Latest News
Access Holdings, a Baltimore-based mid-market investment firm, has announced a $600 million capital raise to fund the growth of portfolio company Spotless Brands, a US-based express car wash platform. The capital will be used to scale operations in new and existing markets, including via M&A.
Access partnered on the capital raise with Wafra Inc (Wafra), a global alternative investment firm with significant experience in the car wash industry, having previously grown El Car Wash into a leading express car wash platform in South Florida.
Established in 2019, in only four years Spotless Brands has expanded its presence from a single
Stax LLC, a global strategy consulting firm specialising in commercial due diligence, value creation, and exit planning for private equity firms, PE-backed companies, hedge funds, and investment banks, has opened a new office in London, which will serve as the base for the firm’s European operations.
The office expansion follows Stax’s acquisition of AMR International, a London-based strategy consulting firm, in 2022.
In a statement, Stax president Jayson Traxler, said: “As Stax continues to grow, our new London office is part of our growth strategy to provide value to our private equity, hedge fund, and investment banking clients in EMEA.”
Global law firm Goodwin has appointed Ranan Well as a partner in the firm’s asset management transactions practice in Washington DC. Well represents a wide variety of clients across the full range of asset and wealth management transactions.
XTAL, a fintech focused on the global private market industry, has launched the Private Fund Forward Exchange (PRIFFE), an institutional derivative risk transfer platform for private market fund interests.
XTAL says PRIFFE is designed to facilitate risk transfer transactions, like forwards, swaps and OTC option contracts, on unlisted private market fund portfolio allocations, as well as interests in individual funds.
According to XTAL, PRIFFE overcomes the opacity of private fund cash flows and NAVs, by translating them into intelligible bond-like yields, which are exchangeable with derivatives over any future maturity.
Massimiliano Saccone, CFA, XTAL’s founder and CEO, said: “By allowing
HSBC has come to the rescue of UK tech companies facing the prospect of insolvency following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, by buying the UK arm of the failed US tech startup lender, according to a report by the BBC.
General Atlantic, a US-based growth equity investor with over $86 billion in assets under management, is expecting private company valuations to fall in the second half of the year as startups begin to to run out of cash, according to a report by Bloomberg.
New Zealand-based infrastructure investor HRL Morrison & Co (Morrison) is in discussions to acquire Ark Data Centres (Ark), which is controlled by activist hedge fund firm Elliot Investment Management, in a deal that cold value the business at around £2.5 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Schroders has received regulatory approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to launch the first Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF). LTAFs are regulated open ended investment vehicles designed to enable a broader range of investors, with longer term horizons, to invest efficiently in illiquid and private assets.
Schroders already offers structures which provides investors with access to private assets through its range of listed vehicles, as well as semi-liquid and illiquid structures.
Schrders says it will market the new LTAF to defined contribution (DC) and other eligible investors.
Inflexion has completed the sale of its investment in Mobica, a global software development and integration services specialist, to Cognizant, a US-based NASDAQ-listed business, in a transaction that values Mobica at £250 million.
MentorcliQ, a provider of employee mentoring software, has secured a strategic growth investment of over $80 million from software and technology-focused growth equity investor PSG.
The new funding, which includes participation from existing investors Rev1 Ventures and Plymouth Growth, brings MentorcliQ’s total capital raised to over $100 million.
MentorcliQ supports enterprises globally in launching and maintaining employee mentoring programs aimed at strengthening the foundation of an organisation’s infrastructure – its employee base. The company’s says that clients see an improvement of up to 90% in employee retention for employees who are mentored.
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
