Managers
Kingswood Capital Management (Kingswood), an operationally-focused lower-middle market private equity firm, has closed the Kingswood Capital Opportunities Fund I.
The Fund was oversubscribed and closed at the hard cap with total commitments of USD230 million. The Fund received commitments from a balanced group of high-quality limited partners, including public pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, multi-manager funds, and family offices.
The Fund will seek to make value-oriented control buyouts and structured debt and equity investments in companies that are headquartered in North America and characterised by operational, transactional, and/or structural complexity where the Firm believes it can
Bain Capital Private Equity (Bain Capital) and Cinven (the consortium) have entered into definitive agreements to acquire Lonza Specialty Ingredients (LSI), a division of Lonza AG, for a total enterprise value of CHF4.2 billion.
LSI is a world-leading provider of specialty chemicals for microbial control solutions, used to eliminate or control harmful and unwanted micro-organisms. LSI’s products are critical ingredients in disinfectants, preservatives, sanitisers, personal care products, as well as coatings and other industrial uses. The business also produces a range of other specialty chemicals, centred around its unique production facility in Switzerland.
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, LSI has
Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) showed extraordinary resilience in 2020 despite the challenges of the pandemic, according to a new survey of VCT managers conducted by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).
In the survey, which was conducted between 1 December 2020 and 6 January 2021, 40 per cent of managers said trading conditions for their investee companies had improved since January 2020 with a further 27 per cent saying conditions were unchanged. Reflecting this, the average VCT delivered a positive total return of 4 per cent in 2020, while the FTSE All Share delivered a 10 per cent loss in
Surface Transforms, which manufactures next-generation carbon ceramic brake discs for the automotive and aircraft industries, has raised GBP20 million in a financing round led by Zeus Capital.
The raise follows a successful 18 months for Surface Transforms, in which it has secured contracts to supply brake discs for five new vehicles by four major automotive manufacturers, providing an expected revenue pipeline of GBP43 million. The company is also increasingly confident of securing at least two new contracts in the near future.
Based in Knowsley, Liverpool, Surface Transforms will use the funds raised to construct a new production cell at
Puma Private Equity, the private equity division of Puma Investments has completed a GBP2 million investment into Ostmodern, a digital product design and technology business that creates innovative video platforms for some of the world’s leading entertainment companies, including Formula One, Arsenal, Channel 4 and Fox.
Ostmodern has been at the forefront of innovation in digital product development for over 10 years. Projects have included creating a world-class streaming service that reconnected Formula One with younger audiences all over the world, blending content and data into an intuitive, enjoyable experience. It was F1’s first ever direct-to-consumer product, delivering live
Kester Capital (Kester) has made an investment in Optibrium, a drug discovery software provider to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
The business’ customer base includes five of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies.
This off-market deal is Kester Capital’s third investment in the Life Sciences sector and follows the successful closing of its latest fund, Kester Capital II, which had its final close in August 2020 at its hard cap. Despite challenging market conditions, the fundraise was oversubscribed and exceeded its target with a diverse group of new and existing institutional investors.
Optibrium was founded in 2009
Inflexion has reinvested in the British Engineering Services Group (BES) to support the company’s continued growth. Inflexion has been an investor in the engineering testing, inspection and consultancy services specialist since it led the carve-out from RSA plc in October 2015.
Homa Games, a mobile developer and publisher with more than 30 apps in its portfolio, has raised a record USD15 million Seed round from Idinvest Partners, e.ventures & renowned business angels.
Since its foundation in 2018, Homa Games has chosen HyperCasual as its main focus and has created multiple worldwide game hits of the genre such as Tower Color, Sky Roller and NERF Epic Pranks!. Combining in-house made tech and its own creative studio, Homa Games provides the service of unique excellence to its studio-partners with the focal point on automation and optimization at every step of app production and
BV Investment Partners (BV), a middle-market private equity firm focused on the tech-enabled business services, software and IT services sectors, has made a majority investment in SupportNinja, a high-end outsourcing solutions provider.
SupportNinja provides scalable customer and technical support and back-office solutions for the world’s fastest growing and most innovative companies across a range of industries, including technology, ecommerce, consumer services and business services. It is experienced in helping high growth companies outsource for the first time by building a training program and knowledge base, improving support process and providing best-in-class offshore teams. Founded in 2015, SupportNinja is based in
Following the close of its recent GBP35 million Series C investment round, digital mortgage and home-buying company Habito has secured additional backing from Bootstrap Europe, a technology growth debt fund that works with disruptive scale-ups making an impact.
Backed by the British Business Investments, Bootstrap Europe recognised the potential in Habito’s plans to shape vision to transform the UK’s GBP1.3 trillion mortgage market.
Since ​its launch in 2016, Habito has delivered free, whole-of-market regulated advice through its digital brokerage to more than 350,000 customers, resulting in mortgage submissions worth over GBP5 billion​. Habito is the UK’s Best Mortgage Broker as
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
