Here we profile the latest business deals in Wales, from firms raising millions to support ambitious growth plans to acquisitions and management buyouts.
Trakcel
Cardiff-based TrakCel, a leading supplier of cellular orchestration solutions supporting the cell and gene therapy industry, has closed its latest funding round led by top ten Fortune 500 firm AmerisourceBergen and Labcorp.
The equity investments from the two New York listed life sciences firms, will enable Trakcel to accelerate global expansion through further development of its cellular therapy orchestration solution.
The exact value of the investment round has not been disclosed, but is an eight figure amount.
TrakCel will use both the investment and the combined expertise gained from collaborations with the investors to further augment its offering to both clinical and commercial-stage cell and gene therapy developers.
TrakCel has developed a portfolio of live deployments in the industry across a range of therapies, from autologous and allogeneic therapies, personalised cancer vaccines and CRISPR (a technology that can be used to edit genes), to tumour and marrow infiltrating lymphocyte therapies.
The backing of AmerisourceBergen will allow TrakCel to significantly expand its reach. It will also enable the two companies to offer services that drive them toward further standardisation of the delivery of cell and gene therapies.
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Antiverse
Cardiff-based biotech firm Antiverse, which is developing a computational antibody drug discovery platform, has raised seed funding of £1.4m to support its growth plans.
The round comprises new investment and match funding from the 海角视频I2S Innovate Accelerator. The funding will be used to further develop the firm's AI antibody drug discovery platform, which rapidly and accurately predicts antibody-antigen binding to identify antibody drug candidates.
Investors in the seed round funding include Development Bank of Wales, the Angel Co-Investment Fund, Tensor Ventures, Wren Capital, Ed Parkinson, Cambridge Angels, and SyndicateRoom.
A portion of the capital raised will be used to build a laboratory in Cardiff and expand the technical team through recruitment of specialist machine learning engineers, laboratory scientists and structural biologists.
Antiverse is combining machine learning and phage display techniques to model antibody-antigen interactions. The current version of the platform uses next generation sequencing and AI to provide diverse antibody candidates for any given target.
The technology will enable the development of drugs for “difficult” targets associated with cancer, heart, and lung diseases.
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Yoello
One of Wales’ most promising fintech start-ups, Yoello, has secured investment from Hodge to support its ambitious global expansion plans.
In its first equity investment, the value of which hasn’t been disclosed, the only headquartered bank in Wales has backed the Cardiff-based developer of an innovative mobile and payment platform that provides pubs and restaurants a cheaper, instantaneous and secure way to manage payments.
Its opening banking technology directly connects the banks of customers and outlets cutting out middlemen. It said this has the potential to save the hospitality sector £8bn a year.
By the end of this year it aims to have a workforce of 130. Thousands of businesses are now trading through Yoello not only in the 海角视频, but overseas including Australia, the US and Ireland.
Monva
Deeside-based smart comparison fintech more than doubled its crowd fundraising target.
Fintech firm Monva has more than doubled its latest fundraising target, attracting more than 600 investors and raising £451,905 through Crowdcube.
The latest funding round comes one year after smashing its initial crowdfunding target in 2020 and comes ahead of a larger institutional round expected to take place towards the end of 2021.
Monva is a new comparison service that seeks to use customer data and artificial intelligence to personalise and revolutionise the price comparison customer experience.
The company says the personalised service helps users make smart decisions that are right for them, while its technology and automation means there are less forms to fill in, making it easier to compare and buy.
The service is the brainchild of chief executive Steve Wiley and chief operating officer Stuart Wakefield, who previously held senior executive positions at MoneySuperMarket, MBNA and Virgin Money, with decades of experience in Fintech and financial services.
Go Banana
The 海角视频’s first online marketplace for building supplies, Go Banana, has relocated to Wales.
The move from London to Cardiff follows a seed funding round that has seen a £500,000 equity investment from the Development Bank of Wales and BSKG Holdings.
