Deals
Rocky Robots, a digital coaching startup designed to guide and motivate young professionals, has closed a GBP300,000 pre-seed investment from Jenson Funding Partners alongside other investors.
The company is the developer of Rocky.AI, an app with an interactive sparring partner, powered by Artificial Intelligence, that encourages self-improvement and reflection to help ambitious workers build a growth mindset.
The pre-seed investment will be used to scale Rocky Robots and build on the existing customers across the core UK and North American markets, while continuing to enhance the product further.
Apprenticeship training provider, Apprentify, has secured a GBP5 million investment from the UK’s most active growth capital investor, BGF.
Alderley Park-headquartered Apprentify specialises in digital marketing, social media and tech courses, enabling employers to recruit and train apprentices skilled ‘for the jobs of tomorrow’.
The investment, alongside debt funding from OakNorth, has allowed the business to acquire West Midlands based Netcom Training, a digital training provider for adults seeking to up or reskill, whilst also positioning the group to execute an ambitious buy and build strategy in the apprenticeship and adult education market.
The UBS Asset Management (UBS-AM) Infrastructure Debt Platform has financed CapMan Infra’s acquisition of Koiviston Auto, a Finnish transport operator with the largest bus fleet in the country.
The financing will also fund Koiviston Auto’s expansion into electric vehicles, with aims to increase the number of electric buses in its fleet six-fold by 2026 to 33 per cent of total vehicles.
The funding from UBS-AM, acting as the sole lender on the transaction, represents cEUR100 million of debt, allowing CapMan Infra, a Nordic infrastructure investor, to fully acquire Koiviston Auto’s issued share capital. The transaction was the final investment
Piper Sandler Companies has completed the acquisition of macro research firm Cornerstone Macro.
Cornerstone Macro’s senior research analysts connect macro insights from around the world to deliver a comprehensive overview of important global trends. Cornerstone Macro will continue providing its as Piper Sandler & Co’s macro research team, led by Nancy Lazar, Andy Laperriere, Roberto Perli and Michael Kantrowitz.
Cornerstone Macro’s research and equity derivatives trading team is an ideal complement to Piper Sandler’s single stock coverage platform, with over 1,000 companies covered and ranking No1 in total names under coverage in the small & mid-cap category.
Private equity firm Willis & Smith Capital and its affiliates have acquired R&B Grinding (R&B), a manufacturer of machined components to a variety of industrial customers, including Fortune 500 original equipment manufacturers.
Since its founding in 1958 by the Biddle Family, R&B remains a community pillar employing over 100 team members in its multi-acre manufacturing campus.
Willis & Smith Capital’s operating partner, Gene Simon, will serve as Chief Executive Officer. Several key members of the senior management team, including Barb Lange of the Biddle Family, will continue managing R&B’s various operating divisions.
Main Capital Partners (Main) has backed biomedion, a leading GxP data cloud platform provider.
biomedion offers an extensive suite of software that is deployed across all “good practice” areas (GxP) in the life and health sciences industry, where quality guidelines and regulations are of paramount importance.
biomedion is headquartered in Berlin and has also expanded into the United States with plans to further extend its reach across Europe and North-America.
biomedion represents the third investment from the Main Foundation I fund, which was launched in October 2021 and targets innovative, high-growth software companies.
Ironwood Capital, a provider of non-control growth capital to middle market companies across the US has exited The Facilities Group (TFG), a national facilities maintenance business formed by Revolent Capital Solutions, and a portfolio company of the firm.
The Facilities Group is a provider of integrated facilities maintenance solutions. The Company partners with local, regional, and national brands to provide service for customers nationwide across a broad set of end markets.
Industrial Opportunity Partners (IOP), an operations-focused private equity firm, has completed the sale of portfolio company Midwest Paper Group Holdings, Inc (Midwest Paper) to McKinley Paper Company, a subsidiary of Bio Pappel SA de CV (Bio Pappel), a manufacturer of paper and packaging products in North and Latin America.
IOP acquired Midwest Paper in December 2019.
The divestiture represents IOP’s first investment realisation from its USD450 million third fund, Industrial Opportunity Partners III.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Private investment firm Inverness Graham’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions company, Syntrio, has acquired ClearView Strategic Partners (ClearView), a provider of ethics reporting & management systems and whistleblower technology solutions.
The transaction marks the fifth add-on acquisition completed during Inverness Graham’s ownership, and will provide Syntrio with access to key international geographies as well as an expanded software solutions offering.
Vensica Therapeutics (Vensica), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, has closed a USD19 million investment round.
Vensica executed a strategic collaboration agreement with Merz Therapeutics in 2021 and the Merz Group is participating in Vensica’s financing with up to USD3 million, bringing the total round to up to USD19 million. The round was led by Israel Biotech Fund (IBF) with the participation of Laborie, Lew Pell, Agriline, and The Trendlines Group.
Merz Therapeutics, a business of the Merz Group, is a specialist in the field of neurotoxins. Vensica has exclusively licensed Merz’s botulinum neurotoxin A (Xeomin®) for needle-free use in urological
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
