Latest News
Healthcare start-up Béa Fertility has raised GBP800,000 (USD1 million) to bring an innovative at-home fertility treatment to the UK. The round was led by Calm/Storm VC and joined by Q Ventures, and includes an innovation grant from the recent InnovateUK SMART competition.
Founded by embryologist David O’Rourke and femtech specialist Tess Cosad, Béa Fertility is focused on democratising access to affordable, effective fertility treatments for couples and individuals who are struggling to conceive. It is estimated that infertility affects one in seven heterosexual couples in the UK.
Currently, the next step for those who are unable to conceive naturally
EY-Parthenon has added three new partners to its European Private Equity team – Georg Hochleitner, Simon Oertel, and Malvinder Singh – who in April and May 2021.
Hochleitner and Oertel join from Alvarez & Marsal and Oliver Wyman, and will focus on the execution of Commercial and Operational Due Diligence projects as well as the implementation of post-acquisition Value Creation programs. Singh, who joins from Alvarez & Marsal, will bring his proven expertise in IT transformation. All three new hires bring many years of experience in working with Private Equity funds and their portfolio companies.
These three appointments represent a
Aquila European Renewables Income Fund (AERIF), a London-listed investment company advised by Aquila Capital Investmentgesellschaft mbh, has entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) to acquire 50 per cent of the equity in an unlevered Portuguese solar operating asset (Ourique).
Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in April 2021.
Ourique is located in Alentejo, Portugal, and has an installed capacity of c60 MWp. The solar farm started its operations in December 2019 and its power price hedges cover 100 per cent of the produced energy until March 2026.
Ourique will save approximately 17,035 tons of CO2 emissions
Wellbeam Consumer Health, formerly Yukon Wellness Holdings, has acquired Penetrex, a leading joint & muscle relief and recovery brand. Penetrex is Wellbeam Consumer Health’s second acquisition in the ecommerce-focused wellness brands space. Eu Natural, a fast-growing, digitally-native provider of vitamin and mineral nutritional supplement products, was acquired in January 2021.
Wellbeam Consumer Health, an American Pacific Group portfolio company, is led by Chris Marschall, who was appointed as CEO in February 2021 to build out and expand the business. Wellbeam Consumer Health’s goal is to be the leading ecommerce-based consumer wellness business and is actively seeking to grow its portfolio
Hayfin Capital Management (Hayfin) has announced a record period of deployment through its Direct Lending strategy, having invested EUR3.7 billion in 2020.
Hayfin reached a final close on the commingled Hayfin Direct Lending Fund III and its related separately managed accounts in 2020, raising in excess of EUR5 billion to deploy into performing loans to European middle-market companies. During this record period of activity, the firm bolstered its investment team, business development function and back-office operations with 35 new hires.
Within its Direct Lending strategy, Hayfin focuses on the provision of senior-secured loans that exhibit strong returns relative to
Growth Capital Partners (GCP), a leading partnership-focused investor, has appointed Emily Henderson as Investment Director.
Henderson joins GCP from RJD Partners, a UK lower mid-market private equity fund. She has over 10 years of transactions experience, including five and a half years at RJD where she was an Investment Director responsible for origination, deal execution, portfolio management and exits, primarily as the first institutional investor. Prior to this, she worked across the Deal Advisory practice at KPMG gaining experience in restructuring, transaction services and infrastructure projects.
Henderson has a first class honours degree in Geography from the University of Nottingham.
Francisco Partners, a global investment firm that specialises in partnering with technology businesses, is to acquire BARBRI Inc (BARBRI) from Leeds Equity Partners (Leeds Equity). Terms of the transaction have not been announced.
BARBRI is specialist in technology-enabled legal education, offering a comprehensive product suite across the complete legal education lifecycle. For decades, BARBRI has helped tens of thousands of test takers each year prepare for and pass the Bar exam. More recently, BARBRI has leveraged its technology platform to develop test preparation offerings in the UK with the SQE, in professional education with Paralegal and eDiscovery certification, and in
Fetch.ai, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence lab building an open-access decentralised machine learning network for smart infrastructure, has launched v2.0 of its Mainnet with 30 validators, including Outlier Ventures, Forbole, and InfStones.
The v2.0 of Fetch.ai Mainnet is the next step towards building an AI-powered blockchain that allows businesses and individuals to deploy Autonomous Economic Agents (AEA). It will include key updates to components of the ecosystem including the Ledger, Agent Framework, SOEF (Simple Open Economic Framework), Collective Learning, and the FET Token. To ensure the network is operating properly v2.0 will also include the onboarding of validators.
“The launch
Digital 9 Infrastructure, which invests in digital infrastructure assets, has now completed its first acquisition, of 100 per cent of Aqua Comms DAC for cGBP160 million.
Aqua Comms owns and operates some 14,300km of trans-Atlantic sub-sea fibre systems, representing the very “backbone” of the internet.
Aqua Comms’ assets are established, fully operational, and benefit from a long established customer base, particularly comprising the FAANGs, and other global content providers. D9’s investment manager, Triple Point Investment Management LLP (Triple Point or the Investment Manager) believes the platform has in-built further growth potential.
D9 is a London Stock Exchange listed
AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co has acquired AutoRestore from Belron International Limited (Belron). AutoRestore, the UK’s leading provider of mobile accident repair services, will complement AURELIUS portfolio companies Rivus Fleet Solutions (Rivus) and Pullman Fleet Services (Pullman) which have offerings for commercial fleets focussing on light commercial vehicles (LCV) and heavy goods vehicles (HGV), respectively.
Headquartered in Rushden, Northamptonshire, AutoRestore which traded as Autoglass BodyRepair under Belron, is the UK’s leading provider of mobile body repair services nationwide. Established as a division of Belron in 2010, AutoRestore currently operates a fleet of over 130 mobile repair vans, providing over
Special Reports
Featured
- Insight
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
