Solutions
Arlington Capital Partners’ (Arlington) portfolio company, BlueHalo, a leading provider of advanced engineering solutions and technology to the national security community, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Design & Development Engineering Services Corporation (DDES).
DDES, based in Albuquerque, NM, designs and manufactures space-qualified electronic systems for exquisite, Class-A spacecraft serving the most demanding missions in austere environments across military and national security applications. DDES has decades of experience and critical expertise developing radiation-hardened, space-qualified systems and has developed a reputation of excellence across their customer set who depend on DDES’ high-reliability, high-performance systems.
BlueHalo is a rapidly expanding
Digital archiving platform Arkivum is raising a new round of growth equity through private equity investment firm Growthdeck as it seeks to help businesses preserve their data for the future, solving the growing problem of loss of valuable data through obsolescence and corruption.
Arkivum is a cloud-based secure digital archiving and preservation platform that allows businesses in highly-regulated industries to safeguard, use, read and audit their data for decades into the future.
Arkivum’s platform integrates with cloud-based platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, and allows businesses to preserve these valuable digital assets into the future,
CAPZA, an independent management company and specialist in private investments in European SMEs, has invested in the French HR Tech AssessFirst, an SaaS platform for predictive recruitment and talent development focused on soft skills.
AssessFirst has developed a proprietary platform that enables HR professionals to assess candidates based on three criteria: what they can do (their abilities), what they want to do (their motivations) and the way they behave (their personality). The solution also makes it possible to identify profiles able to integrate and evolve within a given team, function or environment. The assessment is based on a 30-minute questionnaire
M&A activity has surged in H1 2021, fuelled by both the availability of investment capital from Private Equity and the increased political and economic confidence prompted by the success of the global vaccination take-up.
In its latest report, Ciesco, a specialist M&A advisory firm operating in the tech, digital, media and marketing sectors, said there were 832 transactions announced in H1 2021, a 46 percent increase year-on-year from 2020. Of these, 59 percent of deals were in the UK and US.
The firm, which combines senior-level industry practitioners with sector-specialist investment bankers, also found that the overall disclosed value of
After a year of record growth, national courier company Speedy Freight has obtained an investment from BGF – the UK’s most active growth capital investor – to accelerate its ambitious expansion plans.
Over the last decade, Speedy Freight has grown year-on-year, and now provides dedicated same-day courier services to every postcode in the UK. The brand has more than 8,500 customers, and supports multiple industries with deliveries across the UK and abroad.
In the last year alone, Speedy Freight grew by 39 per cent, partly due to the increased demand for logistics support caused by Covid-19. As such,
Business communications and technology solutions provider swcomms has acquired neighbouring ICT business, Taurus Clearer Communication.
Taurus has been trading in Exeter and the South West region since 1984 led by managing director Jonathan Sawyer. The merger of the two businesses will serve to extend their technical expertise and product portfolios.
Taurus’s current owners Jonathan and Jan Sawyer will step down and hand over the management to director Richard Whybra, who has been operationally running the company in recent years.
Brian Lodge, managing director of swcomms, says: “Taurus and swcomms have been working in the south west for many years and
Toqio has raised a seed round of EUR8 million from Seaya Ventures, Speedinvest and SIX FinTech Ventures, to scale its global financial SaaS platform. The company makes it easier for any business to quickly launch financial solutions, removing the need to build and manage complex software solutions through its platform and marketplace.
Toqio was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Eduardo MartÃnez and Michael Galvin, who previously built a small business SaaS startup, Geniac, which was acquired by Grant Thornton. They are joined by a founding team that supported their previous ventures, bringing together SaaS and financial technology experts.
Exus Management Partners (Exus) has been chosen by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to deliver the full breadth of its asset management services for the 700 MW Travers Solar Project – Canada’s largest solar farm.
Located in Vulcan County, Alberta, the project represents CIP’s first renewable energy investment in Canada to date, requiring a partner to execute the long-term operations, maintenance and financial operations across the project.
Exus’ technical in-house team will offer CIP a digital monitoring and analysis package to enable complete oversight over the farm’s solar performance and optimisation capabilities.
Dhaval Bhalodia, Partner and Head of Asset Management
Pixel Holdco Ltd, the parent company of cloud centric IT services and data specialist Perfect Image and a portfolio company of Vhiltern Capital, has acquired Cyphra Ltd, a Northern Ireland-based provider of cybersecurity solutions to large public sector organisations, government agencies and private enterprises.
Founded in 2014, Cyphra supplies, implements and supports specialist technical solutions to help customers mitigate risk and protect themselves against the exponential growth in cyber threats, such as ransomware.
Through its partnerships with global cybersecurity vendors, including Palo Alto Networks, F5, Fortinet, CyberArk and Checkpoint, Cyphra provides enterprise grade cybersecurity architecture and solutions, cloud security and
The UK IPO market has continued its resurgence throughout H1 2021 with the number of new listings on the London Stock Exchange already exceeding the number that listed in the whole of 2020, according to research from law firm Pinsent Masons.
As of 28 June 2021, 45 companies have listed on AIM and the Main Market and six more say they intend to list this year. That compares to 31 companies that listed in the whole of 2020.
There was more IPOs in Q1 2021 (20) on the London Stock Exchange than in any previous first quarter of the year
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
