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Fly Now Pay Later, a London-based fintech company that helps consumers spread the cost of their travel over a flexible duration, has secured a $75m (£55.2m) debt funding package from Atalaya Capital Management.
The company will use the capital to expand its operation into the US. As a part of the funding package, the New York-headquartered financier has also provided an equity investment into the business.
The funding round comes a year and a half after raising £35m funding in Series A round by Revenio Capital. To date, the company has raised a total of $150m (£110m) in debt and equity funding.
“To have secured another landmark amount during one of the worst slowdowns in travel history after it ground to a halt is testament to the efforts of the whole team,” said Fly Now Pay Later founder and chief executive Jasper Dykes.
He added that the US market, which it entered in 2020, has been a “big part” of its “resilience plan” while domestic leisure travel has been more affected in Europe.
“There’s always a temptation to put the brakes on in times of significant headwinds, but with consumer expectations continuing to shift from traditional lending towards alternative convenient digital experiences, we upheld our investment commitments into developing our technology and threw ourselves into bolstering our partnership network in the states, which is really gaining momentum,” Dykes said.
Dykes founded Fly Now Pay Later in 2015 when he was shopping for a holiday and was frustrated by the lack of payment flexibility within the travel sector.
Currently, the company has a presence in all core BNPL markets, including the UK, US, and EU. Hundreds of travel companies use Fly Now Pay Later to offer finance to holidaymakers, who can make repayments in scheduled instalments.
The merchant partnerships range from SME travel operators to leading operators like Malaysia Airlines, TravelUp HotelsOne, Air Serbia, and Azores Airlines.
The platform can be used to book flights, hotels, package holidays, car hire, and more. It enables customers to spread the cost of a trip over up to 12 monthly instalments by partnering with travel merchants or directly to consumers through its Anywhere app.
Last year, Fly Now Pay Later entered into new commercial partnerships, including Malaysia Airlines and the airline payments network Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP).
In July, the alternative travel payments provider signed a deal with Cross River Bank to fuel its rapid growth internationally.
Currently, the UK company employs 90 staff in the UK, United States & Latvia. It will onboard an additional 250 personnel across the three territories in 2022.
London-based digital solutions provider Softline has acquired an 85% stake Academy IT, a Russia-based edtech company. The move will help Softline provide corporate training and learning management solutions in tandem with its existing technology education and training business.
Sergey Chernovolenko, Softline’s CEO, said: “We are excited to soon welcome Academy IT to the team. Our mission is to guide our customers through their digital transformations, so that they are able to keep doing business as efficiently as possible in this ever-changing world. Customers around the world can now rely on Softline to deliver a one-stop-shop for their bespoke technology training requirements.”
London-listed Softline’s primary offerings include solutions and services for digital transformation and cybersecurity projects. It claims to connect over 150,000 companies with over 6,000 IT vendors, in addition to delivering its own services and solutions.
The company employs over 6000 people worldwide and operates in around 60 countries.
Academy IT was founded in Moscow, Russia back in 1993 and it achieved a turnover of US$ 1.8bn in the fiscal year of 2020. It develops and offers corporate training solutions, and over 300,000 IT specialists are claimed to have trained at its learning centre over the past 18 years.
It is registered as an education provider with the Project Management Institute (PMI) with over 10,000 clients across 10 Russian cities that are from oil and gas, financial and transport sectors.
Igor Morozov, CEO of Academy IT, said: “We are very proud to be becoming a part of the Softline family. The merged business will offer customers an unprecedented level of variety and specificity in their choice of training solutions. With courses from leading vendors on digital professions and technological solutions for online education and training, Softline’s educational ecosystem has never been better equipped to meet the needs of corporate customers.”
Investors put more than £150m of capital into UK virtual reality (VR) companies in 2021, making it a record year of funding for the sector.
Analysis by institutional stockbroking firm Arden Partners shows private investment in UK VR firms increased by 72% from 2020 levels.
It was bolstered by an unprecedented surge in investment in Q4, with the £72m raised during that period smashing the previous record of £46m in the final quarter of 2018.
Total UK VR investment stood at £154m in 2021 versus £90m in 2020.
According to Arden Partners, the video gaming industry is set to record exponential growth over the long term on the back of growing interest in the metaverse, the latest tech buzzword used to describe a future internet that is made up of a network of virtual and augmented worlds.
Buoyed by tech giants such as Facebook moving into the metaverse space, VR companies have found renewed interest from investors following the mixed success of previous VR technologies.
“We have seen a wave of companies in this space turning to the public equity markets and expect this to continue,” said Alex DeGroote, research director at Arden. “Significant technological developments in virtual reality and the metaverse are laying the foundations for the advent of new disruptors challenging the likes of Facebook, Apple and Google that are putting a lot of energy and investment into taking advantage of the potential returns from the virtual reality space.”
Every quarter in 2020 broke its respective revenue record, with the stay-at-home restrictions of Covid-19 helping to spark significant growth of VR in the games market, shattering revenues, user and growth records.
Arden said it believes VR is the fastest-growing market segment in the UK gaming industry, with revenues set to have grown by 31.7% in 2021 and projected to increase at the same rate over the next five years.
With the surge in M&A activity in the UK, 2021 was a successful year for gaming companies’ making their public debuts. Some of the highlights were the acquisition of Sumo Group by Tencent and Codemasters from EA for a combined $2.5bn, flotation of Devolver Digital that raised $261m and became the largest ever US-based company by market capitalisation to be admitted to the London Stock Exchange, and the second-largest company ever to trade on AIM and TinyBuild that raised £36m, with the market valuing the video games publisher and developer at £340m on Admission.
iProov, a London, UK, Catonsville, MD- and Singapore-based online biometric face authentication company, raised $70m (USD) in growth funding.
The round was led by Sumeru Equity Partners. In conjunction with the funding, Kyle Ryland, Managing Partner of Sumeru, is joining the iProov board.
The company will use the new capital to build on its leadership in the United States and expand its international customer base, accelerate the growth of its global partner network, and maintain its position at the forefront of technology innovation while hiring top-quality staff worldwide.
Launched in 2013 by Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO, iProov is the world leader in online facial biometric authentication, working with governments, banks and other enterprises to securely verify customer identity. Used for effortless onboarding and authentication, customers include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the UK Home Office, the UK National Health Service (NHS), the Australian Taxation Office, GovTech Singapore, Rabobank, ING, and others. iProov’s technologies include Liveness Assurance and Genuine Presence Assurance, which ensures that an online customer is the right person, a real person, and is authenticating right now. This protects against spoof attacks from photos, videos, masks and digital injection attacks and the emerging threat of deepfakes.
PayFit, a French provider of a payroll and HR management solution for SMEs, raised €254M in Series E funding.
General Atlantic led the round with participation from existing investors Eurazeo, Bpifrance and Accel Ventures.
The company plans to use the funds to deepen its penetration in existing markets, invest in its core automated payroll software offering, and continue to expand its SME-tailored solution across HR management by complementing leaves/absences and expenses with interview assessment functionality, among other features to be launched in 2022.
Launched in April 2016 by Firmin Zocchetto, Ghislain de Fontenay and Florian Fournier, PayFit provides a next-gen payroll solution that automates complex and time-intensive HR processes, particularly for underserved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Its proprietary technology platform enables HR managers, finance managers and business owners to conduct payroll calculations in markets with complex regulatory requirements.
Since its founding in 2015, the company has gained over 6,000 clients. Based in France, PayFit has expanded into three additional major European markets – Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – and plans to scale from more than 700 current employees to over 1,000 within the next 12 months.
CellPoint Digital, a London, UK-based global provider of digital commerce and payment solutions, received $25M in equity financing.
Toscafund and its private equity arm, Penta Capital, made the investment, which brought total funding to over $56M.
