Managers
AVORA, an enterprise analytics platform powered by native machine learning technology, has raised USD6.5m (GBP5.1m) in a Series A funding round led by Albion VC and existing investor Crane.
A number of previous backers also followed on including Dr Steve Garnett, former Chairman EMEA Salesforce.com, and Stephen Kelly.
AVORA has already built an impressive client base, including Telefonica, OMD, NPR, HBO LatAm and Ocado. The UK start-up will use the funds raised to expand its leadership and sales teams, launch in the US market and continue to evolve its technology by enhancing its in-platform machine learning algorithms. The financing
NTR has added a portfolio of just over 200 MW of operational and pre-construction onshore wind projects in Sweden and Finland to its NTR Renewable Energy Income Fund II.
The portfolio comprises three operational projects totalling 94 MW and one advanced stage development cluster totalling 108 MW potential capacity in southern Sweden. Total capital investment, including the build out of the development cluster, is expected to be in excess of EUR180 million. NTR acquired the portfolio projects, called Vindin, from a consortium of nine Swedish industrial companies.
“Sweden and Finland represent exciting new geographies for the fund, each having
BGF provided a record investment of almost GBP50 million into AIM-listed companies in 2018, bringing total funding in AIM-listed firms to GBP150 million across 43 companies.
Funding into AIM-listed companies includes investments in structured and equity investments in businesses located across the UK, operating in a range of sectors, including biotech, chemical technology, manufacturing and energy.
In addition to supporting companies with initial investments, such as Manchester’s genedrive – which received funding from BGF to accelerate the commercial traction of its HCV-ID Kit – BGF also made additional investments into its own portfolio companies, including Accsys Technologies, which is
TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm, has completed an investment in LIST, a developer of software solutions for the financial industry.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
LIST is a provider of trading and compliance software solutions and infrastructural services to a wide range of financial institutions. The company’s trading and brokerage platform offering, FastTrade, supports operations in a multi-asset and multi-market environment with modules for pricing, quoting, hedging, position keeping, algorithmic trading and execution management in high and low-touch business environments. LIST’s capital markets, governance, risk and compliance solutions are used by more
Quest Hunter, an escape room marketplace, has opened a public fundraising round on Funderbeam, a cross-border fundraising and trading platform for private companies.
Quest Hunter is focused on becoming the single reference point for real life escape room entertainment, enabling anyone to discover, experience and love these immersive games all over the world. In this fast-growing market, where escape rooms are often run by lean teams of one or two individuals, Quest Hunter provides operators with seamless customer support and consumers the ability to find the right escape room opportunity for them and book easily online.
Originating in Japan,
Blackstone Resources AG has created Blackstone Research in the city of Erfurt in Germany. Blackstone Research is a wholly-owned entity which will provide an important platform for the company to carry out further research and allow Blackstone to establish a substantial battery-production project in Germany.
The aim is to manufacture the next generation of electric-vehicle batteries, close to where German auto manufacturers are based.
EUR200 million will be invested into this new project, initially from Blackstone’s own funds with the aim to garner further support from subsides provided by the EU’s research and development funds, and the German government
JZ Capital Partners Limited (JZCP), a London listed fund that invests in US and European microcap companies and US real estate, has sold Petrocorner, a network of petrol stations throughout Spain, to a Spanish subsidiary of British Petroleum (BP).
JZCP owns Petrocorner through its 18.75 per cent stake in JZI Fund III.
Headquartered in Madrid, Petrocorner is a strategic build-up in the Spanish retail petrol station market, comprised of 65 petrol stations located across Spain with annualised sales volume of approximately 250 million litres of petrol.
JZCP expects to receive cumulative gross proceeds of EUR12.1 million from the
Metropolitan Partners Group Management (Metropolitan), a direct-lending fund manager that provides senior-secured, transitional capital to small and mid-sized businesses in the US, has closed an investment in US Home Aggregation (US Home), an acquirer and manager of single-family rental homes across targeted markets in the US.
US Home will use the committed capital from Metropolitan to expand its existing portfolio of homes.
US Home acquires foreclosed single-family homes at a significant discount to both market and replacement costs in tertiary markets across the country that possess positive demographic and employment trends. The company uses a proprietary mapping tool that
Refinitiv has launched BRI Connect, part of a suite of tools enabling the global investment community to identify investment opportunities around China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) through access to trusted, holistic information including macroeconomic, project, market, financing, geopolitical and operational risk data.
The Belt and Road Initiative focuses on building significant infrastructure projects across Asia, Europe, and Africa. Officially launched by China’s President Xi in 2013, it is already considered the largest investment program in history, accounting for more than USD500 billion of spend in infrastructure projects across more than 70 countries.
The initiative encompasses a vast range
Israeli VC firm Magenta Venture Partners has held the first closing of a new venture capital fund targeting USD100 million.
Magenta Venture Partners is an equal partnership between Mitsui & Co Ltd, one of the largest trading and investment companies in Japan, Ori Israely, and Ran Levitzky, two seasoned Israeli professionals from its venture capital industry
The fund specialises in early-stage investments in Israeli and Israeli-related technology start-ups in multiple domains including Automotive, Mobility, AI, Smart Cities, Industry 4.0, Enterprise Software and Fintech.
The four partners of the fund include Ori Israely, formerly of Motorola Solutions Venture Capital
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
