Managers
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust plc (LSE ticker: SEIT), managed by Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL), has acquired a 71 per cent interest in a high-quality Combined Heat and Power (CHP) portfolio of eight operating CHP projects on the east coast of the USA for a total cash consideration of USD5.0 million.
Six of these CHP projects are being acquired from a well-known US manufacturer and installer of CHP units and solutions. The remaining two projects are being contributed by a fund managed by a US subsidiary of SDCL, which will result in that fund owning the remaining 29 per cent
Luminous Ventures’ existing portfolio company, Hadean – creator of the cloud-based operating system (HadeanOS) and distributed simulation engine (Aether Engine) – has secured a further GBP7 million investment in a third round of funding.
Luminous Ventures – a venture fund which focuses on supporting early stage deep-tech companies – was Hadean’s original venture investor, funding the startup from concept, and leading through two seed rounds of funding in October 2016 and May 2018.
This current funding is being led by venture capital firm Draper Esprit, with additional investment from Aster Capital and specialist gaming investor LVP. Existing investors Entrepreneur
One Equity Partners (OEP), a middle market private equity firm, is to acquire Walterscheid Powertrain Group, (Walterscheid), a provider of original equipment and aftermarket parts and services for off-highway powertrain applications, from GKN Limited.
Founded in 1919 and headquartered in Lohmar, Germany, Walterscheid manufactures, distributes and services shafts, gearboxes, attachment systems, clutches and other parts for off-highway applications. The Company’s 2,100 employees also provide a wide range of services for agricultural, construction, mining, and industrial OEM and aftermarket customers in Europe, China, and North America.
OEP will partner with the management team of Walterscheid, led by CEO Wolfgang Lemser,
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (Quinbrook), a specialist global investment manager focussed exclusively on lower carbon and renewable energy infrastructure investment and operational asset management in the US, the UK and Australia, has held the closing of its Low Carbon Power Fund, raising a total of over USD1.6 billion in investor commitments to the strategy.
David Scaysbrook, co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook, says: “We are very grateful to both our longstanding investors and our new institutional clients who have enabled us to achieve our largest fund raising to date. We especially value their commitment to Quinbrook’s investment strategy, which seeks to
Assetz Capital has partnered with Varengold Bank AG to provide funding, alongside its retail investors, to UK SME borrowers through the Assetz Capital platform.
Varengold is a German private bank which is active in deploying funds through marketplace lending platforms across Europe.
The partnership with Varengold brings additional institutional funding to further support the strong growth in lending by Assetz Capital and further broadens the sources of funding available to the leading peer-to-peer business lender. This is the latest in a string of institutional funding partnerships and further bolsters Assetz Capital’s funding lines for the support of the SME business sector
South Summit has launched South Summit Fund, a new venture capital fund created in partnership with Red Capital Partners, which will invest EUR6 million per year among the hundred finalist startups of South Summit 2019.
The fund will make an investment of EUR3 million and two investments of EUR1 million each in three startups chosen from the annual competition. The fund will focus on scale ups, startups in the growth phase that make a difference in innovation and are at a key moment in their development, which implies greater capacity to attract resources and greater interest for investors and corporations.
Private equity investor Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has led a GBP7 million investment in Northumberland-based AVID Technology Group (AVID), a specialist in the manufacture and design of components for electric and hybrid vehicles.
The transaction is led by Maven’s Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) together with the North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven, and from AVID’s existing shareholders NVM Private Equity and Downing Ventures. The funding will enable AVID to increase production volumes of its current component product range and enable the firm to invest in further development of class leading
Beechbrook Capital, a specialist direct lender, has reached the first close of its second UK SME Credit Fund, with commitments of GBP128 million. The Fund has also made its first two investments, in Hosted Desktop UK and Gravity Global.
Beechbrook’s UK SME Credit II supports small and medium-sized businesses in the UK with a turnover of between GBP10m and GBP100m and EBITDA of GBP1 million and above. It will provide mainly senior secured loans to non-private equity-backed companies to support acquisitions, buy-outs, shareholder re-alignments, refinancings and general expansion plans.
The Fund completed its first investment in Exeter-based Hosted Desktop
innogy Innovation Hub, which identifies, funds, and mentors game-changing technologies and ideas, has completed a seed investment in UK-headquartered AI powered CCTV monitoring company, Calipsa.
Financial terms have not been disclosed.
The investment will enable Calipsa to further refine its product and support its growth strategy in the UK and Europe, leveraging the Innovation Hub’s extensive global network.
Founded in 2016 by Mohammad Rashid Khan and Boris Ploix, Calipsa aims to transform how Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) video monitoring and analysis is conducted. The Calipsa platform is built on state of the art deep learning techniques to automatically
Stable, a venture backed fintech aiming to disrupt the commodity price risk management (CPRM) industry, has launched a risk management platform which is initially focussed on food and farming businesses in over 15 countries around the world.
Stable has raised USD6 million in seed funding from Anthemis, Syngenta Ventures, Baloise and Ascot Underwriting.
Price volatility is a major risk to sellers and buyers, yet the current financial tools to deal with price risk are currently designed for financiers, rather than farmers. Farmers require a minimum of 2000 acres to justify a Futures account, but less than 1 per cent
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
