Latest News
A private equity team led by Mehdi Khodadad has joined Sidley Austin from Cooley. The team consists of Khodadad, partners Josh DuClos and Eric Kauffman, counsel Stacy Crosnicker and several associates. Khodadad, DuClos and Kauffmann are in Sidley’s Century City office, while Crosnicker is in Washington DC.
Khodadad and DuClos represent corporations and entrepreneurs along with their private equity and venture capital sponsors in matters related to private and public financings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, leveraged buy-outs, cross-border and other related private equity transactions. While their practice spans many industries, they are particularly active in technology and healthcare. Clearlake
Private equity firm The Riverside Company has acquired Naturally Slim of Dallas, Texas, a digital health platform focused on helping participants reduce Metabolic Syndrome, lose weight and lead healthier lives.
Naturally Slim is a clinically proven solution that drives behavioural changes to deliver long-lasting results, including sustained weight loss and a reversal of Metabolic Syndrome risk factors that can lead to serious health conditions, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and many forms of cancer. The company’s scalable, self-paced digital program utilises the latest behavioural health and teaching concepts to make weight loss achievable for all participants. The company primarily
Grant Avenue Capital, a new healthcare focused private equity firm, is pursuing investments in mid-sized companies centred on themes of cost containment, custom solutions, consumerism and compliance.
The New York City-based firm is led by Buddy Gumina, who most recently served as senior equity partner of the global healthcare team at Apax Partners, a leading international private equity firm.
Gumina founded and led the build-out of Apax Partners’ US healthcare buyout practice over the course of 20 years and across multiple economic cycles. At his prior firm, Gumina invested over USD4 billion, with an additional USD1.5 billion of co-investment from
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has acquired a significant stake in MOD Super Fast Pizza Holdings (MOD), an operator and franchisor of fast casual restaurants offering customisable, made-on-demand artisan-style pizzas and hand-tossed salads.
The USD150 million investment will help accelerate the Company’s continued expansion in the rapidly growing fast casual restaurant market. Ken Giuriceo, CD&R Partner, and Paul Pressler, CD&R Partner and former CEO of Gap Inc and senior Disney executive, will both join the MOD board of directors.
With 433 locations system-wide, MOD is a purpose-led, people-focused fast casual pizza business. The MOD menu offers individual artisan-style pizzas and hand-tossed
Renaissance Capital, an emerging and frontier markets investment bank, has appointed Omar Gaafar as Vice President, Investment Banking, in Cairo.
Gaafar will be covering Egypt and MENA, and will report to Amr Helal, CEO, North Africa.
Helal says: “We are delighted that Omar is joining the team. His extensive and strong experience will allow us to enhance our client offering. We are actively building our on-the-ground team in line with the expanding pipeline. Since the establishment of Renaissance Capital’s office in Cairo back in 2017, we have gained a strong local foothold in the MENA region, consistently growing our market
Graycliff Partners has expanded its credit team with the addition of Brian O’Reilly as Managing Director. O’Reilly, former Managing Director at CVC Credit Partners, will be responsible for sourcing and evaluating portfolio investments for Graycliff’s dedicated credit fund.
O’Reilly co-founded CVC Credit Partners’ US middle market lending platform, directly originating and executing over USD400 million middle market credit transactions over the last five years. Prior to CVC, O’Reilly spent seven years at Medley Capital sourcing, executing, and monitoring private debt investments. O’Reilly started his career at GE Capital. He holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and
Sofinnova Partners, a European venture capital firm specialised in Life Sciences, has launched MD Start III, which closed above its original target of EUR40 million.
With this new medtech acceleration fund, Sofinnova Partners continues to reinforce its coverage across the Life Sciences sector, with funds operated by dedicated teams investing from seed to late stage.
MD Start was created 10 years ago by Sofinnova Partners and serial medtech entrepreneurs close to Sofinnova. It also had the early support of corporate leader Medtronic. Its first two vintages were raised as independent companies and served to prove the model for seeding and
Idinvest Partners, an investor in SMEs across Europe, today announces the final closing of the Idinvest SME Industrial Assets Fund (ISIA) at EUR340 million, surpassing its initial target of EUR300 million by 13 per cent.
Launched at the end of 2017, ISIA is the first diversified fund intended to finance the modernisation of production tools for European SMEs, helping to increase their competitiveness and productivity in both local and international markets.
ISIA is backed by fifteen institutional investors, a third of which are sovereign wealth funds. Close to 35 per cent of the investment comes from outside France, with
Wireless Innovation, a specialist Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and communications provider, backed by Horizon Capital, has acquired Ground Control Systems Inc.
California-based Ground Control, founded in 2002, delivers a broad range of IoT and M2M connectivity and hardware. It has experienced substantial levels of growth serving both corporate and government agency clients.
Jeff Staples, CEO of Ground Control, says: “We are excited to have joined the Wireless Innovation Group. The strength and credibility of the broader group will significantly help us in meeting our client’s requirements for long-term connectivity in a range of global environments, further
Equistone Partners Europe (Equistone), a mid-market private equity investor, has appointed Will Copeland as Investment Manager in the firm’s Birmingham office. In addition Ed Baker has been promoted to the role of Investment Director in Equistone’s London office.
Copeland joins Equistone from BGF, where he worked as an Investor for three years, with responsibility for the full investment process from origination, through execution, to portfolio management and exit. Prior to this he worked at PwC for five years, originally in the London Audit team, before moving back to the Midlands, joining the Deals team in Birmingham. There he worked on
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
