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B-North has raised a further GBP1 million as it moves closer to obtaining regulatory approval.B-North teamed up with County Durham fintech specialist, Growth Capital Ventures (GCV), to announce the fundraise, which is part of a GBP20 million series A fundraising round designed to give B-North the necessary capital to finalise its banking licence process.
Prior to this latest raise, B-North had completed two fundraising rounds worth a combined GBP6.9 million.
Tapping into the UK SME lending market which has a stock of over GBP150 billion, Manchester-based B-North will deliver loans of between GBP500,000 and GBP5m and is built upon the
Nu Quantum, a quantum photonics specialist, has raised GBP2.1 million in Seed funding in a round led by Amadeus Capital Partners. Ahren Innovation Capital, IQ Capital, Cambridge Enterprise and Martlet Capital have also followed-on from the company’s pre-Seed investment round last September, with Seraphim Capital joining as a new investor. The funding will go towards a state-of-the-art photonics lab in Cambridge and a major recruitment drive for scientists, product team members and business functions as the company approaches the launch of its first commercial technology demonstration.
Nu Quantum brings together a portfolio of intellectual property combining quantum optics, semiconductor photonics, and
TMF Group, a global professional services firm, has appointed a new senior executive to help drive its North America growth plans in the fund administration sector.Kwame Lewis joins TMF Group as head of fund services for the North America region. Previously, Lewis served as chief financial officer for ACON Investments, a middle-market buyout private equity manager with more than USD5 billion in assets. Prior to that he spent 16 years as an auditor for PwC, focusing on private equity and venture capital funds. Lewis will support and accelerate the growth of TMF’s fund services unit in North America.
Jan
Vacation Innovations (VI), a provider of travel-related products, software and services, has acquired Holiday Systems International (HSI), an established travel technology solutions provider and membership platform with a 27-year history of innovation in the travel industry. HSI provides travel discounts at below-OTA rates and custom software solutions that drive a range of private-client travel, rewards and exclusive loyalty programs for a membership base of nearly 400,000 travellers and multiple major global corporate partners.
HSI was founded in 1993 by Craig Morganson and has earned its reputation as a leading developer of award-winning, travel-related technology and membership-based discount programs, producing some of
Avaloq, a Swiss-based specialist in digital banking solutions, core banking software and wealth management technology, has been acquired from its existing shareholders, including private equity investor Wearburg Pincus, by Japanese NEC Corporation. Founded in 1985, Avaloq provides powerful cloud solutions for banks and wealth managers around the globe through business process as a service (BPaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). With more than 120 years of expertise, NEC is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. Listed on the Tokyo stock exchange, NEC is a truly global organisation with
Private equity firm YFM Equity Partners (YFM), which has offices in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London, has promoted Mike Clarke to the partnership.Clarke has 12 years’ experience in corporate finance and joined the Leeds office as investment director in January 2019. Over the last 18 months, he has been involved in a number of high-profile deals, including the £4.5m Series A investment into Leeds-based data visualisation, reporting and analytics software developer Panintelligence.
As well as representing YFM on the board of Panintelligence, Mike is responsible for sourcing and transacting the firm’s new investment opportunities across Yorkshire and North East,
Equity derivatives clearing specialist OCC has announced a September 2020 total cleared contract volume of 670,994,045 contracts, bringing total cleared contract volume to-date to 5,453,292,830 for 2020 and surpassing the annual volume record for the US. exchange-listed options industry. Read the full story at Institutional Asset Manager…
An affiliate of SK Capital Partners (SK Capital), a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors, has completed its previously announced acquisition of the specialty polymers business of Baker Hughes. The business has been renamed NuCera Solutions (NuCera), reflecting its history of innovation in the specialty polymers and polyethylene wax markets.
NuCera, with manufacturing operations in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, produces specialty low molecular weight olefin polymers, including a range of differentiated functional polymers and premium, high melting point polyethylene waxes. Over its 85-year history, the business has been dedicated to innovation and has developed a strong
Global law firm Reed Smith has appointed Shervin Shameli as a partner in its Global Corporate Group and London office. This latest hire marks the tenth partner to join the firm’s Global Corporate Group across EME in 2020.Shameli has over thirteen years’ experience in the funds space and joins from MJ Hudson, a specialist funds focused firm, where he was head of private funds at MJ Hudson Law. He has also previously worked at Proskauer Rose and SJ Berwin, and has undertaken secondments with Universities Superannuation Scheme and the European Investment Fund.
Shameli’s practice is focused on advising fund
TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm, has completed a significant growth investment in Priority Software Ltd, a global provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. TA joins existing investor Fortissimo Capital, a leading private equity firm based in Israel and focused on special situations and growth opportunities, as an institutional investor in Priority Software. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1986, Priority Software provides end-to-end cloud-based (SaaS) and on-premise business management solutions for organisations of all sizes to improve business efficiency and the customer experience. The company’s Priority PRO product provides comprehensive ERP software for
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