Managers
Baird Capital, the global private equity and venture capital arm of Baird, has held the final close for its second Global Fund (Global Fund II) with over USD340 million in committed capital.
The fund makes buyout and growth equity investments of USD15 million to USD40 million in Technology & Services and Industrial Technology & Solutions sectors in the US, UK and Asia. Target opportunities have EBITDA of USD5 million to USD15 million. The first Global Fund closed in 2017 with USD310 million in committed capital.
Baird Capital leverages its global investment platform to target founder-owned businesses with global growth
Mercedes-Benz has acquired YASA, a specialist in next-generation electric drive technology.
YASA’s proprietary axial-flux electric motors offer enhanced performance over radial electric motor technologies. YASA’s e-motors deliver the greatest efficiencies and highest power densities in class for the smallest possible size and weight.
Following the acquisition, YASA and its 250 employees will continue to operate from its headquarters and production facility in Oxford, UK. YASA will provide electric motors for Mercedes-Benz’s AMG.EA electric-only platform, while also acting as an innovation partner pioneering new electric drive technology for the Group
Moray Wright, CEO of Parkwalk, says: “Parkwalk was the largest investor
Coinciding with the milestone of delivering prototype winding wire to the automotive industry, Tau has concluded its Aeries A financing round with additional funding from Finindus, a Belgium-based investment company financed by ArcelorMittal and the Flemish Region, and a top-up by German specialty chemicals company ALTANA.
Tau develops high-performance wire that combines minimised partial discharge, high filling factors, greater temperature resistance, high-voltage and frequency optimisation. This enables global producers of electric motors, cars, buses, trucks and aircraft to double the power output of future traction motors while keeping their size.
“Years of research have allowed us to be developing coated
Five Elms Capital, a global growth private equity firm focused on investing in B2B software, has closed Five Elms V with USD780 million in capital commitments.
Five Elms V will target equity investments between USD5 and USD75 million. The new fund received strong support from a diverse global base of new and existing institutional investors, bringing Five Elms’ total assets under management to more than USD1.5 billion.
“We are incredibly grateful for the longstanding support of our existing limited partners. Our team is particularly excited about the number of founders from Five Elms portfolio companies that personally invested in Five
Business-to-business social media marketing platform Oktopost has secured a USD20 million minority investment from London-based growth equity firm Expedition Growth Capital.
Oktopost plans to use the fresh capital to advance its product roadmap focused on B2B needs, improve its customer success function, accelerate marketing and sales, and explore strategic acquisitions. The company’s team is spread across Tel Aviv, London and Atlanta and plans to grow its workforce by 50 percent in the second half of 2021.
Oktopost provides an enterprise grade cloud platform built on a single code base, where B2B marketers can curate content, organise, and manage campaigns for
Exus Management Partners (Exus), a specialist in powering sustainable investments through operational excellence, has advised on the acquisition and been chosen by Onex Renewables (Onex) to deliver its full suite of asset and financial management services for a 221MW wind portfolio in northern Portugal.
With over 7.5GW of renewable energy assets developed and operated worldwide, Exus brings considerable expertise to the five individual projects, which represent an anchor investment for Onex within the market.
Previously owned by EDP Renewables (EDPR), the combined sites come with an 18-year PPA attached. The portfolio has an estimated enterprise value of EUR532 million,
Having launched an impressive 34 businesses to date, North East university collaboration Northern Accelerator has been awarded a further GBP3.6 million from Research England to continue its successful programme, expanding its partnership in the North East and rolling out its flagship support model to universities in the South of England.
Northern Accelerator was set up to develop the ecosystem for creation of spin-out businesses from the North East’s universities, strengthening the region’s knowledge economy and helping address regional imbalance. Funded by Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund and the European Regional Development Fund, Northern Accelerator brings together academics and business leaders,
European travel startup Framey has closed a USD1 million seed funding round led by ICE Capital from Dubai, and backed by Romanian based JECO Capital.
The company, planning to disrupt the way people plan their trips, will use the funds to invest in its technology, scale up its operations and launch globally.
Founded in 2019 by Romanian entrepreneurs Robert Preoteasa and Alexandru Iulian Florea, Framey is building an inspiring platform where users can go through the entire process of a travel journey, from dreaming to planning, experiencing and sharing.
“We are very excited about our next chapter post funding closing
ARQIS has advised equity financier VR Equitypartner on its investment in Glas Strack. As part of a succession plan, VR Equitypartner, together with Inventure Digital, is taking a significant minority stake in the underlying glas strack innovations GmbH & Co KG, which is based in Bochum.
In addition, Maik Grondkowski, Managing Director of Glas Strack since the beginning of 2021, has also acquired shares. The sellers of the shares are Martin Strack and his co-shareholder Tanja Schmidt-Laskowski, who will continue to hold an interest through a significant reverse shareholding.
Glas Strack was founded in 1933 and is today one
Novo Holdings, an international life science investor, has co-led, alongside HealthCap and RA Capital Management, a USD55 million Series A financing in Hemab, a biotech company developing next generation therapeutics for serious underserved bleeding and thrombosis disorders.
The Company was created in 2020 by Novo Seeds, the early stage investment and company creation team of Novo Holdings, which worked closely with the founders to develop a commercially attractive business plan to maximise the potential of Hemab’s promising technology platform.
Benny Sorensen, MD, PhD, who served on Hemab’s Board of Directors, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and will be
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
