Hercules Technology Growth Capital, a finance company providing venture debt and equity to venture capital and private equity-backed technology and life science companies, has committed to provide Labcyte with USD5.5m in credit facilities. “Hercules believes the life science research and development market presents a huge opportunity for Labcyte. In 2008, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries spent approximately USD65.2bn on R&D activities,” says Kathy Conte, managing director of life sciences at Hercules. “The unique Labcyte technology, as embodied in their Echo liquid handlers, coupled with their solid business plan and strong management team, makes the company a welcome addition to our

The performance of private equity and venture capital investments improved in the quarter ending 30 June 2009, but difficult economic conditions continued to challenge both asset classes, according to Cambridge Associates. During the second quarter of 2009, the Cambridge Associates Private Equity Index earned its best return since the end of 2007. The quarter also marked the end of a string of three consecutive negative quarters for the Venture Capital Index. Though bettered by a number of public market indices during the first half of 2009, the long-term performance of private equity and venture capital continued to outstrip public equity

J.P. Morgan has been appointed by New York-based Greylock Capital Management to provide private equity fund administration. Greylock Capital is an alternative asset manager focused on emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. J.P. Morgan Private Equity Fund Services will provide Greylock Capital with a set of services including fund and partnership accounting, capital call/distribution management, and investor tracking, along with investor relations support and treasury services. Tax compliance services, management and financial reporting, and waterfall/carry plan administration will also be provided. “We are pleased to be working with an emerging markets manager like Greylock Capital,” says

DN Capital, a media and technology early stage and growth capital investor, has completed a series A investment into Target 250, a global supplier of demand generation services for business-to-business technology firms.  DN Capital’s equity investment is the first institutional capital investment in Target 250, which will use this strategic funding to broaden its sales and marketing reach in the UK, North America and other international markets.   Target 250 offers a broad range of demand generation services and products used by over 800 technology firms of all sizes, from venture backed start-ups to global 500 enterprises. These services include

Apprenda, the creator of the world’s first SaaS application server, has closed a USD5m investment round led by global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Existing investor High Peaks Venture Partners also participated in the round of funding. SaaSGrid provides a solution to the architecture and management complexities of delivering software across distributed web scale environments. Cloud computing is driving software companies toward on-demand delivery models and enterprises toward aggregating internal and external compute resources into cohesive delivery networks for their internal software. SaaSGrid, a distributed application execution layer, mitigates the traditional burdens associated with tackling these trends. "In the

Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to purchase OpenLink Financial, a software developer for the commodity, energy and financial services industries, from TA Associates. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Founded in 1992, OpenLink is a provider of cross-asset trading, risk management, and related portfolio management software solutions for the commodity, energy and financial services markets globally. OpenLink’s blue chip client base of more than 150 customers worldwide includes 12 of the top 25 largest commodity and energy companies by market capitalization, eight of the

An investor group led by General Atlantic and affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, in partnership with the management team of Tasc, have signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Tasc from Northrop Grumman in a transaction valued at USD1.65bn. Founded in 1966, Tasc today generates approximately USD1.6bn in revenue and has nearly 5,000 employees serving a range of intelligence, defence and civil agencies. “Today’s announcement is another major milestone in Tasc’s long history of leadership in serving the federal government and national security communities, and provides an exceptional foundation for our continued growth,” says Wood Parker, Tasc’s

China, technology and private equity are likely to drive IPO activity over the next 12 months, according to the Ernst & Young Institutional Investor IPO survey. Investors believed a handful of IPO markets worldwide would show recovery by the end of 2009. China (75 per cent of respondents), India (57 per cent) and Brazil (57 per cent) were highlighted as the most likely with the US (31 per cent) and Singapore (30 per cent) suggested as other possibilities. Ernst & Young’s quarterly data has shown that this trend has already started in Q3 2009 and is likely to continue in

Nigel Hugill and Robin Butler have established Urban&Civic, a UK real estate firm backed by private equity house GI Partners.  GI Partners recently closed its third fund, GI Partners Fund III, raising USD1.9bn. This fund will provide the investment capital for Urban&Civic. Sources close to the deal indicated that GI would be prepared to invest up to GBP150m. Urban&Civic will target strategic land and estate acquisitions of metropolitan or regional scale capable of sustaining new or improved places and environments.  The first investment being made by Urban&Civic is in the former Alconbury Airfield, covering 1,100 acres, 24 miles west of