In its latest analysis of global Mergers & Acquisitions activity in Enterprise Software, Hampleton Partners reports that the sector delivered its best half year on record with 522 transactions in total. Deal volume was up 11 percent year-over-year and up 15 percent from the previous half-year period. With above $1 billion valuations also rising fast - 14 during the first half of 2018, compared with just five in 2H2017 and three during 1H2017 - records for the sector are already breaking. 

The top three acquirers over the past 30 months were: Wisetech Global, the Australian logistics software company (14 deals, including: Pierbridge Inc and SaaS Transportation); Vista Equity Partners (13 deals, including Allocate Software Plc and Gather Technologies) and Thoma Bravo (12 deals, including MeridianLink Inc and ABC Financial).

Triple Point, which provides innovative and compelling investment solutions for private and institutional investors, announces the first investment of its Impact EIS managed service of up to £250,000 in MWS Technology, a company that is transforming the efficiency and compliance of organisations that deliver apprenticeship training through its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform Aptem.

The investment will support the growth of MWS, significantly increasing its workforce and helping to develop Aptem, the only end-to-end technology platform software that can deliver the functionality required for forward-thinking training providers.

In partnership with global law firm Penningtons Manches, Beauhurst recently produced a ground-breaking report on the investment dynamics between Britain and the investment firms of the United States. The results were fascinating, revealing that investment from the West Coast of the US into British tech has increased to record levels over the past eight years.

YFM Equity Partners has backed the MBO of DSP Database Managed Services, a leading provider of database and data platform managed services. One of the fastest growing implementation partners for Oracle Database Cloud, with a similar pedigree in Microsoft Azure, DSP is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Data Platform support & consulting services, whether on-premise, in-the-cloud or hybrid.

High-growth Miss Group, a web hosting company, has received a £6.4m investment from BGF to accelerate its international expansion strategy. 

Richard di Benedetto, the current President of Aetna International, one of the world’s largest health benefits businesses, has been appointed as a director and non-executive chairman of Mercia Fund Managers investment Braintrain2020.

Calculus Capital has invested £2m in software company CloudTrade.

CloudTrade’s technology – which has been patented in Europe, the US and Australia – enables companies to automatically process electronic documents such as invoices and sales orders received by email.

The software extracts information from a human-readable, machine-generated document, such as a PDF, validates it and then converts it into a data file that is fed directly into the company’s accounting system, without human intervention.

Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. and TxCell S.A. have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement on July 20, 2018 pursuant to which Sangamo will, following the completion of the contemplated acquisition of a majority stake of TxCell, file a simplified cash tender offer for the purchase of all then outstanding ordinary shares of TxCell, at a price of EUR 2.58 per share in cash, or approximately EUR 72 million, on a debt-free and cash-free basis. Subject to satisfaction of closing conditions (including in particular those relating to regulations governing foreign investments in France), Sangamo expects to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Keywords Studios, the international creative and technical services provider to the global video games industry, has announcesdthat it has acquired the business and assets of Yokozuna Data from Silicon Studios Ltd, a Japanese developer of video games and middleware solutions for game production.

Subsea services company, Rovco, is on track to rapidly grow its share of the global subsea market after securing angel investment. This will enable the firm to launch its cutting-edge live 3D visual subsea inspection systems, which could significantly reduce the time taken to complete subsea surveys and cut inspection costs by 80%.

A fast-growing South Wales fintech company has closed a £1.25million funding round backed by Mercia Fund Managers, Development Bank of Wales and TTI Angels.

BlackFin Capital Partners has closed its BlackFin Tech 1 Fund with €180m. Top-tier institutional investors have joined the existing pool. Joining Bpifrance, Vaudoise Assurances Group, Groupama, Sogecap (Société Générale Insurance), Natixis Assurances and Swiss Life are further well-established European brands notably the German public bank KfW, Belgian insurer Securex, the groups MACIF, BNP Paribas, large family-offices from the sector as well as numerous regional entities of banking groups Crédit Agricole, Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne.