Pantera Capital and Patron, an early-stage venture capital firm, have co led a USD6 million seed funding round in Web 3 startup, Fast Break Labs. Other participants in the round include: Brooklyn Nets owner Joseph Tsai’s family office; Marc Merrill and Thomas Vu of Riot Games, the developer of the League of Legends video game; and Sacramento Kings co-owner Aneel Ranadive. Fast Break Labs is the company behind the forthcoming Virtual Basketball Association, an online fantasy sports league built on the Solana blockchain. Users will need to buy packs of player NFTs to build their teams and then compete against

The RMA Group of Companies (RMA), a portfolio company of OceanSound Partners, has acquired Coating Specialists and Inspection Services, dba CSI Services (CSI), a specialty coating inspection services business based. Following the previously announced merger with Western Technologies (WT), the acquisition of CSI is RMA’s second transaction as it executes an acquisition-driven growth strategy to build a national test and inspection services platform for critical infrastructure end-markets.  Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.   Founded in 2004, CSI provides specialty inspection services of protective paints and linings used to prevent corrosion of critical infrastructure assets, including water storage

Global law firm Mayer Brown has reported a record-breaking year for its UK private equity team after advising on 26 deals worth USD3.5 billion in 2021, a 25 per cent increase on the USD2.8 billion worth of deals it advised on in 2020. This also represents a 65 per cent increase on the 16 deals it advised on the previous year as Mayer Brown’s UK private equity practice, led by Head of Private Equity Perry Yam, continues to grow.   The UK practice has also seen an increase in cross-border transactions in 2021, advising on deals in 22 countries compared

OneOrder, an Egypt-based logistics startup, has secured USD1 million in funding round led by venture capital firm A15. OneOrder, which was founded by Tamer Amer, the man behind the Fuego Sushi and Longhorn Texas BBQ Egyptian restaurants chains, supplies meat, vegetables, and equipment.

AE Industrial Partners (AEI), a US-based private equity firm specialising in aerospace, defence & government services, space, power and utility services, and specialty industrial markets, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire a significant stake in Firefly Aerospace (Firefly), an specialist in economical launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, from Noosphere Venture Partners (Noosphere). Transaction closing is subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals, including Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) clearance. Other terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

illumifin, an insurance third-party administration and software provider backed by private equity firm Abry, is to acquire LTCG, a provider of administrative solutions and clinical services to the long-term care insurance industry. The transaction is expected to close within the next 60 days.   The strategic acquisition will make illumifin one of the largest insurance third-party administrators in the country with leading capability in underwriting, policy administration, health risk assessments and claims management. By combining illumifin’s third party administration and technology solutions with LTCG’s proprietary long-term care administration platform and claims capabilities, the company will be well positioned to advance

Depict.ai, a provider of AI-based product recommendations for any e-commerce store without the need for historical sales data, has raised USD17 million in a Series A investment led by Tiger Global, with participation from Initialized Capital, EQT Ventures, Y Combinator and a team of angels. The Series A investment comes a year after Depict.ai raised USD2.8 million in a seed funding round led by Initialized Capital, with participation from EQT Ventures, Y Combinator, and Northzone.  The new capital will be used to keep up with demand and enable Depict.ai’s rapidly growing team to bring its recommendation engine to the rest

Wellness icon Deepak Chopra, psychedelics entrepreneur Christian Angermayer and Dragons’ Den investor Steven Bartlett, are backing The Healing Company, a new business set up to acquire consumer health brands, according to a report by CNBC. Chopra, who is to become chief scientific adviser, is acquiring a stake in there business in return for his is time and advice, which will help the company pursue its aim of acquiring and scaling 15 direct-to-consumer health brands over the next three years. All will have a focus on  holistic medicine and health supplements.

Good-Loop – a global ad tech company that converts people’s attention to ads into donations to good causes – has closed a Series A round of USD6.1 million (GBP4.5 million) led by led by New York-based investment fund, Quaestus Capital Management (QCM). Additional backing came from Scottish Enterprise, impact investor SIS Ventures, European ad tech fund First Party Capital and investment raised on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs – bringing total investment into the ad tech for good platform to USD8.2 million (GBP6 million) since it was formed in 2016. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s product roadmap,