Managers
AURES Holdings is to launch Driverama which is aiming to become the first ever truly borderless pan-European online used car retailer, bringing to market a ‘bricks and clicks’ operating model that delivers the widest choice of vehicles, most sophisticated car buying and selling technology and best value for customers across the continent.
As part of AURES Holdings, the largest independent used car retailer in Europe with more than EUR700 million in revenue, EUR44 million EBITDA and over 2.5 million customers served, Driverama will initially launch in Germany, with over 5,000 of its own fully inspected cars, before rolling the concept
Private equity firm OpenGate Capital’s portfolio company, SMAC, a French provider of waterproofing and building envelope solutions, has completed the sale of its skylights-related division to Kingspan Light + Air, a division of Kingspan Group Plc.
The sale of the skylights division includes two business lines; Skydôme, a subsidiary focused on the production of daylighting, ventilation, smoke evacuation, and roofing access systems; and Essemes Services, a division within Skydôme specialising in the installation of skylights and the maintenance of fire safety equipment. OpenGate acquired SMAC from Colas Group in May of 2019. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
NewSpring, a family of private equity strategies, has announced that NewSpring Franchise, the firm’s newest strategy focused on investing in innovative franchise and multi-unit concepts, has completed its acquisition of Duck Donuts, one of the nation’s fastest-growing donut franchise companies. Free Fenix, a Charlotte, NC-based hybrid investment company, partnered with NewSpring on the deal, providing a significant investment to further accelerate growth.
Russ DiGilio, founder and original CEO of Duck Donuts, launched the now-iconic donut brand in 2007 in the town of Duck in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Since beginning to franchise in 2013, the company today operates
KKR, a global investment firm, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ensono, a specialist hybrid IT services provider, from Charlesbank Capital Partners and M/C Partners. The new investment follows multiple years of strong performance by Ensono, including robust growth in 2020 and its recently completed acquisition of Amido, a UK-based cloud native consultancy.
Ensono provides a comprehensive suite of services that help enterprises manage, optimize and modernize their IT systems across mainframe, cloud and hybrid infrastructure. Charlesbank and M/C Partners acquired the company in 2015 as a corporate carve-out. Since rebranding as Ensono in 2016, the company has achieved
Addition Capital, the London-based family investment office, has completed a control investment into Be-A Education Ltd, supported by funding from Shawbrook Bank.
Hertfordshire-based Be-A Education is the operator of the highly successful and fast-growing New Skills Academy and Staff Skills Training businesses with a mission to make learning accessible to consumers and businesses globally. To date, the award-winning company has sold nearly 1 million courses to consumers in over 30 countries.
The strategic investment, in partnership with Be-A’s founders, marks a new phase in Be-A’s continuing mission to bring affordable and accessible upskilling courses to consumers and businesses globally through
Private-equity backed Access Partnership has secured an undisclosed investment from Shawbrook Bank.
The international firm, also backed by Mobeus Equity Partners, specialises in shaping international public policy for the global technology sector.
The Group has witnessed rapid growth in recent years, driven by market dynamics around increasing regulatory pressures in data security, communications and artificial intelligence.
Supported by Mobeus, the Access Partnership management team are pursuing a period of organic and acquisitive growth, further funded by an undisclosed commercial facility from Shawbrook Bank, a specialist lender to UK SMEs.
“Governments and their citizen-stakeholders want technology on terms that are fair
The Gresham House British Strategic Investment Fund (BSIF) made a GBP10.5 million investment into Borderlink Broadband Limited (Borderlink).
Borderlink is a Fixed Wireless Access and Fibre broadband operator serving business and residential customers across Scotland, Cumbria and Northumberland. Borderlink is headquartered in the Scottish borders with depots and offices based at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Kelso, and Carlisle respectively. Borderlink’s current network focuses on rolling out high speed fibre broadband connectivity across five counties today, with the intention to grow more widely across Scotland and Northern England.
Borderlink will use the BSIF investment, in conjunction with the various Government schemes available to support
Hospitality technology platform LOKE has raised GBP2.85 million in a funding round led by Guinness Asset Management.
LOKE provides hospitality and retail businesses a sales and marketing platform designed to create new revenue channels, increase the average order value, frequency of transactions and reduce labour costs. This is achieved via a suite of digital sales and marketing tools powered by a bespoke rewards and promotion engine.
LOKE’s platform ‘democratises’ technology previously only available to the world’s biggest brands to any hospitality or retail business. With eight years of experience developing solutions, its expertise has helped support SMEs thrive during
Zeigo’s renewable energy procurement platform has completed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on behalf of Gresham House, a market leading specialised alternative asset management group dedicated to sustainable investments. The site is a 4.3MW Solar Farm located in Leicestershire, England.
By partnering with the Zeigo platform, which uses the very latest technology to simplify the PPA procurement process, Gresham House accessed a wide variety of supplier offtakers which enabled them to complete the PPA swiftly and at a favourable price.
JP Cerda, CEO of Zeigo, says: “We are happy to partner with Gresham House to provide them with the end-to-end
Private equity and infrastructure investment manager Foresight Group (Foresight) has completed an equity investment into Beckett Investment Management Group Limited (Becketts), a Chartered Financial Planner and regional provider of financial, wealth management and employee benefits advice to private clients and companies, primarily in East Anglia.
This is the third investment from the Foresight East of England Fund, which targets investments in established, profitable SMEs in the East of England.
Founded in 1988, Becketts helps private clients and companies make the right financial choices by providing top quality independent financial and employee benefits advice. Headquartered in Bury St Edmunds and
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
