£1.5bn Darktrace IPO shines a light for London Stock Exchange

Darktrace, the artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity company, is to float on the London Stock Exchange.

The Cambridge-based company is choosing banks that will lead its initial public offering (IPO), which could see the business valued at more than £1.5bn.

Darktrace’s largest shareholder is Invoke Capital, which was founded by Mike Lynch, a technology entrepreneur who is embroiled in an extradition battle to the US over the sale of Autonomy Group to Hewlett Packard. Other shareholders include private equity firms KKR and Summit Partners.

BCN3D hopes €2.8m investment will add a new dimension

BCN3D has secured €2.8m (£2.6m) in new funding through the CDTI (Spanish National Innovation Agency) and Spanish conglomerate Mondragon Group.

The Spanish 3-D printing company, whose clients include Seat, BMW, NASA, Camper and the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, has raised total funding of €5,5m for investment in materials and hardware.

This marks Mondragon Corporation’s first investment in 3-D printing technology.

CDTI is part of the Spanish General State Administration, which offers companies advice, subsidies, or partially reimbursable grants.

Maven invests £2.7m in Scottish cyber firm Quorum

Maven Capital Partners has invested £2.7m in Scottish cybersecurity firm Quorum Cyber alongside the Scottish Investment Bank.

Maven Capital, which was founded in 2009 and manages £600m in assets, invests anything between £100,000 to £15m in SMEs and specialises in the property sector.

HNH, the Scottish arm of Belfast-based financial consultancy, advised on the transaction.

BGF paints a positive picture with £2.7m investment

Business Growth Fund has invested £2.7m in Scottish family-owned paint retailer The Paint Shed, to expand its online presence and open five new retail units with sites planned in Scotland and England.

The Paint Shed, which was founded in the 1960s, plans to add 20 employees to its workforce.

BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested more than £2bn in minority, non-controlling equity in over 300 companies.

smol investment goes a long way, with £8m Series A round

smol, an eco-friendly plastic-free detergent delivery service and manufacturer, has raised £8m in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital with participation from JamJar Investments.

Balderton Capital is a London-based venture firm focused exclusively on backing  European-founded technology companies, with previous exits including Betfair, Digital Surgery, Frontier Car Group.

Neurovalens given pathway to expand with £5.1m investment

Neurovalens, a healthtech company which aims to cure and treat neurological diseases, has raised £5.1m in a funding round led by IQ Capital and including The Angel CoFund and Wharton Asset Management.

The funding will be used to increase the scope of clinical trials and develop its technology for various health conditions.

The Northern Irish company has  successfully expanded into the US, working out of research facilities at the University of California San Diego, and is in the process of getting FDA and EU regulatory approvals.

IQ Capital is a venture capital firm working in the deep-tech sector in all stages of growth, from seed to follow up funding up to £30m.

AND Digital supported by £50,000 Innovate UK funding

AND Digital, a digital enablement specialist, has secured £50,000 of funding from UK innovation agency Innovate UK to develop its digital enablement platform, RapidPivot.

RapidPivot aims to get SMEs online in response to the huge reduction in footfall since the Covid-19 outbreak. The platform will make it easier for SMEs to generate online revenue.

Quorum receives £1.6m in seed money

Mobile chat start-up Quorum has closed a $2m (£1.6m) seed round led by Adjacent and LocalGlobe, with additional backing from Amaranthine and Y Combinator.

This investment round will be used to build Quorum’s product team and accelerate growth of its subscription chat platform. The Irish company aims to create a more intimate chat app for creators and producers and their fans or clients.

Adjacent is a New York-based early-stage fund led by Nico Wittenborn, while LocalGlobe is a London-headquartered venture capital firm with a seed fund of $115m, whose successful exits include Zoopla.

Cowboy rides with €23m Series B funding round

Belgian e-bike manufacturer Cowboy has closed a €23m (£21m) Series B funding round led by Exor Seeds, the early stage investment arm of Exor, and Isomer Capital, Future Positive Capital and Index Ventures.

The e-bike company plans to add 30 staff members as it rolls out its concept across Europe. Three-year-old Cowboy operates in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.

Quantexa receives decisive £51.2m in Series C funding

Quantexa, a Contextual Decision Intelligence (CDI) software company, has closed a $64.7m (£51.2m) Series C round. This new round brings the total funds raised by the company to $90m.

Technology investor Evolution Equity Partners  led the round with participation from previous backers Dawn Capital, AlbionVC and HSBC, and new investors British Patient Capital and ABN AMRO Ventures.

Richard Seewald, a founding partner at Evolution Equity Partners, will join Quantexa’s board of directors as part of the deal.

The funding will help drive Quantexa’s expansion into areas such as the public sector while developing more platform applications across financial services and broader cross-sector functions.

Further reading

Deals of the week July 9-16 – Growth Business roundup