Managers
PremFina Ltd, a UK-based company that increases access to insurance by providing financing options for the purchase of insurance premiums, has secured USD36 million in equity funding and a debt facility.
Rakuten Capital, the investment arm of Japan’s Rakuten, a global leader in e-commerce and fintech services and the main global partner of FC Barcelona and the UK’s Draper Esprit Plc led the financing, and were joined by global investors Thomvest Ventures, Emery Capital, Rubicon Venture Capital, Talis Capital and the company’s founder.
PremFina is the first premium finance company in the UK to receive venture funding, with the
Wala, a blockchain-powered financial services platform for the unbanked and underbanked, has secured an equity investment from Newtown Partners, the venture capital firm founded by Llew Claasen and Vinny Lingham.
Claasen is the Managing Partner of Newtown Partners and also the Executive Director of the the Bitcoin Foundation. Lingham is best known as the Founder of mobile gift card company Gyft, sold to First Data in 2015 and more recently, Civic, a Silicon Valley-based startup that completed a USD33 million token sale for a digital identity management platform in July 2017.
Newtown Partners previously assisted their portfolio company Augmentors,
Bridging Finance has launched its newest product, the Bridging Mid-Market Debt Fund, which will be available as of 20 October, 2017 through the IIROC dealer channel on FundSERV.
“Bridging Finance is currently experiencing significant growth and continues to establish itself as a leading provider of non-distressed private debt financing in Canada. Accordingly, the addition of the Bridging Mid-Market Debt Fund to the suite of products offered by Bridging Finance will allow us to better serve the financial advisor community with a product normally reserved for institutional investors, while assisting companies seeking alternative financing in North America,” says David Sharpe, Chief
360ip Japan has launched the 360ip Japan Fund 1 which will focus on seed technologies developed in academic institutes and corporations in Japan.
The Fund completed its initial closing with commitments of JPY1.0 billion, with support from investors Shinsei Bank and UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC Tokyo, Japan), a strategic investment arm of the University of Tokyo.
360ip Japan provides academic institutes and corporates with technology commercialisation and investment management expertise across a variety of industries. The fund aims to invest mainly in seed-stage start-ups or spin-offs with cutting-edge technologies developed in universities, research institutes, and corporations in Japan.
Steele Compliance Solutions has added extensive training and awareness content to its third-party compliance management software and due diligence services, through the acquisition of Compliance Wave.
Compliance Wave is a specialist in compliance micro-training content. With a client base of Fortune 500 companies, Compliance Wave provides a library of over 2,000 micro-learning & communication tools in more than 30 languages. The content provides short, engaging and retainable information that is not only fun for the end user to consume, but is highly effective in getting complex compliance concepts through in a meaningful way.
Compliance Wave adds to Steele’s already robust
Alliance Etiquettes is actively pursuing its consolidation strategy in the wine, spirits and agri-food high-end labelling sector with the acquisition of Applic’Etains, its fourth build-up since Activa Capital’s investment in July 2015.
Applic’Etains is a French company based in Nontron (Dordogne) and specialises in the design and production of high-end pewter labels for the wine & spirits industry. The firm, which continues to grow strongly, is managed by its founder, Thierry Vandenbosch.
It is the 4th company to join the Alliance Etiquettes Group since its creation in July 2015; Alliance Etiquettes has tripled in size since Activa Capital invested.
ZOA Robotics has secured a GBP85,000 seed investment from the British Robotics Seed Fund (BRSF). The investment is the first of a series that have been made by the UK’s robotics-focussed investment firm, and is in a company that is raising further investment on the new and complementary robotics crowdfunding platform Britbots CROWD.
ZOA Robotics’ objective is to develop four-legged robots with the grace of animals that can move anywhere. The company is looking to introduce its low cost highly mobile robots to tackle movement of goods across sites with uneven ground and multiple levels, reducing the use of manual
An investment fund affiliated with private equity firm Lightyear Capital (Lightyear) has invested in Datalot Inc (Datalot), a provider of mobile and web marketing technology solutions for the insurance industry.
Josh Reznick, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Datalot, together with other management, remain significant shareholders in the business. The transaction terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 2009, Datalot connects consumers with insurance carriers and agents. The Company has built a marketplace for insurance shoppers by leveraging its technology platform and integrated contact center operations to qualify and efficiently route consumer inquiries for primarily auto, home, health and life
Signal Capital Partners, a London-based private asset management firm, has raised EUR725m with an investment strategy targeting credit and real estate special situations.


Signal closed its funds in July 2017 and has deployed over EUR450 million across 15 investments to date since September 2015. The private investment funds target transactions of EUR25-75 million across Europe. 


The capital was raised from a diverse set of institutional investors, including endowments, foundations, pension funds, insurance companies, and large family offices across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.


Signal’s credit opportunities fund focuses on investments in complex, private bilateral situations
The infrastructure market saw 365 deals announced in Q3 2017, worth a combined USD88 billion. Preqin expects these totals to rise by around 5 per cent as more information becomes available.
However, this already surpasses the USD55 billion in deal value seen in Q2, reversing the slowdown seen through the first half of the year. While aggregate deal values have rebounded, the number of deals announced has continued to fall, failing to match the 414 deals seen the previous quarter. As a whole, 2017 has so far marked a significant slowdown compared to 2016: in the first three quarters of
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
