entrepreneurs that use artificial intelligence to transform massive industries. Additional participation in Pixxel’s Series A came from Jordan Noone, Seraphim Space Investment Trust Plc, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, and Sparta LLC. The new funding enables Pixxel to expedite production of the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation and to offer industry AI-powered insights that discover, solve, and predict climate issues at a fraction of traditional satellite costs.

IK Partners’ (IK) IK Small Cap III Fund is to invest in Sitevision, a Swedish content management system (CMS) and intranet solution provider.

Reich & Tang Deposit Networks (R&T) and Total Bank Solutions (TBS) have entered into a definitive agreement to combine both companies.

DigitalBridge Ventures, DigitalBridge Group’s recently announced venture capital initiative, has led a USD60 million Series C funding round in Celona, an enterprise networking company bridging the gap between LTE/5G cellular wireless and enterprise IT infrastructure. Founded in 2019, Celona has established itself as a leading innovator in the global private LTE/5G infrastructure market, which is forecast to grow over 5x to almost USD6 billion by 20241.  Celona’s Series C financing round also included participation from all of Celona’s existing investors including NTTVC (Celona’s Series B lead investor), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Cervin Ventures. The new