The funding will be used to extend the company’s global reach and penetrate new market verticals.
It also marks a strengthening of the relationship between the businesses. As a market leader in payment orchestration for travel, CellPoint Digital is now offering its platform to new markets including retail, gaming, crypto and digital content.
Led by Kristian Gjerding, CEO, CellPoint Digital is orchestrating payments across regions and payment methods to allow merchants to increase top-line revenue utilizing intelligent routing, increasing authorizations, and providing system uptime transparency. The system also adds value at checkout by delivering a frictionless payment experience, presenting customers with the payment methods they want to use, no matter where they are in the world.
Merchants can scale their own payment ecosystem across the world, unify the customer payment experience across their website, mobile apps and other channels, optimize the routing of each transaction, increase conversion rates and minimise payment costs.
CellPoint Digital has offices in Copenhagen, Dallas, Dubai, London, Miami, Pune and Singapore.
Bath-based broadband provider Truespeed has received a £100m capital injection from Aviva Investors to fund the rollout of its “gigabit-capable” full-fibre network to homes and businesses across the southwest of England.
It brings the total investment made by Aviva Investors – the asset management division of insurance firm Aviva – to £175m following its £75m backing in 2017.
Founded in 2014, Truespeed is an internet service provider and also installs full-fibre infrastructure such as underground cables that connect premises to the internet.
Its engineers only set up a Truespeed network once the company has received sufficient demand in an area made by online requests.
The company says it has doubled the size of its network in the past year. It aims to establish fibre-optic connectivity to “underserved” rural areas.
In January 2021 it was selected to rollout full-fibre broadband networks in Devon and Somerset by a government-backed programme. Work on the network is expected to start this year and be completed in 2024.
Truespeed has contracts to build full-fibre infrastructure in Bath and Wells, while in December it announced the start of its network build in Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and Street.
Its network is used by local businesses such as Yeo Valley and Thatchers Cider.
“We are delighted that our continuing relationship with Aviva Investors has provided this next tranche of investment,” said James Lowther, who was appointed Truespeed CEO last month. “This will allow us to significantly accelerate our roll-out, enabling us to connect more customers to our ultrafast, ultra-reliable full-fibre service.”
Sean McLachlan, senior director, infrastructure, at Aviva Investors, said: “Since our initial investment in 2017, Truespeed has continued to successfully deliver essential gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure to under-served locations across the South West of the UK. This second tranche of funding reflects our belief that the company and its activities not only represent a sound investment, but also create significant social benefits for local communities across the country.”
During the 2019 general election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a manifesto pledge to bring full-fibre broadband to the whole of the UK by 2025.
However, the government has since watered down its commitment to reaching 85% of the country by 2025 – a target that industry experts have also cast doubt on.
Cardiff, Wales-based medtech company Bond Digital Health has raised £1m for its data capture and management system for lateral flow tests.
The startup, which was founded in 2016, said it will use the cash to increase staff headcount and provide additional resources to sales and marketing teams.
The equity funding came from previous investors and shareholders. It includes a £350,000 capital injection from the Development Bank of Wales, a regional SME investment company owned by the Welsh government.
The rest of the capital was provided by high-net-worth individuals via investment service Wealth Club. They include Bond Digital Health’s CEO Ian Smith and its chair Wayne Harvey.
“Now that we have several international customers signed up to our platform, we need to make sure we successfully service their needs 24/7,” said Smith. “This funding will help us do that by ensuring we have the right people in the right roles.”
Bond Digital Health has created a data management platform for lateral flow tests called Transform. Lateral flow test results, such as those from Covid-19 antigen tests, can be uploaded to the app to create a dashboard with real-time data.
Bond Digital Health said it aims to raise a further £500,000 before the funding round closes at the end of January.
It follows a previous £2m equity investment in 2020, which partially came from UK and Welsh government grants.
