British Patient Capital has participated in the USD60 million Series B funding round of Paragraf, a Cambridge-based graphene-based electronics company. This investment is being made through British Patient Capital’s Future Fund: Breakthrough programme, a GBP375 million initiative where British Patient Capital co-invests alongside private sector investors in later stage R&D-intensive UK companies. Paragraf develops and delivers game-changing, commercial-quality, graphene-based electronic devices using contamination-free technology that is both scalable and compatible with existing electronic device manufacturing production processes.

Blue Horizon, a pure play impact investor in the future of food, has made its first investment in plant cell culture. Blue Horizon has invested in California Cultured, a Davis, California-based plant cell culture company pioneering a promising new application for cellular agriculture. Similar to cultivated meat, plant cell culture allows producers to grow complete, authentic cells in bioreactors rather than in fields or feedlots. In this case, cells are isolated from living plants and proliferate in a liquid nutrient media.  Blue Horizon is participating in California Cultured’s seed round alongside other strategic investors including chocolate company Meiji, Agronomics, SOSV,

McAfee Corp, a specialist in online protection, has been acquired by an investor group led by Advent International Corporation (Advent) and funds advised by Permira, Crosspoint Capital Partners (Crosspoint), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), GIC Private Limited (GIC), and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) (collectively, the Investor Group). As part of the transaction, Bruce Chizen, Senior Advisor at Permira, will become Chairman of McAfee’s Board of Directors.    Also joining McAfee’s Board of Directors is Greg Clark, Managing Partner at Crosspoint Capital and former CEO of Symantec. “We believe the opportunity is great

Syndesi Therapeutics (Syndesi), a portfolio company of international life sciences investor Novo Holdings, has been acquired by AbbVie for up to USD1 billion in total deal value with USD130 million upfront. Syndesi was created in 2018 as the result of a close collaboration between Novo Seeds, the company creation arm of Novo Holdings, and UCB Pharma, the Belgium-based global pharmaceutical company.  The investment in Syndesi is an integral part of Novo Seeds’ approach to new venture formation by co-leading spinouts from pharmaceutical companies based on assets that are no longer in-line with the corporation’s overall strategy.

Sembly AI continues to consolidate its position as a provider of best-in-class conversation analytics for enterprise operations and technology teams through a new strategic partnership with MI-GSO | PCUBED, a project management and PMO consultancy. The partnership includes an investment in Sembly AI as well as a synergistic collaboration combining MI-GSO | PCUBED’s expertise in Project Controls, with the voice and conversation analytics technology of Sembly AI. Sembly AI’s flagship product “Sembly” captures online and mixed-presence meetings across all major conferencing platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, and aggregates them in a Meeting Cloud. The conversations are transcribed,

The financial backers of Orchid Underwriters Agency, a specialty underwriter of catastrophe-exposed property insurance, led by TowerBrook Capital Partners are to sell the company to Brown & Brown, an insurance brokerage firm. The sale comprises all of Orchid’s Managing General Underwriter (MGU) and wholesaling business, along with its High-Net-Worth segment and CrossCover Insurance Services, LLC (CrossCover).  Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close by April 2022 and is subject to standard closing conditions, have not been disclosed.

Ropes & Gray has advised Sezzle Inc on its acquisition by Zip Co. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. The agreement was announced on 28 February in a press release. Sezzle stockholders will be entitled to receive 0.98 Zip ordinary shares for every share of Sezzle common stock. The total consideration for Sezzle shares in the proposed transaction represents an implied value of approximately AUD491 million or US$352.6 million.  Minneapolis-based Sezzle is a “buy now, pay later” company that operates a payment platform that increases the purchasing power for millions of consumers by offering

Thetanuts Finance has closed an USD18 million seed round, led by Three Arrows Capital, Deribit, QCP Capital, and Jump Crypto. The funding will finance the development of Thetanuts Finance’s structured products platform and user-friendly instruments in the crypto derivatives ecosystem.

Qventus (Qventus), a provider of AI-powered of software for care operations, has secured a growth investment led by Thomas H Lee Partners (THL), a private equity firm investing in growth companies, and a strategic partnership and investment by Premier, a healthcare improvement company. THL and Premier are joined by Thedacare, along with existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and Norwest Venture Partners. The funding round and partnership position the Company to expand its technology to additional hospitals and health systems across the United States.

The Riverside Company, a global private investor focused on the smaller end of the middle market, has invested in ESHA Research (ESHA), a provider of SaaS-based nutritional analysis, labeling compliance and product formulation software. ESHA is trusted by food and beverage manufacturers, foodservice companies, health and wellness organizations, supplements manufacturers and more, to ensure regulatory compliance. The company’s software enables customers to collect and store ingredient data, create regulatory-compliance nutrition facts labels, analyze the nutritional content of recipes, manage product formulations, calculate recipe yields and costs, produce ingredient certification statements and validate dietary claims. Riverside will invest meaningfully in product