Managers
Speedinvest, a pan-European early-stage VC, today announces the final closing of its second specialist marketplaces and consumer fund at EUR60 million, above its original target of EUR50 million. More than a dozen notable marketplace founders and executives have joined the final close, including the founders of Ankorstore, Vinted, TradingView, Planetly, and more.
Jörg Gerbig, COO of JustEatTakeAway & co-founder of Lieferando, also participated in the fund.Speedinvest’s Marketplaces and Consumer team has already made four investments since the fund’s first close, including freight and logistics B2B marketplace Yolda, which announced its USD1.9 million seed round in June. The team, led
Although private equity deal activity slowed down a bit in Q2 from the first quarter of 2021, the speed at which PE deals closed continued, leading to a massive uptick in deal value, according to Pitchbook’s latest European PE Breakdown report.
In the second quarter of 2021, around 1,800 deals closed at a total value of EUR169.6 billion, the report showed – which represents a year-on-year increase of 161.2 per cent and 137.3 per cent, respectively. This constitutes Europe’s second-highest quarterly numbers so far, driven by activity in the core middle market.
The lockdown of economies around the world reshaped
In this podcast, Private Equity Wire speaks to Randy Schwimmer (pictured), head of senior lending origination and capital markets at Churchill Asset Management, about capital markets, deal trends and the current private equity middle-market lending environment.
Vestwell, a specialist in workplace savings and investing programmes, has raised USD70 million in a Series C financing round led by Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and Fin Venture Capital. A host of other financial services and fintech leaders also participated, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Manulife, Point72, Nationwide Ventures, Allianz Life Ventures, Northwestern Mutual, FinTech Collective, Greenspring Associates, Primary Venture Partners, Teamworthy Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Industry Ventures, and Commerce Ventures.
Vestwell provides the underlying infrastructure for workplace savings and investing programs, such as 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans. The firm’s API-based technology is designed to support a diverse ecosystem of
Renaissance Venture Capital has closed its fourth fund with USD77.5 million of new capital.
Since it opened in 2008, Renaissance has raised over USD280 million, making it the largest “fund of funds” of its kind in the United States. Renaissance has become a role model for similar funds that have emerged in Cincinnati, Houston, and most recently Wisconsin.
Renaissance invests in top-tier venture capital funds around the county, bringing them into Michigan’s vibrant startup ecosystem. It then connects those funds and their startups with major organisations looking for innovation. Startup companies are the life blood of a growing economy, and
Demand Science, a global revenue intelligence platform that drives growth for hundreds of the world’s largest software, technology, and B2B services companies, has acquired Airborne App.
Founded by Lee Gladish and Michael Morckos, Airborne is a Toronto-based sales engagement and enablement software platform. The acquisition is Demand Science’s sixth since August 2020, and further enhances its global B2B data and intelligence solutions for sales and marketing professionals.
Counting both organic performance and recent acquisitions, Demand Science is growing over 100 per cent year over year and leads the B2B marketplace in technology-forward, data-centric products and solutions. Demand Science creates
Align Capital Partners (ACP) has sold its environmental testing and compliance platform Alliance Technical Group (Alliance) to Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP).
Alliance is a leading provider of source testing, emissions monitoring and analytical services to customers throughout the United States. Since ACP’s initial 2016 investment, the Company has achieved transformational growth. During the partnership, ATG completed 11 acquisitions, expanded into four new service lines and grew its revenue by more than 600 per cent. This rapid growth enabled the Company to expand from four locations in 2016 to more than 20 today, while increasing headcount from less than 75
Spain has become the hottest renewable energy market in Europe, with plummeting solar and wind power purchase agreement (PPA) offer prices this quarter, according to LevelTen Energy’s Q2 2021 PPA Price Index.
The Index series, created by LevelTen Energy, the leading provider of renewable transaction infrastructure, analyses thousands of wind and solar PPA pricing offers listed on the LevelTen Energy Marketplace across 21 countries in Europe and North America to deliver insight into the market.
Spain, which now comprises more than one-third of total European project offers on the Marketplace, surpassed Italy for the top spot and saw P25
LeapFrog Investments, a Profit with Purpose investment firm, has invested USD30 million in India’s leading health and wellness app, HealthifyMe.
As the lead investor in a USD75 million Series C round, which includes Khosla Ventures and several existing investors, LeapFrog has acquired a significant minority stake in the healthtech company. This is LeapFrog’s fifth healthcare investment, and second during Covid-19, following Medgenome, a global leader in genomics, in 2020. HealthifyMe provides a comprehensive solution for fitness, diet, and disease management in a region where 66 per cent of the population – or 860 million – suffer from lifestyle related diseases.
Clearlake Capital Group is to acquire BakeMark USA (BakeMark) from Pamplona Capital Management (Pamplona). Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
With over 100 years of service to the baking industry, BakeMark operates as a link between diversified bases of suppliers and customers, serving approximately 1,200 suppliers and about 19,000 customers across the US and Canada. Covering substantially all channels in the bakery industry, BakeMark serves retail bakery, in-store bakery, wholesale bakery, foodservice operators, and beyond. Its diverse base of customers includes both street accounts such as local independent bakeries and national accounts such as coffeehouse and donut
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