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By David Genn, chief executive officer at Goji – As private capital managers look to individual investors as the next frontier for asset growth, technology may finally provide a path.
London-based Banking-as-a-Service provider Griffin has secured GBP6.5 million in a funding round led by EQT Ventures. This new round follows the company’s previous £3m seed round announced earlier this year. Other participants in the round include Seedcamp, Tribe Capital, Paul Forster  (co-founder Indeed.com), Matt Robinson (co-founder Go-Cardless/Nested), and Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (COO GoCardless). Griffin is building an API-first bank that will dramatically lower the barrier to entry when it comes to launching new financial products  and services. The company will use the investment to further product development, hire more people and continue the bank authorisation process with the PRA and FCA. Griffin
Beringea, a transatlantic venture capital firm, has led a GBP2.5 million investment into CreativeX, an AI-powered creative analytics platform used by global brands to measure the efficiency, consistency and impact of marketing and advertising content.CreativeX, which has recently announced that it has rebranded from Picasso Labs, was founded in 2015 by Anastasia Leng, a serial entrepreneur and former Google executive. CreativeX sought to harness data to understand the performance of image and video content and it has since grown to become a cornerstone of the creative process for leading global brands including Google, Unilever, L’Oréal and Pepsi.   Digital advertising,
BC Partners, an international investment firm, has signed an agreement to acquire the leading European braintainment business, Keesing Media Group (Keesing) from Ergon Capital and Mediahuis.  Founded in the Netherlands over 100 years ago, Keesing has a presence in over 40 countries and is already the largest puzzle content developer in Europe. It owns a number of market-leading brands and is also in the process of releasing new digital offerings which will allow it to leverage its existing content to new audiences.    BC Partners is confident that Keesing is well positioned to benefit from the increased focus on brain training
Sagewind Capital portfolio company GCOM, a provider of technology solutions focused on state and local governments, has acquired 20/20 Teknology, a managed services provider and systems integrator. The acquisition combines 20/20 Teknology’s expertise in unified and virtual communications, IT infrastructure, and managed services with GCOM’s leading-edge government IT offerings, enhancing GCOM’s ability to provide its government customers the next-generation solutions they need to function seamlessly across departmental boundaries without relying on brick-and-mortar facilities.   20/20 Teknology benefits from the deep relationships that GCOM has with its state and local government customers, enabling the 20/20 Teknology team to apply its ability to
DOB Equity, a leading Dutch family-backed impact investor in East Africa has made a further investment in Mr Green Africa, the Nairobi based recycler and recycled plastics supplier.Mr Green Africa collects and recycles plastic into a “new” raw material which can be used by manufacturers with a traceable social and environmental impact, the waste plastic is also ethically sourced.   The investment will allow Mr Green Africa to fulfil the growing demand for recyclables from local and multinational companies. From DOB Equity’s initial investment, MGA has been able to replace virgin plastic with up to 100 per cent recyclable plastic
Aliter Capital has completed an investment in Skill Pill, a digital micro-learning specialist, which produces high-quality video, animation, and gamified eLearning content with a particular strength in business performance support, leadership, management, sales and personal effectiveness training. Skill Pill has a library of 500 modules and serves over one million learners in over 168 countries with customers such as the BBC, Fujitsu, John Lewis/Waitrose, Save the Children, and the NHS. Its learning is based on globally recognised methodologies published by leading organisations such as Pearson and the Financial Times. Skill Pill’s micro-learning content and blue-chip customer base is highly complementary to
GPS Group, a growing storage and logistics provider, and VARO Energy (VARO), a downstream energy company active in North West Europe, are to construct of a new railway line and ethanol storage tanks, at the Port of Amsterdam.This investment is the next step in GPS’s strategic partnership with VARO. VARO, on the other hand, will support GPS in maximising opportunities across its markets and will continue to play a vital role in the logistics provider’s ambitious expansion plans.   The new railway line and ethanol storage tanks are set to connect to 17 Class 1 tanks in the Port of
Railsbank, a global Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, has raised USD37 million as part of continued equity funding to support its global growth and product expansion. MiddleGame Ventures and Ventura Capital, both existing investors in Railsbank, co-led the round, with Anthos Capital, Global Brains, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Moneta VC, Mitsui Fudosan and Firestartr also participating.   The new investment will enable Railsbank to continue to expand its global footprint, further strengthen its core product proposition, launch Credit Cards as a Service and help increase its lead in the embedded finance market as the world’s pre-eminent BaaS platform, enabling start-ups and established brands to
IK Investment Partners’ (IK) IK Small Cap II Fund has reached an agreement with Peter Vermeesch, Stijn Stragier and Sofindev to acquire a majority stake in GeoDynamics, a SaaS provider specialising in location-based software solutions for mobile workforces. Financial terms have not been disclosed.GeoDynamics was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium. The Company’s software solutions serve over 2,700 customers across construction, utilities, technical and manufacturing services, in addition to local municipalities. The proprietary cloud-based platform allows customers to manage their vehicle fleets in real-time and account for mobile workers’ time and activity registration.   IK will be

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