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Firefly, a suite of school learning tools used in 40 countries, and first developed by co-founders Simon Hay and Joe Mathewson while preparing for their GCSEs, has secured GBP5 million funding from Downing Ventures, alongside BGF and Beringea.
Firefly has the potential to cut school administration by 50 per cent and connect teachers, students and parents to share lesson plans and assign and review homework directly, both in and out of the classroom. In partnership with other best of breed tools, such as content providers, Firefly aims to create one, simple to manage, school ecosystem.
Today Firefly supports more
EQT Infrastructure has acquired Osmose Utilities Services (Osmose) from Kohlberg Investors VII, a fund managed by Kohlberg & Company.
Osmose will maintain its corporate headquarters in Peachtree City, Georgia, under the continued leadership of CEO Ron Childress and the Osmose management team. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1934, Osmose is the leading provider of critical inspection, maintenance and restoration services for wood and steel infrastructure in the United States. Osmose leverages its scale, multi-decade operational experience and proprietary data analytics to deliver a unique and essential service that is cost-effective, improves infrastructure reliability and reduces
AMP Capital has established a dedicated global direct investments team in response to a growing preference for large institutional investors to gain access to infrastructure through direct equity investment.
The new function will oversee direct investments made alongside AMP Capital’s infrastructure equity funds, including consortium management, negotiation and pricing, deal syndications, fund co-investments and separate accounts, focussing on delivering attractive investment solutions and supporting investors to achieve their goals.
AMP Capital has appointed Dylan Foo as Global Head of Direct Investments, to oversee the new global function as it grows this strategic pillar of its business. Dylan is currently
Prudential Capital Group provided USD12.53 billion of senior debt and junior capital to over 200 middle-market companies and projects globally in 2018.
Prudential Capital Group is the private capital arm of PGIM, the USD1 trillion global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc.
“This year marked the continuation of our ongoing expansion both geographically and in specialty areas. We deployed capital across the risk spectrum and met the needs of 91 new clients and 117 existing clients who returned for further funding across a range of industries,” says Allen Weaver (pictured), senior managing director and head of Prudential Capital
Transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has advised longstanding client Piper, a UK specialist investor in consumer brands, on its GBP6 million investment into Mindful Chef.
Since its inception in 2015, Mindful Chef, which creates and delivers healthy food boxes replete with recipes, has grown rapidly with a 178 per cent in sales in the past year, annualised sales of GBP10m and a workforce of over 25. Piper’s GBP6m cash boost will provide the funding to enable the business to expand and grow its customer base in the UK.
The WBD team was led by Corporate Partner Simon
Growth private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners (Palamon) has appointed Philippe Arbour as a Partner, and Aqib Kadar as Director of Tax and Structured Finance. In addition, Antony Barker has been promoted to Managing Director of Investor Relations.
Arbour joined Palamon in 2013 from Lloyds Banking Group where he spent ten years working across a variety of roles spanning trade finance, specialist credit and leveraged finance. In 2006 Philippe was a founding member of Lloyds’ large-cap sponsor coverage and LBO execution team. In 2010 he was seconded to London-listed 3i, as a director in its Banking team. Arbour holds the Chartered Financial
Foresight Group (Foresight) has made a GBP1.25 million growth capital investment into Fertility Focus Limited (FFL), a fertility monitoring technology company that has developed OvuSense, a registered medical device that enables women to predict ovulation.
The investment was led by Foresight on behalf of Foresight VCT plc and Foresight 4 VCT plc as part of a larger GBP2 million funding round, supported by new and existing investors including private High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI’s).
Based in Warwick, FFL was established in 2005 to commercialise the intellectual property developed by a team from Bristol University that identified the ability to determine
Admo.tv, a TV and radio analytics platform, has raised a Series B funding round of EUR6 million led by Runa Capital, Entrepreneur Venture and Cap Décisif. The new round is in addition to a EUR1.5 million round completed in 2016 with Entrepreneur Venture and Kerala Ventures, bringing total investment in the company to EUR7.5 million to date.
Admo.tv will use the funds to accelerate its international expansion and continue to develop its market-leading platform. During 2019, the company intends to significantly grow headcount at its London office, and will open new offices in Spain and Germany.
In a vertical
Horizon Capital, a US private-equity firm investing in high growth and export-driven companies in Ukraine and the near region, has closed its third fund, Emerging Europe Growth Fund III (EEGF III) at its USD200 million hard cap, surpassing the fund’s USD150 million target.
In what marks the largest private equity fund raised for Ukraine in a decade, Horizon’s EEGF III received strong backing from existing and new investors, attracted by the excellent value, fast growth and abundance of opportunities that Ukraine offers.
Led by Founding Partners Lenna Koszarny and Jeffrey C Neal and Senior Partner Denis Tafintsev, Horizon manages
Colony Capital is teaming with the existing management team to acquire the Abraaj Group’s private equity platform in Latin America.
The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter, subject to certain approvals. The Company will rebrand as Colony Latam Partners.
The company currently manages over USD500 million and has deployed over USD700 million across 22 investments since its establishment in Latin America in 2006. The Company’s core strategy is focused on growth equity investments in middle-market companies throughout the Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc consisting of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile. Together, these four countries have a
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