Solutions
Munich-based AgTech start-up Agrando has completed its Series A with an investment of EUR12 million, the highest Series A amount ever raised by a European agribusiness.
yabeo Impact AG, an impact fund of early-stage investor yabeo from Munich, led the round, while Sony Innovation Fund and Investbridge also participated. Existing investors such as the technology VC June Fund and the London family office JLR Star invested again. Agrando will use the funding to invest in internationalisation and R&D.
Agrando, founded in 2017, is an independent platform that connects all players in agri-trade. It supports farmers, retailers and producers using optimised
Private equity funds managed by Blackstone have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sphera, a provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) software, data, and consulting services, from Genstar Capital. The investment, which values the company at approximately USD1.4 billion, would be made through Blackstone’s flagship private equity vehicle.
Through SaaS software, proprietary data and consulting services, Sphera’s experts work with organisations around the world to help them surface, manage, and mitigate ESG risk in the areas of Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability, Operational Risk Management and Product Stewardship. The company has more than 3,000 customers in more
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
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
