Lune, a provider of software tools that make it easier for any business to integrate climate impact into its customer experience – starting with carbon emissions calculations and carbon removal, has raised USD4 million in a funding round led by early-stage VC Crane. Fifteen angel investors, including Maximilian Tayenthal (co-founder of N26), Fredrik Hjelm (co-founder of Voi) and Tony Jamous (co-founder of OysterHR & Nexmo), also particpated in the round.  TErik Stadigh, formerly a VC investor at Crane, and Roberto Bruggemann, most recently a Principal Engineer at Freetrade, co-founded Lune on a mission to make every product and service climate

Centricus, a London-based global investment firm, has confirmed it has made an official bid to acquired Fordstam Limited (CFC Group), the parent company of Chelsea FC. Centricus sees this as an opportunity to make a long-term investment in the Chelsea FC (and CFC Group affiliates).  Centricus will be committed to supporting the Company and its key stakeholders to ensure its continued success. Centricus says that if its offer is successful, it would be focused on ensuring that the CFC Group continues to achieve sporting excellence, high level of community support, transparent governance, financial sustainability, fan engagement and exemplary custodianship.

Omniplex Learning, a provider of learning and development services, has acquired SAAS digital adoption specialist Nickelled. The digital adoption solution will become a core element of Omniplex Learning’s portfolio under the name Omniplex Guide. The addition of Omniplex Guide expands Omniplex Learning’s current suite of digital learning products, which includes award-winning authoring tool Articulate 360 and market-leading Learning Management Software, Docebo.   Omniplex Learning is supported by leading mid-market private equity firm LDC.

Construction Partners, a vertically integrated civil infrastructure company specialising in the construction and maintenance of roadways across five southeastern US states, has acquired the asphalt, grading and sitework operational assets of GAC Contractors, including its hot-mix asphalt plant in Panama City, Florida. Construction Partners nor operates 57 hot-mix asphalt plants, 14 aggregate facilities and one liquid asphalt terminal. Publicly funded projects make up the majority of its business and include local and state roadways, interstate highways, airport runways and bridges.  The majority of the Company’s public projects are maintenance-related.

China’s SJ Semiconductor has raised USD300 million in a Series C round led by Walden CEL Global Fund, a fund backed by China Everbright and Walden International, alongside other Greater China investors including CCB Private Equity Investment Management, CCB Trust, Country Garden Venture Capital, and Huatai International.

Multi award-winning manufacturer, Evolution Aqua, has announced a GBP12 million investment from the UK and Ireland’s most active growth capital investor, BGF. Wigan-headquartered Evolution Aqua is a designer, manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of water filtration products and associated equipment, primarily focused on the aquatics industry for both indoor and outdoor fish care.    The funding will allow the business to capitalise on ambitious growth opportunities in core markets and drive international expansion. The significant minority investment will also enable the existing management team, led by CEO and founder, Nick Jackson, to expand on application of Evolution Aqua’s

YZR, a French start-up that uses AI to normalise data, has raised USD12 million in a Series A round co-led by Nauta Capital and Orange Ventures. Supported by 50 Partners for two years and winner of the Galion Booster award in 2020, the next step in YZR’s expansion plans is to be a dominant player in the US markets.    YZR has created a no-code, plug-and-play, data preparation platform that makes it easier, better, and faster to normalise and prepare data for downstream ingestion. Their AI-powered standardisation, labelling, and context-understanding software has in-depth sector specific semantic knowledge to quickly enable

Prudential Financial, in partnership with LeapFrog Investments Group (LeapFrog Investments), is to acquire a strategic minority interest in Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, a provider of financial advice, retirement, investment, and holistic wealth management services in South Africa. The transaction builds upon Prudential Financial’s partnership with LeapFrog Investments to access high-growth financial services markets in Africa and deliver essential financial tools to emerging consumers. Since 2016, Prudential Financial and LeapFrog Investments have invested in high-quality market leaders across the African continent, including Enterprise Group in Ghana and ICEA LION in Kenya.     Under the terms of the transaction, Prudential Financial,

Triumvira Immunologics (Triumvira), a clinical-stage company developing novel, targeted autologous and allogeneic T cell therapeutics that co-opt the natural biology of T cells to treat patients with solid tumours, has completed an extension of its Series A financing, bringing the total round to approximately USD100 million. The Series A extension featured new investors, including significant participation from B Capital Group, along with ATEM Capital, the Myeloma Investment Fund, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation’s venture philanthropy subsidiary, and others, joined by significant participation from existing investors, Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment unit of Bayer AG, and Northpond Ventures. The proceeds

Wisedocs, a machine learning software-as-a-service for medical record processing closes has closed a CAD4.1 million oversubscribed Seed financing round led by Ripple Ventures. Greensky Capital, and angel investors including George A Papayiannis of Vena Solutions, and startup veteran, Tim Lett also particpated in the round.  Wisedocs’ software relies on proprietary machine learning models using Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) to read and analyse various documents involved in a medical record review.