Source: SEC filing

PRESS RELEASE

SHANGHAI and HONG KONG, Nov. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Barings, one of the world’s leading financial services firms, today announced the launch of its first onshore Private Fund in China. The Barings China A-share Private Securities Investment Fund No.1 (the “Fund”) was registered with the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) to be distributed to qualified investors in the country.

“Barings first China Fund is an important milestone in our long-term commitment in China,” said Tom Finke, Barings Chairman and CEO. “The firm draws upon a distinguished history of financing and providing investment solutions across the region and the globe. This fund leverages our knowledge and expertise to serve local investors and provide them with our onshore Chinese investment capabilities.”

“Today’s fund launch and the recent opening of our new Shanghai office further establishes Barings’ presence in China,” said Duncan Robertson, Head of Asia Pacific at Barings. “Expanding our business operations and offerings in this important financial market provides our clients with Barings disciplined investment process, comprehensive risk management and ESG practices across asset classes. We have a talented team with deep in-market expertise and global insights.”
The Fund primarily invests in companies established or operating within China and is managed by Nathan Jiang, Investment Manager of China A-Share Equities of Barings.

Barings bottom-up analysis adds value to investors’ portfolios and, consistent with the firm’s Growth-at-a-Reasonable-Price (GARP) investment philosophy across the global equity platform, the Fund strategy will focus on individual company’s fundamentals and long-term earnings profile.

Barings established its Shanghai-based Investment Management Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) in August 2018 and launched its first Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP) product in January 2019. Barings successfully registered as a Private Fund Manager (PFM) WFOE on June 20 this year, and the firm opened its new Shanghai office in October to build its local-to-local business.

Barings has been actively participating in cross-border investments in China for more than 10 years, including Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII), Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII), Renminbi Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) and Stock Connect Programs.

About Barings
Barings is a US$335+ billion* global financial services firm dedicated to meeting the evolving investment and capital needs of our clients and customers. Through active asset management and direct origination, we provide innovative solutions and access to differentiated opportunities across public and private capital markets. A subsidiary of MassMutual, Barings maintains a strong global presence with business and investment professionals located across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*AUM as of September 30, 2019

PRESS RELEASE
ZMC Raises $775 Million for Third Private Equity Fund

Raised in Seven Months, the Oversubscribed Fund Will Invest in Technology-Enabled Media and Communications Companies
NEW YORK, NY – November 21, 2019 – ZMC, a leading middle market private equity firm focused on investments in the media and communications sectors, yesterday announced the closing of ZMC III, L.P. and ZMC III Parallel, L.P. (together, “Fund III”) at $775 million. Through Fund III, ZMC will continue investing in technology-enabled media and communications enterprises and driving value creation through active, operationally focused management and deep sector expertise.

“We are pleased to have received such a high level of interest for Fund III,” said ZMC Founder and Managing Partner, Strauss Zelnick. “Our team is grateful for our long-term investors and we are excited to welcome new limited partners to Fund III. We value these relationships and the continued support our limited partners have shown us.”

“Fund III will build on ZMC’s established investment strategy of leveraging its industry focus and operational expertise throughout all phases of an investment. The media and communications sectors are highly dynamic, and we believe that ZMC continues to be well positioned to produce above-market returns for our investors.” said Andrew Vogel, co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner. “We look forward to continuing our long history of partnering with strong management teams in market-leading and differentiated businesses which we believe present significant value-creation opportunities,” added Jordan Turkewitz, co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner.

Fund III exceeded its $650 million target and achieved its hard cap. The substantially oversubscribed fund received strong support from existing investors as well as select new investors. Commitments to Fund III came from a diverse group of public and private pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices. Fund III is the successor fund to ZMC II, L.P., which closed on total commitments of $415 million.

There was no placement agent for Fund III and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel.

About ZMC
ZMC is a leading private equity firm comprised of experienced investors and executives who invest and manage a diverse group of media and communications enterprises. Founded in 2001, ZMC’s investment philosophy centers on operational value creation driven by targeted investment themes, deep sector expertise, and strong partnerships with industry and operating executives. ZMC approaches its investments in collaboration with management teams and has an established track record of actively adding value to portfolio companies. www.zmclp.com

PRESS RELEASE

Novacap Closes Industries Fund at C$940 Million
MONTREAL, Nov. 21, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ – Novacap, one of Canada’s leading private equity firms, announced it closed its latest private equity fund, Novacap Industries V (the “Fund”), at its hard cap with total commitments of C$940 million. The Fund surpassed its target size by nearly 45%, driven by strong demand from new and existing investors.
Novacap Industries V aims to invest in companies with strong growth potential in the industrial and manufacturing sectors as well as in service and distribution. The Fund will maintain its current strategy of investing in North American mid-market manufacturing companies, food processors, business-service providers and distributors with the ability to become North American leaders in their respective fields. The Fund expects to make equity investments in order to support companies with organic growth initiatives and to drive strategic acquisitions.
The Fund launched formal marketing in late 2018, with an initial target of C$650 million and the goal of globally expanding its limited partner base. The outcome exceeded expectations thanks to commitments from pension funds, financial institutions, insurance companies, family offices and high net-worth individuals across North America, Europe and Asia. “We are proud to have been able to close the 5th generation Novacap Industries fund with a truly global limited partner base,” said Mr. Jacques Foisy, Chairman of the Board and Managing Partner of Novacap Industries, “The success of the fundraise will allow us to continue to grow and develop businesses in Canada and beyond.”
Novacap Industries V will be led by its partners, Jacques Foisy, Michel Côté, Domenic Mancini, Frédérick Perrault, Marc Paiement, Michel Toutant and Jean-Francois Routhier.
The Credit Suisse Private Fund Group acted as the exclusive placement agent and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg acted as fund counsel for Novacap Industries V.
About NOVACAP
Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading Canadian private equity firm with $3.6 billion of assets under management. Its distinct investment approach, based on deep operational expertise and an active partnership with entrepreneurs, has helped accelerate growth and create long-term value for its numerous portfolio companies. With an experienced management team and substantial financial resources, Novacap is well-positioned to continue building world-class businesses. Backed by leading global institutional investors, Novacap’s deals typically include leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, add-on acquisitions, IPOs, and privatizations. Over the last 38 years, Novacap has invested in more than 90 companies and completed more than 130 add-on acquisitions. The company has offices in Toronto, Ontario and Brossard, Quebec. For more information, please visit www.novacap.ca.
SOURCE Novacap Management Inc.

PRESS RELEASE

BOSTON, Nov. 20, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — .406 Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage innovative enterprise technology and digital health companies, announced today that the firm closed its fourth fund, Point 406 Ventures IV, L.P. at $294 million in capital commitments. In addition, the firm announced the promotion of Payal Agrawal Divakaran to Partner, as well as the addition of Kevin Wang as Associate and Joseph SantaBarbara as Controller.

.406 Fund IV received significant investor interest and surpassed its targeted fund size of $225 million. The Fund received strong support from investors in .406’s prior funds as well as many new investors with whom the team has developed relationships in recent years. Consistent with prior funds, .406 Fund IV will focus exclusively on attractive early stage investment opportunities in cybersecurity, digital health and data & cloud companies, primarily in the eastern half of the U.S.

Since its founding in 2005, .406 has raised over $1 billion across four core funds and two opportunity funds, invested in 62 companies and created $12 billion of value. The firm will continue to focus on identifying opportunities through a highly selective, disciplined, founder-optimized approach. The investing team for .406 IV includes .406 co-founders Maria Cirino and Liam Donohue as well as long time partners Graham Brooks and Greg Dracon, who will be added as General Partners of the Fund.

Payal Divakaran, who joined .406 in 2015, will also become a Partner with the new fund. She will continue to focus on Digital Health, where she has been involved in many of the firm’s significant investments including Redox and WelbeHealth and taken the lead on recent investments in Nomad Health and Wellist.

Divakaran commented, “I am extremely excited to become a Partner of .406. We have built a tremendous partnership internally and with our portfolio companies, and I look forward to continuing to foster both. I am thrilled to get started investing Fund IV and to build upon our digital health franchise.”
In addition, Kevin Wang joined the firm in August as an Associate. Prior to joining .406, Kevin worked at BV Investment Partners (formerly Boston Ventures) and began his career in technology investment banking at J.P. Morgan. Joe SantaBarbara joined .406 in October as Controller. Joe previously worked at Summit Partners as a Senior Manager. Prior to Summit, he was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Life Science and Pharmaceutical group.

About .406 Ventures
.406 Ventures is an early stage technology venture capital firm investing in enterprise technology companies founded by visionary entrepreneurs. .406 Ventures was founded in 2005 and has $1 billion under management. The .406 Ventures team is comprised of entrepreneurs and operators who became investors to apply real world experience and strong company-building skills to create value for entrepreneurs and LPs. The firm leads, or co-leads, first institutional investment rounds in market-changing Digital Health and Enterprise IT companies and world-class operators, who move quickly and embody successful entrepreneurial DNA with their passion, creativity and endurance. http://www.406ventures.com

PRESS RELEASE
GHO Capital
GHO Capital raises €975m in largest ever European healthcare fund
• €975m fundraise marks the largest ever specialist private equity fund dedicated to investing in European healthcare
• Fund II will invest in high growth healthcare subsectors, including outsourced services, pharma and medtech
• Oversubscribed fund is 50% larger than GHO’s 2015 maiden fund, demonstrating strong support from existing and new investors alike
London, UK – Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, the European specialist investor in healthcare, announces the successful final close of its second fund, GHO Capital Fund II LP (“the Fund” or “Fund II”), at its hard cap of €975 million. The fund represents the largest specialist private equity fund dedicated to European healthcare1.
Approximately 50% larger than the firm’s maiden fund raised in 2015, Fund II is significantly oversubscribed, exceeding a target of €800 million. Since it was founded in 2014, GHO has grown its total assets under management (AUM) to €2 billion, making it Europe’s largest healthcare-dedicated investment firm.
The Fund aims to develop the significant untapped market opportunity within specialist, high-growth healthcare subsectors, including pharma, medtech and outsourced services, through growth buyout investments. The target market is underpinned by strong structural drivers characterised by widespread demand for better, faster and more accessible healthcare.
With a pan-European focus, the Fund also has the capability to draw upon GHO’s extensive international network to capture and accelerate transatlantic growth opportunities. Within the last six months, GHO exited investments in Caprion Biosciences and Quotient Sciences, having successfully leveraged organic and inorganic growth opportunities to create transatlantic sector leaders.
GHO invests alongside strong management teams, bringing unrivalled sector expertise and a network of unparalleled industry reach, helping to drive operational improvements and source bolt-on opportunities globally.
The Partners at GHO Capital commented:
“Fund II is an important achievement for GHO Capital, presenting an exciting opportunity to help build the next generation of high-growth, innovative businesses, bringing better healthcare to more people.
“With our proven track-record and repeatable investment model, underpinned by a team with an unrivalled fusion of private equity, operational and healthcare competencies, we are recognized by stakeholders across the sector as the leading European investor in healthcare.
“The significant size of the Fund reflects the increasing maturity of the European healthcare sector and the level of investor interest and support for developing healthcare businesses that address global issues and trends.
“We would like to thank all our existing and new investors and we look forward to working with them in the years ahead.”
Fund II has already made two investments in Q1 2019, investing alongside management in Sterling Pharma Solutions, a leading provider of small molecule API development and manufacturing services to the global pharmaceutical industry, as well as in BioAgilytix, an independent global provider of large molecule bioanalytical testing solutions.
GHO Capital is advised by placement agent Rede Partners and law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.

