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Shazam has closed a USD30 million investment valuing the company at over USD1 billion. This valuation ranks Shazam amongst the top European start-ups also referred to as “unicorns."
DN Capital, an early stage British venture capital firm invested in the Company in 2004 and has played a crucial role in helping the firm expand – amongst which was supporting the Company’s US expansion and key introductions to Apple. The increased valuation represents a 1000x increase in value since DN’s first investment in 2004.
The funding will support Shazam’s continued evolution and rapid growth following a year of user milestones,
Preqin has been busy preparing its end-of-year investor and fund manager reports across all major alternative asset classes: hedge funds, private equity, private real estate and infrastructure. The following article summarises the key findings from these reports at a broad strokes level.
Hedge Funds
2014 proved a challenging year for hedge funds. Performance-wise it was the worst year since 2011, with the average hedge fund failing to hit 4%. Unsurprisingly, performance (33%) and fees (21%) are cited as the top two challenges for the industry by institutional investors for 2015. According to Preqin, this could work to the advantage of
Preqin has launched its 2015 Global Alternatives Reports, revealing significant growth in assets held by private equity, hedge fund, private debt, real estate and infrastructure fund managers. Total industry assets now stand at USD6.91tn*, up from USD6.22tn as of this point last year.
A challenging performance environment resulted in the hedge fund benchmark failing to make gains of more than 4%. However, despite this, the asset class accounted for over half of the asset growth across alternatives, as investors continued to deploy capital in funds that offered attractive opportunities.
The 2015 Global Hedge Fund Report provides a comprehensive review of
Kirkland & Ellis represented GTCR in it’s acquisition of Fairway Media Group ion partnership with Adams Outdoor Advertising.
Fairway is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the United States, and Adams Outdoor is a preeminent provider of outdoor advertising solutions. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The Kirkland team included corporate partners Stephen Ritchie and Jocelyn Hirsch, corporate associates Daniel Guerin, Ryan Haas, Eric Buske, Jeffrey Swatzell, Elizabeth Morales, Patrick Sullivan and Sarah Thrasher, and asset finance and securitization partner Kenneth Morrison.
GTCR’s investment in Fairway was funded from GTCR Fund XI, a private equity fund
Aequitas Capital has appointed Scott Gillis, a member of its Advisory Board and former American International Group (AIG) executive, as Partner and Chief Operating Officer.
In his new role, Gillis will oversee the firm's accounting, financial planning and analysis, capital markets, legal, and information technology/business operations groups. This streamlining and reorganisation of the Aequitas management structure will enable CEO Bob Jesenik, who also serves as Chief Investment Officer, to focus on business development and investment opportunities.
"Our firm has significantly expanded in size and the breadth of service offerings since its establishment more than 20 years ago. It is a
MIK Fund Solutions, a provider of decision support software solutions for alternative asset managers, has expanded its geographic footprint into Asia, basing its APAC headquarters in Shanghai, China.
This is the latest in a series of strategic initiatives by MIK. The new office serves as a core piece of the foundation for the implementation of MIK’s 24 x7 global delivery model for software development and client support. MIK has resourced the expansion with a staff of 9.
Over 50 multi-billion dollar hedge funds, fund of funds, and private equity funds rely on MIK for sophisticated software solutions for real-time PNL,
The Scottish Loan Fund (SLF), managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven), has committed GBP1.5 million of funding to open source application management company, Cloudsoft Corporation Limited.
The Edinburgh-based business has developed a valuable software platform for the cloud computing market which it predominately licenses to blue-chip clients.
An increasing number of large enterprises are moving their software applications to the cloud to reduce costs and improve performance and agility. Cloudsoft’s key product is its Application Management Platform (AMP) which streamlines the development and operation of cloud applications. The primary aim of AMP is to ensure that software applications are able
Ipreo has acquired ClearMomentum, a provider of portfolio monitoring applications to alternative asset investors and their limited partners.
Since introducing the industry’s flagship portfolio monitoring application, ClearFinancials, in 2005, ClearMomentum has played an integral role in the transition to greater transparency and data integrity in the alternative asset market. ClearMomentum collects full financial statements from private companies and automatically maps, validates and structures the data to a common chart of accounts, enabling private equity and venture capital clients to monitor and report on their portfolios accurately and efficiently. The firm’s clients represent some of the most respected names in
PNC Riverarch Capital has acquired a controlling interest in North American Breaker Co, a reseller of circuit breakers and related electrical components dedicated to “need-it-now” product solutions for wholesale electrical distributors.
NXT Capital and NABCO management have co-invested alongside PNC Riverarch Capital.
Founded in 1996, NABCO serves more than 3,000 wholesale distributors, enabling them to offer end customers a comprehensive line of circuit breakers and related products. The company carries more than 10,000 distinct product offerings and emphasises difficult-to-source products not regularly stocked by traditional distributors. NABCO is headquartered in Burbank, California, and services customers out of nine inventory-equipped
eFront has launched new services and products for private equity limited partners, enabling them to focus on their most important activity, portfolio analysis, while saving time and effort.
The eFront LP Investor Portal (EIP) will accelerate the flow of quarterly data from general partners through the use of standardised Excel templates via a secure, internet-based portal. And, eFront Investor Services (EIS) collects data directly from GPs on behalf of investors and delivers it to their systems in ready-to-use formats. These new offerings will improve transparency, lower costs and enable faster, better-informed decision-making.
The alternative investment industry continues to cope
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