Notable Transactions
New generation e-commerce infrastructure ikas announced it has received $20 million Series A funding
Fluid Topics, a digital platform for automated customer service, has raised a €15M Series B round from Kennet Partners
French business planning platform Pigment has successfully raised a $145 million Series D funding round led by ICONIQ Growth. This brings the company's funding to over $396 million
Accel-KKR has announced a majority equity investment in Aico, a SaaS platform for large enterprises, they will seek to bolster its market expansion across Europe, especially in the DACH region
Onego Bio has completed its $40 million Series A funding round to drive the commercialisation and manufacturing of egg protein, the round was led by NordicNinja and included Tesi and EIT Food
EQT is acquiring Avetta, a specialist in supply chain risk management software solutions from WCAS
London-headquartered private equity firm, PX3 Partners has acquired Com Laude Group Limited, a specialist in internet domain name management and online brand protection, from its founders Nick Wood and Lorna Gradden and Vespa Capital
After reaching profitability, carpooling platform BlaBlaCar secures $108M credit line from major banks In France, the UK and US
Luminance, a generative AI legal tech company, has raised $40m in a Series B funding round to support its US growth, with funding from March Capital, National Grid Partners and Slaughter and May
Icore Solutions, a SaaS platform that facilitates integration of bundled digital services, has been acquired by Volaris Group
Barcelona-based HR unicorn Factorial has raised $80M go-to-market investment from General Catalyst, wherein GC pays a significant portion of the cost of acquiring new customers
Mimo, a financial management startup that automates the admin behind B2B payments, has raised a £15.5m in a round which was led by Northzone
Data observability platform Onum, which gives companies control over their data, cost, and performance, has raised a $28 million Series A funding round that was led by Dawn Capital, with participation from Kibo Ventures and Insight Partners
Investorflow have acquired London-based property tech Coyote Software, marking a sharp increase in their market share of cloud software for the property sector
Proxima Fusion has raised €20M in seed funding less than a year after its €7.5M pre-seed round, with the round being led by Redalpine
Danish labtech startup Reshape has raised $20 million Series A from Astanor Ventures as the company is building a new generation of lab automation robots
Basemark, which supplies computer vision software and AR to enable original equipment manufacturers to develop their own AR applications, has raised €22M in Series B funding that was led by ETF Partners
Rimes, a provider of enterprise data management-as-a-service and investment platform solutions, and a portfolio company of EQT, is being acquired by Five Arrows with the investment has been jointly led by the Five Arrows Long Term Fund and Five Arrows Principal Investments
Verdane has acquired a majority equity stake in Corlytics, a provider of regulatory intelligence and policy compliance technology via newly raised Edda III
Berlin-based Zolar, which supplies solar panels to consumers, has raised a €100m debt vehicle from BNP Paribas to offer financing solutions to its residential customers
TransferGo, the U.K.-based fintech best known as a consumer platform for global remittances, has raised a $10 million growth funding round from Taiwan-based investor Taiwania Capital, with a view to expanding in the Asia-Pacific region
Focus Group, a provider of business tech to SMEs, has secured investment from Hg, taking the firm to unicorn status as the firm continues to grow in the UK
Two former Luko employees have raised €25m in funding for their automated financial management startup Payflows; Balderton Capital led the Series A round, which also saw participation from existing investors Ribbit Capital, Headline and 20VC
Finnish space startup ICEYE has raised €94m in growth funding led by Finnish sovereign wealth fund Solidium Oy with participation from Move Capital Fund I, Blackwells Capital and Christo Georgiev
Danish company Flatpay, which builds payment solutions for small and medium physical merchants like shops, restaurants and salons, has raised €45 million, led by Dawn Capital
Berlin-based goodcarbon has raised €5.25M for its long-term carbon credit portfolios, Ocean 14 Capital fund led the round, with participation from Silverstrand Capital and existing investors Planet A Ventures, 468 Capital and Greenfield Capital
AI compute company FlexAI came out of stealth with a $30M seed raise led by Alpha Intelligence Capital, Elaia Partners, and Heartcore Capital
UK AI and machine learning driven financial crime intelligence company ComplyAdvantage, a portfolio company of a16z, has acquired US company Golden
PAI Partners has acquired a majority stake in UK-based Audiotonix, who supplies audio mixing products such as decks and soundsystems, while Ardian retains a minority stake and management of the company
UK startup Elvie, which develops women’s health products including a breast pump and pelvic floor trainer, has raised £9.6m from existing investors, since launching in 2013, the startup has now picked up $136m, from backers including BlackRock, Octopus Ventures and BGF