PRESS RELEASE

NovaQuest Capital closes $275 million in its dedicated private equity fund

Raleigh, NC, November 20, 2019 – NovaQuest Capital Management, L.L.C (“NovaQuest” or the “Firm”), a healthcare and life sciences focused private investment firm, today announced the successful final close for NovaQuest Private Equity Fund I, L.P. (“Fund I”) with $275 million in total capital commitments. Fund I will continue NovaQuest’s focus on investing in and building leading services and technologies in the healthcare and life sciences sector with a dedicated private equity platform.

Fund I was oversubscribed, hitting its hard cap of $275 million through strong support from a global investor base including leading insurance companies, pension funds, asset managers, fund of funds, family offices and high net worth individuals.  “We thank our investors for the partnership and confidence they have placed in us and are excited to capitalize on the attractive investment opportunities and value-creation capabilities NovaQuest brings to the market”, said the leadership team of NovaQuest Private Equity.

Fund I started investing in March 2018 and has made three platform investments and two add-on acquisitions to date: Azurity Pharmaceuticals, a leading provider of drug delivery technology solutions that provide patients access to customized dosage forms; Clinical Ink, a provider of eClinical services and technologies, including eSource, ePRO, eCOA, among others; and Catalyst Clinical Research, a provider of outsourced clinical services for clinical trials.

NovaQuest Private Equity targets growth-oriented opportunities that help reduce the total cost of care, meet unmet medical needs, reduce unnecessary procedures, improve efficacy (therapeutics or prevention) and / or improve the quality of life.  With a dedicated private equity effort, NovaQuest can continue to partner with top tier management teams, providing them with strategic capital and best in-class operational resources.  NovaQuest’s strategic partners, Operating Advisory Board, and deep industry network differentiates the Firm with powerful value creation capabilities for middle market healthcare companies.

The partners of NovaQuest Private Equity commented:

“We are grateful for all the support we have received in achieving this great milestone to create a differentiated specialists investor in the healthcare and life sciences sector and in successfully raising our first dedicated private equity fund.  From the beginning the Firm’s founders, Dennis Gillings, Ph.D, CBE and Ron Wooten, shared a vision with our team and they laid the foundation for the Fund’s creation with their invaluable support through their cornerstone, healthcare expertise and extensive networks.  Dr. Gillings, Ron, and our team have been joined by our industry advisors and the institutions who have invested in the Fund.”

Eaton Partners, one of the world’s leading private capital advisory and fund placement firms and a wholly owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (SF), acted as exclusive placement agent and fundraising advisor.

About NovaQuest Capital Management, L.L.C.

NovaQuest Capital Management is a leading investor in life sciences and healthcare through our Product Finance and Private Equity strategies.  NovaQuest was formed in 2000 with the vision of building an investment platform to provide strategic capital to life sciences and healthcare companies.  Today, NovaQuest Capital Management manages over $2.5 billion through its Product Finance and Private Equity strategies. The investment team consists of highly seasoned professionals with significant operating and investment experience and deep life science and healthcare expertise.  Furthermore, NovaQuest benefits from an extensive network of industry experts and relationships that assist in identifying, analyzing and growing portfolio companies and investments.  For more information, please visit www.novaquest.com.

PRESS RELEASE

New York, November 19, 2019 – Palm Drive Capital, the New York-based venture capital and growth equity firm, today announced the first close for its third fund. The firm raised a total of $44.35 million toward its $100 million goal, far exceeding the typical amount for a first fundraising round. The focus of Palm Drive’s third fund will be early-stage deep tech and enterprise software companies.

Palm Drive is on track to raise almost double the amount of its previous fund, Fund II (February 2018), which had a fund size of $53 million and $58 million in co-investments. In the last twelve months, Palm Drive has made thirteen new investments. The firm also recently led a $15.2 million funding round for its portfolio company, Datacubes, a leading underwriting decision platform for US commercial property and casualty insurers.

For Fund I (April 2016), Palm Drive raised $19 million, with $67 million in co-investments and six exits. Across its three funds, the largest proportion of investments are in enterprise software with (44%), followed by e-commerce (12%), healthcare tech (9%), insurance tech (9%), blockchain (8%), and fintech (4%). Of these investments, eight are unicorns: Clover Health, Carta, Bitmain, Magic Leap, Zenefits, Jet.com, Rappi, and WeLab.

Palm Drive invests primarily in the United States, and has a rapidly growing presence in emerging tech centers throughout the northeast, midwest and south. The firm also looks beyond the United States for investment opportunities. By leveraging its expansive network, Palm Drive has invested in entrepreneurs and companies throughout Europe, Africa, South America and Asia.

“We make it our mission to identify high-growth technology companies early on, regardless of their location, and conduct a rigorous diligence process that includes proprietary competitive benchmarking,” said Seamon Chan, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Palm Drive Capital.

A key element of Palm Drive’s investment approach is to target underserved markets, sectors and founders. Female founders, in particular, have been a major focus of the firm, which has pledged a seven-figure amount to non-profit organisation The Billion Dollar Fund for Women.

“Since our launch in 2014, we’ve made sure to embrace the notion that innovators are anywhere and everywhere,” added Mr. Chan. “Our core business belief is that the most successful founders are principled, visionary and mission-driven. We’re proud of our track record of recognizing and investing in high-potential founders from across five continents, and we are excited to see what new opportunities this funding round will bring.”

About Palm Drive Capital
Palm Drive Capital is a New York-based venture capital and growth equity fund that invests in leading software and internet companies with a US focus. Since their launch in 2014, they’ve espoused the notion that innovators are everywhere. They also believe that the most successful founders are visionary and principled. Palm Drive has a unique combination of strong Silicon Valley roots and New York financial discipline. In addition to its investments on the West Coast, Palm Drive has a presence in emerging US tech centers including the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South. With backing from top entrepreneurs and institutions, Palm Drive also has an expansive and differentiated network that spans across the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. Portfolio companies include Carta, Clover Health, Rappi, Jet.com, and Boom Supersonic. For more information, please visit www.palmdrive.vc.

PRESS RELEASE

SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Clocktower Technology Ventures (“CTV”), the venture capital investment arm of Clocktower Group, a client-focused alternative investment firm employing opportunistic strategies across public and private markets, announced the final close of the firm’s second financial services innovation fund, Clocktower Technologies II L.P. (“CTV2”). Focused exclusively on investments in early stage fintech companies, the fund closed with approximately $70 million in capital commitments. CTV2’s investors include chief investment officers at global hedge funds and institutional investors including a university endowment, a Canadian pension, a sovereign wealth fund, and an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). Other strategic investors include a global bank, several venture capital firms and a publicly traded asset manager.

“When we launched Clocktower Technology Ventures in 2015, we saw an opportunity to be a differentiated partner to entrepreneurs in financial services, bringing our insights and industry relationships to support growing companies,” said Ben Savage, partner at Clocktower Technology Ventures. “We’ve been fortunate to invest behind a strong group of fintech founders through the lifecycle of our first fund. As financial services specialists with a deep understanding of capital markets and access to Clocktower Group’s global macroeconomic expertise, we are positioned to support the next generation of companies driving innovation in financial services.”

Leveraging its experience in hedge fund investing and network of capital markets professionals, Clocktower Technology Ventures identifies companies with strong, collaborative founders and a clear vision for financial services transformation. CTV creates access to the Clocktower Group network and capabilities for founders, providing unique benefits to portfolio companies through market intelligence, proprietary research, and industry relationships.
Clocktower Technology Ventures invests across financial services inclusive of insurance, payments, personal finance, lending & credit, asset management, capital markets and banking. Since launching its first fund in 2015, CTV has invested in 63 fintech companies in North America and Europe. CTV is stage agnostic, investing from seed stage through series B.

About Clocktower Technology Ventures
Clocktower Technology Ventures partners with entrepreneurs who have the vision and drive to reinvent financial services, investing from the earliest seeds of startups to businesses scaling for growth. Our distinctive approach to financial services innovation venture capital is crafted around a curated, industry-leading network of global macroeconomic thinkers and investors. Launched in 2015, Clocktower Technology Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of Clocktower Group, a client-focused alternative investment firm employing opportunistic strategies. CTV is based in Santa Monica, CA with a presence in London. To learn more, visit clocktowerventures.com.

PRESS RELEASE

At MMC we believe that to be an effective partner to the exceptional entrepreneurs we back, the only viable approach to investing is to deepen our own understanding and commitment and to provide real support as companies scale.

Today, we’re excited to announce our latest fund, the £100 million MMC Scale Up Fund, which enables us to provide expansion capital to our later-stage portfolio companies, deepening our commitment to their journey.

The Scale Up Fund, coupled with our £52 million seed fund announced earlier this year, means we can invest across the full lifecycle of a business.

In the last twelve months, we have invested more than £100 million across the pre-seed, seed, series A and later stages in amounts ranging from £100,000 to £25 million, the largest investment from the Scale Up Fund to date.

Some of our investments include:
Signal AI: The media monitoring platform transforming how executives make sense of the information explosion.
Signal AI recently announced its $25 million series C round.
Gousto: The data business combating food waste and inspiring you to cook better meals.
Gousto’s recent £30 million funding round takes its total funds raised to over £100 million.
Lookiero: the online personal shopping service making it easier for you to stay in style.

MMC led the $19m funding round for the Bilbao-based business to expand into the UK.

The Scale Up Fund can also participate in secondary transactions, offering liquidity to early MMC and third-party investors. In this way, capital can flow back into the early-stage funding ecosystem while MMC takes a longer-term outlook.

“2019 has been a big year for our firm and the launch of our new Scale Up Fund represents a scale up moment for MMC as well as a significant innovation in the UK venture market. This Fund allows us to double down on our most successful businesses while enabling our investors, and others, to take full or partial exits from early investments.

