Managers
Alternative asset management firm Hayfin Capital Management has exceeded its EUR2 billion target to invest via its Hayfin Special Opportunities Fund III. The successful fundraise comprises Fund III, which has reached a final close, and related separately managed accounts.
Hayfin employs a broad and flexible investment mandate through its Special Opportunities strategy, deploying capital into a range of unique opportunities across industries, markets, and sub-strategies in situations where financing may be scarce. The fundraise provides Hayfin with what the firm believes is the right amount of capital to invest in corporate and asset-backed opportunities arising from post-pandemic dislocation and related
Independent UK-based Oracle partner, DSP-Explorer, a database and cloud managed services provider, has received an additional GBP8 million of investment from YFM Equity Partners (YFM).
The investment, made by the YFM-managed YFM Equity Partners Buyout II LP fund, will enable the business to continue its organic and acquisitive growth plans.
With offices in London, Nottingham, Basingstoke and Leeds, DSP-Explorer was founded in 1999 and has grown turnover to GBP23 million, employing nearly 100 people nationally. With an established reputation as a trusted technology partner and Oracle expert, DSP-Explorer now boasts multi-cloud cloud capabilities as a Microsoft Gold Partner and
Job search app SonicJobs has secured USD5.5 million in a funding round led by Triple Point Ventures, TMT Investments and Ufi Ventures.
The new funding will enable SonicJobs, which is based in London, to further integrate machine learning into its robotic process automation, accelerate bringing on more candidates in the UK and launch in the US, the largest market in the world, in order to move from Series A to Unicorn.
Other prominent investors have also participated in the round including Richard Flint (Sky Bet), W Fund, Vivek Kumar (PropertyGuru), Paul Huntingdon (Serocor Group), Rod Leefe (serial HR tech investor),
Len the Plumber, a portfolio company of Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP), has completed the acquisition of Russo Bros. Russo Bros, a full-service provider of residential HVAC, plumbing, electrical and indoor air quality services located in East Hanover, New Jersey.
Founded in 1954, Russo Bros serves three counties in northern New Jersey. Russo Bros Co-Owner, Matt Russo, will stay on post-close and continue to run the business, while Co-Owner, Mark Russo, will support the business for a transitional period and subsequently retire. Terms of the transaction have
not been disclosed.
Lapse, a photo-sharing app enabling groups of friends to avoid the pressures of traditional social networks by emulating the experience of film cameras, has closed an USD11 million seed round led by Octopus Ventures and GV (formerly Google Ventures).
Sicene and technology company Merck is to acquire Chord Therapeutics (Chord), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing drugs for rare neuroinflammatory diseases, launched in October 2020 by leadng healthcare venture capital firm Omega Funds, the sole investor in the Company’s USD 16 million Series A financing.
The strategic acquisition enables Merck to expand its neurology pipeline to develop Chord’s lead drug candidate, CRD1 (cladribine), for the treatment of gMG and NMOSD
Investment firm Integral Venture Partners (Integral) is making a strategic investment in Breaktime, a specialist in clean water and vending machine services in Bulgaria.
Integral’s investment will be executed as a capital increase, as a result of which, Integral will emerge as the largest shareholder in the company alongside the founder and CEO of Breaktime, and other institutional and private investors.
Integral manages institutional private equity and growth capital and is focused on investments in the countries of central and south-eastern Europe. Integral’s fund is backed by leading international institutional investors including the EIF, the EBRD and the IFC.
Marcone, a residential appliance parts distributor and portfolio company of Genstar Capital, has acquired Professional Plumbing Group (PPG), a distributor of plumbing products for repair and remodel applications, from Dunes Point Capital, LP.
PPG designs, manufactures, markets and distributes high-quality plumbing products. PPG’s portfolio includes products from two proprietary brands – Wolverine Brass, and Speakman – as well as third-party products across all of the leading brands. Wolverine Brass is a respected brand selling high quality plumbing products for the past 125-plus years exclusively to professional plumbers and trade personnel; Speakman is a 150-plus year-old brand widely known for high
Francisco Partners has acquired Office Ally, a provider of healthcare clearinghouse and software solutions. The investment will provide Office Ally with a new partner to help capitalise on its current momentum and continue to drive product innovation and growth.
In conjunction with the closing of this transaction, Office Ally founder and CEO Brian O’Neill will be retiring, and industry healthcare technology veteran Chris Hart will become CEO of the company.
Middle Eastern private equity firm Foursan Group has acquired a 49 per cent stake in Jo Academy, an online private tutoring platform based in Jordan.
Jo Academy established its preeminent reputation by offering online supplementary courses (pre- recorded and live) to Grade 12 students enrolled in the Jordanian national program (Tawjihi). The company recently expanded its offering to service G6-11 students (national and international streams) as well as university students. In September 2021, Jo Academy celebrated servicing over 1 million students.
This is the third investment by Foursan via its latest fund following its acquisitions of Polymedic, a leading generic
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