Allocations
Recipe box company Gousto has secured an additional GBP30 million funding round, led by Perwyn. The investment takes the total funds raised by Gousto to over GBP100 million.
With the UK recipe box market expected to exceed GBP1.5 billion by 2022, Gousto is in pole position to take advantage and the additional funding will accelerate its investment into its customer obsession. Perwyn, a family-backed private equity investment firm, joins existing investors including BGF Ventures, MMC Ventures, Canaccord Genuity, Unilever Ventures and Joe Wicks.
Gousto will use the investment to evolve its technology proposition, so it can continue to lead
Tyk Technologies Ltd, creators of an API gateway and management platform, has secured GBP4 million in Series A funding, led by MMC Ventures to accelerate its business securing, simplifying and scaling organisations’ API programmes.
The MMC Ventures-led Series A funding will be used to accelerate Tyk’s presence in rapidly-growing markets, specifically the US, where the company has established itself as the key challenger brand in the API space against competitors like Google’s Apigee, CA Technologies, and IBM. Tyk will be opening an office in Atlanta this summer to add to the Singapore office opened in 2017.
Tyk’s API gateway
O’Melveny has represented Mesmer, a Palo Alto, California-based Robotics Process Automation for Development (RPAD) company, in a USD15 million Series A round of funding.
The funding round was led by Intel Capital with participation from True Ventures.
Mesmer is founded by the Zenprise team that built and sold its leading mobile device management solution to Citrix for USD355 million in 2012. O’Melveny also represented Zenprise in that transaction and all of its venture financings over its ten-year lifecycle. Mesmer will use the funding to market the USD40-billion testing market’s first and only Robotic Process Automation for Development (RPAD).
Mesmer uses
KP Capital Partners’ portfolio company Autokiniton Global Group (AGG), a North American supplier of metal-formed components and assemblies to the automotive industry, is to acquire Tower International, a manufacturer of engineered automotive structural metal components and assemblies, tor USD31 per share in cash.
The all-cash transaction represents a 70 per cent premium to Tower’s closing stock price on 11 July, 2019. Including Tower’s debt and pension related liabilities, the total value of the transaction is approximately USD900 million.
“We are extremely pleased to reach agreement with AGG on a mutually beneficial transaction that creates substantial value for Tower stockholders,
Sovereign Capital Partners’ portfolio company Arachas Corporate Brokers (Arachas), an insurance brokerage operating in Ireland, has acquired Murray & Spelman.
This is the fourth acquisition Arachas has made since Sovereign backed the management buy-out of the business in July 2017, and secures Arachas’ position as the largest independent broking group in Ireland. Completion is subject to regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland.
Murray & Spelman is a long-established broker of high-quality commercial and personal insurance. The acquisition of the Galway-based broker brings substantial additional scale to the Arachas Group and expands its geographical footprint in the West
The latest research from eFront shows that reaching the hurdle rate – traditionally set at 8 per cent – remains a significant challenge for venture capital funds and, to a lesser extent, LBO funds.
Looking at the distribution of historical internal rates of return (IRRs) delivered by LBO and VC funds of all vintage years, more than 60 per cent of LBO funds managed to beat the hurdle rate, while only 38 per cent of VC funds exceeded the 8 per cent threshold . This confirms that shorter holding periods characteristic of buyout investments work in favour of LBO fund
AnaCap Financial Partners (AnaCap), a specialist European financial services private equity firm and active investor, has sold Ellisphere, a French business intelligence company that specialises in data and analytics, to Andera Partners, Tikehau Capital and Bpifrance.
The exit comes after just two years since AnaCap’s initial investment and will generate a 2.6x money multiple and 52 per cent IRR for the firm.
A market-leader in the French business intelligence market, Ellisphere collects and processes data to provide high quality, tailored solutions to support clients’ decision- making processes. It offers a comprehensive range of business and marketing information services that allow
Vista Equity Partners (Vista), an investment firm focused on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled businesses, has completed fundraising for Vista Equity Endeavor Fund II.
The Fund was significantly oversubscribed from a diverse group of limited partners and closed at its hard-cap of USD850 million. Vista’s Endeavor platform now manages over USD1.4 billion in assets and specialises in investment opportunities focused on scaling high-growth enterprise software companies.
“Companies are increasingly demanding an investment partner that can provide operational expertise and support in addition to capital investments,” says Alan Cline, Co-Head of Vista’s Endeavor platform. “We are thrilled to close on Endeavor
Sixpoint Partners has announced the successful closing of Incline Elevate Fund with USD314.5 million of total capital commitments. The Fund, which is the fifth investment vehicle and first fund extension vehicle for Incline Equity Partners (Incline), easily surpassed its initial hard cap of USD300 million after only two months of marketing.
Elevate will leverage the firm’s established investment strategy, process and culture to source and execute investments exclusively in the lower middle market, where Incline has a strong track record of success but had outgrown in its flagship fund that seeks to make similar investments in larger companies.
“Renewing
Chicago-based private equity firm CORE Industrial Partners’ (CORE) portfolio company Prototek has acquired Cal-X, a provider of precision machining and sheet metal fabrication rapid prototyping services.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Headquartered in Wisconsin, Cal-X offers rapid prototyping and short-run production services through its wide breadth of in-house capabilities. Founded in 2002, Cal-X serves a blue-chip customer base across a broad mix of end markets, including medical, robotics & electronics, aerospace, and transportation. The Company’s key capabilities include CNC milling & turning, laser & waterjet cutting, and painting & silk screening.
Bill Gress, Chief
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
