Par Equity has more than doubled its annual investment into innovative technology businesses, from £12m in 2020 to £25m last year. This was in addition to a landmark $400m exit on the sale of portfolio company Current Health in October, which continued Par Equity’s track record of successful exits, returning cash to investors every year since 2013.

Swedish technology and design startup STILRIDE has raised £2.5m to produce sustainable electric motorcycles and scooters using a groundbreaking process dubbed ‘industrial origami’. This £2.5m seed round was joined by angels and private investors that include Gustaf Hagman, Saeid Esmaeilizadeh, Sam Bonnier and Andreas Adler. 

BGF has led a £2.5 million investment round into sustainable female underwear brand, Stripe & Stare, alongside a consortium of high-profile investors. 

 BGF provided £1.5 million of growth capital with the remaining amount coming from private backers, including Richard Longhurst, co-founder of Lovehoney, and Sam Galsworthy of Sipsmith Gin.

Headquartered in Devon, Stripe & Stare was founded in 2017 by friends and business colleagues Katie Lopes and Nicola Piercy, with the aim of creating the most comfortable and eco-friendly knickers in the world.

University of Sheffield spinout company Aegiq has secured seed investment from an investor syndicate led by High-Tech Gründerfonds, with participation of Deepbridge Capital and business angel investors. Together, with existing funding from Innovate UK, the seed investment brings Aegiq’s total available funding to over £3.5m ($4.8m). Having completed the first closing Aegiq is considering funds to join the second closing.

Cognism, the globally compliant international sales intelligence provider has secured $87.5 million in funding led by new investor Viking Global Investors.

Vienna-based GoStudent, which provides one-to-one video-based online tutoring, raised €300M in Series D funding led by new investor Prosus, with additional participation from Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank Vision Fund 2*, Tencent, Dragoneer, Left Lane Capital and Coatue. 

Inflexion Private Equity Partners supported 97 new investment opportunities for its portfolio in 2021, 

Deepbridge Capital portfolio company AlgaeCytes has secured €16m of funding to develop a commercial plant in Germany.  AlgaeCytes is a portfolio company within the Deepbridge Technology Growth EIS.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor, has announced details of its 2021 investment activity that mark a record year for the firm and underline its critical contribution to the growth economy.

A strategically differentiated supplier of premium mountain bike and crossover brands, Silverfish UK Limited, which supplies some of the most desirable brands to UK retailers, is set to power ahead in 2022, after an £8.5m investment from Connection Capital, the specialist private client alternative investments business.

LoopMe, a leading brand-focused mobile advertising platform, has announced Mayfair Equity Partners, a leading tech and consumer growth investor, as its new investment partner. 

Software specialist Carebeans Limited has­­­ established an office in Monmouth, Wales, having secured a significant six-figure equity Investment for their leading social care management software from the Development Bank of Wales and Liverpool based MSIF.  The co-investment includes the trade and assets acquisition of the Software business of Standex Systems Limited and onboarding of five new staff who move to Carebeans from Standex UK.