Managers
Global venture capital firm AXA Strategic Ventures is rebranding and will now be known as AXA Venture Partners.
AXA Venture Partners, a USD450million venture capital firm backed by AXA, has participated in 32 deals since 2016, making it the most active venture capital firm backed by an insurance company, according to Crunchbase. Recent investments have covered a wide range of areas, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital health, SaaS technology, insurtech/fintech.
The new positioning reflects the Company’s approach of establishing strong partnerships with its portfolio companies and other VC investors. Beyond capital, AXA Venture Partners acts as a conduit for
Audax Private Equity (Audax) has completed the sale of Wheel Pros to Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm based in Santa Monica, California.
Wheel Pros, headquartered in Denver, CO, is a leading designer, marketer, and distributor of branded aftermarket wheels, performance tires and accessories.
Geoffrey S Rehnert, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Audax Group, says: “Wheel Pros is a leader in the automotive aftermarket industry. The Wheel Pros team has demonstrated tremendous success in growing the business, and we wish both the management team and Clearlake Capital continued success.”
Jay Mitchell, Managing Director, Audax Private Equity, says: “Randy White, Jody
The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has published the fundraising figure for the Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) sector, which raised GBP728 million for the 2017/18 tax year, the second highest amount since the inception of VCTs and an increase of 34 per cent on last year’s figure (GBP542 million).
It is also the highest amount ever raised at the current level of 30 per cent upfront tax relief.
The highest VCT fundraising figure was in the 2005/6 tax year when the sector raised GBP779 million, when the initial tax relief on investments was 40 per cent.
VCT assets
Symphony Communication Services has raised USD67 million in new capital from new investors Barclays, Bpifrance, the French investment bank, and CLSA, along with a group of existing investors.
This brings Symphony’s total capital raise to date to over USD300 million from the world’s leading financial services firms, global venture capital funds, and technology companies.
Symphony’s secure team collaboration platform has reached critical mass with over 300 firms and 320,000 users. The raise validates Symphony’s leadership position in financial services and will enable the company to accelerate its product roadmap, expand its core offering for financial institutions and broaden its
Funds advised and managed by private equity fund manager YFM Equity Partners (YFM) have backed an investment into Eikon Group Limited, a cutting edge, end-to-end, digital post-production services for the motion picture and broadcast industry.
YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc alongside the YFM Equity Partners 2015 Co-Investment LP.
EIKON Group Ltd was founded in 2014 by Peter Wright (CEO), Richard Fish (Commercial Director), Rick Corne (Innovations Director), Jon Gardner (Operations Director) and Russell Wetherell (Creative Director).
EIKON Group have cutting edge technology facilities in
Quilvest Private Equity, the private equity arm of the Quilvest group, has acquired global micro-specialist recruitment firm, Phaidon International. Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Phaidon International, parent company of five award-winning micro-specialist recruitment brands, operates globally across offices in 10 locations including London, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Singapore. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in London, Phaidon has grown organically since its inception to over 500 employees and through its portfolio brands DSJ Global, EPM Scientific, Glocomms, LVI Associates and Selby Jennings, identifies talent to place in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has completed a GBP1.1 million VCT investment in WaterBear Education Ltd (WaterBear), a private higher education college which provides a range of Master of Arts (MA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree courses across the creative industries in partnership with the University of Chichester.
The funds will be used to set up and roll out WaterBear’s primary campus in Brighton and support the opening of additional campus locations in the future.
WaterBear’s industry-relevant creative degree courses, which offer bachelor and masters qualifications for musicians, artists and entrepreneurs, will be accredited and validated by the University
Alternative assets specialist co-investment platform Astarte Capital Partners is to allocate a portion of its profits towards supporting the education of under-privileged young people.
The initiative is focused on Europe and North America, and will involve collaborating with a handful of relevant institutions, such as high schools, colleges and universities.
London-based Astarte, which invests in real asset investments including transportation, specialist real estate and natural resources, has outposts in New York, Sydney and Zurich.
“Education and giving back to the community is at the heart of our work ethics. We believe that the biggest investment that can be
CeriFi, a portfolio company of Leeds Equity Partners, has acquired Keir Educational Resources (Keir), a provider of training solutions for financial services professionals seeking to prepare for various financial and insurance certification exams.
Founded in 1968, Keir’s products prepare financial services professionals for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and several property and casualty examinations. Keir represents the third acquisition for the recently formed financial education, training and certification platform, CeriFi. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Henrietta Nye, President of Keir, says: “I am thrilled that Keir is joining the CeriFi platform. We have built
Atlas Holdings (Atlas) has held the first and final close of its third private equity investment fund, Atlas Capital Resources III LP (Fund III) with capital commitments of USD1.675 billion, after just three months of fundraising.
Atlas focuses on control investments in companies experiencing financial or operational stress, benefiting from Atlas’ ability to execute complex financial transactions, resolve enterprise challenges and systematically deliver exceptional operational and financial performance. Atlas has been an active acquirer of underperforming or discontinued operations from corporate sellers and has acquired businesses through bankruptcy purchases, out-of-court restructurings and reorganisations. Atlas will continue to pursue these strategies,
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
