Latest News
An overwhelming majority (93 per cent) of private equity fund managers expect to make an investment in the energy sector over the coming five years as they seek to capitalise on the post-pandemic rebound in global demand for power and government-backed stimulus programmes.
UK marketing group MSQ has acquired the award-winning creative production studio Brave Spark for an undisclosed sum.
The transaction, which was supported by MSQ’s private equity backer LDC, sees Brave Spark bring its video and digital production, design and creative technology to the group, supporting MSQ’s individual agency offers while continuing to offer standalone production capabilities to clients. This latest acquisition will help MSQ’s ambitions to continue to build a future-facing company embracing content, technology, data, and creativity – which meets client needs in an always-on environment.
Rob Drake and Robin Shek founded Brave Spark in 2010 with a
Index provider MerQube has raised USD5 million Series A round led by JP Morgan.
It brings together the venture investing firm, ThirdStream Partners, veteran hedge fund managers Benjamin Smith and Sheehan Maduraperuma, co-founders of Laurion Capital Management, and several other seasoned financial market professionals. MerQube has previously raised USD2 million in its seed rounds in August 2019 and October 2020, with historical investors.
The evolving USD15 trillion index-linked investing market that MerQube serves has moved rapidly from simple market-capitalisation based equity indices 20 years ago to multi-asset strategies. More recently, demand is driving increased customisation with the rise of
Vortex Energy, a global renewable energy platform managed by the private equity arm of EFG Hermes, has entered into a definite agreement with Ignis Energy Holdings, parent company of Spanish independent integrated renewable player Ignis Group.
Vortex Energy will inject over EUR625 million through its newly launched Vortex Energy IV Fund and its co-investors into Ignis via a series of capital injections, which will be deployed over the coming few years subject to certain conditions. This will allow Ignis to fund its growth plans and transform into a fully integrated renewable IPP in Spain and other geographies.
This capital
DWS Group (DWS) has acquired a minority stake in UK-based retiretech Smart Pension Limited (Smart).
The company provides a cloud-native, API-based technology platform, allowing financial services organisations and governments to administer retirement savings plans. Notably, the technology platform powers its award-winning Smart Pension Master Trust, one of the “big four” UK auto enrolment master trusts, and is also capable of being offered to leading financial institutions in the UK and internationally as a Platform as a Service.
Building on its success in the UK market, Smart is now geared for global growth and is focused on establishing its presence in
Verdant Specialty Solutions has acquired Baze Chemical (Baze), an ethoxylate specialty chemical company based in Odessa, Texas, serving customers in the oil and gas production, water treatment, and mining industries.
Baze was acquired from its founder, Curtis Baze. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Through this acquisition, Verdant continues to expand its manufacturing footprint in the US while positioning itself as a long-term partner for specialty ethoxylation on the Gulf Coast. The company also broadens its portfolio of surfactants and other specialty chemistries for the energy and industrial segments.
Founded in 1993, Baze has 82 employees and
finnCap Cavendish, part of financial advisory firm, finnCap Group, had made two promotions to Partner and appointed seven new professionals to support the growth of the firm.
The promotions and investment in talent are a key part of finnCap Cavendish’s strategy to provide sector specialist and product agnostic advice to clients across their debt, equity and M&A needs.
Mark Kingston has been promoted to Partner – Head of Human Capital M&A, whilst Chris Malcolm has been appointed Partner within Technology.
Kingston joined finnCap Cavendish in 2020 and has over 15 years’ experience advising on sell-side and buy-side M&A
Strategic Capital Fund Management (Strategic Capital), an investment management organisation focused on digital economy investments, has expanded its wireless infrastructure team (Strategic Wireless) with the hiring of Ryan White as Vice President of Business Development.
White brings over 20 years’ experience in wireless infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions, strategic sourcing and business development. He will be instrumental in supporting operations, underwriting, modelling, contract management, project management, and deal closings.
Before joining Strategic Wireless, White was a Managing Partner at Madson Capital & Advisors where he was responsible for sales processes for small to large wireless infrastructure businesses, financial modelling, divestiture planning
RO Capital Partners, the RO Group’s investment arm, has invested in EcoSync alongside other investors including the Oxford Innovation EIS Growth Fund, Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Steve Headington, and KCP Nominees.
A total amount of GBP710,000 has been invested in EcoSync. EcoSync will use the growth capital to fund a dedicated sales team and to further develop its technology.
EcoSync is a cleantech business founded by Oxford University engineers. The business’s dynamic energy management platform adapts temperature control to changing occupancy levels in commercial buildings and helps its customers to achieve 30-40 per cent reductions in energy consumption by identifying
Following three years of partnership with ECI Partners, CPOMS, a provider of SaaS safeguarding software to schools, has been acquired by Raptor Technologies (Raptor), a US provider of school safety software.
The acquisition was made following strategic investments in Raptor by Thoma Bravo and existing investor JMI Equity. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
CPOMS’s pioneering safeguarding platform enables primary and secondary school staff to log concerns relating to student wellbeing, while the CPOMS StaffSafe product strengthens governance relating to staff members and the CPOMS Engage module ensures alignment between schools and local authorities.
The
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
