Verdane, a European specialist growth equity investor, through its impact fund Idun, has invested in Qbtech, a maker of objective ADHD tests and Topro, a market leading company that produces mobility aids. Verdane’s investment will support these companies, leveraging its expertise in software and healthcare, to execute expansion and market growth.   Verdane’s impact fund Idun makes investments focused on driving impact in three clusters: energy transition; sustainable consumption; and resilient communities. Qbtech and Topro are driving impact through providing valuable contributions to resilient communities or through improving quality of life. Qbtech is the market leader in objective measurement of

Wreno, a proptech platform that trains and connects workers and trade partners with institutional real estate companies, that raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Lerer Hippeau with participation from Fifth Wall, Owl Ventures, NFX, among others. The round’s angel participation also includes senior management from top single-family home institutions, as well as founders such as Vikas Choudhary from Porter and Alexey Dubov and Sam Ruben from Mighty Buildings. The company has raised a total of $6.1 million to date. This investment will allow the company to continue to scale into new markets across the US, leverage

Thalamos, a platform digitising the Mental Health Act has raised a $1 million (£900k) seed round, backed by Ascension’s Conduit Impact EIS Fund, angels including Syndicate Room, and a private Seedrs crowdfund. Thalamos gives people who are sectioned under the Mental Health Act quicker and safer access to vital treatment by enabling their care to be organised digitally. It replaces the outdated system of paper forms that is currently used to arrange care. Instead, Thalamos offers a streamlined digital system which significantly lowers the risk of errors and eliminates unnecessary delays. This allows the most vulnerable patients to access life-saving

Sovereign Capital Partners portfolio company Skerritts, a successful Independent Financial Advisory and Wealth Management business, has acquired City-based chartered IFA firm Bradbury Hamilton. Sovereign originally backed Skerritts’ management team in March 2021, to develop the business through a strategy of organic and acquisitive growth.   Bradbury Hamilton is a significant addition to the Group and brings c£330 million of AUM, c570 clients and further broadens the Group’s client base and penetration in the South East of England. It follows five smaller acquisitions in the region, including Geoffrey Craig and Saffron Wealth Management which brought an additional £150 million of AUM,

Ryft, a PSD2 compliant payments system, has raised a large seed round, led by SFC Capital, one of the UK’s most active seed-stage investors. Additional investors include the ex-founder of Shutterstock and the founder of LoveFilm. Ryft enables automated next day payouts for marketplace businesses and their merchants, for a single flat fee per transaction. The Ryft solution processes payments and then automatically diverts funds to merchants and sub-merchants (minus any commissions) the next working day. Think Stripe Connect without the high fees and lengthy payout wait times. The solution is completely PSD2 compliant. Ryft’s end-to-end solution handles everything from

Funds advised by Permira, in partnership with the Marcucci family and supported by their co-investors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Ampersand Capital Partners, have completed the joint acquisition and combination of Kedrion and BPL, alongside Kedrion’s existing shareholders, including FSI and CDP Equity and other minority investors. The combination of BPL and Kedrion creates a global player for medicinal products derived from human blood plasma, which treat patients with rare and life-threatening conditions. Ugo Di Francesco, currently CEO of Chiesi Group, has been appointed the new CEO of the combined company, effective January 2023.

PsycApps, a UK-based developer of evidence-based mental health game for teens and young adults, eQuoo, has raised £1.5 million in seed funding from US-based Morningside Ventures. The funds will enable PsycApps to grow its team and accelerate the development of its mental health platform to address the roughly 50 per cent of teens and tweens who self-report struggling with one or more mental health issues.  The funding news follows a recent report from Frontiers in Psychiatry2 that describes low engagement and attrition from digital mental health applications as the field’s Achilles heel. PsycApp’s platform offers an accessible, scalable, and sticky

Solid, a fintech-as-a-service platform that offers modern infrastructure for any company to launch and scale fintech products, has raised $63 million in a Series B funding round led by FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity firm. Existing investor Headline also participated in the round. The funding will accelerate Solid’s expansion into fintech-ready verticals such as travel, logistics, construction, healthcare, education, and the gig economy. Existing investor Headline also participated in the round.   Solid’s vision is to make it easy to embed fintech products, with a fully abstracted fintech-as-a-service platform that provides modern developer interfaces and experiences.  This announcement comes