The ever-evolving food tech space has been buoyant lately, with two notable deals in Scandinavia: Curb, a dark kitchen startup which uses tech and data to improve customer experience, secured EUR20 million in funding by Point72 Ventures with participation from its existing investor EQT Ventures; and Superb, a guest experience management platform for restaurants. 

The latter, Danish startup Superb, raised EUR12 million in a Series A round backed by a group of investors in the hospitality, online reservation, and Point of Service space, including Swedish investment company Kinnevik.   

Another theme brought on by recent events is the much-discussed trajectory of SPACs, as companies hit by the pandemic may be attractive targets for SPAC vehicles. 

In this week’s podcast Private Equity Wire spoke to Nina Kelleher, director at US-based advisory firm EisnerAmper, about some trending themes surrounding SPACs & PE, probing her outlook regarding the growth of SPACs. 

Kelleher shared the impact of SPACs that she’s seeing across the PE vs growth equity vs VC space, the potential long-term effects of the SPAC craze on the private equity world, and explores the question of whether this is, in fact, the way of the future. 

James Williams took an in-depth look inside ‘unicorn factory’ Cambridge Innovation Capital, a European VC manager with domain expertise in tech and life sciences. 

Having its base in Cambridge, UK – one of the world’s centres of excellence for science and technology – is logical for CIC as it looks to push forward with its investment programme over the coming years; with the mission of looking for and building potential unicorns. 

The feature explores how the firm is using its position within the University of Cambridge’s ecosystem to seek out disruptive innovators in technology and life science, and found that the collective noun for a unicorn is, apparently, a ‘blessing’.

Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire