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Furniture brand Swoon Editions has raised GBP1.2m in investment from Index Ventures, Octopus Investments and angel investors.
Swoon Editions was founded in March 2012 and has traded until now as Decoholic. During this period it has built a loyal following of thousands of customers. This is the company’s first external investment.
Brian Harrison, chief executive and co-founder, says: "We believe people should be able to own beautiful furniture without paying six times what it costs to make. We figured if we could identify pieces that people really covet, and only make those, there was an opportunity to deliver great designs to consumers at market
Accelerator Academy, an early stage business development programme, has announced the 10 high-growth tech and digital start-ups accepted on to its sixth semester.
The 10 new participants span a number of sectors and address a number of challenges, from unnecessary wallet clutter and making address books smarter in a contextual sense to connecting people with high quality, gourmet food producers and breaking down barriers in the art world.
The 10 start-ups are listed below in alphabetical order:
Audiowings – is making headphones smart enough to give you the music you want to listen to and intuitive enough to
The joint private equity fund Mir Capital set up by Gazprombank and Intesa Sanpaolo has acquired a non-controlling stake in Lima Corporate Group from IMI Investimenti.
Mir Capital will join Ardian (formerly known as AXA Private Equity), the company’s main shareholder, and IMI Investimenti.
Lima Corporate designs, produces and distributes orthopaedic devices. The company is headquartered in Villanova di San Daniele (Udine -Italy) and ranks among the top ten in its field globally. It operates in 25 countries and has a diversified customer base with a strong sales network. Today, Lima’s global business lines include over 9,000 product
Institutional investors across the world are most concerned about tail risk and rising interest rates as they begin to position their portfolios for the end of ultra-loose monetary policy in developed markets.
That is one of the key findings from Allianz Global Investors’ survey of nearly 400 senior decision makers at institutional investors from 41 countries around the world.
While only a minority of respondents expect interest rates to rise towards their long-term historical averages before 2015, rising interest rates and tail risk are seen as most prevalent economic risk factors affecting investment performance over the next three
Business and financial adviser Grant Thornton UK has recorded its fourth successive year of strong performance, with turnover up 13 per cent to GBP471m for the financial year ended 30 June 2013.
The predominantly organic growth comes on the back of double digit performance in the previous year and puts Grant Thornton well in reach of achieving its Ambition 2015 revenue target of GBP500m one year early.
This growth was driven in large part by continued strengthening of the advisory practice, which grew by 21.2 per cent. The firm also saw its audit practice improve by 9.2 per
Silicon Valley Bank has appointed Nooman Haque as director of life science in the UK.
The new position and Haque’s expertise will strengthen support for the life science and healthcare sectors in the UK and improve collaboration with businesses and investors across borders.
Haque’s background is in healthcare and financial services, having most recently worked for London based venture capital firm Committed Capital. Prior to that, he worked for Sanabil Investments, leading the investment team with a focus on healthcare and financial services.
Over the course of his career, Haque has been involved in USD700m worth of
Terry Hunter, chief executive of Tryzens, and his senior management team have completed the acquisition of the digital solutions provider from its parent company Jaywing with backing from Scottish Equity Partners (SEP).
UK-based Tryzens, which also has offices in Bulgaria and India, is one of Europe’s leading providers of digital retail solutions. The company provides technology around digital design, development, delivery, integration and strategy. Tryzens helps businesses increase sales, enhance customer experience, ensure site performance and stay ahead of competitors.
The company has over 200 staff and blue-chip clients including Dunelm Mill, JD Sports Fashion Group, Tesco, Austin
A consortium of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Titan International and One Equity Partners have completed the acquisition of Russian agricultural and industrial tyre manufacturer OJSC Voltyre-Prom from Cordiant.
Under Cordiant’s management OJSC Voltyre-Prom has developed its production base, updating production processes through the introduction of new technology and establishing quality control procedures. This has underpinned the expansion of the company’s product portfolio and streamlined business operations.
Titan International plans further modernization at Voltyre-Prom to allow further growth in the production of tires for international and domestic modern agricultural machinery. This will reduce Russia’s reliance on imports
As private equity becomes more popular, investors are demanding many of the same things from their alternative investments that they have come to expect from their traditional funds, according to research by State Street.
More than half of the private equity managers interviewed in Europe (56 per cent) reported investor demand for greater transparency into risk and fund performance as a top driver of change, compared to 49 per cent globally and 43 per cent in North America.
Some 31 per cent of private equity managers in Europe cited investor demand for liquidity at the fund level as
MongoDB has secured USD150m in financing led by a financial services company and certain funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price Associates, with additional new investors Altimeter Capital and salesforce.com.
The round includes participation from existing investors Intel Capital, NEA, Red Hat and Sequoia Capital.
With more than USD231m in total investment since the company’s inception in 2007, MongoDB is now the best-funded Big Data technology. MongoDB’s financing marks the largest single funding round for any database vendor, NoSQL or otherwise.
The company will use these funds to further invest in the core MongoDB project as
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