Solutions
GP Bullhound has made a new investment in Lingokids, an educational platform for children, as part of a Series C funding round of USD40 million led by an undisclosed investor, with participation from existing investors HV Capital, and Ravensburger among others.
Launched in 2016, Lingokids is the playlearning app for children between two and eight years old, helping more than 30 million families to expand their children’s vocabulary, improve their literacy skills, and develop important social and emotional skills in a fun, 100 per cent safe, ad-free environment.
Lingokids is dedicated to supporting parents in their child’s learning journey,
Car buying comparison specialist, carwow has acquired used car buying platform, Wizzle.
carwow, which investment backers include Vitruvian Partners, Balderton Capital, Accel, Episode 1 and Daimler, connects more online car buyers with more dealers and OEMs than any other online marketplace and is the brand of choice for more than 12 million users who want to research, configure and find their perfect new car online. Last year alone, GBP2.5 billion of new cars were sold on the carwow platform and almost 80 per cent of buyers then had a car to sell.
The acquisition of Wizzle will help
Private capital investments in Spain reached a record volume in 2020, totalling EUR6.27 billion, a growth of 33 per cent of the volume reached in 2019. However, in this booming sector, diversity does not move at the same pace: while many of the jobs that are not directly related to investment (administrative tasks, investor relations and platform) are held by women, gender parity is not the norm in the investment teams.
This is one of the findings of the first study that analyses diversity in Spanish investing firms, especially in venture capital. It was prepared by the international non-profit association
Bitwise Asset Management, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency index fund managers, has raised USD70 million in a Series B funding round led by Elad Gil and Electric Capital.
New backers include Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC, Daniel Och’s Willoughby Capital, Louis Bacon’s Moore Strategic Ventures, Paul Eisenstein’s Vetamer Capital, and Coinbase Ventures, alongside individual investors Henry Kravis, Stanley Druckenmiller, David McCormick (Bridgewater CEO), Daniel Sundheim (D1 CIO), Kevin Warsh (former U.S. Federal Reserve Governor), Nadeem Meghji (Blackstone executive), Tracey Warson (former Head of Citi Private Bank), Fidji Simo (Facebook executive), Helen Riley (Google X CFO), and several others. Existing
Beyond HERizons, a new initiative from London & Partners’ Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK) programme designed to specifically tackle the funding gap that exists in the investment landscape, has launched its inaugural cohort of female founders.
Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners have sold their shareholding in Deep Secure Limited to Forcepoint Federal, a global cyber security solutions business specialising in serving government and critical infrastructure clients for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is subject to regulatory review and customary closing conditions and is expected to close in or before August 2021.
Deep Secure, a provider of cyber security defence solutions, pioneering the Threat Removal approach to deliver assured malware-free information exchange for its customers, was backed by YFM Funds, including British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc. The exit will deliver
Trill Impact is to acquire ILT Education, an impactful ed-tech company and market leading supplier of digital educational tools, from Priveq.
ILT Education offers digital educational tools for schools and preschools, with a focus on audio and visual-assisted learning solutions for children and students with dyslexia, other cognitive needs or multi-lingual backgrounds. Its wide service offering, based on a SaaS1 business model, are available in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Austria and France. As a market leader in Sweden, ILT Education is serving a vast majority of all municipalities and schools.
ILT Education is a highly impactful company addressing general European
PROfounders Capital, an early stage venture capital investor, has welcomed the successful pricing of online furniture retailer Made.com ahead of its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, which will deliver a 25x return for PROfounders’ investors.
PROfounders’ investment in Made.com will also deliver another fund returner for investors, with proceeds exceeding the size of the firm’s first fund.
PROfounders first invested in Made.com in 2010, attracted by its D2C, tech-enabled business model that shortens and simplifies furniture supply chains, leading to better designs, higher quality and lower prices for customers. Since the launch of Made.com, the London-based business has expanded
NorthEdge has sold a majority stake in Orbis Protect (Orbis), a leading provider of critical security services to the UK vacant property sector, to growth investor Synova.
The deal delivers a strong return for the lower mid-market private equity specialist and includes a material reinvestment into Orbis from NorthEdge’s Fund II alongside Synova.
NorthEdge invested in Orbis in August 2018. During the partnership, Orbis has grown revenues at a CAGR of 17 per cent, added to its technology capabilities through the acquisition of Optosafe, a 360-degree CCTV tower provider, and increased employee engagement. Orbis also ranked eighth in the
Edge Investments (Edge) has invested GBP1.7 million in OTHERWORLD, a UK out-of-home Virtual Reality (VR) experience.
Edge is leading the GBP2.9 million Series A funding round alongside a follow-on investment from Imbiba, a specialist investor in leisure and lifestyle brands, and participation from games industry veterans Chris Lee and Rupert Loman.
OTHERWORLD offers immersive virtual reality experiences across entertainment, arts, education and wellness. OTHERWORLD guests enter their own ‘immersion pod’, which integrates premium VR hardware with dynamic heat, wind and rumble effects. Each pod is connected to the same place: a virtual island paradise where friends and family can explore
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
