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Direct Online Services, a Gloucestershire-based e-commerce business is on course to hit 67 per cent growth in revenue over two years (37 per cent in the last year alone) following an ambitious expansion programme across the UK and Europe.
Turnover at Direct Online Services, now the UK’s largest online retailer of kitchen worktops, has increased from GBP18 million in 2015 to GBP22 million in 2016 and is on course to surpass GBP30 million in 2017.
Founded in 2008 by father and son team Martyn and Will Rees, Direct Online Services is the e-commerce platform behind well-known kitchen furniture brand
Barings has served as joint lead arranger and administrative agent on first lien senior secured credit facilities to support Genstar Capital’s investment in Professional Datasolutions Inc (PDI) and strategic partnership with TA Associates.
Ares Capital Corporation served as joint lead arranger and administrative agent on the second lien credit facilities.
PDI is a specialist in providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services that help multi-unit convenience stores and gas stations enhance operating efficiency through retail automation, bulk fuel automation, business intelligence, financial reporting and workforce management. The company’s retail and petroleum customers operate more than 50,000
Direct lender Beechbrook Capital has completed two new deals, its 49th and 50th since it began investing in 2010.
The firm’s Private Debt III fund has provided a unitranche loan to help finance the acquisition of Kuldeteknisk, a Tromsø-based leading supplier of refrigeration and heating products for use in the food, retail, buildings management and fisheries sectors, by Norwegian private equity fund manager Nord Kapitalforvaltning. Beechbrook’s Private Debt III fund offers flexible debt funding to private equity-sponsored businesses across northern Europe.
At the same time, Beechbrook’s UK SME Credit I fund, which specialises in UK small and medium-sized businesses
OpenHealth Company, a specialist in real-time healthcare data collection and analysis, has closed a EUR5 million financing round led by LBO France/Innovation Capital.
The company now plans to launch The Hub, the largest healthcare data analysis platform available in France.
OpenHealth’s Hub aggregates data from multiple sources to offer a variety of powerful capabilities for analysis.
OpenHealth believes that the analysis of healthcare data will gradually change how we understand various challenges in the healthcare sector. After massive investments in many developed countries, and especially North America, this was the first fundraising operation to be held in France
Paragon Genomics has raised USD8 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by Cowin Venture Capital and Fosun Industrial Co., Limited. Additional investors were Cloudstone Venture, HEDA Ventures, and Wisemont Capital.
“With this funding, we will develop additional NGS assay products, particularly in the oncology and precision medicine space, and expand our United States commercial team. Our CleanPlex technology has been adopted by more than 50 NGS labs globally including groups from the University of California, USDA, CDC, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Annoroad Gene Technology. We are expanding our global footprint into Europe, Asia and South America
Pre-order subscriptions for Finles Capital’s FundCoin ICO are now open, with a full launch to follow on 30 September 2017. Finles Capital aims to distribute EUR100 million from the ICO and to invest in the Lowestoft Private Equity fund.
This Fund will invest in the blockchain industry via several VC companies as well as in traditional high yielding and other private equity investments. FundCoin holders will be able to benefit from the exposure to a sector that is set to grow at 58% CAGR by 2023 according to Allied Market Research, while being underpinned by a safer, more stable asset
Partech Growth has invested EUR30 million investment in SendinBlue, a France-headquartered digital marketing platform for SMBs.
This Partech Growth’s eigth overall transaction and its fifth in Europe. SendinBlue will accelerate its investments in its leading one-stop-shop product and its sales and marketing efforts worldwide.
Armand Thiberge, CEO and founder of SendinBlue, says: “Choosing Partech was obvious to us. In addition to its strong international and technological dimension, Partech represents an expertise and network unmatched in Europe. Their recipe can be summarised as follows: commitment, support to entrepreneurs, and intelligence.”
Partech’s EUR400 million growth fund was launched in January
After a rigorous global process and rounds of technical and qualitative reviews, Fintech71 has officially chosen its inaugural cohort of financial technology startups.
The ten startups were formally announced today at Finovate in New York City. Three European companies, from the UK, Ireland and Portugal, are among the ten winners.
London-based Billion Group has been named one of the fintechs in the first cohort, in recognition of its groundbreaking platform for financial transactions using distributed ledger to exchange regulated currencies.
The announcement coincides with more corporate partners declaring support for the effort. In the last few weeks, Accenture,
Monroe Capital has acted as sole lead arranger and administrative agent on the funding of a senior credit facility to support the growth of Citizens Rx.
Based in Oak Park, Illinois, Citizens Rx is a full-service Pharmacy Benefit Management provider for public and private companies and health plans. The company provides “unbundled,” modular pharmacy benefit management services, including formulary management, claims processing, rebate administration, and a 67,000-location national pharmacy network.
NorthEdge Capital has made a number of key promotions as the senior team expands, with Founding Partner Dan Wright leaving the firm to pursue other interests, including studying for a masters in International Relations at the University of Manchester.
NorthEdge has promoted Head of Manchester, Jon Pickering to Partner following a number of successful investments and exits, including the initial investment and subsequent exit of Utiligroup, which delivered a 5.7x return.
Also in the New Business Team, Phil Frame and Tom Rowley have both become Directors in recognition of their exceptional work in recent years in driving forward NorthEdge’s
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