Schoology, developer of a cloud-based collaborative learning platform for K-20 classrooms, has closed a new USD6 million round of financing led by FirstMark Capital, a leading NYC-based venture capital firm. Schoology has raised USD9.3 million in funding to date. Schoology’s mission is to improve communication and collaboration inside and outside of the classroom by socially connecting educators, students and parents to a single platform with the resources they need to drive a better learning experience. Schoology bundles online learning, classroom management and social networking into one, easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy platform that is free to teachers and students. Districts can easily upgrade

Bunge Limited, a global agribusiness and food company, has completed its previously announced acquisition of Climate Change Capital Group Limited (CCCG), the parent company of Climate Change Capital Limited (CCC), a UK-regulated sustainable asset manager and advisor.  James Cameron (pictured), CCC’s Vice Chairman, will replace Vivienne Cox as Chairman. Mark Macleod, CCC’s Chief Financial Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer, will continue as CFO and Director. Alfred Evans will become CEO. Since 2005, Evans has advised Bunge on its internal emission reduction initiatives, overseen emission reduction services provided by Bunge’s Ecoinvest Carbon subsidiary and served as Chief Investment Officer for

Ancor Capital Partners has sold Tritrax Healthcare Services, a home health-care services provider to Dallas/Fort Worth area geriatric patients, to Jordan Health Services, a statewide provider of adult home health services. "The focus of our growth plan in the home care sector at Ancor is in paediatric care, and we were pleased to find a strategic buyer such as Jordan who valued the Tritrax employees and its reputation in the industry," says Timothy J McKibben, managing director at Ancor. "We are excited about the opportunities that are in front of us in the paediatric sector and look forward to building

Vision Capital has acquired Vitopel from funds advised by DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and JP Morgan Partners.  Vitopel is the market leader in BOPP (bi-axially oriented polypropylene) film production in Latin America, generating over USD300 million of revenue in 2011. Its materials are widely used for products such as snack foods, fresh produce and confectionery products. Vision Capital intends to use Vitopel as a platform for consolidation in the BOPP industry and to capitalise on the high growth potential within the Latin American BOPP film packaging market, driven by increasing commercial and consumer demand.   As part of the transaction, Vision

Friendgiftr, an e-commerce firm providing virtual pre-paid cards through the social web, has agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Aurora Borealis Investments. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. "This is huge," says Rob Carpenter, Founder and CEO of Friendgiftr. "Since our launch, we have been working to create innovative virtual solutions for the pre-paid economy, and this acquisition is validation of that. It’s definitely exciting." Friendgiftr is the first company to have commercialised social media with multiple major merchant brands by providing e-commerce storefronts, mobile storefronts and unique partnerships with digital content providers, among others.

Alarm Capital Alliance (ACA) has partnered with Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a global investment firm with USD3.7 billion in capital under management. ACA provides capital return and valuable operational resources to alarm companies via its dealer and portfolio acquisition programs as well as residential security services and home automation technologies to households across the United States. The security alarm industry is expected to grow into a USD43 billion dollar market by 2015. NVP was drawn to ACA because of this significant market opportunity, an exceptionally strong leadership team and the company’s unique, multi-channel approach, including offerings to a traditionally underserved

In Q1 2012, UK M&A activity saw 229 deals totalling GBP16bn, a 33% decrease compared to Q1 2011 (GBP23.9bn) but up 9.6% compared to Q4 2011 (GBP14.6bn), according to MergerMarket. The UK made up 9.6% of all European M&A by value this quarter, the lowest Q1 since Q1 2004 (8.4%). Only six large-cap deals (GBP500m+) were announced this quarter. The largest transaction of the quarter was the GBP3.2bn acquisition of the UK based broadcast software provider NDS Group by Cisco Systems, from News Corp and Permira. With GBP4.8bn-worth of deals totalling 22 transactions, Technology was the most active sector in

Private equity firm Stirling Square Capital Partners has acquired SAR AS, a leading provider of total waste management solutions for the Norwegian offshore oil & gas industry, from AR Incoronato AS and Westco AS. The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is the sixth from Stirling Square’s second fund, its second in the oil & gas sector and its first in Norway.   SAR services the oil & gas industry through the handling and treatment of oil contaminated drill waste, hazardous and industrial waste from offshore oil installations and tank cleaning through its nine bases strategically located along the Norwegian coastline. 

BaltCap, a leading venture investor in the Baltics, has signed a EUR1 million investment in Clusterpoint, an ultra-fast database management system with built-in Internet-style search functionality. The company is an enterprise software start-up created by Latvian programmers and backed by seed investors from the UK and the Baltics.   Clusterpoint has built a highly scalable database platform designed for cloud computing infrastructure. Clusterpoint’s database software provides superior performance on modest hardware so that it delivers greater energy-efficiency in data centres. The company has paying customers and revenue and will use BaltCap’s investment to expand internationally, including hiring senior management in