We will continue to focus on our core specialism as a series A investor, but I am delighted we can support entrepreneurs with funding through their lifecycle, from the very beginning, through growth, then later stage expansion capital.”
MMC Managing Partner, Bruce Macfarlane

PRESS RELEASE

BOSTON & HONG KONG & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wellington Management (“Wellington” or the “Firm”), one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, today announced the final close of the oversubscribed Wellington Biomedical Innovation Fund I (“Fund”).
The Fund will invest in private biotechnology companies focused on drug discovery and development, and seeking capital to advance their scientific programs.

Bob Deresiewicz, MD, Senior Managing Director at Wellington, said, “Biotechnology represents an exciting investment area, driven by an explosion in fundamental biomedical knowledge and a growing ability of companies to deploy that knowledge in the service of breakthrough drug discovery. We pursue an evidence-based approach to investing, seeking to leverage our biomedical, scientific, and industry expertise to identify promising assets that could meaningfully advance medical practice.”

Chris Kirk, the President of Wellington Alternative Investments, added, “This new sector-focused fund is the next step in expanding our private investment capabilities as we look for new opportunities to create long-term value for our investors. We believe our portfolio companies will benefit from partnering with Wellington and our extensive team of tenured industry analysts, who bring sector-level insights and public market expertise in support of their strategic growth plans.”

The close of Wellington’s Biomedical Innovation Fund I expands the Firm’s private investment platform, which now includes both health care and late stage growth funds totaling $2.7 billion. The funds’ global investor base includes public and private pension plans, insurance companies, corporations and family offices.

About Wellington Management
Tracing its history to 1928, Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, serving as a trusted adviser to over 2,200 institutional and private clients located in more than 60 countries and managing over USD 1 trillion of assets.*

Wellington offers comprehensive investment management capabilities that span nearly all segments of the global capital markets. The firm’s only business is investment management and its mission is to exceed the investment objectives and service expectations of its clients worldwide. Wellington’s solutions draw on a robust body of proprietary research and a collaborative culture that encourages independent thought and healthy debate.

For more information, visit www.wellington.com.
*For Wellington Management group of companies as at 30 September 2019.

Susa Ventures earlier this year raised $90 million for its third early-stage fund and $50 million for its first opportunity fund to back portfolio companies in their later-stage rounds.

Source: Medium blog post

HarbourVest Partners Co-Investment Fund V’s investors include private and public pensions, corporations, foundations and family offices, as well as clients through wealth management platforms. The fund will target direct co-investments in buyout, growth equity and other private markets deals.

In July 2017, HarbourVest closed its fourth co-investment fund at a hard cap of $1.75 billion, sweeping past its $1 billion target. No performance data was available on the fund.

According to the firm, HarbourVest has more than $63 billion in assets under management, as of Sept. 30, 2019.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., November 14, 2019 – Northgate Capital (www.northgate.com) announced today the closing of Northgate Venture Partners VIII (NVP VIII) at $120 million. NVP VIII invests primarily in marquee venture capital firms and a select number of emerging managers.

“Over the last 20 years, we have backed some of the premier venture capital firms in the business,” said Brent Jones, Co-Founder and Partner at Northgate. “We are delighted to deploy our eighth venture capital fund-of-funds and carry on our long history of supporting firms whose entrepreneurs continue innovating the technology sector.”

Tommy Vardell, Co-Founder and Partner at Northgate added, “Given that the venture capital asset class has a wide dispersion of returns, we believe that the only way to justify the risk-reward dynamic of the venture asset class is to form an optimized portfolio that seeks to realize top-quartile returns. We are fortunate to have the relationships and access to form such a portfolio.”

NVP VIII is Northgate’s seventeenth fund-of-funds and will make 10-15 primary investments in access-constrained venture capital partnerships that specialize in funding early-stage technology companies. Significantly, many of these venture capital firms are in portfolios of prior Northgate Funds.
NVP VIII received support from the firm’s wide-ranging network of investors, both in the U.S. and around the world.

“We thank our limited partners for their backing and confidence in our strategy and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship not only in NVP VIII but also in our future investment vehicles,” said Ali Ojjeh, Chairman of Northgate.

About Northgate
Northgate Capital, founded in 2000 by Brent Jones and Tommy Vardell, is a venture capital investment management firm. The firm and its global affiliates jointly manage $4.9 billion in assets. With offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mexico City, Northgate’s investment programs focus on venture capital – Fund-of-Funds and Direct – with additional programs in private equity – global small market Fund-of-Funds, Mexico growth equity and mezzanine finance.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, 14 NOVEMBER 2019 – Artist Capital Management LLC, the global, growth-oriented investment management firm, has raised $100 million for its first fund, the Artist Esports Edge Fund. The Edge Fund seeks to provide institutional investors with concentrated exposure to leading esports companies.

Artist Capital Management takes a theme-driven approach to investment research. The firm believes esports – or professional, competitive, online gaming – is a groundbreaking secular growth theme. First, the audience for esports is large (380 million unique viewers in 2018[1]), global, demographically advantaged (79% of viewers are under age 35[2]) and growing.[3] Second, Artist Capital Management believes that esports revenue – at $900 million in 2018[4] – has significant potential to expand in comparison to traditional sports leagues, with the NFL alone generating over $16 billion of revenue in 2018.[5] Third, the firm views the formation of franchised esports leagues as a key inflection point for the industry. Franchised esports leagues, such as Activision’s Overwatch League or Riot Games’ League of Legends North American Championship Series, could hasten the flow of fan, sponsor, and broadcasting dollars into esports.

Artist Capital Management constructed the Edge Fund to provide institutional investors with pure-play exposure to the esports investment theme. The fund takes concentrated positions in leading, private companies that it believes are well positioned to benefit from industry tailwinds. “Similar to the evolution of other internet verticals, we expect that a small number of esports companies will eventually win the lion’s share of industry revenue and market capitalization” said Josh Dienstag, Artist Capital Management’s Chief Investment Officer. “We hope to partner with the entrepreneurs who are building those winning platforms.” The Edge Fund’s current investments include 100 Thieves, the Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand and esports organization, Washington Esports Ventures, the owner of the Washington Justice team in the Overwatch League, and leading chatting and viewing apps in the ecosystem.

Matthew Lindholm, Managing Director at Houston-based CAZ Investments, a principal supporter of the Edge Fund, said, “our investors continue to prioritize access to innovative products that provide thoughtful exposure to burgeoning investment themes. Artist Capital Management was an early mover in esports, and the Edge Fund provided an institutional solution for esports investing.”

With a ten-year duration of capital, the Edge Fund partners with esports companies for the long term. The fund also has a flexible mandate and can invest across stages and in both primary and secondary securities. In July of 2019, the Edge Fund led 100 Thieves’ $35 million Series B, and Josh Dienstag joined 100 Thieves’ board of directors. “Artist Capital Management has been an excellent partner: they understand our industry, appreciate our differentiation and support our vision. The esports industry is fundamentally changing entertainment and brand affinity and we’re really happy to be working with a firm that recognizes these trends,” said John Robinson, President & COO of 100 Thieves.

In addition to the Edge Fund, Artist Capital Management also raised $35 million of incremental capital from its limited partners in separate, co-investment vehicles. Those funds were all deployed in 2019 to further support Edge Fund portfolio companies. “Artist Capital Management is the premier institutional investor in esports. They know the industry better than anyone else and are deeply engaged to use that expertise for the benefit of their portfolio companies. They have been a terrific partner for us since the first day that we met them,” said Mark Ein, Founder & CEO of Washington Esports Ventures.

[1] Source: Newzoo, Esports Market Report; Note: 2018 figures
[1] Source: Goldman Sachs, “eSports: From Wild West to Mainstream” (6-26-18)
[1] Source: Newzoo, Esports Market Report; Note: 2018 figures
[1] Source: Newzoo, Esports Market Report; Note: 2018 figures
[1] Source: Actionnetwork.com article of 7-13-19; Note: the NFL distributed $8.78Bn of revenue to teams in 2019; assumes that teams’ share of total is 48% and that owners’ share of total is 52%

ABOUT ARTIST CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC
Artist Capital Management LLC is a global, growth-oriented investment management firm. We invest in companies that we believe benefit from secular growth themes, and we have a flexible mandate, investing across stages (venture capital, growth equity, late stage). Founded in 2018, Artist Capital Management is an SEC-registered investment adviser with offices in New York City.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alpine Investors (“Alpine”), a middle market private equity firm that focuses on people to build enduring software and services businesses, today announced it has completed fundraising for Alpine Investors VII (“Fund VII”) with $1 billion in limited partner capital commitments. Fund VII was oversubscribed, well exceeding its $750 million target and hitting its hard cap, bringing the firm’s total AUM to $2.7 billion.1

“We are very grateful to the diverse group of new and returning limited partners who have demonstrated their confidence in our approach to private equity,” said Graham Weaver, Founder and CEO of Alpine. “Our PeopleFirst strategy drives highly engaged company cultures, business growth, and financial performance.”

In addition to receiving commitments from new investors in Europe, Asia and North America, Alpine secured returning investors to Fund VII including fund-of-funds, pension funds, endowments, and family offices. Alpine closed its previous fund, Alpine Investors VI, in 2017 with $532 million of total committed capital.

With Fund VII, Alpine will continue to specialize in control buyouts, majority recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of recurring revenue software and services businesses, targeting deals with a total enterprise value of up to $400 million for platforms and as low as $5 million for add-ons. The upsizing of Fund VII allows Alpine to continue putting capital into its high-performing investments to pursue strategic add-on opportunities.

Alpine will also continue to leverage its CEO-in-Training and CEO-in-Residence programs to fill portfolio company leadership positions with talented professionals trained in Alpine’s playbook. These programs allow Alpine to access a pipeline of strong talent for the leadership of future investments. Alpine expects many of the 56 current executives in these programs will be redeployed into future portfolio companies, including Fund VII investments, as their current assignments end.

The closing of Fund VII follows an active and successful year for Alpine, during which the firm completed 37 investments in platforms and add-on acquisitions, including several investments through Alpine’s vertical SaaS aggregation platform ASG and its affiliates. Recent investments include ophthalmology platform Midwest Vision Partners, as well as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services platform Apex Service Partners. ASG and its affiliates have completed 23 acquisitions to date in vertical markets including LegalTech, MarTech, behavioral health, government, education, logistics, and asset management.

Since Alpine’s inception in 2001, the firm has made over 130 investments and installed more than 40 CEOs in its portfolio companies.

Evercore advised as exclusive global placement agent on the fundraise. Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to Alpine.

About Alpine Investors
Alpine is a people-driven private equity firm committed to building enduring companies by working with, learning from and developing exceptional people. Alpine specializes in middle-market companies in the software and services industries. Its PeopleFirst strategy includes a CEO-in-Training and CEO-in-Residence program where Alpine recruits and places high caliber executives into companies as part of the transaction. This provides a distinct solution for situations where additional or new management is desired post-transaction. For more information, visit http://www.alpineinvestors.com/.

PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As the health care landscape rapidly evolves, the American Hospital Association (AHA) has been pursuing multiple ways to lead and promote innovation in the field. Today, the AHA is pleased to announce the final closing of the AHA Innovation Development Fund, LP, or “AHA Fund,” a $50 million venture capital fund formed to help hospitals and health systems continue to transform health care and deliver cutting-edge care.

The AHA Fund is sponsored and managed by Concord Health Partners, LLC (Concord), a health care-focused investment firm, with the AHA as the anchor limited partner investor. The AHA Fund has made several investments to date in health care companies and will continue to invest in cutting-edge solutions.

The goal of the AHA Fund is to invest in early-stage health care companies that provide products, services and solutions that help hospitals and health systems transform care delivery, spur innovation among members, connect hospitals and entrepreneurs, and drive results.

“All across the country, hospitals and health systems are innovating and transforming to meet the changing needs of their patients and their communities,” said AHA President & CEO Rick Pollack. “The AHA Fund will allow them to invest in the solutions that hospitals and health systems truly need. By finding the right business partners, the AHA Fund can help fund, guide and scale solutions offering the greatest transformational value for hospitals and health systems.”

James Olsen, Founder & Managing Partner of Concord, commented, “Concord is focused on identifying and supporting health care companies with solutions that address affordability, quality and access to care. The AHA Fund aligns interests and delivers strategic value to both health systems and portfolio companies. We are excited to be part of this collaborative effort with the AHA to advance and accelerate innovation in health care.”

Unlike funds whose only goal is financial return, the goals of the AHA Fund also include:
Providing a source of capital to advance – at an early stage – promising health care technologies and solutions that might not otherwise receive funding;
Creating venture opportunities for members and allied hospital associations, many of whom might not find or create such opportunities on their own;
Allowing hospitals and health systems to enter the venture fund sector and share venture funding best practices; and
Enriching the health care field by the sharing of learnings and solutions.

For more information about the AHA Fund, please contact James Olsen at Concord Health Partners at info@concordhp.com or 212-508-7090.

About the American Hospital Association
The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members.

About Concord Health Partners
Concord Health Partners is a health care-focused investment firm with a strategic approach that aligns the interests of investors and portfolio companies. Concord invests in companies that have the potential to enhance the value of care through technologies and solutions that lower costs, improve quality and expand access to care.

CVC Growth Partners Fund II will invest in middle-market companies in the software and technology-enabled business services sectors. The fund’s investor base is spread across North America, Europe, the Middle-East and Asia.

In February 2016, CVC raised $1 billion for its inaugural growth fund, sweeping past its $750 million target. No fund performance data was available.

Launched in 2014, CVC Growth Partners is the growth-oriented middle-market technology investment arm of CVC Capital Partners. It primarily targets equity investments between $50 million and $200 million.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY (NOVEMBER 12, 2019) – Inspired Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Alexa von Tobel, founder of digital financial planning startup LearnVest, and Penny Pritzker, founder and chairman of PSP Partners and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, today announced the close of its $200 million debut institutional venture fund. The firm’s limited partners represent a range of institutional investor types, including pensions, foundations, and endowments. Inspired Capital, which is headquartered in New York, invests in seed and Series A stage companies where it believes it is advantaged due to its partners’ deep operational experience. The partnership believes in working with exceptional founders and investing in tech-advantaged, capital-efficient businesses.

Since its inception earlier this year, Inspired Capital has made investments in companies including Chief, the vetted network for women leaders, and Rho, the digital business bank. Inspired Capital focuses on technology-driven businesses that are creating new categories or disrupting existing ones. The team brings deep operating and investing experience in consumer technology, enterprise software, fintech, and proptech—across thriving direct-to-consumer and B2B businesses.

“Out of the gate, Inspired Capital is a modern firm that reflects the values of the entrepreneurs of tomorrow” said Alexa von Tobel, founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital. “Our team is united by a shared passion for backing the very best founders and supporting their innovative visions. As both entrepreneurs and investors ourselves, we have launched products used by millions of consumers, built and sold game-changing technology, and backed companies that are changing the world. With this deep operational experience, we are here to help entrepreneurs win.”

“The most durable businesses – regardless of market conditions – are those with strong technology at their foundation,” said Penny Pritzker. “I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to help the next wave of entrepreneurs build a new generation of technology-driven businesses and believe that Inspired Capital’s approach, paired with the team’s unique set of capabilities as operators ourselves, sets us up for tremendous success.”

In addition to von Tobel and Pritzker’s deep experience at the helm of growing companies, Inspired Capital has assembled a strong team of former investor/operators who have worked together for over a decade to join its ranks. Lucy Deland (Partner; former co-founder and COO of Paperless Post), Mark Batsiyan (Partner and COO; former Head of Strategy at LearnVest and Partner at Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures), Ming Fang (Technology Partner; formerly of LearnVest, PulsePoint, and RBC Capital Markets), Charlotte Ross (Principal, formerly of New Enterprise Associates and Goldman Sachs) and Annie Shapiro (VP, Platform: formerly of LearnVest and Namely) have joined the Inspired Capital team in New York City.

About Inspired Capital
Inspired Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City, investing in the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The firm was founded by Alexa von Tobel, who previously founded LearnVest and Penny Pritzker, founder and chairman of PSP Partners who served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce from June 2013 to January 2017. With $200M under management, the firm invests in tech-advantaged, capital efficient businesses.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced that Salesforce Ventures, the company’s global corporate investment group, has launched a new $50 million Consultant Trailblazer Fund. The new fund will provide the next generation of cloud consulting companies and digital agencies with the capital required to build and scale their Salesforce services capabilities for the future, and empower more customers to transform their businesses with Salesforce.

Consultant Trailblazer Fund Supercharges Salesforce Ecosystem Growth
According to new research from IDC, Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will drive $1.2 trillion in new business revenues and 4.2 million new jobs worldwide between 2019 and 2024. The growing demand for Salesforce solutions presents a massive opportunity for Salesforce partners—in fact, many have reported that their Salesforce practices are growing by more than 50% annually. The Consultant Trailblazer Fund will support the thriving Salesforce ecosystem with an infusion of capital and resources, empowering more partners to deliver the trusted, personalized experiences customers expect and drive customer success with Salesforce Customer 360. This is a step forward as Salesforce works towards its goal of reaching 250,000 certified consultants by 2022.

Salesforce launched its first $50 million Consultant Trailblazer Fund in May 2017 and fully committed the investment dollars in just over two years. With that fund, Salesforce Ventures invested in leading consulting firms including Astound Commerce, ListEngage, Silverline, Simplus and Xertica to accelerate continued growth and arm teams with the resources needed to help companies successfully and quickly implement Salesforce technologies.

Comments on the News:
“Salesforce Ventures is the only strategic fund focused 100% on creating the world’s largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and extending that technology to Salesforce customers,” said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures. “Consultancies and digital agencies play a vital role in our customers’ digital transformations. This follow-on fund dedicated to our consultant ecosystem will drive further customer success around the globe.”

“Salesforce partners are a driving force behind the growth of the Salesforce ecosystem, which will create millions of jobs over the next few years as companies accelerate their digital transformations,” said Tyler Prince, EVP of Industries and Partners, Salesforce. “With the Consultant Trailblazer Fund, we’ll continue our focus on fueling the growth of so many incredible consulting and agency partners, enabling them to keep pace with customer demand.”

“Since Salesforce Ventures first invested in Simplus in 2016, we have expanded globally and are now a Salesforce Platinum Partner,” said Ryan Westwood, CEO, Simplus. “Salesforce Ventures has supported us throughout our expansion into APAC, Canada and EMEA. Salesforce Ventures’ presence in our board meetings, introductions and support of our ongoing strategy have been invaluable to the growth of Simplus.”

“Silverline’s vision has always been to help our clients transform their businesses using the Salesforce Platform. Partnering with Salesforce Ventures has allowed us to execute that vision while expanding our incredible team, and deepening our focus on the financial services and healthcare industries,” said Gireesh Sonnad, CEO and Co-Founder, Silverline. “Salesforce Ventures continues to be a committed partner, helping Silverline to scale and further develop deep expertise in Salesforce technologies for our clients. Since the initial investment, Silverline has grown from a Silver to Platinum Salesforce Cloud Alliance partner, with hundreds of consultants and over 1,200 Salesforce implementations.”

Connect with Salesforce Ventures and Partners:
Learn more about Salesforce Ventures: http://www.salesforce.com/ventures
Learn more about the Salesforce Partner Community: https://partners.salesforce.com
Follow @SalesforceVC on Twitter
Follow @partnerforce on Twitter
Get the skills needed for the workforce of the future with Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com

About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Salesforce Ventures, the global investment arm of Salesforce, invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce Ventures is building the world’s largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and extending that technology to customers. Portfolio companies receive funding, strategic advisory and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 375 companies, including DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, Zoom and others across 22 countries since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.

About Salesforce
Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Founded in 1999, Salesforce enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of powerful technologies—cloud, mobile, social, internet of things, artificial intelligence, voice and blockchain—to create a 360° view of their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

PRESS RELEASE

London, 12 November 2019 – Balderton Capital, which was recently named the most active Series A investor in Europe, is launching a new $400m fund to continue to support outstanding European founders at this critical stage in a startup’s journey.

The fund is launched against a backdrop of unprecedented momentum within the European tech ecosystem. The number of Series A rounds in Europe per year has quadrupled since 2012, with the total amount of VC funding flowing into European startups hitting record highs last year – rising from €11.5bn in 2014 to €24.6bn in 2018.

Bernard Liautaud, Managing Partner at Balderton, said: “We believe Europe has the potential to build the next generation of technology giants, and we are focused on helping brilliant founders fulfil that ambition. We are seeing more and more exceptional founders raising Series A in Europe. With today’s new fund we want to build on that momentum.”

“We know from our firm’s 20 years of European investment experience that Series A is a critical point in a startup’s journey — it’s a magical moment when they are reaching product-market fit, are poised to scale and have to make decisions that can affect their growth trajectory for years to come. Our whole team is dedicated to helping our founders tackle those decisions as they embark on their journey.”

The new fund will be managed by an investment team of 15 working as a single team across Europe. Balderton now has permanent staff members based in both Paris and Berlin to help build even closer relationships with entrepreneurs, seed funds and accelerators and support portfolio companies on the ground.

Leading edge tech and strong brands
As with previous funds, Balderton will be looking to invest in leading-edge technologies, as well as strong brands with demonstrable momentum.
Balderton’s current portfolio includes Healx, which uses AI to accelerate treatments for rare diseases; e-commerce platform, The Hut Group, which has over 100 in-house health, beauty, fitness and lifestyle brands; Infarm, one of the world’s most advanced urban farming platforms; Revolut, a digital bank focusing on global spending and transfers, and SOPHiA Genetics, which uses AI to generate clinical and genomic insights for health professionals.
Since the beginning of 2018, Balderton’s portfolio has attracted over $2bn in follow-on funding, and now employs more than 18,000 people in over 50 countries around the world.

