Allocations
PAI Partners (PAI) has closed its inaugural PAI Mid-Market Fund (“PAI MMF”, or the “Fund”) with a total of circa EUR920 million of commitments. The Fund was raised entirely virtually and is above its EUR700 million target and original EUR800 million hard cap, which was increased following significant investor interest.
The Fund received strong support from PAI’s existing investor base in addition to new investors. The capital commitments were received from a total of 50 investors including a broad range of institutional investors, notably leading public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and family offices across the
Learndirect has acquired Animal Courses Direct (ACD) and i-to-i (TATG Ltd), two specialist training providers operating in the Animal Welfare and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) sectors respectively.
The acquisitions extend Learndirect’s existing portfolio in these sectors and provides a strong base for the group to continue to grow online education in these specialisms. Learndirect was the first platform investment from Queen’s Park Equity (QPE) Fund I.
ACD is the largest specialist Animal Welfare provider in the UK offering a wide range of Ofqual regulated animal courses that meet the Defra Animal Activity Licencing (ALL) Regulations. Through
Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising lower mid-market companies, has closed its sale of Pet Supplies Plus (PSP), the third largest pet specialty chain in the US, to Franchise Group, Inc.
The deal is valued at USD700 million.
Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, PSP is the leading franchisor and operator of pet-specialty stores that provide a customer-centric shopping experience in smaller stores that have a neighbourhood feel.
PSP blends the advantages of national scale with those of a friendly, local neighbourhood pet store. Stores have a streamlined design, which makes them easy
Kirkland & Ellis has advised Alpine Investors, a San Francisco based private equity fund and its portfolio company Alpine Software Group, on the acquisition of Sendible, a UK social media management and data analytics provider.
The transaction is Alpine’s first European acquisition.
The team was led by transactional partners Adrian Duncan and David Higgins and associate Jamie Gordon; antitrust partner Sally Evans and associate Athina Van Melkebeke; tax associate Anthony Antioch; debt finance partner Alexander van der Gaag and associate Phanne Yang; and IP transactions associates John Patten and Alex Zapalowski.
The Kempen European Private Equity Fund, the private equity investment fund of Kempen Capital Management (Kempen), has acquired a direct interest in GSRI.
GSRI, originally a French company founded in 1997, offers inspection, diagnostic, and advisory solutions to optimise the management and maintenance of existing infrastructure projects during their entire life cycle.
The participation of the Kempen European Private Equity Fund is a co-investment with investment company Sparring Capital, www.sparringcapital.com, and the original founders. The management team of GSRI has also invested with its own resources. As a result, the interests of the various investors are equally represented.
Flatfile, a data onboarding software company, has secured USD35 million in Series A funding round led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from Workday Ventures, plus previous investors including Afore Capital, Google’s AI-focused venture fund, Gradient Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures.
Among a list of powerful angels investing in this round you’ll find founders of Box, Looker, and Segment. This brings the company’s total funding to nearly USD45 million, USD42.6 million of which has been raised in just the last year. This latest infusion of capital will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion of its all-remote workforce, along with
Fetch.ai, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence lab building an open-access decentralised machine learning network for smart infrastructure, has secured a GBP5 million investment from GDA Group and affiliates.
Sovereign Capital Partners, a UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, has backed Skerritts, a successful Independent Financial Advisory (IFA) and Wealth Management business, in a deal worth GBP55 million.
Sovereign is partnering the management team led by founder Richard Skerritt, to develop the business through a strategy of organic and acquisitive growth.
Founded in 1990, Skerritts provides financial planning and investment management services, and currently looks after c4k private clients as well as corporates. Headquartered in Hove, South Coast of England, and with an office in the City of London, the business has a team of c40 staff.
Rubicon Partners, an investment partnership focused on the acquisition of industrial businesses in Europe and North America, has acquired a majority share Bamboo Distribution.
Rubicon Partners is a hands-on investment partnership focused on the acquisition of industrial businesses in Europe and North America.
Juney Mistiki, Managing Director of Bamboo Distribution, says: “Rubicon’s decision to invest in our company is based on a number of strategic factors – Bamboo Distribution’s commitment to sustainability, our compliance with all environmental and data protection regulations, current and projected growth expectations, operational capabilities and our specialist knowledge of the mobile refurbishing, distribution, recycling and
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
The Gamestop effect may attract investors to private markets
The Gamestop effect may attract investors to private markets