Thoma Bravo has announced one of the largest deals of the year as the firm agrees to buy UK cyber security firm Darktrace in a $5.32bn cash deal
Latest Funds
Tiger Global has closed $2.2bn for its latest venture capital fund which was 63% lower than the initial $6bn target and its lowest raise for close to a decade
Main Capital Partners has closed two buyout funds in a six-month window, doubling up on commitments amid more demand from US investors, closing Main Capital VIII and Main Foundation II AT €1.9bn and €500m respectively
Lakestar has closed Lakestar Early IV and Lakestar Growth II, for around $600 million, bringing their assets under management to €2 billion
Austrian firm Elevator Ventures has launched EV II, a €70 million VC fund investing in innovative Series A and B companies
Quantonation Ventures has closed its second early-stage fund dedicated to quantum technologies, Quantonation II, at €70M of its €200M target
Eurazeo has launched EPVE3, a vehicle that enables fundraising via private banks, family offices and asset management advisors across Europe, as part of the €35bn firm’s partnership with private equity investing platform Moonfare
Lazard has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Elaia Partners which has created new Paris-based asset management company, Lazard Elaia Capital, focusing on late-stage and growth investments in future technology and deep tech companies
German private equity, Maxburg Capital Management has announced the successful closure of Maxburg Capital Fund IV, which brings Maxburg's total capital raised to over €1 billion
Rosberg Ventures, the VC fund founded by F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg, has launched a $75M fund
Magnesium Capital, a private investment firm focused on energy transition buyouts, has held the final close of its inaugural Fund, Magnesium Capital I, at its hard cap of €135m, exceeding the vehicle’s original €100m target
Impact Shakers, a new Belgium-based VC, has raised just over €5m of a target €20m fund to invest in early-stage impact startups across Europe
Seraphim Space, the UK-based space tech investment group is formally launching its second VC fund following its first close, SSV II, is backed by major players from the aerospace sector looking to keep up with innovation
Sports-focused investment firm APEX Capital announced the second close of its €50 million Elite Performance Venture Capital Fund dedicated to transforming the sports, media, and entertainment sectors by investing in innovative companies from Pre-Seed to Series A stages
Evolution Equity Partners announced the final closing of Evolution Technology Fund III and total capital commitments of $1.1 Billion to back visionary entrepreneurs building next generation cybersecurity companies that safeguard the digital world
Venture capital firm 14Peaks Capital has successfully closed its first fund at $30 million in capital commitments and will invest in Pre-Seed to Series A B2B SaaS companies, specifically interested in Fintech and the Future of Work
London investment firm Isomer Capital is raising its first dedicated secondaries fund of £100m and has closed over 20% of the fund
Industry News
Statistics from the treasury show that the UK’s top private equity deal-makers earned £5bn in carried interest which was shared between 3,000 leading earners
The boss of Monzo has aimed the challenger bank’s guns at UK legacy banking giants saying it aims to capture “hundreds of millions" of customers over time
B2B SaaS Sana has launched its chatbot Sana AI for free following a year when the product was under development and available on a paid tier
Smaller players in the small-cap private equity world are generating the best returns, with Renovus Capital Partners claiming the top spot with a performance score of 3.89, according to a recent ranking by HEC Paris Business School in partnership with Dow Jones
CVC unveils plan to raise €1.25bn in its heavilyc-delayed IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange
CVC co-founder Donald Mackenzie is set to net €150mn from the firms public listing
Infogrid, the SaaS which uses analytics to increase efficiency within real estate construction, has appointed a new CEO as it looks to scale
Private equity firm Epiris has appointed Mike Ebeling as a Partner within its investment team. In his new role, Ebeling will work with the firm’s investment team to deploy Epiris Fund III, which closed in February at £1.044bn
Current mandates:
Private Equity Associate (Software) – London, UK
Venture Capital Associate (MENA) – Abu Dhabi, UAE
Venture Capital Associate (Climate) – London, UK
Private Equity Senior Associate (Large-cap technology) – Abu Dhabu, UAE
Private Equity Principal (large-cap technology) – Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sources:
https://www.ft.com/private-equity, https://tech.eu/news/, https://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/news/, https://www.bloomberg.com/, https://www.penews.com/funds, https://www.ft.com/, https://techcrunch.com/, https://pitchbook.com/, https://www.prnewswire.com/
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