Allocations
By A Paris – Despite any headwinds caused by the pandemic, the private equity industry has remained strong, with investor demand and planned allocations continuing to grow. However, with high levels of dry powder and increasing regulator scrutiny, startup private equity funds have much to contend with.
“There is currently more money available in private equity. The among of dry powder has exploded and is the highest it’s been in 10 years,” remarks Alain Kinsch, co-chairman of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) Private Equity Committee and Vice-President of the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
According to Hugh MacArthur, Partner, Bain
Last week London-based Balderton Capital, which is now actively deploying over USD1 billion in some of Europe’s most prolific breakout companies, announced the launch of a new tech growth fund – their largest in Europe to date. PEW caught up with partner Rana Yared who will manage the fund together with Balderton’s managing partner Bernard Liautaud and general partner David Thévenon.
CAPZA Growth Tech is to acquire a minority stake in Advens, a cybersecurity and SOC-as-a-Service specialist in France.
Founder Alexandre Fayeulle and the current management team remain majority shareholders. As a result of the transaction, which values Advens at more than EUR100 million, the shareholding will be extended to one third of Advens’ employees.
Advens offers a comprehensive cybersecurity package that combines high value-added services with an innovative Security-as-a-Service model to meet the growing needs of companies, regardless of their specific sector or business.
Advens has developed an operational security centre (“Security-as-a-Service Factory”) unique in France, which takes advantage of
bd-capital, a pan-European, operationally-led private equity firm, has made an investment in SportPursuit, an online private sales club in the UK and Germany focused on active lifestyle and sports products.
This latest investment into SportPursuit follows the firm’s recent investments into Symprove, the gut health products business, and Ascenti, the UK’s leading provider of physical and mental wellbeing services. All three investments follow a consistent strategy of investing in companies where changing patterns of consumer behaviour and technology disruption are creating growth opportunities.
SportPursuit was founded in 2011 by a group of friends with a shared passion for activity
SWEN Capital Partners, a specialist in sustainable private equity investments, has added Christian Lim and Olivier Raybaud, co-founders of Blue Oceans Partners, to its investment team and executive committee.
The two new managing directors are committed to financing innovations that have a systemic impact on ocean regeneration.
Ocean regeneration is one of the major environmental challenges of our time. A sanctuary of biodiversity, the ocean also plays a vital role in the production of oxygen (50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe) and is critical to the fight against climate change, absorbing 93 per cent of the excess heat
The BUILD Fund (BUILD), an impact fund created in partnership between Bamboo Capital Partners (Bamboo) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), has made its inaugural investment, providing a USD500,000 working capital facility for Mwezi, a Kenyan distributor of solar products.
Mwezi is a last-mile solar energy solutions distributor targeting rural Kenya. The company provides high-quality solar-powered, Lighting Global accredited products. Mwezi offers customers access to these products through a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solution to address the financing barriers that have historically held back low-income households in rural sub-Saharan Africa from affording clean energy.
Mwezi sells and distributes products
Akur8, an insurtech automating insurance pricing with its proprietary Transparent AI, has closed a Series B funding round of USD30 million, bringing its total funding to USD42 million.
The investment round closed less than two years after the P&C and health insurance pricing SaaS solution provider first commercialised its platform, and just 15 months after its Series A led by BlackFin Capital Partners and MTech Capital. Both are reinvesting in this round.
Founded in 2018, Akur8’s vision is to transform insurance pricing with its Transparent AI, to empower actuaries and pricing teams to make better decisions, faster. The cloud-based
Inflexion has completed the acquisition of Infront ASA, a European provider of financial market data and software solutions currently listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
The founders of Infront, CEO Kristian Nesbak and CIO Morten Lindeman, are reinvesting a portion of their proceeds alongside Inflexion. The investment is being made by Inflexion Buyout Fund V and Supplemental Fund. The business will be delisted shortly after the acquisition.
Headquartered in Oslo, Infront provides a suite of data and software solutions which allow financial institutions to manage investment decisions, reduce costs and comply with changing market requirements. The company serves more than
Mid Europa Partners (Mid Europa) has completed the simultaneous acquisitions of UAB Pigu (Pigu) and Hobby Hall Group OÜ (HHG), becoming the majority shareholder in the combined group, which represents the leading e-commerce and online marketplace platform operating across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, with a growing presence in Finland.
With several million registered customers across four countries, over 3,000 merchants onboarded on its proprietary marketplace platform over the last year, Pigu also has a unique portfolio of online shopping destinations such as pigu.lt, kaup24.ee, hansapost.ee, 220.lv, xnet.lv, and hobbyhall.fi.
Mid Europa says the combined Group is expected to lead the
Gemcorp Group, an emerging markets investment, commodities and energy group, has completed a management buyout from its seed investor.
The Gemcorp management team, led by founder and CEO, Atanas Bostandjiev, now owns 100 per cent of the business. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The buyout marks the latest step in Gemcorp’s expansion. Since its inception as an emerging markets investment management firm in 2014, Gemcorp has grown organically, adding a successful physical commodity solutions business and an energy business. The group now employs more than 138 employees, operating across 9 cities.
The Group’s three business
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
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