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Trouva, an online destination for unique products from the best curators around the world, has raised GBP17 million in further investment to accelerate international expansion.
The funding was led by Octopus Ventures, alongside C4 Ventures and Downing Ventures, with BGF and LocalGlobe also participating in the round.
Launched in London in September 2015 and co-founded by Alex Loizou, Mandeep Singh and Glen Walker, Trouva is one of the five most exciting high-growth startups in the UK (Startups 100 Index 2019). By enabling customers to discover beautiful, hard-to-find products, handpicked by the world’s best curators from Shoreditch to Stockholm, Trouva ensures they no longer miss out on
BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement to establish an Australian Business Growth Fund that will help boost the growth of small and medium businesses.
This is as a result of an in-principle agreement between the Government and leading banks; NAB, CBA, Westpac and ANZ, together with HSBC Australia, NAB said it was pleased to support a new way for Australian small and medium businesses to access long-term equity capital.
Welcoming the news, Stephen Welton, CEO of the UK BGF, says: “This is a huge milestone in the international expansion
Three surveys published at the ALFI PE & RE Conference 2019 in Luxembourg on 26 and 27 November reveal continued solid growth in alternative investment funds in the Grand Duchy.
The ALFI/Deloitte Private Equity and Venture Capital Investment Fund Survey 2019 found that the size of the average private equity fund domiciled in Luxembourg has increased by 50 per cent since 2018, with the number of PE funds holding assets worth more than EUR1 billion doubling over the same 12-month period. Luxembourg now accounts for 4.3 per cent of the global private equity fund industry. The survey also shows unregulated
Shinhan Investment Corp (Shinhan), Samtan Co (Samtan), EIP Investment Co (EIP Investment) and KDB KIAMCO, a South Korean-based consortium of infrastructure investors, has acquired a 50 per cent ownership interest in the Utopia Pipeline (Utopia) from investment funds affiliated with Riverstone Holdings.
Originating in Harrison County, Ohio and delivering to the Sarnia petrochemical market in Ontario, Canada, Utopia is a recently-constructed 268-mile pipeline that transports ethane sourced from the Marcellus and Utica shales. In 2016, Riverstone formed a joint venture with Kinder Morgan Inc. (Kinder Morgan) to construct Utopia. Kinder Morgan will remain the pipeline’s operator and continue its ownership
In this week’s newsletter, John Stephan, head of global M&A at BDO discusses the continued growth of UK ‘take-private’ deals with Private Equity Wire’s Paul Bryant. And as Stephan points out, much of that growth has been driven by a narrowing in the gap between public and private market company valuations.
We also focus on new research from Refinitv which reveals that Q3 was the strongest quarter on record for Europe VC activity, with EUR5.9 billion invested across 296 fundraising rounds, while in deal news, we report on The Carlyle Group and T&D Holdings acquisition of a majority interest in Fortitude Re
European venture capital activity saw EUR5.9 billion invested across 296 rounds during the third quarter of 2019, the strongest quarter on record according to research by Refinitiv.
During the first nine months of 2019, total venture capital investments reached EUR17.4 billion across 1,113 rounds, a 52 per cent increase by investment value compared to a year ago and higher than any annual total save for 2000, the height of the dot-com era.
Greg Beaman, Manager, Private Equity Contributions at Refinitiv, says: “Instead of returning to previous levels following a substantial start to the year, the pace of European venture
Sidley Austin has appointed Brien Wassner as a partner in the firm’s global M&A and Private Equity practice in New York.
Wassner joins Sidley from Shearman & Sterling LLP, where he was a partner in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions practice and one of the leaders of its Private Capital Industry group. Wassner joins a steady flow of well-known and influential talent that has joined the firm’s growing Private Equity practice in recent years.
“Brien joins Sidley as part of the rapid and continued expansion of our private equity, M&A and leveraged finance capabilities over the last several years,” says
Independent fund and corporate services provider, the Aztec Group, has appointed Virginia Rothwell as its first Chief People Officer.
Rothwell will drive the Group’s people agenda, while leading multi-jurisdictional HR, employee engagement and training teams. The appointment is effective immediately.
Rothwell joins the Aztec Group from real estate firm JLL where she held the position of UK HR Director since 2014. In this role, she sat on the JLL UK Board and led the firm’s people strategy.
Rothwell has enjoyed an international career in sectors such as technology, professional services and retail banking, where she has developed people agendas for
Nasdaq’s Quandl, an alternative data provider, has launched the E-Commerce Intelligence (ECI) dataset, which allows investors to track product-level e-commerce transactions on a near real-time basis.
The exclusive dataset follows the day-to-day transactions of 800 brands and 500 companies across more than 350 e-retailers in North America and EMEA, capturing USD15 billion worth of product sales annually.
ECI data is available daily with a seven-day lag, offering a distinct speed advantage over consumer sales datasets currently available on the market. Investors can monitor early traction on new products, follow the entire lifecycle of a product, monitor same-store sales and measure
Vistra, a global corporate service, trust and fund administration provider, has made three senior appointments to its global compliance team – Stephen Costello as Regional Compliance Director, Americas & Caribbean, Salima Fajal as Regional Compliance Director, Europe, and Nico Van Bockstal as Regional Compliance Director, India, Middle East and Africa – effective immediately.
Reporting to Vistra’s Chief Compliance Officer Tanya Scott-Tomlin, they will be responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of Vistra’s internal compliance strategy in the respective regions. In addition, Nico Van Bockstal also heads Vistra Middle East’s Governance, Risk, Compliance and Finance consultancy team which supports Middle
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