Helping European companies to scale
Balderton’s Build platform provides talent, marketing, finance and legal services to support companies as they scale. In addition to Build’s in-house team, the platform connects founders and their teams to an active community of peers. The firm’s unique equal partnership model means every founder is fully supported by the collective expertise of the partnership.

In the spirit of the firm’s belief in engineering serendipity, founding teams gain access to the global industry leaders of the Balderton Executive Council; the CEO Collective network and offsite; and functional team events, meet-ups and workshops hosted at the firm’s Kings Cross headquarters and across Europe.

Since the beginning of 2018, Balderton’s team has connected with over 7,500 European founders and invested in 26 new companies. Today it has active investments in more than 90 companies, founded across 15 European countries. This is the firm’s seventh early-stage fund since its formation in 2000, bringing the total funds to over $3bn.

About Balderton
Balderton Capital is a London-based venture firm focused exclusively on backing the best European-founded technology companies. In the two decades since our founding, we have worked with hundreds of extraordinary European founders, and have raised eight funds totalling more than $3bn. Previous exited investments include Betfair (FTSE: BET), Magic Pony (Twitter), NaturalMotion (Zynga), Recorded Future (Insight Partners), Sunrise (Microsoft), Talend (NASDAQ: TLND) and Yoox Net-a-Porter (BIT: YNAP). Among Balderton’s current portfolio of over 90 companies are Aircall, Carwow, Citymapper, Contentful, Frontier Car Group, GoCardless, Hiya, The Hut Group, Kobalt Music, Labster, Nutmeg, Prodigy Finance, Revolut, SOPHiA Genetics, Vestiaire Collective, Vivino and Voi.

Press Release

SK Capital Partners, LP (“SK Capital”), a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors, announced today the final close of SKCP Catalyst Fund I (“SK Catalyst I”) at its hard cap, with limited partner capital commitments of $400 million.

SK Catalyst I will focus on control investments in the lower middle market utilizing the same sector-focused, operationally intensive investment strategy that SK Capital has executed throughout its history. The closing of SK Catalyst I, significantly above the initial $300 million target, follows the successful fundraising of SK Capital Partners V earlier this year.

Barry Siadat, Co-Founder and Managing Director of SK Capital, said, “We are honored and grateful for the trust our investors have placed with our firm to support the inaugural SK Catalyst fund. The success of the fundraise was made possible by the strong relationships SK Capital has built with our existing limited partners and select new investors.”

Fundraising for SK Catalyst I commenced in July 2019, shortly after SK Capital announced the expansion of its investment team. The expansion allows the firm to devote additional resources to investments in the lower middle market in the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors. The SK Catalyst I investment team, comprised of experienced, industry-focused professionals, is led by Managing Directors Mario Toukan and Jon Borell.

Mario Toukan, Managing Director of SK Capital, said, “We are excited to leverage SK Capital’s strong reputation as a trusted partner within our sectors of focus. The addition of the SK Catalyst team and fund will enable the firm to pursue attractive lower middle market investments, while enhancing SK Capital’s overarching strategic objective to address a broader size range of opportunities in our space.”

SK Catalyst I will target lower middle market investments that generally require up to $50 million of initial committed equity capital and will complement SK Capital Partners V, which closed earlier this year with approximately $2.1 billion of capital commitments. Both funds will leverage SK Capital’s experience, best practices and resources, including the firm’s strong connectivity to people and companies in SK Capital’s sectors of focus. Utilizing the funds’ approximately $2.5 billion of combined capital commitments, the firm’s investment teams will work in a coordinated and integrated manner to make operationally-oriented control investments, typically through corporate carve-outs or in connection with the ownership transitions of family- and entrepreneur-owned businesses.

Jon Borell, Managing Director of SK Capital, added, “The SK Catalyst investment strategy will bring a significant level of industry expertise, global resources and scale to lower middle market businesses. We look forward to partnering with management teams in our industries to help them dramatically grow and improve their businesses.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel. SK Capital did not use a placement agent for the fundraising of SKCP Catalyst I.

About SK Capital

SK Capital is a private investment firm with a disciplined focus on the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors. The firm seeks to build strong and growing businesses that create substantial long-term economic value. SK Capital utilizes its industry, operating and investment experience to identify opportunities to transform businesses into higher performing organizations with improved strategic positioning, growth and profitability as well as lower operating risk. SK Capital’s portfolio of businesses generates revenues in excess of $9.0 billion annually, employs more than 10,000 people globally and operates 86 plants in 24 countries. The firm currently has approximately $4.6 billion of assets under management. For more information, please visit www.skcapitalpartners.com.

PRESS RELEASE

SINGAPORE, Nov. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Stone Capital and Biosyngen have partnered to establish a Biopharmaceutical Investment Fund in Singapore, the signing ceremony was held in Ascendas One Hub of Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City. The key investment targets of the biopharmaceutical fund of US$50 million raised is for Biosyngen biopharmaceutical technology transfer platform and to incubate companies.
Biosyngen has been an angel investment platform for biopharmaceutical projects, who has formed projects with selected early stage technologies after stringent screening process. This fund allows Biosyngen to take advantage of Singapore pool of talent, technology, regulations, government support and other industrial resources, in particular cell therapy technologies, Biosyngen provides high-efficient incubation support and clinical transformation of the projects. The Company is also taking advantage of the Chinese government’s policy support, environment and the rich clinical trial resources in China.

When the projects reach certain level of maturity, they will be further developed and commercialised in China and ASEAN, thereby meeting the needs of both markets.

Mr. Wang Liqun, Chairman of Stone Capital and Director of Biosyngen; Dr. Victor Li Lietao, Founder and CEO of Biosyngen,; and Mr. Wang Shuli, Chairman of Biosyngen attended the event to witness a milestone in the progress of the company. As a well-known successful investor, Mr. Wang expressed his appreciation for Biosyngen on the competency of project transformation over the past three years. He also generously shared his management experience and made suggestions to Dr. Li. Dr. Li expressed his sincere gratitude to Mr. Wang for coming onboard Biosyngen as a Director as this will enhance the function of Biosygnen biopharmaceutical technology transfer platform which will accelerate the business development of Biosyngen.

About Stone Capital
Founded in October 2008, Stone Capital focuses on wealth management for successful entrepreneurs and family funds in China including Private equity investment management institutions. Their investment mandate is to invest in long term, high-growth, dynamic industries.

The core management of Stone Capital comprises of the former presidents of state-owned listed companies, commercial banks, Chinese and foreign investment bank, professional institutions with rich industrial knowledge and management team who has a deep understanding of China risks and opportunities. Over the past decade since its founding, Stone Capital has invested in more than 130 companies and has 27 listed companies in its portfolio. As of November 2019, Stone Capital has 4 other companies in queue for review to list. From 2011 to 2019, Stone Capital has repeatedly been awarded by Zero2IPO Group, Stockstar and Forbes Magazine as China’s best investment institutions.

About Biosyngen
Founded in 2016, Biosyngen, headquartered in Singapore, is dedicated to translation and commercialisation of innovative immune-cell therapy technologies for clinical use. The Group has established close research collaborations with world-renowned research institutions, to in-license and jointly develop state-of-the-art technologies and products. BioSyngen has a comprehensive suite of technical capabilities to support the development of cell therapy products, from pre-clinical research, to supplies of clinical grade virus vectors and mRNA, gamma-delta allogeneic cells, to the development of companion diagnostics, to T-cell GMP production and clinical trial management. The founders of Biosyngen have co-founded biotech companies such as Lion TCR, SCG Cell Therapy and BioCheetah.

On the Scientific Advisory Board are internationally renowned scientists and collaborators; 2011 Nobel Laureate Professor Jules Alphonse Hoffman; Research Director CNRS Emeritus at CNRS, Professor Jean-Paul Thiery, and Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Sir David Lane. Through the company resources and network, BioSyngen has successfully transformed cell therapy and diagnostic projects into clinical development stage. The Group strives to become the leader in biotechnology transfer of innovative immune cell therapy in Asia and China. To date, BioSyngen has ongoing clinical trial projects in Singapore, Australia and China.

PRESS RELEASE

CHICAGO, Nov. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Starting Line is coming out of stealth today to announce its $17M early stage Fund I to invest in consumer startups that are focused on democratizing access to technologies, products, and experiences for the 99% of Americans. Founded by Ezra Galston, the firm has already made seed investments into numerous fast growing companies such as Cameo, Made In Cookware and Truman’s. Galston, formerly a Principal with Chicago Ventures, had previously made investments in high growth consumer startups such as Flyhomes, Hungryroot, M1Finance, Prettylitter, Spothero and Sunbit.

Starting Line benefits from deep financial support amongst entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in both Chicago and the rest of the country, such as Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub, Bloomberg Beta, Wicklow Capital, Dan Levitan, Co-founder of Maveron, Joe Floyd, General Partner at Emergence Capital, Nick Green, CEO of Thrive Market, and more. The fund’s advisory board consists of Maloney, Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Union Square Ventures, Seth Levine, General Partner at Foundry Group and Roy Bahat, General Partner at Bloomberg Beta.

“Ezra has a strong background in Chicago venture capital and, in a few short years, Starting Line has become a leading voice in the tech communities between the coasts,” said Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub. “He gets in early on the most promising opportunities and helps the teams accelerate through their first few rounds – the most precarious window for startups. Starting Line participation will soon be a very positive signal for later stage investors, if it isn’t already.”

Also supporting entrepreneurs at Starting Line are Principal Haley Kwait Zollo, who formerly scaled Analytics and Strategy at Trunk Club (acq. Nordstrom), later VP of Biz Ops at Mac & Mia (acq. Stitch Fix), Venture Partner Ade Olonoh, founder of Formstack, as well as Marketer in Residence Nate Turner, employee #18 and previously VP, Demand Generation at Sprout Social.

“In my eight years of investing in early stage startups, I consistently observed a large relatability gap between the investors who write checks and the founders who are creating the next wave of innovation,” said Galston. “This gap is exacerbated in smaller startup ecosystems where the few active firms are often byproducts of real estate partnerships, economic development, or family offices. With our network of entrepreneurs, subject matters experts and upstream capital partners, we have proven that we can dramatically move the needle for early stage startups, irrespective of their geographic roots.”