Established in 2016 by the late Rami Naori, Go Banana’s online platform allows tradesmen to buy building supplies from hundreds of merchants. The rapidly growing tech business already lists over 100,000 products on its platform and has over 10,000 customers.
The £250,000 equity investment by the Development Bank of Wales and matched funding from BSKG Holdings will be used to fund the next phase of growth including the development of new technology tools, customer acquisition and marketing.
The product development teams will all be moved in-house and strengthened with the appointment of a team of new technical specialists.
Yimba
Flintshire start-up, Yimba, a multimedia and marketing platform that enhances bank digital wallet integrations, has finalised a bridge round of financing supported by the Development Bank of Wales and a group of private investors.
The new funding will support Yimba’s immediate network and bank integrations as well as accelerate the development of next-generation features to its core platform.
Robert Dowd, Yimba chief executive and co-founder said: “The Development Bank of Wales has been with us from the beginning and their continued support as a partner and equity investor is not only an endorsement of our business model but also for the strategic direction of the company.
"Their seed investment allowed us to create a fully functioning technology platform and this additional funding will enable us to achieve several significant platform improvements, support additional network and bank connectivity as well as drive further growth of the business."
Development Bank of Wales Investment executive, David Blake, said: "We’re delighted to further support Yimba with this latest round of equity funding.
"Their platform helps users engage with digital banking products by improving the customer experience of any digital wallet. This latest funding package will support them to scale-up and further commercialise this genuinely innovative piece of finTech.
"We look forward to seeing the next stage in their growth journey as long-term partners.”
R Lewis & Co
Cardiff-based fire protection specialist company R Lewis & Co (海角视频) has been acquired in a management buy-out that sees the founder’s son taking over the business.
Established in 1997 by Roger Lewis, R Lewis & Co is provider of passive fire protection solutions. Mr Lewis will remain as managing director with a minority shareholding to ensure a smooth transition to sons Chris and Jonathan Lewis along with fellow director Craig Cleveland.
A six-figure loan has been provided by the Development Bank of Wales.
With turnover in excess of £5.3m, R Lewis & Co employs some 80 staff and has a nationwide customer base that includes Wilmott Dixon, Kier, Bouygues and the NHS. Services include passive fire protection surveys, fire stopping, fire engineering and consultancy, intumescent coatings, fire doors and specialist coatings.
Robert Price
One of the biggest builders’ merchant firms in Wales, Robert Price, has further expanded through acquisition.
Robert Price Builders’ Merchants, which has outlets across south east Wales, has acquired Aberdare-based building and roofing suppliers, Builders’ Bitz. The value of the deal, for which law firm Hugh James acted for its long standing client Robert Price, has not been disclosed.
Abergavenny headquartered Robert Price now has 23 branches across south-east Wales selling everything from building materials, roofing and timber to tools and workwear.
While the acquired business will continue to trade under the Builders’ Bitz banner, it now benefits from the Robert Price network and access to new services and stock
Bay House Dental Practice
Former MasterChef contestant Imran Nathoo has acquired his own dental surgery.
Mr Nathoo, who reached the quarter finals of the popular cooking TV series in 2017, has used a finance package from Lloyds Bank to purchase Bay House Dental Practice on Cathedral Road in Cardiff.
Bay House has been providing NHS and private dental care for more than 20 years. Mr Nathoo had been working at the practice for five years before the opportunity to acquire the business arose when the previous owner was planning to retire.
The value of the acquisition has not been disclosed
The funds provided by Lloyds will also help the Cardiff Dental School graduate to realise his ambition of expanding Bay House’s offering to include facial aesthetics and Invisaline teeth straightening.
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GS Verde Group
GS Verde Group has further expanded with the acquisition of a south-west of England accountancy firm.
The group, which is headquartered in Cardiff and includes corporate finance specialist Verde and law firm Greenaway Scott, has acquired Astrum which is based near Bristol. The value of the deal has not been disclosed, but is understood to be a seven figure transaction.
Astrum, which employs 12 with revenues of £800,000, will continue to trade under its own name. The deal takes GS Verde’s annual revenues to more than £3m and staff numbers to 50.