Allocations
The Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) has raised GBP250 million (USD350 million) from a group of strategic investors committed to developing new medicines for dementia.
The goal was met today with a new investment of USD60 million from US AARP, the global nonpartisan organisation dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age.
The fundraising far exceeded its initial target of USD200 million (GBP130 million), making it the first and largest venture fund focused entirely on discovering and developing novel therapies for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The DDF makes early stage venture capital
Breed Reply, an active operational investor in early-stage Internet of Things (IoT) businesses, has invested in two more early-stage Internet-of-Things (IoT) businesses – CageEye and ubirch.
The companies have now secured a total of EUR5.8 million in funding, including this investment round, since they were launched.
These new investments mean Breed Reply’s pan-European investment portfolio of early-stage IoT businesses has increased to 22 in a variety of different sectors. The sectors include health & wellness, industrial IoT, smart buildings and cities, security and platforms. So far, in 2018, Breed Reply has invested in four new IoT businesses with plans to
Private equity firm Bregal Investments has launched a EUR40 million Bregal Sustainable Development Fund (SD Fund), as part of its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy.
The SD Fund will provide attractive financing to existing portfolio companies across the Bregal platform, focusing exclusively on ESG improvement projects. The SD Fund was launched in Q2 of 2018.
Quentin van Doosselaere and Steven Black, Co-CEOs of Bregal Investments, says: “This is an important milestone for our firm, as we’ve just published our first Responsible Investment Report which underscores our commitment to ESG and shows our ESG approach across the Bregal platform.
An affiliate of Harbor Beach Capital, a private equity firm focused on investing in lower middle market companies, has made an investment in AVFX, an event technology services business.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, AVFX provides event technology services, including audio, visual and lighting production and staging services for corporate events, trade shows, exhibits and meetings, primarily in North America.
AVFX was founded over 35 years ago by Murray Lapides who, along with AVFX’s management team, successfully grew the company from a predominantly Boston-focused audio-visual staging company into a well-recognized event technology services business supporting corporate and institutional clients throughout
Irish insurance brokerage Arachas Corporate Brokers (Arachas), a portfolio company of private equity firm Sovereign Capital Partners, has acquired Covercentre. This is the third acquisition Arachas has made since Sovereign backed the management buy-out of the business last year.
Covercentre is a wholesale insurance broker that offers specialist property and commercial vehicle insurance to circa 300 sub-brokers in Ireland. Based in Dublin, the business has rapidly developed a strong and growing presence in the Irish broker-to-broker personal lines market since it was established in 2012. The combined group will employ over 230 staff across its offices in Dublin, Cork and
Cleeng, a video eCommerce provider, has completed its growth financing from Walvis Participaties and existing shareholders, which will be used to accelerate the company’s international growth.
This latest funding round will give the investors a minority stake in the company. Drake Star Partners acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Cleeng on this transaction.
Founded in 2011, Cleeng is the leading company for selling premium videos direct-to-consumer. Its fully managed Live PPV and SVOD solutions take care of all the steps from Identity and Access Management, e-commerce, and end-user support to security. The Company’s highly scalable platform has been
Deal flow for sub-USD1 billion private equity (PE) funds accelerated at the start of 2018 and set an all-time record for any first quarter, according to data analysed by top 100 US law firm Akerman.
Despite this year’s decrease experienced by the rest of middle market funds, data found in the second quarterly Akerman PErspectives Report indicates activity surrounding sub-USD1 billion funds continued to show positive divergence from peers of larger size and scope.
Compared to 2017, exit value and volume for these sub-USD1 billion buyout vehicles for the first quarter of 2018 also were up and stable, in
Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC) has increased its financing commitment to HCT Group, a UK-based community transport operator, by investing a further GBP2.05 million to accelerate its growth. It follows a first investment of GBP500,000 made in 2015.
Founded in 1982, HCT Group has grown to become one of the leading social enterprises in the UK, with a turnover of GBP60m. It helps tackle social isolation by providing transport and training services for marginalised people and communities, which is paid for by the revenues of commercial bus contracts.
SASC is one of the largest investors in the junior tranches of
UK private equity house Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has completed a GBP1.6 million investment in BioAscent Discovery Limited (BioAscent), an integrated drug discovery services business.
The funding will enable BioAscent to significantly expand its service offering, adding complementary chemistry and biology services and capitalise on the growing trend towards the outsourcing of drug discovery activities. The funding will support the creation of 10 new jobs, including in highly skilled scientific positions, and fund additional laboratory space.
BioAscent has recently assembled a team of expert biologists and medicinal chemists that have a track record of taking drugs from concept to
Seedrs, the operator of secondary market for private equity investments has reported impressive demand for shares in its portfolio companies since launching 12 months ago. In that time, Seedrs has achieved 2,990 investor exits in what was previously an illiquid asset class.
Until Seedrs launched its secondary market, the long-term nature of early stage private equity meant that shares tend to be illiquid and investors would have to wait for an exit event such as an IPO or a sale of the business before seeing any returns on their investment.
The latest trading cycle in June saw 601 share
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
