Deals
Monroe Capital has acted as sole lead arranger and administrative agent on the funding of a USD14 million asset-based facility to refinance the existing debt facility and provide working capital for PetEdge, Inc.
Founded in 1956 and based in Beverly, Massachusetts, PetEdge, Inc. is a developer and wholesale distributor of pet supplies and grooming products to a diverse customer base including pet professionals (groomers, kennels and veterinarians) and leading retailers nationwide.
The company was originally known as New England Serum Company, Inc. and has been doing business as PetEdge, Inc since 2002.
Blend has raised USD100 million in a Series D funding round led by Greylock Partners with participation from Emergence Capital, 8VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Nyca Partners, bringing the company’s total funding to USD166 million.
“We saw a massive opportunity in Blend and the work they are doing to deliver transparent, frictionless, accessible mortgages for everyone,” says Jerry Chen, partner at Greylock Partners. “Banks and lenders understand the need for innovation, but they can’t do it alone. Blend is in a unique position to change the consumer lending industry with an unparalleled team of engineers, designers and product and data experts
Private equity investor Advent International (Advent) is to acquire Williams Lea Tag, a provider of marketing and communications services, from Deutsche Post DHL Group. Financial terms of the transaction have not been undisclosed.
From its foundation in 1820 as a financial printing business, Williams Lea Tag has expanded into a global organisation which specialises in delivering integrated marketing and communications solutions for some of the largest and most recognised brands across the world. The company provides a broad range of marketing solutions, such as creative production and sourcing services alongside business process outsourcing (BPO) services, including document workflow process capabilities
Renewed focus on infrastructure projects in North America has benefited the unlisted infrastructure market in the region, according to data released by Preqin.
Over the past decade, North America-focused funds have raised an aggregate USD178 billion, far ahead of USD119 billion raised in the same period for Europe, the next largest market. Although North America-focused unlisted infrastructure fundraising experienced a gradual decline from 2013 to 2015, the region represents the largest infrastructure fundraising market in the world. 2016 was a record year for the region, with 23 funds securing USD33 billion in capital commitments, including the largest infrastructure fund ever
UBS Asset Management’s Archmore International Infrastructure Fund II is to acquire a 10.8 per cent interest in CPV Towantic Energy Centre (CPV Towantic), a 785-megawatt combined-cycle power generation facility currently under construction in Connecticut, marking the Fund’s second investment in the US market and fifth investment in the Fund.
The interest is being acquired from a General Electric unit, GE Energy Financial Services (GE). GE will retain a 24.5 per cent stake in the project with the other partners in CPV Towantic being affiliates of Ullico Inc. (13.7 per cent) and Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) (51.0 per cent).
The completed
Patron Capital has completed its acquisition of Punch Taverns (Punch) for 180 pence in cash per share, valuing the equity of Punch at approximately GBP402 million and implying an enterprise value of around GBP1.8 billion.
Punch is an owner of tenanted pubs in the UK. In the 12 months to March 2017, the Punch estate reported underlying EBITDA of around GBP172 million and comprised approximately 3,200 pubs located across the UK, 96 per cent of which are held on a freehold or long leasehold basis. Punch operates its pubs predominantly under the tied leased and tenanted model, with a growing
Bridg, a marketing software company that leverages point-of-sale data to drive precision-marketing campaigns for restaurant and retail brands, has secured USD11 million in Series B Funding.
The financing was led by Morpheus Ventures, with participation from new investors NextEquity Partners and Visa, as well as returning investor March Capital.
“Bridg solves the huge information disadvantage of brick and mortar retailers and restaurants relative to their online counterparts. Bridg uses artificial intelligence and big-data probabilistic models to help restaurants and retailers identify who their customers are, how often they visit and their specific buying habits, all of which enhances the
ICEYE, a specialist in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology for micro-satellites, has secured USD13 million in new funding, including an USD8.5 million financing round led by Draper Nexus.
ICEYE will use the latest funding to scale up operations, including manufacturing of the company’s SAR technology built from off-the-shelf components, and launch additional satellites. ICEYE plans to launch the first three micro-satellites equipped with SAR sensors over the next 12 months, delivering earth observation data to select customers shortly thereafter.
This USD8.5 million round also included participation from True Ventures, Lifeline Ventures, Space Angels, and Draper Associates. Additional funding was received
Amenity Analytics has raised USD7.6 million in a Series A round of funding led by an investment from State of Mind Ventures.
Additionally, Yuval Baharav (pictured), managing partner of State of Mind Ventures, has joined the company’s board of directors. The funding will be used to accelerate product development and to scale sales and marketing.
Amenity Analytics’ platform uses self-correcting artificial intelligence to unlock insights in any kind of text. Their highly-accurate natural language processing requires minimal coding or special information technology support – a significant hidden cost in other AI approaches. Clients have used Amenity’s platform to identify
Club deals, often used by private equity managers prior to the ’08 financial crisis, are a thing of the past. The new kid on the block is the co-investment deal, which over the last four or five years has been gaining real traction with institutional investors.
Speaking with Private Equity Wire, Corentin du Roy (pictured), Managing Director at HarbourVest and one of the leaders of HarbourVest’s co-investment opportunities in Europe, says that co-investments are now an established part of an investor’s allocation.
“Over the past four or five years, a large majority of LPs see the benefit of having 10
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