PRESS RELEASE

Singapore/Shanghai, China, 6 November 2019 – Tembusu Partners Pte Ltd (“Tembusu”), a boutique private equity investment firm headquartered in Singapore, announced today the launch of its first China Guizhou Baijiu Fund (“Fund”) in partnership with the Renhuai city government-linked Renhuai Moutai Flavor Liquor Industry Development & Investment Co., Ltd (“Jiutou”) in Guizhou province in Southwest China. Within China, Tembusu is known as Ruishu (“瑞树”).

The fund was officially launched today following signing ceremonies at the China International Import Expo (“CIIE”) and Singapore-China Trade & Investment Forum held in Shanghai. The Fund will invest up to RMB 2 billion in the procurement, storage and processing of top-quality baijiu foundation spirits within the Guizhou region, with Jiutou committing to invest up to RMB 670 million.

Known as the “liquor capital of China”, Renhuai is a county-level city in Guizhou province, home to Moutai liquor and the Renhuai Red Sorgum, a key but scarce raw ingredient necessary to produce quality baijiu. The Fund will allow international investors access to the explosive growth in Moutai flavoured baijiu, also known as sauce-aroma baijiu, through the early foundational years of the baijiu production process, which spans five years. The value of baijiu appreciates with age, thus presenting opportunities for stable investment returns.

According to a Euromonitor report in 2018, baijiu consumption is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.1% by 2022. Baijiu makes up 90% of total spirits sales in China and half of China’s alcohol sales. The Fund thus serves as a platform for international investors to gain access to the fast-growing baijiu industry in China.

Tembusu was the first and only foreign private equity fund manager to be awarded the Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (“QFLP”) status in Guizhou province from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in 2018. The QFLP status accelerates the process for foreign investments into domestic enterprises in China by creating an “express lane” for regulatory approval and taxation, thereby bypassing the issue of foreign currency convertibility. With operations in Shanghai and Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou, Tembusu is a registered private equity fund manager with the Asset Management Association of China and holds a Capital Markets Services license issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
In line with its overall strategy to expand its presence in China, Tembusu will continue to explore investments in sectors such as technology, infrastructure, healthcare, tourism and impact related projects in China. By leveraging on its QFLP status, investee companies will also be eligible for financial incentive schemes from the Chinese government. This will pave the way for more to participate in the fast-growing Chinese market and open up new opportunities for Tembusu in bridging investment communities of China, Southeast Asia and rest of the world.
Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Co-Chairman, Tembusu Partners, said:

“China continues to be an important and strategic market for Tembusu. Tembusu is pleased to launch the first Guizhou Baijiu Fund to finance promising baijiu businesses and support their development towards high-quality growth, as we expand and deepen our commitment in China’s dynamic economy. In a climate of complexity and change, our thesis-driven approach allows us to find unique and compelling opportunities for international investors to participate in the significant development potential in Guizhou and in Greater China.”

Mr Li Wu, Chairman, Renhuai Moutai Flavor Liquor Industry Development & Investment Co., Ltd, said: “We are pleased to partner with Tembusu to open access to the fast-growing Chinese baijiu market, as China shifts towards consumption-driven growth and innovation. We are committed to investing alongside Tembusu to nurture our homegrown sauce-aroma baijiu production enterprises, the development of the Renhuai liquor production region’s brand and transformation of the industry.”

ABOUT TEMBUSU PARTNERS
Tembusu Partners is a private equity investment firm that invests in promising early and growth-stage companies with a view to generate sustainable returns for both investee companies and investors. Besides supporting companies through mezzanine and equity financing, it also contributes operational expertise to help them grow. Headquartered in Singapore, its primary geographical markets are within Emerging Asia – comprising China, India and Southeast Asia. For more information, please visit www.tembusupartners.com.

PRESS RELEASE

M2O Private Fund Advisors (“M2O”) is pleased to announce that Pathlight Capital, a provider of asset based financing solutions, completed the final closing of Pathlight Capital Fund I LP (the “Fund”). The Fund was oversubscribed and closed with $540 million of capital commitments, exceeding its $500 million target. M2O acted as the exclusive placement agent for the Fund. For additional information, please read the press release.

M2O = Made-to-Order
M2O is a leading placement and advisory firm offering a comprehensive suite of capital raising and secondary advisory, execution, and distribution services to private fund managers and investors. M2O provides tailored services to address the specific needs of each client. M2O’s core services include:
Fundraising: Advisory, targeted distribution and full fundraising services throughout the fundraising cycle: pre-marketing, capital raising, and between funds

Secondary Advisory: Advisory services to private fund managers and investors seeking to liquidate or recapitalize assets through a privately negotiated transaction

Direct Placement: Sourcing and syndication of co-investment opportunities for fund managers and independent sponsors

Strategic Advisory: Market positioning, pre-fundraising viability assessments, investor perception studies, and advice for GPs undergoing an organizational transition or platform extension

Since 2012, M2O has advised on over 40 transactions representing over $11 billion of capital raised. For more information about M2O, please visit www.m2ollc.com.

PRESS RELEASE

Munich, November 07, 2019 – Acton Capital, Munich-based growth venture capital investor, has announced the final closing of its new Acton Fund V at $215 million (€193 million). Building upon the success of its previous funds, the new fund will focus on tech-enabled business models and startups in their growth stage.

Since the first investment in Alando forming the core of eBay Europe in 1999, the Acton team has supported over 80 digital companies on their way to market leadership. Acton Capital invests worldwide, with a strong focus on Germany and Europe (75%) and North America (25%).

Christoph Braun, Managing Partner at Acton Capital: “With the new Acton Fund V we aim to target startups in their growth stage. Our total investment per company will range between 5 and 20 million USD. We are looking for transformational business models across all sectors, which cater to consumers or SMBs. With the new fund, we are ready to support the next generation of great entrepreneurs who want to accelerate growth and build a business that lasts.”

Current investments out of the new Acton Fund V include (among others):
Maple HealthCare (Toronto/CAN)
expertlead Future of Work (Berlin/DE)
LemonOne Platform (Berlin/DE)
MPB Re-commerce (Brighton/UK)
Knix Direct-to-Consumer (Toronto/CAN)

“Even in this hyper-growth environment, we can always rely on our core expertise: investing in substance, not the next hype. We only partner with teams who have a clear path to profitability and who are looking for active support instead of just money. As business model investors, we focus on real customer value and sustainable cash flows. No matter if the scope is national, international or global, we are looking for entrepreneurs that want to create value for the long run.”

Limited partners of the new Acton Fund V include the European Investment Fund (EIF), KfW Bank as well as renowned family-offices and entrepreneurs from Europe’s digital landscape.
Jan-Gisbert Schultze: “We are proud to be a trusted partner for founders for five fund generations. We are especially happy when founders who we had the pleasure of working alongside become investors in our funds, supporting digital pioneers of the next generation.”

The previous Acton Fund IV (2014, €170M/$190) includes category leaders like Mambu (global core banking SaaS), HomeToGo (global metasearch for vacation rentals), COMATCH (European platform for freelance consultants) or Cluno (car subscription company).

Acton Capital has recently announced a series of successful exits. Among others:
Clio (CAN)
Finanzcheck to Scout24 (DE)
Chefs Plate to HelloFresh (CAN)
ELOQUII to Walmart (USA)

About Acton Capital
Acton Capital is a leading growth venture capital investor in Europe. Since 1999, the Acton team supports digital startups in the fields of marketplaces, e-commerce, SaaS, FinTech or Future of Work on their way to market leadership. Acton Capital invests worldwide with a strong focus on Europe and North. With two decades of investment experience and a deep understanding of digital business models, the team has invested over EUR 500 million across five fund generations in more than 80 companies, including global category leaders like AlphaSights, Etsy, HomeToGo or Clio.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Modus Capital, a New York-based hybrid venture capital firm, announces the launch of its first regional fund, MODUS MENA VENTURE FUND I (MMVFI), a USD $75 Million fund targeting early and growth stage companies across the Middle East and North Africa. The versatile fund is adaptable for a range of industries and structured to invest across asset stages from early to lower-mid market. The fund will invest in companies that have strong positive social impact as a by-product, including those with a focus on women and financial inclusion, health, education, and battling unemployment. Strengthening Modus Capital’s commitment to the region, the first investment from the fund was made in Q4 2018 complemented with the launch of the Egypt office in November.

The MODUS MENA VENTURE FUND I will focus on MENA-based early stage/post-accelerator technology companies as well as Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) where technology can enable them to grow rapidly. The asset allocation by stage serves as a major de-risking measure to Limited Partners as more mature companies carry significantly less risk. The fund also includes an allocation for US based companies that are portable to the MENA region.

Modus Capital is making investments through an incubation program starting from USD $50,000 to $250,000, and up to $1 million for Seed and Series A rounds. The verticals that the firm has particular interest include FinTech, HealthTech, Direct to Consumer e-commerce, Enterprise & Consumer SaaS products in addition to products leveraging Blockchain Protocols.

Modus Capital is developing the regional ecosystem by investing in startups across the Middle East and North Africa, launching regional co-working spaces, and curriculum-based series of programs and workshops that focus on knowledge transfer addressing local entrepreneurial challenges and skills gaps. The firm also has plans to expand the same model to other countries in the region, with plans for establishment in the GCC in Q1 of 2020. In addition to Modus Capital, the group has launched Modus Operations, Modus Events and the Modus Collective, offering a 360° approach and structure to nurture startups and foster their growth and success.

Modus Operations will develop, operate, and grow companies by providing holistic support throughout their various stages of growth. The operations teams consist of marketers, product managers, growth hackers, operators, strategists, designers, and technical developers. Modus Events will organize highly focused workshops and other events with the aim of facilitating knowledge transfer and encouraging collaboration among different stakeholders of the ecosystem. The Modus Collective will create collaborative co-working spaces, with plans to inaugurate the concept in Cairo & Dubai in mid-2020. The firm plans to set up several co-working spaces across the region with the expansion of the business to other countries.

