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BACKED is to launch two new EUR75 million funds to invest in Europe’s boldest entrepreneurs. ‘BACKED Core 2’ continues to invest in seed-stage startups and ‘BACKED Encore 1’ is dedicated to follow-on investments in later-stage rounds of existing portfolio companies.
Co-founded and launched in 2016 by Partners Andre de Haes and Alex Brunicki, BACKED has grown to a team of 10. The portfolio now consists of 67 companies with an aggregate value of EUR10.7 billionn including three unicorns: SkyMavis, the company that experienced the fastest revenue growth in history through their play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, the cloud-native core banking platform
Agronomics, a listed company focused on cellular agriculture, has acquired 1,069,593 Preferred Stock in a secondary transaction in Geltor, a company focused on producing designer proteins for use in the cosmetic industry, from an existing shareholder, for total consideration of USD9,499,525.
This represents an equity stake in Geltor, on a fully diluted basis, of 2.05 per cent and equates to an estimated portfolio weighting based on the Company’s last reported Net Asset Value of 5.01 per cent.
The consideration due to the vendor comprises USD6,785,375 in cash from the Company’s own resources and USD2,714,150 to be satisfied through the
Privae UK fundraising within the professional services sector recorded a significant increase in 2021, up 78 per cent on 2020 and 70 per cent higher than in 2019, according to new research.
Analysis by Arden Partners (Arden), a small and mid-cap investment bank, also reveals that the value of acquisitions amongst private businesses in the sector more than tripled in 2021, with 403 acquisitions worth a combined GBP3 billion. This collective value is 22 per cent higher than pre-pandemic figures in 2019.
The growth in acquisition activity was driven by a strong final quarter, where acquisitions reached more than GBP1
AutoVantage, a Romanian platform where new car buyers can compare offers from car dealers all over the country and choose the best one for their needs, is the newest startup soon to be listed on Rōnin. The company is raising EUR150,000 through Rōnin, at a EUR2,000,000 valuation.
Rōnin is an investment platform that supports entrepreneurs in various fields finance their business ideas with interested investors being able to pre-register to get exclusive priority access for 48h and be the first to invest in a company’s development plans.
The team behind the Rōnin platform aims to facilitate the connection between entrepreneurs
Market-disruptive property lender Blend Network (Blend) has secured GBP10 million in funding in its latest investment round, which was led by emerging VC investor Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore.
The funding round was capped at this level following an oversubscription.
Existing investors, who also participated in this round, include Cyrus Ardalan, former Barclays Vice Chairman and current Chairman of both OakNorth Bank and CAF Financial Solutions Limited, and Jean-Philippe Blochet, co-founder of macro hedge fund Brevan Howard, which as of October 2021 has USD20 billion in assets under management.
Backed by family offices since 2019, the
Last year’s record volume of technology M&A activity has been fuelled by a tidal wave of private equity (PE) money. Given the large amount of global PE investment capital waiting to be deployed, tech-focused investment bank ICON Corporate Finance predicts this trend will continue and says that it is an opportune time to consider a PE deal.
Umazi, a due diligence platform automating enterprise identity verification, has secured a USD1 million investment from Innovate UK and other angel investors, as it announces a spate of high-profile partnerships with Artesian:DueDil and ComplyAdvantage to simplify their due diligence systems.
The USD1 million pre-seed investment which involved angel investors across the world will help fuel the regtech startup’s ambition to set the global standard for cross-industry digital identity and compliance.
Umazi is currently in Founders Factory’s accelerator programme where it has been collaborating with Aviva on potential opportunities to automate and streamline onboarding of suppliers for enterprise businesses. The
Slate Asset Management (Slate), a global alternative investment platform targeting real assets, has launched an impact investment strategy focused on infrastructure and appointed Christian Schmid as Managing Director and Global Head of Infrastructure.
Schmid will lead the firm’s new Cities and Communities Impact Infrastructure Strategy, which will target infrastructure assets that advance the global energy transition and drive reductions in carbon emissions associated with our cities and communities.
Schmid has more than 15 years of experience in public and private infrastructure investments, having led the origination and execution of infrastructure transactions valued at approximately USD40 billion across Europe, North America
Vitesse PSP (Vitesse), a global payment, liquidity and treasury management platform, has raised USD26 million in a Series B funding led by Prime Ventures.
The round also includes investments from Octopus Ventures – one of Europe’s largest and most active venture capital investors – who led the 2020 Series A funding, as well as Hannover Digital Investments, the corporate venture capital fund of HDI Group, one of Europe’s largest insurance companies.
Additional participants include existing angel investors and industry heavyweights such as Ron Kalifa, OBE, former Worldpay CEO and author of the Kalifa Review and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie,
Amati’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) VCT has sold out within five days of launching its offer, raising GBP25 million from private investors, GBP13 million of which was in the first 90 minutes and GBP21 million was raised on the first day.
This beats its previous record of raising more than GBP7 million within the first 90 minutes of its fund raise in February 2019. It comes in a record year for VCTs sales with more than GBP821 million sold, with six more weeks until the tax year end.
The offer launched at 10am on Wednesday 16th February and one
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