“Ian and the team at Bond have a bright future ahead as their technology has the potential to revolutionise the management of lateral flow test result data,” said Mark Bowman, senior investment executive at Development Bank of Wales. “We are proud to continue to support the growth of the business with our equity investment from our Wales Flexible Investment Fund.”
20th December 2021 - The Sage Group plc (FTSE : SGE), the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses, today announces that it has agreed to acquire Brightpearl, a cloud native multichannel retail management system for retailers and wholesalers. The acquisition of Brightpearl, in which Sage already has a 17 % minority stake, accelerates Sage’s strategy for growth, including scaling Sage Intacct, broadening the value proposition for mid-sized businesses and expanding Sage’s digital network.
With operations in the US and the UK, Brightpearl provides a SaaS-based retail operating system, enabling real-time business insights and helping customers automate workflows to save time and money. The combination of Sage Intacct and Brightpearl will create a powerful solution for retailers and wholesalers which integrates financial management, inventory planning, sales order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfilment, warehousing and logistics management.
The consideration for the 83 % of Brightpearl that Sage does not already own is $299m (£225m), which will be funded from Sage’s existing cash and available liquidity.
For the year ending December 2021, Brightpearl is expected to generate revenues of $27m (£20m), representing growth of around 50 % compared to the prior year, and to achieve operating profit around the breakeven level.
The transaction is subject to regulatory clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act in the US, and is expected to close in January 2022.
Steve Hare, Chief Executive Officer of Sage, commented :
“Sage’s purpose is to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive. Together, Sage and Brightpearl will remove the barriers that hold back retailers and wholesalers, streamlining their systems and enabling them to focus on growth. I’m delighted to welcome Brightpearl, its management team and colleagues to Sage, and look forward to executing on our strategic priorities together and delivering accelerated growth.”
Derek O’Carroll, Chief Executive Officer of Brightpearl, commented :
“We are thrilled to be joining Sage. Bringing our two teams together will combine the retail strength of Brightpearl and the scale, brand and financial expertise of Sage, enabling us to offer customers the most innovative financial and retail operating solutions so they can grow fearlessly, save time and deliver outstanding experiences.”
London-based insurance management system provider Genasys has secured a £12.25m investment from Frog Capital, an investor in European scaleup software.
The deal will see Frog Capital take a significant stake in Genasys, while the latter’s management team retains operational control of the business.
Genasys provides an insurance management platform on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis. Its technology includes end-to-end policy administration and claims solutions.
It is UK-based Frog Capital’s second investment in a month after it gave a £5m cash boost to Clue, a SaaS platform for managing investigations.
Jens Düing, senior partner at Frog Capital said: “The company has already created an industry-leading modular state-of-the-art platform that is gaining increasing momentum in a transforming ecosystem. The platform allows its customers a much faster time to market.”
Genasys manages gross written premium in excess of £1bn. It aims to provide “hyper-configurability” across the insurance system. The scaleup has more than 350 pre-configured products ranging from property and casualty, life, medical, and speciality.
Genasys Joint CEO, André Symes said: “Our platform and ecosystem have been widely adopted by forward-thinking insurance businesses who have bought into the need for agile, quick-to-change technology. It’s a mindset that is gathering pace across the insurance industry – personal and commercial lines, in the London market space and beyond. The potential for our business growth is enormous as we have built a proposition that has a track record of delivering solutions for those insurance companies at the early stages of their digital journeys as well as those who are a long way down the path.”
As part of the scaleup programme, the platform will expand its centres of technical excellence to ensure it can support the business while it looks at further global expansion. The company currently serves clients in 16 countries.
Genasys joint CEO Craig Oliver added: “Our centre of technology excellence is the crown-jewel of our delivery. We want to lean on the innovative and technically advanced pool of talent that is emerging from the entrepreneurial spirit in South Africa to build a truly world-class insurance platform and deliver even better services and products to help our clients provide insurance solutions that make a real difference to their clients.”