MarketForce (MarketForce360.com), a Nairobi-headquartered B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services in Africa, has closed a USD40 million Series A round led by V8 Capital Partners. The raise, the largest Series A round of its kind in East and Central Africa, comes seven months after the closing of a pre-Series A round. Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, Vu Ventures, Vastly Valuable Ventures and Uncovered Fund, along a number of existing investors; Reflect Ventures, Greenhouse Capital, Century Oak Capital and Remapped Ventures also participated in the round, as did Ken Njoroge, Cofounder and former CEO of

Urbanmetry, an AI-driven city and property data company, has closed a pre-Series A round of USD2 million led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. The funding will be used for developing its intelligent data products and platforms to serve end consumers in the property and mortgage markets; and for building out its product, technology, data, and business development teams. In addition to providing data and insight to institutional clients, Urbanmetry also offers products for the homeowner. To assist homebuyers in making their mortgage commitment, Urbanmetry has launched Nowcast, an AI-driven service that helps homebuyers forecast the value of their homes based on

Trident Energy and Warburg Pincus have closed a new investment in Trident Energy by Quantum Energy Partners (Quantum). Under the terms of the transaction, Quantum is now a significant investor in Trident and has committed to participate in a USD400 million Line of Equity (LOE) alongside Warburg Pincus and Trident’s existing minority shareholders. Trident expects to use the LOE to fund additional growth opportunities in its existing assets and new opportunities.    Trident was founded in 2016 with a focus on acquiring, operating and redeveloping mid-life oil and gas assets.  Quantum is a provider of private capital across the energy

Solvay Ventures, the venture capital fund of Solvay, is investing in the Zurich-based startup 9T Labs to bring additive manufacturing of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts to mass production. 9T Labs’ hybrid manufacturing technology enables complex, high-performance structural parts to be produced in carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites in volumes up to thousands of parts per year. It provides a cost-competitive solution for manufacturing that will allow structural CFRP parts to replace metals at a much faster rate in demanding applications in many sectors such as aerospace, automotive and healthcare. This technology complements Solvay’s unmatched portfolio of high-performance thermoplastic polymers and deep

Oral Surgery Partners (OSP), an oral surgery group backed by Sheridan Capital Partners, has completed the acquisitions of  Oral and Facial Surgery Associates, West Texas Oral and Facial Surgery, William Paul DDS, Valley Oral & Facial Surgery, Show-Me Oral Surgery & Dental Implants, Piedmont Oral Surgery, and Summerville Oral Surgery. OSP now provides services in seven states. The business has also appointed John Cline as CEO. Cline most recently worked with New Capital Partners and served as Executive Chairman of Hospice Partners of America. Prior to that, he served as CEO of STX Healthcare Management Services before and after its

Nordstjernan is to acquire the Finnish in-vitro diagnostics company Aidian from funds that are managed by the Nordic private equity firm Axcel. Aidian is a global player in the growing market for point-of-care diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures and sells instruments and tests that are used in such fields as primary care to provide quick and accurate test results. Aidian’s offering of tests addresses several global health problems such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), diabetes and colorectal cancer. Aidian has tests that are intended to reduce unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics, which is a driver behind the growing threat from AMR and

Agronomics, a listed company focused on cellular agriculture, has acquired 1,069,593 Preferred Stock in a secondary transaction in Geltor, a company focused on producing designer proteins for use in the cosmetic industry, from an existing shareholder, for total consideration of USD9,499,525. This represents an equity stake in Geltor, on a fully diluted basis, of 2.05 per cent and equates to an estimated portfolio weighting based on the Company’s last reported Net Asset Value of 5.01 per cent.   The consideration due to the vendor comprises USD6,785,375 in cash from the Company’s own resources and USD2,714,150 to be satisfied through the

AutoVantage, a Romanian platform where new car buyers can compare offers from car dealers all over the country and choose the best one for their needs, is the newest startup soon to be listed on Rōnin. The company is raising EUR150,000 through Rōnin, at a EUR2,000,000 valuation. Rōnin is an investment platform that supports entrepreneurs in various fields finance their business ideas with interested investors being able to pre-register to get exclusive priority access for 48h and be the first to invest in a company’s development plans.  The team behind the Rōnin platform aims to facilitate the connection between entrepreneurs

Market-disruptive property lender Blend Network (Blend) has secured GBP10 million in funding in its latest investment round, which was led by emerging VC investor Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore. The funding round was capped at this level following an oversubscription.  Existing investors, who also participated in this round, include Cyrus Ardalan, former Barclays Vice Chairman and current Chairman of both OakNorth Bank and CAF Financial Solutions Limited, and Jean-Philippe Blochet, co-founder of macro hedge fund Brevan Howard, which as of October 2021 has USD20 billion in assets under management.    Backed by family offices since 2019, the

Umazi, a due diligence platform automating enterprise identity verification, has secured a USD1 million investment from Innovate UK and other angel investors, as it announces a spate of high-profile partnerships with Artesian:DueDil and ComplyAdvantage to simplify their due diligence systems. The USD1 million pre-seed investment which involved angel investors across the world will help fuel the regtech startup’s ambition to set the global standard for cross-industry digital identity and compliance.   Umazi is currently in Founders Factory’s accelerator programme where it has been collaborating with Aviva on potential opportunities to automate and streamline onboarding of suppliers for enterprise businesses. The