Fortes Partners Limited, a multi-disciplinary staffing group backed by alternative investment management firm Omni Partners LLP, has acquired legal and secretarial staffing specialist DMJ Recruitment. Founded in 2007, DMJ Recruitment is one of the largest London-based independent staffing businesses placing legal professionals and company secretaries in private practice and in-house roles. Through Omni’s ownership, the business will operate as a brand within Fortes and extend its focus into other adjacent professional services areas, such as technology, accountancy and finance. The move aims to strengthen the portfolio of companies within Fortes whilst supporting the business’ expansion and growth. Operating from offices

An affiliate of Mill Point Capital (Mill Point Capital), a middle-market private equity firm focused on control-oriented investments in the IT services, business services and industrials sectors in North America, has acquired CrashPlan Group (CrashPlan) from Code42 Software, Inc (Code42) in a corporate carve-out transaction. CrashPlan is a leading provider of cloud-based endpoint data backup and recovery software. Launched in 2007, CrashPlan’s proprietary, purpose-built software provides continuous endpoint data protection and minimises data governance issues and security risks across an organisation. CrashPlan ensures reliability and ease-of-use through unlimited storage with no file or archive size limits, consistent user experience across

Househam Sprayers Limited (Househam) has secured a £450,000 funding package from MEIF Maven Debt Finance East and South East Midlands via the Recovery Loan Scheme. The Fund is part of Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) and is managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven).  The business is planning to use the funding to increase stock levels to fulfil their improving order book for 2022.   Founded in 1970, and based in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, Househam has over 40 years of experience within the agricultural technology and manufacturing sector. The business specialises in the production and engineering of a range of self-propelled

LDC, a mid-market private equity firm, has invested in Avantis, a provider of virtual reality-based learning technology to the international education market. LDC’s investment was led by Partner Aziz Ul-Haq and Investment Manager Grant Goodwin from its North West team, both of whom will also join the board. Andy McEwan will continue as Non-Executive Chair.     With its technology used in over 100,000 classrooms worldwide, the education technology business has generated revenues of over £20 million in the last 12 months. LDC is backing Avantis’ existing management team, led by Founder Nik Tuson and Managing Director Huw Williams, to

First Spark Ventures has led a $25 million oversubscribed funding round in Xona Space Systems, a specialist in navigation technologies from Low Earth Orbit (LEO), bringing total funding to over $25 million. Numerous new investors including Lockheed Martin Ventures, SRI Ventures (of SRI International), Velvet Sea Ventures, Gaingels, Airstream Venture Partners, and Space.VC, also participated in the round. Existing investors also continue to show firm conviction in Xona’s accomplishments and market opportunity with participation from Seraphim Space, Toyota Ventures, 1517 Fund, MaC Venture Capital, and Stellar Ventures.  ​ Xona is focused on the development of Pulsar – a Low Earth Orbit

New investors Forbion and Sofinnova Partners have co-led a $70 million finding round in F2G Ltd, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat life-threatening rare fungal infections with a high unmet medical need. Existing investors, Novo Holdings, Morningside Ventures, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Advent Life Sciences also participated in the round. The proceeds from the financing in addition to the $480 million from the recent strategic collaboration with Shionogi & Co, Ltd, will enable F2G to advance late-stage development and commercialisation in the US of olorofim, an oral antifungal therapy to treat

Agronomics, a listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, has led All G Food Holding Pty Ltd’s (All G Foods) Series A financing round with a AUD15 million (approximately £8.7 million) investment, subscribing for 2,803,214 Series A Preferred Shares. The Subscription is conditional on All G Foods’ shareholder approval which is expected in Q3 2022.  Agronomics will own 8.01% of All G Foods on a fully diluted basis following close of the round. The Subscription will be made using cash from the Company’s own resources and will represent an estimated portfolio weighting based on the Company’s last reported