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Farmstead, a new AI-powered digital micro-grocer that curates and delivers fresh, local foods from farm-to-fridge in 60 minutes, has secured an additional USD2 million capital infusion, led by Resolute Ventures and Social Capital, with additional participation from SV Angel and Y Combinator.
This latest round brings Farmstead’s total seed funding to USD4.8 million to date.
Farmstead will use the new funds to scale operations of its rapidly growing AI grocery sourcing and delivery service, continue building out its core AI technology, accelerate hiring, and expand its service well beyond the Bay Area.
“As Farmstead continues to grow at
HarbourVest Partners has held the final close of its flagship Europe, Asia, and emerging markets focused fund, HIPEP VIII Partnership at USD1.7 billion, exceeding its target and an ahead of the HIPEP VII Partnership fund which closed in August 2015 at USD1.5 billion.
“HarbourVest has long believed that solving for the unique challenges that our investors face must be at the core of everything we do,” says Peter Wilson, Managing Director and member of the Executive Management Committee, HarbourVest. “HarbourVest has invested more than USD25 billion in Europe, Asia Pacific, and other emerging markets over the last 30 years. These
Mobeus Equity Partners and Beringea have co-invested in a GBP5 million funding round for mpb.com, a specialist online marketplace for second-hand photographic and filmmaking equipment.
Millions of new cameras, interchangeable lenses, and other equipment and accessories are sold each year, generating billions of dollars in retail revenue across Europe and the US. mpb.com facilitates the secondary market for this equipment, which has primarily been served by traditional retailers and online generalist marketplaces such as eBay. Inaccurate, unclear, or inconsistent listings on first-generation peer-to-peer online marketplaces can cause significant variation in price for identical products. mpb.com’s proprietary technology manages the entire
NextEnergy Capital Group has appointed Lorena Ciciriello as Head of Debt Financing. The Argentinian-born former Head of Renewable Energy EMEA in the project finance division of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), will join on 9 April 2018.
Ciciriello brings with her an extensive background in financing renewable infrastructure assets in multiple jurisdictions across both established and emerging markets, during development as well as operations.
She will be responsible for the structuring and execution of the debt financing transactions across all geographies and investment funds managed by NextEnergy Capital, including the listed NextEnergy Solar Fund and the NextPower series private
Victory Park Capital (VPC) has launched a new fund together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to invest in financial technology companies in emerging markets.
The partnership aims to improve access to debt capital for financial technology companies that lend to small businesses and consumers in emerging markets.
The new fund will combine VPC’s decade-long expertise in investing in financial services and financial technology with IFC’s leading role in investing in these sectors in developing countries. VPC and IFC will target growth investments in technology-driven companies across emerging markets with a focus
Global law firm Dentons has strengthened its Banking and Finance practice in Paris with the recruitment of capital markets and structured finance partner Julien Bacus and associate Aurélie Bonnet.
They join Dentons from Ashurst, where Bacus was a partner in the Finance department since 2008. Prior to that, he worked for Allen & Overy in Paris and London for almost eight years.
Julien Bacus is a recognised lawyer in the field of finance, capital markets and structured finance. He focuses on derivative transactions covering different types of underlying assets. He also advises clients in financial difficulty on the restructuring
Culum Capital, a Singapore-based receivables and supply chain financing platform, has secured an investment from GTR Ventures which will be used to accelerate Culum’s expansion and support growth.
According to The World Trade Organisation (WTO, 2016), 80 per cent of trade is financed by credit or credit insurance. WTO estimates the value of unmet demand for trade finance in developing Asia is USD700 billon. The partnership will improve international investor access to this opportunity in Asia.
Culum Capital’s sophisticated platform provides Asian corporates with access to working capital funded by accredited investors. The platform provides an alternative form
Aquila Capital has launched a new energy transition strategy, ETIF (Energy Transition Infrastructure Fund) which will invest in energy infrastructure assets that are essential to Europe’s energy transition.
Aquila Capital currently manages renewable energy generation assets with a capacity of about 2,200MW.
ETIF will pursue the three most important sub-sectors of the energy transition, namely renewable energy generation, energy storage and energy transportation. It is planned to launch the strategy as a Luxembourg-based Reversed Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) with a target volume of EUR 750 million and a term of 12 years. The target net IRR is 8 per
Heartwood Investment Management, the asset management arm of Handelsbanken in the UK, has made three new appointments.
Siobhan Pandya has joined as Head of Investment Communications. Pandya is responsible for developing and implementing the content and marketing strategy for Heartwood. She has extensive experience of generating and managing cross-asset content, having previously spent seven years at M&G Investments, most recently as Head of Equities Market Content. Siobhan has also held roles at Henderson Global Investors, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan.
Alistair Campbell and Nikki Howes have joined as Investment Associates. Campbell’s primary area of research is alternatives and he
Brightstar Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in closely held middle market companies, has closed its inaugural fund program in excess of GBP710 million of institutional capital from investors worldwide.
The sum is one of the largest first-time private equity fundraises in the last year, according to data from PitchBook. Commitments come from a diverse set of institutional investors including several university endowments, high net worth investors, pension funds, private foundations, family offices and insurance companies.
Andrew Weinberg, Brightstar’s Founder and Managing Partner, says: “We are gratified by the enthusiasm and extraordinary level of support the institutional
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