Invest-IQ

London based Information Technology firm has landed USD 1.8 million in funding from a handful strategic investors led by Prague-based Credo Ventures. Apart from existing investors Sherry Coutu and Dave Mclure, venture capital firms Estag Capital and Atlas Venture also participated in the funding round. The company plans to use the money to add new [...]

Amidst a flurry of deals in Poland’s banking sector, UK-based PE fund Apax Partners has partnered with European banking behemoth Banco Santander to acquire an 80 percent stake in KBC’s Kredyt Bank. The Polish bank’s shares will come at a price of USD 1 bln. The deal follows on the heels of an earlier proposal [...]

Italian insurance company Generali’s buyout offspring PPF is seeking to raise GBP 518 million from Russian precious metal mining group Polymetal. Polymetal is rumored to be eyeing a spot on FTSE 100 as well as a full listing on the coveted LSE. The company plans to issue 50 mln shares in the price range of GBP 9.10 [...]

Credo Ventures has invested USD 3 mln in an event management and cashless solutions company called Intellitix that uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to reduce queue times, fraud attempts and erroneous ticket resales at large events such as music festivals. The capital, which was raised via the issue of new shares, will be used [...]

In a strategic acquisition bid, Impax Asset Management has acquired a 100MW power portfolio in Poland and France from European power company Eolia, through its Impax New Energy Investors II fund. While the French assets have contributed towards the expansion of their Paris-based Epuron project, the Polish acquisition, a single 6MW facility, marks its foray [...]

Vision Capital, a UK based private equity firm, has made a deal with Paragon Secondary Partners to acquire three of its Germany based companies. In partnership with Rubicon Partners, an industrial management group with experience in the German market, Vision Capital purchased ABL Technic, Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen, and Gensets. The total 2010 revenues for these three [...]

Something’s up at Badoo; something that has caused Sequoia Capital’s Michael Moritz to make a recent trip to London for a meeting with Andrey Andreev, Badoo’s founder. Speculation abounds that Badoo’s valuation is being discussed between them – perhaps in the neighborhood of USD 2 billion – as well as consideration of a possible IPO. [...]

UK private equity firm BC Partners has beaten industry forecasts with a €4 billion first close of its latest buyout fund. When the fund was first announced it was expected to raise only €2.5 billion to €3 billion at first close. The significantly higher yield is testament to the firm’s fund raising efforts, which was [...]

Plastic Logic, a U.S.-based electronics technology company, announced an investment deal in November 2010 which would give the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) a 25% stake in the company. The value of RUSNANO’s investment was recently revealed to be USD 150 million. Further details of the deal indicate that RUSNANO will also help Plastic Logic [...]

The Netherlands’ Meat Processing Systems Holding BV (MPS) has a new majority owner after Steadfast Capital sold its stake to the U.K.’s Barclays Private Equity (BPE). The Steadfast Capital exit means Barclays now owns 75% of the company, while MPS management retains the remaining 25%. The deal comes as BPE plans a future spin-off from [...]

Britain’s Plastic Logic is raising eyebrows in the U.K. business community after it was revealed the company was engaged in advanced-stage talks with Russia’s sate-owned Rusnano. The talks are believed to be aimed at a cash infusion which would give Rusnano a controlling stake in Plastic Logic. Of concern in the U.K. is the fact [...]

U.S. based Advent International is poised to complete a takeover of Central and Eastern European drug maker Ozone. The companies are now in the final talks that would give Advent, also the owner of LaborMed, full ownership of Ozone’s product lines. The buyout offer had been accepted by Ozone earlier this month, giving control of [...]

The developers of the Mendeley social software recently announced the close of its first round of funding acquisition. Leading the effort were investments from former Last.fm executive Stefan Glänzer, Alejandro (Alex) Zubillaga, formerly with the Warner Music Group, and private equity firm Ambient Sound Investments which was established by four of the co-founders of Skype. [...]

MyHeritage has acquired Kindo through a deal in which Ambient Sound Investments (ASI) will exit the company in exchange for an undisclosed equity stake in the company. This exit deal, the first for ASI, was made after the company invested heavily in Kindo in February 2008. The transaction will allow Kindo users to access the [...]

Ambient Sound Investments invested in Wahanda, an UK-based online wellness marketplace. Wahanda (www.wahanda.com) Wahanda is an ambitious UK-based start-up company developing a global E-commerce, content and community marketplace for the beauty, health and wellness industries. Founded by veterans of lastminute.com and Yahoo!, Wahanda is looking to revolutionize the way customers search and book health and [...]