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Venture capital firms that invest in female-led businesses see positive returns, says a report by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy.
The report, called Venture Capital, Social Capital, and the Funding of Women-led Businesses, focuses on women entrepreneurs’ access to equity funding and how social networks influence venture capital firms’ decisions to invest.
In the report, the authors, Joy Godesiabois and Lawrence Plummer, find that social capital ("who you know and how you know them") affects funding of women-led firms in different, sometimes conflicting ways.
Venture capital firms tend to invest with familiar social
Lyceum Capital-backed Access Group, a developer of business management software, has acquired SaaS-based staff planner and team management solution TeamSeer, increasing the number of subscribers to its cloud-based platform aCloud.
The transaction represents Access’ ninth add-on since Lyceum Capital invested in the company in March 2011.
Access is one of the top five fastest growing UK software developers in The Sunday Times Buyout Track 100 2012 and featured in last year’s Profit Track 100. It has over 300 customers across well-known brands including Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Erickson, Siemens and the New York Stock Exchange.
The TeamSeer
The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA) has published Smart Choice: the case for investing in European venture capital.
EVCA secretary-general Dörte Höppner (pictured) says: “In Europe today, there is a combination of world-class, repeat entrepreneurs and experienced venture capital (VC) fund managers, with the right skills to commercialise innovation on a global scale.
“Europe’s start ups, and the infrastructure supporting them, have never been stronger and valuations are low, making it an ideal time to invest. VCs currently back around 3,000 companies per year in Europe but this figure could be much higher; the sector’s
European Capital and its affiliates have received proceeds of EUR7.2m from exiting their investments in Scaff’holding.
European Capital realised a circa 1.8x money multiple on its initial investment, representing a circa 13 per cent IRR.
In April 2007, European Capital invested EUR7.5m in the mezzanine facility, along with Capzanine, to support the secondary buyout of Scaff’holding by Equistone, formerly Barclays Private Equity. In October 2011, the company partially repaid the mezzanine facility and European Capital received EUR3.1m.
Scaff’holding, based in Paris, France, specialises in the rental and sale of scaffolding and shoring systems. Through its network of local
Fits.me has secured total series A investment of close to GBP5m led by existing investor SmartCap, with new participation from Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings and The Entrepreneur’s Fund.
Previously, in May 2009 and August 2010, the company received total seed and early-stage investment of just under GBP1.75m from Smartcap and angel investors, and GBP0.5m in grants.
Fits.me develops, markets and operates virtual fitting room solutions on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis for online clothing retailers, helping them to overcome the problems of low online conversion rates and high garment returns rates caused by doubt over fit and poor fit
Wynnchurch Capital has formed an executive advisory board, comprised of seasoned executives with expertise in industries and geographies targeted by the private equity firm.
John Hatherly (pictured), founding partner of Wynnchurch, says: "The intent of the executive advisory board is to assist Wynnchurch and our portfolio companies in better understanding targeted industries and markets, and developing applicable growth strategies. Additionally, some of the executives joining the Executive Advisory Board will serve on boards of directors of certain portfolio companies, bringing thought leadership, independent perspectives and support for our CEOs."
Jim Goodwin, former chairman and chief executive of UAL
Private equity firm The Riverside Company has added Pennsylvania-based TerraSim to its Bohemia Interactive Simulations sro platform.
Bohemia develops and provides games for training technology and interactive simulation systems for defence, emergency and mission-critical customers.
TerraSim delivers to Bohemia its capabilities in automated terrain generation software, which is a highly specialised niche.
“TerraSim builds the world’s best terrain generation software,” says Riverside partner Martin Scott, who leads Riverside’s software and IT specialisation in Europe. “This acquisition accelerates Bohemia’s technical capabilities and should open new opportunities for the company.”
Bohemia plans to retain operations at TerraSim’s Pittsburgh
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ BioDiscovery 4 – its fourth fund dedicated to life sciences – has made its first investment through its participation in the series A financing round of Allecra Therapeutics, which it co-leads with Forbion Capital Partners.
EMBL Ventures is also part of the syndicate.
Allecra was formed in 2013 in France and Germany as a strategic partnership between Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Limited (Chennai, India), the founders – including Allecra’s CEO Nicholas Benedict – and the two lead investors. This Series A financing of EUR15m will support early clinical development of two new antibiotic
Healthcare venture capital firm Aberdare Ventures has appointed Mohit (Mo) Kaushal as a partner.
Kaushal (pictured) is a leading authority on information-enabled care delivery and will focus on Aberdare’s investments in technologies and services that will drive healthcare efficiency.
“Mo has lived at the intersection of medicine, technology, communications, and policy for years,” says Paul Klingenstein, founder of Aberdare Ventures. “He’ll make an enormous contribution to our efforts in transformational health investing. The timing is superb for all of us.”
An MD and MBA by training, Kaushal was most recently the inaugural chief strategy officer and executive vice president
BDA, along with its co-adviser in France, Easton Corporate Finance, has advised Aixam Mega’s shareholders, including the majority shareholder AXA Private Equity, on the divestment of Aixam Mega Group to Polaris Industries of the US, a manufacturer of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles.
Despite a challenging economic environment in Europe, BDA and Easton mobilised their international teams to identify, access and motivate potential industrial buyers and thus offered Aixam’s shareholders a choice between several offers coming notably from North America and Asia.
For more than 25 years, Aixam Mega Group has been the European leader in the light quadricycle
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