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Private company investment platform Seedrs experienced a record-breaking year in 2019 with GBP283 million invested into pitches, resulting in 49 per cent growth in investment compared to 2018.Seedrs completed 250 deals in 2019, up from 186 in 2018, and delivered 7,858 investor exits on its Secondary Market.
In 2019, Seedrs helped businesses from 16 different countries raise funds, and received investment from 78 different countries. Fifty one per cent of the 250 completed deals were fundraises of over GBP1 million, showing 89 per cent growth in larger funding rounds over 2018. Highlights include Scottish fintech Paysend raising GBP10.7 million in
Global law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has added seven partners and their teams to its Paris office. This is the largest addition of a team of lawyers since the firm’s merger in 2018 and supports a firm-wide plan to build a balanced portfolio of capabilities across geographies. BCLP has a robust Paris practice with capabilities in corporate, litigation, arbitration, compliance, white collar, and labour & employment. The firm is now expanding its offerings in tax, real estate, finance and renewable energy with the additions of Partners Henry Ranchon and Laurent Schittenhelm (real estate), Christine Daric and Olivier Mesmin (tax),
Milbank has appointed M&A attorney Lisa O’Neill as a partner in the firm;s London office, further strengthening Milbank’s global corporate capabilities.
Graycliff Partners has sold HarperLove Holdings, a provider of specialty chemicals and services, to HBM Holdings Company.
For over 40 years, HarperLove has worked with packaging manufacturers to provide a suite of additive solutions that impart unique physical attributes to corrugated and paper-based products.
Since acquiring HarperLove in 2014, Graycliff recruited a best-in-class senior management team, embarked on a series of successful growth initiatives and improved margins through vertical integration – more than doubling profitability.
“We are immensely proud of all that we have accomplished at HarperLove,” says Will Henderson, Managing Director at Graycliff. “It’s been a pleasure
Clearview Capital Fund III’s portfolio company, Nielsen-Kellerman Co (NK) and its affiliates, have completed the acquisition of Ambient (Ambient Weather). The transaction closed on 6 December, 2019.
Nielsen-Kellerman is a designer and manufacturer of premium environmental and athletic performance measurement instruments. For more than 40 years, Nielsen-Kellerman has developed innovative solutions for outdoor enthusiasts and professionals to provide the user with real-time data to make critical decisions. Kestrel branded products measure local environmental conditions and perform end market-specific calculations that are used in a multitude of end markets. NK branded products measure athletic and watercraft performance and provide audio amplification
National law firm Seward & Kissel has promoted Kevin Neubauer to partner and Brian Maloney to counsel. The promotions are effective 1 January, 2020.
“We are thrilled to make these well-deserved promotions. Kevin brings our clients a tremendous wealth of knowledge in fund formation and other issues of concern to private funds and pooled investment vehicles,” says Seward & Kissel Managing Partner Jim Cofer. “Brian has demonstrated his litigation talents across a range of subjects and types of engagements, from banking and shipping disputes to securities investigations. His versatility is a great asset to our clients and the Firm.”
Neubauer has extensive experience
Akram & Associates, a boutique Public Accounting Firm specialising in accounting, audit and tax services to alternative investment entities, had another successful year in 2019, growing 40 per cent, and is targeting double-digit growth again in 2020.
Crestview Partners (Crestview) has completed the sale of JR Automation Technologies (JR) to Hitachi for USD1.425 billion. The agreement to sell JR was originally announced on 23 April, 2019.
Mike DuBose, Crestview Senior Advisor and outgoing Chairman of JR Automation, says: “It has been a privilege to work with the very talented teams from JR and Crestview. Over the past four years, we have built on JR’s strong entrepreneurial passion for custom automated solutions and put in place systems and processes that have allowed the company to rapidly scale around the world.
“Since our investment in JR in 2015, the
EV Growth, a Singapore headquartered venture capital firm, has hit the hard cap of its first fund at USD250 million, exceeding the firm’s initial USD150 million target.
This milestone is the result of the firm’s admission of new Limited Partners (LPs) which include several Asian based family offices and two of Asia’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
Launched in March 2018, EV Growth is a joint venture between East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo! Japan Capital that focuses on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an industry agnostic focus. The company is led by
KKR is to acquire OverDrive, a digital reading platform for libraries and schools, from Rakuten USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rakuten, Inc. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Serving a growing network of 43,000 libraries and schools in more than 75 countries, OverDrive delivers the industry’s largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and other digital media to millions of readers around the world. With its proprietary platform, the Company securely allows these institutions to acquire and manage premium and differentiated digital content from a strong publisher network OverDrive has built over more than 25 years.
“KKR
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