Managers
Hoxton Ventures has held the final close of its second fund, an early stage European VC fund, which includes seed investments in Babylon Health, Deliveroo and Darktrace.
Existing investors in Hoxton’s first fund have invested in the second fund as well, alongside capital from new British, Swiss and US institutional investors. New LPs include the largest investor in UK venture capital – British Patient Capital.
London-based Hoxton Ventures is one of Europe’s top-performing early stage VC firms; according to a recent evaluation by data sharing platform Dealroom, the firm’s first fund has the highest ratio of unicorns to investments in
Haven Cyber Technologies Group (Haven Group), has secured a further investment of EUR5.7 million from C5 Capital, A specialist investment firm investing in the secure data ecosystem. In addition, the Haven Group announced Andrew Miller had been appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer, and James Armstrong had been appointed Finance Director of ITC Secure, one of Haven Group’s operating companies, to lead the next phase of growth.
Haven Group is a European focused pure play cybersecurity provider. Its operating companies, ITC Secure and Onevinn, provide enterprises with leading cybersecurity services and products. C5 Capital’s investment will support the Haven Group’s
Growth equity investment firm FTV Capital (FTV) has closed its sixth and largest fund to date, FTV VI, at ts hard cap of USD1.2 billion in capital commitments from existing and new limited partners. Over its 22-year history, FTV has raised nearly USD4 billion and invested in 114 innovative, high-growth companies in its core sectors: enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. The new fund will continue to pursue opportunities in these sectors with a target equity investment of USD30 to USD100 million, helping portfolio companies accelerate expansion.
FTV had a highly productive year in 2019 with
KKR is to acquire Roompot Group, a provider of holiday parks in Western Europe, from European private equity firm PAI Partners. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, having already received positive works council advice. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Founded in 1965 in the region of Zeeland (the Netherlands), Roompot has progressively developed to become a leading holiday parks operator in Europe. The business directly owns and operates 33 parks in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, and works exclusively with more than 100 third-party park operators to support their booking and distribution efforts and provide development, design and
German independent asset manager Prime Capital AG has reached a EUR202 million first closing on its Prime Green Energy Infrastructure Fund, its first commingled product in the infrastructure space. The Fund focuses on wind-powered energy assets in the Nordic countries, with no reliance on government support and with the lowest cost of electricity in Europe. The Fund aims to secure assets in their late development stage and exploit their full return potential by employing a value-add strategy. This strategy includes the optimisation of permits, layouts and technology, together with full contract tendering whilst striking the optimal balance between long-term financing and
The State Street Private Equity Index (SSPEI) posted its second highest quarterly return in the past two years at 4.35 per cent return in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from the 0.82 per cent return in Q3 2019. Venture Capital funds rallied 5.68 per cent after last quarter’s decline of -0.05 per cent return, followed by 4.24 per cent return from Buyout funds and 2.43 per cent return from Private Debt funds.
“Private Equity performance rebounded in Q4 and scored a respectable 14.22 per cent annualised return for 2019. The total capital raised in 2019 also surpassed the previous peak
Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has invested in Irish insurance and financial services group Chill Insurance (Chill).Headquartered in Dublin where it employs almost 250 staff, Chill was founded in 2006 by brothers Padraig and Seamus Lynch and has subsequently grown into one of the largest independent personal lines insurance broker in Ireland with over 200,000 policyholders, representing a 6 per cent market share.
Chill has successfully disrupted the Irish personal lines insurance market through its strong brand and multi-channel distribution capabilities, offering high-quality service, whole of market choice through a panel of 14 major
SLAMcore, a UK company developing spatial AI algorithms for robots and drones, has secured USD5 million in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures and MMC Ventures, with participation from Amadeus Capital Partners and Toyota AI Ventures. The funding will allow SLAMcore to meet the increasing demand of the robotics market, which has seen demand skyrocket due to Covid-19. This has occurred particularly in drone, robots and AR/VR usage, as effective robotics solutions that can support the ‘new normal’ of a post-Covid-19 crisis world are accelerating.
SLAMcore has seen a spike in demand from companies looking to apply robotics with enquiries
The coronavirus crisis and nationwide lockdown have given clarity on how to evaluate companies’ ability to tackle social issues, “crystallising” what the S in ESG stands for, according to Bas NieuweWeme, CEO of Aegon Asset Management.
The impact from coronavirus and the changes to the way people have had to both work and live means this has now come to the forefront, according to the investment manager.
“The lockdown has allowed a crystallisation of the real performance on social issues versus mere policies and positioning,” said NieuweWeme.
He continued: “We can now look at how companies have behaved
Akia, a Menlo Park-based start-up focused on transforming the way hotels engage with their guests, has secured a new round of funding from GSR Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm with more than USD3 billion under management. Akia will utilise the capital to accelerate and expand implementation of its AI-enabled SaaS platform, which allows hotels to provide guests with contactless options such as pre-arrival check-in and shifting in-person guest communications to text messaging. Akia’s customers include brands such as Hyatt, Marriott, Best Western, NoMad, The Ritz-Carlton Club & Residences, and many luxury boutiques.
“Akia’s messaging platform helps hotels provide superior
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