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Munich-based venture capital firm Target Partners has made a EUR2m investment in Finanzchef24, Germany’s first financial services portal using a direct marketing model to target small businesses and self-employed individuals.
With its proprietary technology for comparing commercial insurance and banking products, Finanzchef24 has focused the launch around business liability insurance, business content insurance, and bank accounts for businesses, with more products to follow over the coming months.
“The service we offer is geared towards small business owners that do not have their own finance director and therefore search online for financial products, just like private individuals,” says Hendrik Rennert, co-founder
Manufacturing is the leading sector for North West private equity deals over the past three years, accounting for 25 per cent of transactions, according to research by Equistone Partners in the North.
Since January 2010, the region has completed 62 deals in manufacturing with a total value of GBP952m, out of a total of 246 private equity deals worth GBP5bn.
Technology, media and telecoms (TMT), a growing sector in the North West economy, accounted for 18 per cent of all private equity transactions in the region, with 45 deals worth a combined GBP424m. By contrast, only five per cent of
Middle-market private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital has sold 4Front Engineered Solutions to Assa Abloy.
Headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, 4Front is a manufacturer of loading dock equipment.
4Front’s products consist of mechanical, air-powered and hydraulic dock levellers, seals and shelters, trailer safety restraints, energy efficient HVLS fans, specialty dock doors, material handling lifts, and aftermarket parts and accessories. 4Front’s premier brands include Kelley, LoadHog, Serco, TKO and APS Resource.
Wynnchurch partnered with company management in October 2006 to purchase the business in a corporate carve-out from SPX Corporation. 4Front was an underperforming business when Wynnchurch purchased it in 2006. In partnership
Huron Capital Partners has completed the first and final closing of its fourth investment fund, The Huron Fund IV, with USD500m in aggregate commitments (including affiliated partnerships).
Huron experienced strong demand for the offering, exceeding its original target of USD400m and hitting its hard-cap soon after launching the fundraising process in September 2012.
"We are grateful for the strong support we received from returning and new investors and the confidence they displayed in our seasoned team of investment professionals and operating partners," says Brian A Demkowicz, managing partner of Huron.
Huron’s investor base includes prominent international and domestic public and
Wellington Financial, a privately-held specialty finance firm providing growth capital to US and Canadian-based companies, has held the second closing of Wellington Financial Fund IV.
Wellington’s 2006-vintage Fund III was capitalised with USD150m of re-circulating institutional equity commitments. That fund led over USD300m of financings via 52 loans over its life.
On 5 September 2012, Wellington announced that the first close of Fund IV had attracted USD177.5m of re-circulating equity commitments from leading Canadian institutional investors, pension plans and family offices.
Fund IV has now raised USD190m of re-circulating equity via the addition of both a new institution and family
European private equity firm AXA Private Equity is to sell its holding in Phönix/Strack Group to the Curtiss-Wright Corporation for EUR82m.
Phönix/Strack specialises in the development and production of custom-built high-performance valves for major players in the energy, chemicals and refinery industries.
Final closure of the transaction is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities.
Phönix/Strack is based in Volkmarsen, near Kassel in central Germany, and has 282 employees.
AXA Private Equity took a majority holding in the business in 2010. Since then, Phönix/Strack has achieved double-digit growth and last year made revenues of approximately EUR50m.
Working with the company’s
Tongal, a social platform for marketers to produce creative video content, has secured a USD15m series B investment from private equity firm Insight Venture Partners.
Tongal plans to use the funding to accelerate the build-out of its community and to support plans for rapid expansion.
Tongal was founded in 2008 by Rob Salvatore, James DeJulio and Mark Burrell.
Tongal’s brand sponsors provide campaign objectives and a cash prize pool, then release the challenge to Tongal’s community, the brand’s social following and the world at large.
The Tongal platform manages a fun and iterative ideation, storyboard, and production process that yields
A new investment fund is launching to take advantage of the opportunities created by the challenges facing America’s healthcare system.
As the first of its kind within the for-profit retail medicine market, the National Healthcare Development Fund (NHDF) is designed to generate revenue from both its portfolio of real estate asset holdings and its operational interests in an emerging healthcare market that is thriving as a result of supply failing to meet an overwhelming and increasing demand.
The severity of the demand for access to medical care continues to escalate and is matched only by the substantial opportunity the
Private equity firm Behrman Capital’s portfolio company Pelican Products has acquired Minnesota Thermal Science (MTS), a provider of global temperature controlled transportation products.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Based in Plymouth, Minnesota, MTS will become part of Pelican’s BioPharma division. Pelican now offers the most advanced temperature controlled packaging solutions available for the safe transport of pharmaceuticals, tissue, biologics, diagnostics, blood and other healthcare products.
In addition to Pelican BioPharma cases, which offer 140+ hours between 2.0 to 8.0C, customers will have access to the full suite of MTS products including the reusable Credo Cube, which
Venture capital firms invested about USD762m over 206 deals in India during the 12 months ended December 2012, according to a study by Venture Intelligence.
While investment activity declined by 7.2 per cent over 2011 (which had witnessed USD1,094m being invested across 222 deals), the amount invested declined by 30 per cent suggesting a marked preference for smaller ticket investments.
With 133 investments worth about USD381m, the IT and IT-enabled services (IT & ITES) industry retained its status as the favorite among VC investors during 2012 accounting for 65 per cent of the investments (50 per cent in value terms).
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