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The UK’s first fully-automated fashion manufacturing marketplace Sewport has secured GBP650,000, less than a year after it launched.
Only launched at the end of 2017, and founded by Latvian entrepreneur Boris Hodakel, Sewport has attracted more than 500 manufacturers and suppliers, as well as more than 4,000 brands internationally.
The company connects small to medium sized fashion brands and budding designers with manufacturers at all stages of development, enabling them to bring their designs to life in an easy and cost-effective way. Boris started the company after working with luxury high fashion brands and realising there was a gap
Dow Schofield Watts Angels – the Northern angel network – has completed its second deal, with a GBP300,000 investment in Miribase Limited, the company behind the Shopblocks e-commerce platform.
Over 25 angel investors took part in the funding round, which will be used to accelerate Shopblocks’ revenues by investment in new sales and marketing resources.
The Shopblocks platform provides a hosted website and online shop solution for SMEs. Shopblocks makes it possible for businesses to launch a bespoke website in an easy and cost-effective way. It fills a gap in the market between inflexible, template-based platforms and custom-built websites
By Olivia Munro, EzeCastle Integration – With Cybersecurity Awareness Month steadily approaching in October, there’s no time like the present to evaluate your firm’s IT vulnerabilities and take steps to mitigate these threats. When looking for vulnerabilities in your organisation’s IT, there are questions you can ask yourself to help you pinpoint the vulnerabilities and remediate the findings. Continue reading for 7 questions to ask yourself when beginning to evaluate your IT security.
1. Does my firm know what assets, both hardware and software, are in inventory?
The first step to considering your vulnerabilities is to create a complete inventory of technology
Private equity firm The Riverside Company has added Applied Logic to its Censis Technologies platform.
Headquartered in St Louis, Applied Logic provides software and third-party hardware used in the sterile processing department (SPD) of hospitals and medical facilities. The company’s products assist with SPD workflows, tracking surgical inventory and alerting staff to issues such as insufficient sterilisation and missing items following surgery.
“Given the similarities between the two businesses, the combination of Censis and Applied Logic will create a very innovative offering,” says Riverside Managing Partner Loren Schlachet. “With its blue-chip customer base and compelling recurring revenue model, Applied
Private investment firm Littlejohn & Co has added to its special situations and private equity investment teams with the appointments of Beth Pollack and Thomas Bennet, who have joined the firm as Vice Presidents, and Bart Stout, who has been promoted to Vice President.
Pollack and Stout are part of Littlejohn’s special situations team and Bennet is a member of the private equity team.
“We are excited to welcome Beth to Littlejohn and are pleased to recognise Bart’s contributions to the firm through this promotion,” says Michael Klein, Chief Executive Officer of Littlejohn. “Tom’s decision to rejoin our firm
Dallas-based private equity firm CenterOak Partners’ portfolio company Aakash Chemicals & Dye-Stuffs has acquired Sandream Impact, a supplier of colourants and other specialty chemicals to the cosmetic, personal care, and nutritional markets. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Sandream Impact serves a broad base of customers across the United States, Canada, and Europe, offering a comprehensive line of pearlescent pigments, nutraceuticals, and cosmetic actives. The acquisition of Sandream Impact by Aakash Chemicals brings a highly complementary focus on colorants and cosmetics and expands the product line of Aakash Chemicals in the special effect pearlescent pigments category.
“CenterOak has a
Canoe Intelligence (Canoe) a new AI-driven solution aimed at eliminating manual data entry for alternative asset investors. Canoe’s technology allows institutions, LPs, and family offices to automate data extraction and data management and refocus capital and human resources on business performance and growth.
“Canoe is leading the charge against manual data entry,” says Seth Brotman (pictured), Canoe CEO. “Investors demand solutions to reduce the burdens of manual data extraction and management. “Canoe is that solution. By leveraging artificial intelligence, we empower allocators of all sizes to make better use of their teams’ capital resources and time. Canoe helps allocators make
The Nobel Sustainability Growth Fund, which makes UK sustainable private equity investments to build technology, manufacturing, services and asset development and is managed by Jim Totty and Nick Curtis, is close to its first close.
Launched in partnership with the Nobel Sustainability Trust ,which was founded by members of the Nobel Family, and Earth Capital, the global investment group founded by Gordon Power and Stephen Lansdown, co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, the fund invests in UK businesses that can address global markets.
Totty explains that Lansdown and Power have worked together for 20 years and are big supporters of sustainability through
Eaton Partners, a private capital advisory and fund placement firm and a wholly owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF), has made several key hires, across geographies, to better serve clients in the private capital markets.
Professionals are being added in the firm’s New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Shanghai locations.
“With offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia, we are everywhere our clients need us to be,” says Peter Martenson, Partner at Eaton Partners. “At a time when fund raising is becoming more specialised, both by sector and geography, we are committed to adding associates that
IW Capital has today announced senior loan funding of GBP1.1 million to assist in the acquisition of Troika Systems, a specialist supplier to the printing and packaging industry, by Fresh Equity Limited.
Troika Systems Ltd is a long-established and award-winning UK manufacturer and distributor of 2D and 3D microscope scanning and management systems. Fresh Equity Limited, a Midlands-based SME investor, will be working with the management team to further grow the sector profile of Wiltshire-based Troika and its presence in the global marketplace.
The acquisition marks the first transaction that IW Capital has completed with Fresh Equity. Both parties
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