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

Vitesse PSP (Vitesse), a global payment, liquidity and treasury management platform, has raised USD26 million in a Series B funding led by Prime Ventures. The round also includes investments from Octopus Ventures – one of Europe’s largest and most active venture capital investors – who led the 2020 Series A funding, as well as Hannover Digital Investments, the corporate venture capital fund of HDI Group, one of Europe’s largest insurance companies.  Additional participants include existing angel investors and industry heavyweights such as Ron Kalifa, OBE, former Worldpay CEO and author of the Kalifa Review and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie,

UK space firm, Satellite Vu – one of Seraphim Space’s lead portfolio companies – has signed a launch deal with Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, to launch the world’s highest resolution thermal imaging satellite in early 2023. Satellite Vu will be part of a rideshare launch on one of SpaceX’s Transporter missions aboard Falcon 9, which has proven to be the most reliable rockets to launch satellites into orbit in recent years.   The mission will launch the first of Satellite Vu’s seven UK built satellites into a low earth orbit. Satellite Vu has been well funded, so far raising

Onex Renewables (Onex), low-carbon subsidiary of privately led infrastructure investment group Onex Holding, has confirmed the closing of a 221MW Portuguese wind portfolio transaction. Onex has appointed Exus Management Partners (Exus), leading experts in powering sustainable investments through operational excellence – across a 9GW global portfolio – to deliver expert support and strategic advice in the sourcing, structuring and execution of the deal, including the syndication process and financing provided by Banco Santander.  Previously owned by EDP Renewables, the portfolio consists of five wind projects and comes with an 18-year PPA attached. Announced in July 2021, the conditions precedent have been verified

O’Melveny has represented Earnipay, a fintech company that provides flexible and on-demand salary access to income-earners in Africa, in a USD4 million in a Series Seed Preferred Financing led by early-stage venture capital firm Canaan.

Multi-disciplined engineering company, WHP Engineering, has secured a GBP2 million facility from Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance to support growth, following a surge in demand as a result of the pandemic. Gateshead-based WHP is a specialist in the supply of design and build services for cleanrooms, clean manufacturing solutions and complex process systems. Working across healthcare, life sciences and personal care cosmetics, the business has seen significant growth since it was supported by transformational private equity investor Enact in 2016.   Recent contracts include the Oxford Biomedica facility, completed in 2019, which has since been used to produce the first

Pan-European private equity firm Silverfleet Capital has agreed to sell Pumpenfabrik Wangen (Wangen), a designer and manufacturer of progressive cavity and twin-screw pumps, to Atlas Copco Group. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary anti-trust approvals and is expected to occur in Q1 or Q2 2022.  The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.    Silverfleet acquired Pumpenfabrik Wangen in 2017, having identified the potential to further internationalise the company based on its highly attractive product portfolio and leading product innovation capabilities. Since then, Silverfleet has backed Wangen’s acquisition of the Germany-based business unit for Progressive Cavity Pumps

Econergy Renewable Energy, an investor, developer and operator in renewable energy projects across Europe, has agreed separate joint ventures with Phoenix Insurance and RGreen Invest totalling over EUR200 million to support the construction of part of its pipeline of projects in Romania and Poland. Phoenix Insurance, the largest insurance company in Israel, will provide Econergy with EUR150 million to support the construction of a number of the company’s solar projects in Romania and Poland that are expected to start construction during 2022. The loan will be divided into EUR110.25 million as a convertible loan and EUR39.75 million as a permanent