Allocations
Allianz X, the digital investment unit of the Allianz Group, has received additional investment from Allianz SE, increasing its fund size to EUR1 billion.
The increase is the result of Allianz X’s investment track record, successful collaborations with growth companies as well as the contribution towards the Group’s overall digital transformation strategy. The funds will be used to make additional direct investments in digital companies globally that are strategically relevant for the Allianz Group. Allianz X becomes one of the largest European firms dedicated to digital investment by fund size, uniquely leveraging the world’s leading insurer and asset manager.
Senseon, an AI platform for cyber defence, has completed a USD6.4 million seed funding round led by venture capital fund MMC Ventures, alongside Mark Weatherford, former Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity, US Department of Homeland Security.
Additional investors include Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane Venture Partners and CyLon.
The funding will allow Senseon to continue its rapid expansion in the UK and increase its presence in EMEA and the US.
Founded in 2017 by David Atkinson – the first ever cyber operative within the UK’s specialist military units – Senseon empowers businesses to keep pace with the increase of
Leep Utilities, an independent multi-utility operator, is to purchase SSE Water, a New Appointments and Variations (NAV) company, from SSE plc. The transaction is expected to complete by the end of March and is conditional on approvals typical of a transaction of this nature.
Leep Utilities is a joint-venture between Ancala Partners (Ancala), a mid-market infrastructure investment manager, and the Peel Group (Peel), one of the UK’s leading private real estate investment and infrastructure companies. Leep owns and operates regulated and non-regulated utility networks, including electricity, water and district heating networks, with a portfolio of sites across the country.
Preservation Capital Partners (Preservation Capital), a financial services-focussed private equity firm which last year acquired an interest in the insurTech-driven cyber and specialty lines MGA Ascent Underwriting (Ascent), has made a strategic investment in US construction-focused MGA Cove Programs (Cove).
Together the business will manage in excess of USD200 million GWP, making it one of the largest independently owned emerging risk and specialty lines MGAs. Ascent and Cove will continue to operate under their respective market-leading brands. Each is a pioneer in speciality product development and distribution within their respective markets, supported by best-in-class underwriting and claims teams. However, senior
Octopus Investments (Octopus), a provider of venture capital trusts (VCTs) in the UK, has passed the GBP1 billion milestone in VCT assets under management.
Octopus is the first investment manager to reach this milestone, which comes after recent fundraising. The assets are spread across Octopus’ four VCTs, which are currently supporting more than 200 portfolio companies.
According to the latest figures from Association of Investment Companies (AIC), Octopus manages almost 25 per cent of all VCT funds, which amount to GBP4.25 billion.
Paul Latham, Head of Tax Products, at Octopus Investments, says: “VCTs have proven to be a
Baltisse has completed the acquisition of Polflam, a Polish fire-resistant glass manufacturer. The selling shareholders were the two founders, Maciej Szamborski and Wojciech Wilczak, and Syntaxis Capital, a private debt and growth capital investor.
Polflam is the leading fire-resistant glass manufacturer in Poland, as well as a successful challenger on other European markets, with a constantly growing share of export sales. A unique proprietary technology and hard to replicate production process provide the Company with a sustainable cost advantage and best-in-class product qualities. The Company’s experience and professionalism is backed up by thousands of successful installations all over Europe. Polflam
Essling Expansion has acquired a stake in the Evolucare Group alongside its manager Elie le Guilcher and his team, becoming a reference shareholder in the process.
Founded in 1988, Evolucare Technologies is a family group that publishes medical software for healthcare institutions. The group’s offer covers the entire patient journey within institutions through 3 areas of activity: Computerized Patient File (CPR), Critical Care and Imaging. With sales of EUR23 million in 2018, the group is already present in nearly 1900 institutions in France and abroad and is, through its positioning, perfectly at the crossroads of Essling Expansion’s investment universes.
Palamon Capital Partners (Palamon) has completed a roll-over investment, alongside core Palamon investors Adams Street Partners and PGGM, in Ober Scharrer Gruppe, following the sale of the Company by Palamon to majority owner Nordic Capital Fund IX in 2018.
Palamon originally acquired a majority share in Ober Scharrer Gruppe from its two physician founders in 2011 having identified the opportunity created by deregulation and the subsequent corporatisation of healthcare delivery in Germany. Palamon executed a substantial transformation programme to institutionalise the business and accelerate its growth through M&A. Under Palamon’s ownership, the Company unlocked the sizeable consolidation opportunity in the
Catering management software company Spoonfed is planning major expansion in the US, following GBP575,000 of development funding from Equity Gap.
Aimed specifically at contract catering firms and restaurants supplying catering to businesses, universities, hospitals and many other institutions, Spoonfed’s SaaS (Software as a Service) platform creates real efficiencies for caterers and provides a straightforward ordering system for their customers.
Spoonfed, headquartered in the UK, currently employees 11 people and intends to increase this to 20 by the end of 2019. They will add software engineers at their new Glasgow HQ and further customer support staff in the US, where
Hivemind, a UK-based data science company and member of the Investment Association’s fintech accelerator Velocity, has closed a funding round led by Fidelity International and Barclays.
Hivemind, which was spun out from global investment management company Winton Group in June last year, develops software that helps create valuable and structured data sets from complicated, unstructured sources such as news articles, company reports, blogs and images.
This funding round will be used to expand Hivemind’s sales, engineering and data science teams, driving the continued development of the company’s proprietary technology platform and making its data science expertise available to a
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
