Auction-based advertising infrastructure startup, Topsort, has raised USD8 million in a seed funding round. Founded just over a year ago, Topsort closed its seed round from various marketplace investors including Pear Ventures, Quiet Capital, FJLabs, Micky Malka (Ribbit Capital), Lydia Jett (Softbank), Akhil Paul, Comma VC and various other individual investors. This seed funding round sees the company valued at USD110 million. Topsort will use this round of funding to fuel its continuous growth, scale its product further and continue its mission to empower marketplaces by democratising the previously exclusive auction-based advertising technology that has been used to drive profits

YABA, a leading Amazon brand aggregator in Southern Europe, founded in 2020 by Alejandro Fresneda, David Baratech, Rubén Ferreiro, Sergi de Pablos, and Patxi Archanco, has closed an USD85 million equity and debt financing round. The deal was led by international funds such as US venture capital firm Crossbeam Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that focuses on the themes of platform economies, fintech, novel asset classes, and new forms of media, and Tikehau Capital, an alternative asset manager with USD38 billion of assets under management, through its special opportunities’ strategy. The latter has also committed to support the growth

The BLOC Smart Africa fund (BLOC SA), initiated by the Smart Africa Alliance and managed by Bamboo Capital Partners, is to invest EUR300,000 in Digitech, a Côte d’Ivoire-based SaaS insurance technology start-up.  BLOC SA is leading the seed round, catalysing additional capital from Launch Africa Ventures. Digitech is BLOC SA’s first investment.   The proceeds of the financing will primarily go to support the development and commercialisation of the Hyperion 2.0 reinsurance ERP software, a cloud-based solution automating transactions between insurers and reinsurers.   

Tevent, a technology platform for virtual events, has raised USD2 million (GBP1.5 million) throughout its series of seed funding rounds to support product development.  The company secured significant financial backing from leading Silicon Valley investors, including Leslie Stretch CEO at Medallia, Co-Founder of MeshDynamics.io; Rory Cameron EVP at Medallia; Jimmy Duan CCO at Medallia; Shreesha Ramdas, Co-Founder of Strikedeck; and Nathalie Scardino SVP at Salesforce. The company will use the investment to scale its platform to meet soaring demand and to double down on product development speed by focusing on serving particular use cases and more niche segments and developing

Society Brands, an Amazon aggregator built for and by founders, has raised USD240 million in its first institutional capital funding round which was led by by i80 Group, a provider of capital to breakthrough technology companies.  A combination of debt and equity, Society Brands will use the newly raised capital to continue acquiring Amazon FBA businesses at a rapid pace. The capital raise positions Society Brands as one of the best-funded Amazon aggregators in the world, and in a prime position to grow its portfolio to over USD1 billion in revenue in the next few years. Society Brands, launched in

Olsam Group (Olsam), an ecommerce platform that acquires and scales e-commerce businesses, has hired Steven Wait as Director of eCommerce.  This new appointment comes following Olsam’s recent USD165 million fundraise and the acquisition of US based aggregator FlyWheel Commerce, as the business looks to continue to scale theitsir portfolio of brands.   Wait joins Olsam after almost five years at Mountain Warehouse where he was their Head of UK eCommerce, leading all commercial and operational activities on 16 eCommerce marketplaces across three continents as well as the company’s UK D2C channel.

Global alternative investment manager Oaktree is to acquire a majority stake in 17Capital, a provider of strategic finance for investors in private equity. 17Capital specialises in providing non-dilutive capital to high-quality private equity management companies, funds and institutional investors that are seeking to finance value creation and portfolio management initiatives. Oaktree specialises in alternative investments, including credit, private equity, real assets and listed equities.   The partnership will give 17Capital access to Oaktree’s deep global network and add to Oaktree’s extensive suite of private capital solutions. Following the closing of the transaction, 17Capital, which is headquartered in London, will continue

Mission Hill Hospitality, a KSL Capital Partners portfolio company focused on transforming select service and extended stay hotel investing, has acquired the Killington Mountain Lodge, Tapestry Collection by Hilton,l ocated in central Vermont’s Green Mountains.  Terms of the deal are undisclosed.  This is the 15th property added to the Mission Hill Hospitality portfolio since the company was launched in March 2021.  

Foresight Group (Foresight), a listed private equity and infrastructure investment manager, has made a GBP2.5 million growth capital investment in Kognitiv Spark (KS) which is commercialising software that provides 3D data to support field service workers in remote locations.  The investment is funded by the Foresight Williams Technology Fund, a joint venture between Foresight and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE). The growth capital will enable the company to expand into new industries and geographies via new sales and marketing teams in the US and UK and support the ongoing development of further products. The company hopes to work with the WAE

Cynergy Bank has provided a loan amount of GBP2.5m to Faith in Nature, a natural beauty products brand based in Manchester. The loan will enable the company to develop new manufacturing and business premises, having outgrown its existing location. The development of the new site provides space for future sales growth and more jobs.  The loan was structured with a 12-month interest only period followed by repayment profile. Faith in Nature started trading in 1974 in a cottage kitchen and initially made plant-based face creams and shampoos. It continues to sell shampoos, body washes and soap, offering an ethical and