In energy storage, France-based Epyr has raised 15 million euros, about 17 million dollars, in an oversubscribed Series A led by SlateVC, with existing investors AENU and Daphni and new backers WEPA Ventures, OVNI Capital and Aurum Impact. Epyr stores electricity as high-temperature heat in firebricks for industrial users, has a unit operating at a WEPA paper plant in Troyes, and has been selected to deploy a 35 megawatt-hour unit at Papeco’s Orval-sur-Sienne site, which it describes as France’s largest thermal storage project.
In strategic industrial finance, the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital announced an 80 million dollar conditional loan commitment to Antheia, Inc. to scale domestic production of key starting materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients for generic drugs, most of which are currently made outside the United States. Antheia uses bioengineered yeast to convert sugar into drug ingredients in a one-step fermentation process and currently produces through contract manufacturers abroad; the conditional financing, alongside private capital, would fund United States plants, subject to financial, legal and technical conditions before close.
In project finance, the Philippines advanced its 1.8 billion dollar school infrastructure PPP tender, The PPP Post reported. In deal litigation, Albertsons has begun its 8 billion dollar trial against Kroger over their failed supermarket merger, Investing.com reported. EMK Capital’s 1.25 billion euro continuation fund for VDK Groep is carried as a full story on this beat today.
In sponsor add-ons, Main Capital Partners’ Omnidocs has agreed to acquire its sister company WoodWing, combining two Dutch governed-content software businesses, PE Hub reported, with terms undisclosed. Stirling Square Capital’s SAS Group has acquired a majority stake in Afrikelp, the South African seaweed biostimulant maker, and Trilantic Europe with CDP Equity has agreed to sell agritech firm Diagram to BF International, both reported by PE Hub. Investcorp Technology Partners has acquired a majority stake in Spanish marketing automation firm Connectif, also per PE Hub. All four are single trade reports with no terms published.
In African capital markets, the Dangote Refinery IPO has drawn subscriptions from more than 90 countries, the company said on Sunday; the morning edition carries the full story, with the refinery’s nine-month figures, on this beat today. In development finance, EIB Global and First City Monument Bank have committed 85 million euros to Nigerian agricultural value chains, announced at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, with at least 70 percent directed to cocoa and dairy and the dairy leg described by the EIB as its first outside the European Union.
In funds, Nauta Capital reached a 60 million euro first close on its sixth fund with the British Business Bank as anchor, AltAssets reported, and Pear VC raised 333 million dollars for a smaller fifth fund. In US public real estate, a Government Accountability Office report found new federal occupancy data is helping agencies shed unneeded office space, while data gaps still limit how far disposals can go.