“We actively assist entrepreneurs in building transformational businesses by not only investing in them, but also partnering with them to create the most effective strategies to take their company to the next level. We allow investors to participate in high-value, high-growth opportunities while operationally supporting entrepreneurs and guide them with our seasoned experts, propelling them to realize their goals. We believe that institutional investors like Modus Capital have a responsibility to provide more than just funding to their portfolio companies and now is the right time to offer an all-inclusive solution, harnessing the global expertise for a dynamic MENA market,” Kareem Elsirafy, Founder and Managing Partner of Modus Capital commented.
The fund has built its portfolio with 8 companies in its first year (2019) deploying their proven operational frameworks via Modus Operations which serves as yet another de-risking measure. The hands-on approach helps companies avoid first timer mistakes, be more capital efficient, and in-turn, mature and exit in a shorter time frame. Notable investments include:

DXwand is an AI driven Cognitive CRM software that automatically responds to businesses communications through various social channels, converting chats into proprietary insights and analytics further supporting data driven business and growth decisions. Since its launch in 2018, DXwand solution responded to over 1 Million human chats in English, and the distinctive Egyptian and Gulf Arabic dialects and slang supporting more than 37 enterprise customers in their growth journey. With the support of Modus Operations, DXwand has since seen month-on-month growth of 28%, and reached its financial breakeven point in September 2019. (https://dxwand.com/)

iSupportCause, an online platform launched from the United Arab Emirates in 2015, that helps create meaningful campaigns with integrated social media marketing for activists and NGO’s aiming to raise awareness on significant causes. $75,000 from the MMVFI has been invested in iSupportCause and for the last seven months, Modus Operations, the operational arm of Modus Capital, has been cultivating the product suite development and growth strategy. A revised product is scheduled to roll out in Q1 of 2020. (https://www.isupportcause.com/)

Arbor was founded as an App that lets you create, share, and manage your network in an efficient and green way. It addressed the opportunity of simplifying the process of exchanging valuable contact details that are typically on a business card in a modern and digitized manner. With a staggering number of business cards printed on daily, estimated at 27 Million worldwide, Arbor lets users exchange business cards with anyone, anywhere, and at any time without the traditionally associated cost to the environment while providing a streamlined workflow currently inefficient when attending meetings and events. Arbor partnered with Modus Capital to streamline the UX/UI and to utilize Modus’ expertise to create a growing and sustainable business model.
Yumzy, an app where home and professional chefs can receive tips for their culinary masterpieces. In a time where video is the leading medium for content creation and distribution, Yumzy empowers culinary artists to share and monetize their recipes through a dedicated mobile platform. The Yumzy founders approached Modus to help them define and MVP and go-to-market strategy in early 2019. Since then, Modus Operations has not only supported those efforts, but also built the application which is set to launch in early 2020. (https://yumzyapp.com/)

Meddy is a web-based platform that allows patients to find doctors (and hospitals) and book appointments. The doctors can be searched using different filters including their specialization/sub-specialization, treatment, nationality/country of education, and the languages they speak. The platform features reviews and ratings for the doctors listed on its platform. Modus Capital has worked with Meddy to raise $2.5 million investment in Series A and will also be joining the board to de-risk the investment and propel the team for continued success. (https://www.meddy.com)

With the oil rich governments investing heavily in private sector development through national programs such as Saudi Vision 2030, Dubai 2020 and 2070, while Foreign Direct Investments are bullish on frontier markets such as Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, Modus Capital is on track and working with individuals and entities including government initiatives to invest further in materializing a vibrant and sustainable venture ecosystem in the region.

About Modus Capital
Modus Capital is an ecosystem development fund based out of New York and Cairo. Our approach is to develop sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems that solve local market challenges while generating profits on a uniquely risk-adjusted basis. These goals are achieved by our holistic approach in leveraging multiple business units that provide efficiency to, and increases the efficacy of one another: Modus Collective, Modus Operations and Modus Events.

For more information, please check Modus Capital’s website: https://modus.vc/

PRESS RELEASE

BOSTON – November 05, 2019 – HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets asset manager, today announced the final close of the CAD 300 million HarbourVest Canada Growth Fund II. The fund, formed under the Government of Canada’s Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI) to increase the availability of venture capital in the country, was oversubscribed and closed at the fund’s hard cap six months after its initial closing in April.

“Our collaboration with BDC Capital, first through the Venture Capital Action Plan program with Fund I, which has had strong performance since inception, and now through the VCCI with Fund II, has been successful and gratifying,” said Senia Rapisarda, Managing Director at HarbourVest in Toronto. “HarbourVest’s Canadian venture capital program allows our clients around the world to access private market investments in Canada, while also supporting innovative small and medium-sized Canadian businesses.”

HarbourVest’s VCCI investment mandate focuses on investing in leading Canadian venture and growth managers, top-tier international managers that have historically invested in Canadian companies, and making direct co-investments into Canadian companies at the growth equity stage. Canada Growth Fund II has committed to six partnerships and has made two direct investments to date.

HarbourVest has a strong pipeline of investment opportunities across different technology sectors and in life sciences. Commitments to Canadian fund managers include: iNovia Capital, Information Venture Partners, McRock Capital and Georgian Partners. The portfolio is complemented by investments in US and international venture managers such as Versant Ventures, a life sciences investor active in Canada.
Limited partners in the fund are based in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and are primarily institutional, corporate, and high-net worth private sector investors. As part of the VCCI program, the fund includes a cornerstone investment by the Government of Canada, through BDC Capital, the investment arm of BDC.

“BDC Capital is pleased to see Boston-based HarbourVest reach the close of its second Canadian fund,” said Michael Denham, President and CEO of BDC. “HarbourVest has been a strong contributor to the marketplace and we look forward to continuing to work with them as we further strengthen the VC industry across the country and help build Canadian champions.”

HarbourVest has been making investments in Canada since 1989, with more than CAD 1.3 billion of direct and indirect investments into over 530 Canadian companies. The firm opened its office in Toronto in 2015, led by Ms. Rapisarda, and expanded its Toronto presence in 2018 to support its growing team of 10 professionals.

ABOUT HARBOURVEST
HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets investment specialist with 36 years of experience and more than $64 billion in assets under management, as of June 30, 2019. The Firm’s powerful global platform offers clients investment opportunities through primary fund investments, secondary investments, and direct co-investments in commingled funds or separately managed accounts. HarbourVest has more than 500 employees, including more than 125 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This global team has committed more than $37 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $21 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $11 billion directly in operating companies. Partnering with HarbourVest, clients have access to customized solutions, longstanding relationships, actionable insights, and proven results.

ABOUT BDC
BDC is the only bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs. It provides access to financing, both online and in-person, as well as advisory services to help Canadian businesses grow and succeed. Its investment arm, BDC Capital, offers a wide range of risk capital solutions. For 75 years and counting, BDC’s purpose has been to support entrepreneurs in all industries and all stages of growth. For more information and to consult more than 1,000 free tools, articles and entrepreneurs’ stories, visit bdc.ca.

PRESS RELEASE

ROWAYTON, Conn., November 5th, 2019 – Eaton Partners, one of the world’s leading private capital advisory and fund placement firms and a wholly owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF), is pleased to have acted as exclusive placement agent for the private equity group of NovaQuest Capital Management, LLC (“NovaQuest Private Equity”).
NovaQuest Private Equity Fund I, L.P. (the “Fund”) reached its hard cap of $275 million in capital commitments and received strong support from a diverse range of institutional investors, including leading insurance companies, pension plans, asset managers, and family offices. The Fund will target tech-enabled healthcare solutions and pharmaceutical services investments.

NovaQuest Private Equity has been actively investing out of the Fund, making three platform investments and two add-on acquisitions thus far. Investments include Azurity Pharmaceuticals, a leading provider of drug delivery technology solutions that provide patients access to customized dosage forms; Clinical Ink, a provider of eClinical services and technologies, including eSource, ePRO, eCOA, among others; and Catalyst Clinical Research, a provider of outsourced clinical services for clinical trials.

“NovaQuest’s strategic partners, Operating Advisory Board, and deep industry network differentiate NovaQuest with powerful value creation capabilities for middle market healthcare companies,” said Eric Deyle, Managing Director and Co-Head of Private Equity at Eaton Partners.
“It has been our pleasure to partner with one of the leading life sciences and healthcare investors and the entire NovaQuest team on a successful fundraise,” added Jeff Eaton, Partner at Eaton Partners.

“We are thrilled to have achieved this important milestone and are grateful for the support we received from our new and existing limited partners,” said Jeff Edwards, Partner at NovaQuest Capital Management. “Eaton Partners was a thoughtful, knowledgeable, and committed fundraising partner.”

About Eaton Partners Eaton Partners, a Stifel Company, is one of the world’s largest capital placement agents and fund advisory firms, having raised more than $100 billion across more than 125 highly differentiated alternative investment funds and offerings. Founded in 1983, Eaton advises and raises institutional capital for investment managers across alternative strategies – private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate, and hedge funds/public market – in both the primary and secondary markets. Eaton Partners maintains offices and operates throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Eaton Partners is a division of Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Member SIPC and NYSE. Eaton Partners subsidiary Eaton Partners (U.K.) LLP is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Eaton Partners subsidiary Eaton Partners Advisors (HK) Limited is approved as a Type 1-licensed company under the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong. Eaton Partners and the Eaton Partners logo are trademarks of Eaton Partners, LLC, a limited liability company. ® Eaton Partners, 2019. For more information, please visit https://eaton-partners.com/.

About NovaQuest Capital Management
NovaQuest Capital Management is a leading investor in life sciences and healthcare through our BioPharma and Private Equity strategies. NovaQuest was formed in 2000 with the vision of building an investment platform to provide strategic capital to life sciences and healthcare companies. Today, NovaQuest Capital Management manages over $2.5 billion through its BioPharma and Private Equity strategies. The investment team consists of highly seasoned professionals with significant operating and investment experience and deep life science and healthcare expertise. Furthermore, NovaQuest benefits from an extensive network of industry experts and relationships that assist in identifying, analyzing and growing portfolio companies and investments. For more information, please visit www.novaquest.com.
Stifel Company Information

Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF) is a financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that conducts its banking, securities, and financial services business through several wholly owned subsidiaries. Stifel’s broker-dealer clients are served in the United States through Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, including its Eaton Partners business division; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.; Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC; Century Securities Associates, Inc., and in the United Kingdom and Europe through Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited. Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited owns MainFirst Bank AG, which is authorized and regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and whose London Branch is authorized by BaFin and supervised by the Financial Conduct Authority for the conduct of UK business, whose Milan Branch is authorized and regulated by BaFin and supervised by CONSOB/Bank of Italy, whose Paris Branch is authorized and regulated by BaFin and supervised by AMP/Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel. Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited also owns MainFirst Schweiz AG, which is authorized by the Eidgenoessische Finanzmarktaufsicht to act as an introducing broker for MainFirst Bank AG, MainFirst Securities US Inc., an introducing broker that is a member of FINRA and the SIPC, and Stifel Europe Geneva S.A. The Company’s broker-dealer affiliates provide securities brokerage, investment banking, trading, investment advisory, and related financial services to individual investors, professional money managers, businesses, and municipalities. Stifel Bank and Stifel Bank & Trust offer a full range of consumer and commercial lending solutions. Stifel Trust Company, N.A. and Stifel Trust Company Delaware, N.A. offer trust and related services. To learn more about Stifel, please visit the Company’s website at www.stifel.com.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AgFunder today announced a new $20 million alternative protein fund to give investors an opportunity to invest in the next generation of startups creating animal-free products for food and other industries. In conjunction, AgFunder has also published a free industry whitepaper that surveys the alternative protein market.

The fund will invest in startups across the alternative protein landscape including plant-based meats and dairy, cultivated meat, and startups creating picks and shovels for the industry. Investment is open to Accredited Investors, family offices, and institutions.

