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Funds advised and managed by private equity fund manager YFM Equity Partners (YFM) have backed an investment into Eikon Group Limited, a cutting edge, end-to-end, digital post-production services for the motion picture and broadcast industry.
YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc alongside the YFM Equity Partners 2015 Co-Investment LP.
EIKON Group Ltd was founded in 2014 by Peter Wright (CEO), Richard Fish (Commercial Director), Rick Corne (Innovations Director), Jon Gardner (Operations Director) and Russell Wetherell (Creative Director).
EIKON Group have cutting edge technology facilities in
Quilvest Private Equity, the private equity arm of the Quilvest group, has acquired global micro-specialist recruitment firm, Phaidon International. Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Phaidon International, parent company of five award-winning micro-specialist recruitment brands, operates globally across offices in 10 locations including London, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Singapore. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in London, Phaidon has grown organically since its inception to over 500 employees and through its portfolio brands DSJ Global, EPM Scientific, Glocomms, LVI Associates and Selby Jennings, identifies talent to place in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has completed a GBP1.1 million VCT investment in WaterBear Education Ltd (WaterBear), a private higher education college which provides a range of Master of Arts (MA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree courses across the creative industries in partnership with the University of Chichester.
The funds will be used to set up and roll out WaterBear’s primary campus in Brighton and support the opening of additional campus locations in the future.
WaterBear’s industry-relevant creative degree courses, which offer bachelor and masters qualifications for musicians, artists and entrepreneurs, will be accredited and validated by the University
C5, an investment specialist firm investing into cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud, has announced that it will continue to strengthen its management team with the appointment of Christopher Cooke as Managing Partner and Head of Investor Relations.
At C5 Capital, Mr Cooke will be taking responsibility for all aspects of Fundraising and Investor Relations, working closely with the Head of Fund Operations and the C5 Investment Team. He will be joining the board of C5 Capital.
Prior to this role, Chris was a Managing Director at Hycroft, HSBC and Greenhill & Company, where he established the London desk for private
UBS Asset Management’s (UBS-AM) Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) business has appointed Perry Offutt as Head of Infrastructure Americas, effective June.
Offutt will join REPM’s USD4 billion Infrastructure platform to lead the US team and further develop its growing presence in the region.
Offutt has more than 20 years of investment and industry experience and has worked on over USD100 billion of transactions. Perry joins UBS-AM from Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets, where he was a Managing Director of the North American Investment team, responsible for originating and executing investment opportunities. Prior to this, he spent 15 years
Alternative assets specialist co-investment platform Astarte Capital Partners is to allocate a portion of its profits towards supporting the education of under-privileged young people.
The initiative is focused on Europe and North America, and will involve collaborating with a handful of relevant institutions, such as high schools, colleges and universities.
London-based Astarte, which invests in real asset investments including transportation, specialist real estate and natural resources, has outposts in New York, Sydney and Zurich.
“Education and giving back to the community is at the heart of our work ethics. We believe that the biggest investment that can be
CeriFi, a portfolio company of Leeds Equity Partners, has acquired Keir Educational Resources (Keir), a provider of training solutions for financial services professionals seeking to prepare for various financial and insurance certification exams.
Founded in 1968, Keir’s products prepare financial services professionals for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and several property and casualty examinations. Keir represents the third acquisition for the recently formed financial education, training and certification platform, CeriFi. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Henrietta Nye, President of Keir, says: “I am thrilled that Keir is joining the CeriFi platform. We have built
Atlas Holdings (Atlas) has held the first and final close of its third private equity investment fund, Atlas Capital Resources III LP (Fund III) with capital commitments of USD1.675 billion, after just three months of fundraising.
Atlas focuses on control investments in companies experiencing financial or operational stress, benefiting from Atlas’ ability to execute complex financial transactions, resolve enterprise challenges and systematically deliver exceptional operational and financial performance. Atlas has been an active acquirer of underperforming or discontinued operations from corporate sellers and has acquired businesses through bankruptcy purchases, out-of-court restructurings and reorganisations. Atlas will continue to pursue these strategies,
The Access Group, a provider of fully integrated business management software to UK mid-market organisations, has secured a strategic investment from Hg valuing the business at an enterprise value of approximately GBP1 billion.
Current majority shareholder TA Associates will retain joint control of The Access Group.
With its portfolio spanning Finance, HR, Payroll, Hospitality, Recruitment, Heath & Social Care, Manufacturing & Distribution, Education and Not for Profit sectors, The Access Group is the leading vendor of mission-critical business software to mid-market organisations in the UK.
Chris Bayne, CEO of The Access Group, says: “We have enjoyed our close
Investment into venture-backed companies is already on pace to experience another record-breaking year in 2018, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, a quarterly report on venture capital activity jointly produced by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).
Coming off multiple years of record fundraising, just over USD8 billion was raised by venture funds in Q1 2018, a slight decline from previous quarters. Despite the slow start, several billion-dollar mega-funds have since been announced, which are expected to boost fund size and capital raised as 2018 unfolds. The sustained momentum in venture fundraising has continued to fuel ramped dealmaking.
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