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Private equity fund manager and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and venture capital trust (VCT) specialist Calculus Capital has invested GBP3 million in UK trampoline park company Jumptastic as it plans to expand into Scandinavia.
Jumptastic’s first park opened in Gloucester in 2015, offering 90 interlinked trampolines over 30,000 square feet. The park attracted more than 140,000 visitors in its first 12 months.
In addition to UK growth plans, the company has identified Scandinavia as a key expansion target. It is a region in which the Jumptastic management team – directors Andy West and Paul Monaghan and CEO Lee Myall –
Strategic Insight, a data and business intelligence provider for the global asset management community, has appointed Karl Jaeger as chief financial officer (CFO).
With over 25 years experience in the financial services sector focused on data and software, Jaeger brings a combination of operational and finance experience to Strategic Insight, which has recently completed the acquisition of BrightScope, Market Metrics and Matrix Solutions.
Jaeger has overseen the acquisition and integration of more than 30 fintech companies throughout his career.
Joel Mandelbaum (pictured), CEO of Strategic Insight, says: “I am delighted to be reunited with Karl for the fourth time
Confluence predicts that the rise of regulatory technology (RegTech) in 2017 will trigger a transformation of the asset management back office, with improved data management and technology solutions delivering operating model improvements through automation.
A subset of FinTech, RegTech consists of technologies proven to facilitate the delivery of regulatory requirements faster and more cost-effectively than existing capabilities.
For asset managers, RegTech will be particularly meaningful in solving complex regulatory data management challenges and complying with condensed reporting cycles, Confluence says.
“Next year will be a pivotal year in the future of the asset management industry,” says Todd Moyer
Palatine-backed EPI Group has acquired PDF Limited, an oil and gas geoscience consultancy, allowing the business to broaden its scope for supporting clients’ exploration and development programmes.
Established in 1987, Surrey-based EPI provides exploration services to the oil and gas industry, with offices in the US, Australia, Russia, France, Ghana and South America. Its services include land and marine seismic surveys, data processing, environment projects and wellsite operations.
Oxfordshire-based PDF provides exploration and production advisory services, as well as acting as the outsourced exploration department for a wide range of international clients.
The acquisition will bring a new
Rakuten has invested EUR10 million in consumer finance company Kreditech, joining existing backers including JC Flowers and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
Michael Piechalak of the Rakuten FinTech Fund will join the board as an observer.
Kreditech aims to invest the new funding into further developing its partnership business. The company has launched its lending-as-a-service in spring 2016. Partners such as PayU (Naspers) are making use of Kreditech’s POS financing integration.
“Rakuten invests directly into our mission to improve financial freedom for the underbanked through technology,” says Alexander Graubner-Müller, founder and CEO of Kreditech.
“In addition
Finnish Industry Investment has appointed Jan Sasse as president and chief executive, with effect from 6 March 2017.
Martin Backman, Finnish Industry Investment’s incumbent president and CEO, will take up a new position as CEO of Aktia Bank on the same day.
Sasse has headed Finnish Industry Investment’s growth investments team since 2015, with responsibility for direct investments in growth companies. He has long international management experience in both investment and consulting fields in companies such as Accenture, Norvestia and Satama Interactive.
Sasse has also gained experience working on the boards of companies undergoing international growth and in
Private equity house Maven Capital Partners has completed a GBP1.1 million investment in Growth Capital Ventures (GCV), funded through its managed venture capital trusts.
GCV is a developer and operator of online investment and capital crowdfunding platforms, connecting entrepreneurs and earlier-stage businesses to investors.
The investment will enable GCV to develop a new peer-to-peer lending (P2P) platform, tapping into the UK online alternative finance market which raised GBP3.2 billion in 2015, up from GBP1.74 billion in the previous year.
The new platform will focus on providing access to pre-vetted, quality investment opportunities that have the potential to deliver
Harris Williams & Co has acted as adviser to private equity firm Stirling Square Capital Partners on the pending sale of its portfolio company ESE World to RPC Group.
ESE is a European provider of temporary waste storage solutions.
The pending transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017 and is being led by Jeffery Perkins, Lars Friemann, Florian Ripperger and Konstantin Molinari of Harris Williams & Co’s Frankfurt office, as well as Patrick McNulty and Brad Morrison of the firm’s industrials group.
Jakob Förschner, a partner at SSCP, says: “ESE represents a true success
100 Women in Hedge Funds has launched a new brand and formally changed its name to 100 Women in Finance.
The organisation says the change reflects its growth over the past 15 years from a small group of women working in the hedge fund industry in New York to a global network of more than 15,000 professionals across the finance and alternative investment industries.
As part of the new brand refresh, 100 Women in Finance unveiled a new logo and visual identity system and introduced a redesigned website, accessible at www.100women.org.
"100 Women was among the first organisations
Increased protection against growing cybersecurity threats will be a top driver impact private equity firms’ IT spend in the next 12 months, according to a survey by Eze Castle Integration.
The 2016 Private Equity CTO Survey, conducted in partnership with IDG Research, polled 101 senior-level executives.
It found other top drivers of IT spend are a desire to improve the investor/client experience, and the goal of improving efficiencies by refreshing outdated or legacy technology.
Cloud computing was identified by nearly 90 per cent of respondents as a planned investment area, with respondents preferring private cloud solutions over
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