An undisclosed investment amount was given to Germany-based Sunfire from Electranova Capital, the clean technology venture capital fund of Idinvest Partners sponsored by EDF, and Total's venture capital arm Total Energy Ventures.
Europe
Red Arrow picks up majority stake in US entertainment firm Half Yard for over $40M
Unterfoehring, Germany-based production and distribution firm Red Arrow Entertainment Group picked up a majority stake in Bethesda, US-based entertainment firm Half Yard Productions in a deal estimated to be valued at more than $40 million.
Permira to buy Tilney's regional businesses from Deutsche Bank
Permira will be buying the regional businesses of private client investment manager Tilney in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool from Deutsche Bank, a statement about the funding said.
French event planning app WePopp pairs with OpenTable to add restaurant booking
Paris, France-based event planning mobile app WePopp paired up with San Francisco, US-based restaurant booking app OpenTable to integrate restaurant booking service into the steps required to plan for a given event.
To avoid overpayment, private equity fund managers say steering clear of traditional buyouts necessary
Private equity fund managers are employing approaches other than traditional buyouts so they can avoid overpaying for Western companies as competition pushes valuations higher, Reuters reported.
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A high profile global wealth and asset management firm in Western Europe spent $4 million to acquire the licenses and related services for Kofax TotalAgility 7.0 and Kofax Analytics, which are products created by California, US-based business software firm Kofax Ltd.
Thesan Pharmaceuticals, a biotech firm that develops therapies for skin conditions, raised $49 million for its Series B round led by existing investor Novo Ventures and joined in by SV Life Sciences, Lundbeckfond Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund.
UK-based generalist investor Beringea has made a £3 million investment in anti-microbial curtains and blinds maker Disposable Curtains Limited which does business under the name All in One Medical.
St. James's Place Chief Executive Officer David Bellamy said they are nearing the purchase of Asia-based Henley Group, an advisory business with £400 million under management, Reuters reported.
Irish telecom tycoon Denis O'Brien picked up a minority stake in San Francisco, US-based startup Spritz to see how the latter's easy reading app could help improve the literacy rate in developing areas.
As part of its expansion, the "going out" app YPlan will be expanding to San Francisco, California. It also has entered into an exclusive ticketing partnership with Noise Music Festival and will be unveiling a new feature, VentureBeat reported.
Threatened by the news of the Mozilla Foundation developing a $25 Firefox OS smartphone, Finnish phone maker Nokia also launched its own set of new Android smartphones for emerging markets during the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona.
Android still remains at the top for smartphone sales, getting 70% of sales in the last three months that ended January. However, the real war is among Android makers, TechCrunch reported citing data from Kantar.
Nine new hardware partners for its Windows Phone were introduced by officials of technology giant Microsoft at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, VentureBeat reported.