“An investor who put $1 million into Beyond Meat’s Series A selling today could realize a 316x return; and Impossible Foods is poised to follow a similar trajectory,” said founding partner Rob Leclerc. “But in a $2.17 trillion market for animal products, we believe there are still many new opportunities to create new multi-billion dollar companies.”
Key stats from the white paper include:

– More than half the world’s population is now considered middle class or wealthier and will increase to ⅔ of the population by 2030. Middle classes typically eat more meat and protein.

– To provide enough meat to the world at the current U.S. consumption levels of 99.5kg/capital this would require 88% more farmland than is available today.

– Even if current global consumption of 44kg/capital remains static, 100% of global farmland would need to be directed to animal agriculture in coming years.

– Animal-derived products were worth $2.17 trillion in 2018 and we estimate it will grow 4.7% CAGR to nearly $3 trillion by 2025.

– By 2025, 10% of meat supply could be plant-based and by 2040, as much as 60% of meat supply will be alternatives (35% cultivated meat and 25% plant-based) making conventional meat a nice market.

– 66% of cultured meat startups have at least one female founder, compared to just 17% across venture industries, and 10% of cultured meat startups were founded exclusively by women.

To learn about investing in the fund, AgFunder’s investment thesis, or to download the free 41-page whitepaper for an in-depth look at the industry’s macro drivers visit:
https://agfunder.com/invest/protein-fund/

About AgFunder
Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, AgFunder is one of the most active foodtech and agtech VC firms globally.

PRESS RELEASE

OpenGate Closes Second Institutional Fund with $585 Million in Commitments
Exceeds Target of $450 Million with Commitments from Existing and New Institutional Investors
November 04, 2019 11:20 AM Eastern Standard Time
LOS ANGELES & PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, announced today that it has closed its second institutional fund, OpenGate Capital Partners II & II-A, LP, at approximately $585 million, an amount that was thirty percent above its initial target of $450 million. The new fund supports OpenGate’s on-going strategy to invest in lower middle market businesses throughout North America and Europe across four focus industries: Industrials, Technology, Consumer and Business Services.
Andrew Nikou, Founder and CEO, stated, “We are extremely honored to have the trust and confidence from our existing investors who re-committed with us, and excited to partner with our new investors who represent some of the most sophisticated, institutional investors. The entire team at OpenGate is looking forward to continuing to work with all of our Limited Partners and investing in and optimizing the businesses in our two portfolios. Our deepest appreciation also goes out to UBS and Kirkland and Ellis who were once again our trusted advisors and partners in bringing Fund II over the finish line.”
OpenGate’s second institutional fund comprises 23 investors from seven countries, including pensions, asset managers, consultants, fund of funds, wealth managers, and insurance companies from the US, Europe and the Middle East.
UBS Securities, LLC served as the private placement agent, and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP served as legal counsel in connection with the fund raise.
OpenGate has already completed six platform investments this year through its second fund including Fiven, SMAC, Sargent & Greenleaf, Duraco, InRule Technologies and CoreMedia.
OpenGate’s first fund, a 2015 vintage, completed nine platform investments including Power Partners, Bois & Matériaux, Energi Fenestration Solutions, Alfatherm, EverZinc, Hufcor, Mersive Technologies, Jotul/Ravelli, and Fichet Security Solutions.
About OpenGate Capital
Founded in 2005, OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm that strives to acquire and optimize lower middle market businesses throughout North America and Europe. With a strategic international presence and a focus on corporate carve-outs and complex situations, the firm’s expertise allows it to realize a seller’s divestiture objectives while mitigating the risks associated with a business’s transition to independence. OpenGate is headquartered in Los Angeles and Paris and has a seasoned in-house team of professionals overseeing the entire lifecycle of each investment. To learn more about OpenGate, please visit www.opengatecapital.com.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 5, 2019– KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced the final closing of European Fund V (“the Fund”), a €5.8bn fund focused on private equity-related transactions in the core markets of Western Europe. KKR will be investing $400m of capital alongside investors through the Firm’s balance sheet and employee commitments.

Johannes Huth, Member and Head of KKR EMEA, said “KKR has been investing in Europe for over twenty years and our position has never been stronger. We will invest our fifth European fund by maintaining the differentiated approach that has served us so well to date, combining our local country knowledge with the skill and insights of our sector teams to source and execute investments. Europe’s complex dynamics create significant opportunities to deploy capital and continue delivering value and outperformance for our investors.”

KKR completed its first European investment in 1996 and raised its first dedicated European fund in 1999. In Private Equity, the Firm has 46 investment professionals and 18 operating and capital markets professionals working across six European offices in London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dublin and Luxembourg. The team operates in a matrix structure, combining deep local market knowledge and relationships with sector expertise across the five priority sectors of TMT, Consumer & Retail, Business & Financial Services, Industrials and Healthcare.

Alisa Amarosa Wood, Member and Head of the Private Market Products Group at KKR, said “We’re delighted by the investor response to our latest flagship fund in Europe. The significant demand we’ve seen from a wide range of institutional and private clients around the world is testament to the strong track record of our team and the confidence our investors have in KKR’s ability to continue to navigate the European market and deliver attractive returns.”

Johannes Huth, who joined KKR as the first employee in Europe in 1999, is supported by a strong senior team representing nine different European nationalities, including nine Members with an average of 20 years’ industry experience and combining sector and country oversight responsibility. Earlier this month, KKR announced that Mattia Caprioli and Philipp Freise, who have been at KKR for nearly two decades, are now Co-Heads of European private equity, reporting to Johannes. More broadly, the investment platform in Europe draws on the expertise and global resources that KKR can bring to its investments, across KKR Capital Markets, Capstone and the Global Institute.

KKR’s EMEA private equity platform is currently investing a combined $11.6bn. Since 2009, it has delivered significant value to its private equity investors, generating a 2.6x gross multiple and a 23.6% gross IRR for fully and partially realised transactions as of September 30, 2019.

To learn more about KKR’s approach to private equity in EMEA, watch a video about the platform here.

-ends-

About KKR
KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

PRESS RELEASE

BROOKFIELD NEWS, Nov. 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (“Brookfield”) (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM.A) announced today the closing of its latest flagship global private equity fund, Brookfield Capital Partners V (“BCP V” or the “Fund”) with total equity commitments of $9 billion in the program.

Based on strong investor demand, BCP V attracted total capital commitments exceeding the original $7 billion fundraising target. BCP V’s predecessor fund closed in 2016 with $4 billion of total capital commitments.

Investors in the Fund are a diverse group of institutional investors, including public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, endowments and foundations, family offices, and private wealth investors. Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE: BBU, TSX: BBU.UN) has committed $3 billion to the Fund, underscoring the alignment of interests with other investors.

Cyrus Madon, head of Brookfield’s private equity business, said “We are pleased to have reached this milestone based on the ongoing strong support we have received from our investors. We have already deployed capital into a number of high-quality businesses and look forward to continuing to prudently invest where we can bring our operating capabilities, global scale, and expertise as part of the broader Brookfield platform to create value for our investors and our businesses.”

To date, the Fund has committed approximately $2.5 billion to acquire businesses with high barriers to entry, low production costs, and the potential for enhanced cash flow generation, including a leading global automotive battery business and one of the largest private hospital operators in Australia.

Brookfield Asset Management
Brookfield Asset Management is a leading global alternative asset manager with over US$500 billion of assets under management across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power, private equity and credit. Brookfield owns and operates long-life assets and businesses, many of which form the backbone of the global economy. Utilizing its global reach, access to large-scale capital and operational expertise, Brookfield offers a range of alternative investment products to investors around the world—including public and private pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and private wealth investors.

Brookfield Asset Management is listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the symbols BAM and BAM.A, respectively. For more information, please visit www.brookfield.com.

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON and NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Motive Partners today announced the final close of its inaugural fund, Motive Capital Fund I (MCFI), of more than $473 million. MCFI is managed by Motive Partners and is the firm’s debut private equity fund focusing on growth and buyout opportunities in financial and business services technology companies. Capital commitments came from public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, alternative asset managers, family offices, endowments and foundations across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australasia.

The Fund has already invested in six portfolio companies requiring a total of $3 billion of equity from Motive, LP co-investors and broader investor consortia. The portfolio proudly includes Avaloq, Dun & Bradstreet, Finantix, Global Shares, LMRKTS and LPA.

Motive Partners partnered with Houlihan Lokey on the fundraise of MCFI, which was led by Robert (Bob) Brown in his previous role as Global Co-Head of Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group. Motive also announced, today, the appointment of Bob as a Founding Partner and Member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. Bob will oversee various functions including Capital Raising, Investor Relations, Business Development, Marketing and Communications.

Rob Heyvaert, Motive Partners Founder & Managing Partner, commented: “We are humbled by the strong support from our new Limited Partners and look forward to developing deep and longstanding relationships with each of them to achieve our collective goals.

“We believe that the Financial Technology opportunity is only just beginning, and the application of Motive’s capabilities uniquely position us to partner with management teams in an effort accelerate the growth potential of portfolio companies.
“Bob has been an exceptional asset to the firm, and his arrival at Motive Partners demonstrates our commitment to build a best in class operation across all functional capabilities. I am excited to welcome Bob to the Motive Team and to continue our collective journey together.”

Bob Brown founded BearTooth Advisors in 2014, providing strategic advisory and placement agency services to alternative investment managers from offices in London and New York City. The firm used its combination of extensive in-house and agency experience to develop customized capital raising solutions for General Partners. In 2018, Houlihan Lokey acquired BearTooth Advisors.

Bob Brown, Founding Partner of Motive Partners, commented: “Working with Rob and the broader Motive team through the raise of MCFI was a remarkable experience that gives me great confidence in Motive’s unique market position and ability to deliver for investors, management teams and portfolio companies alike.

“I am delighted to join the leadership team and look forward to deepening our relationships with an already stellar LP base.”

Prior to establishing BearTooth, Bob was a Partner, Managing Director and Global Head of Marketing and Limited Partner Services at Advent International. Prior to Advent, he spent almost 11 years at Carlyle, concluding his tenure as a Partner. In total, he has contributed to the formation of almost 180 private investment funds and co-investment vehicles.
David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder of The Carlyle Group, commented: “I’ve known Bob Brown, a former Carlyle colleague and friend of the past two decades. This is an exciting opportunity for Bob, who brings excellent judgment and a deep understanding of the private equity landscape to Motive and its investors.”

Motive Partners applies expertise to portfolio firms through its internal teams, Global Advisory Council, Industry Partner model and Motive Labs. The Global Advisory Council is a group of experienced Senior Advisors that provides strategic guidance to Motive Partners and its portfolio companies. The Industry Partner model, which is an extension of the operating model, enables Motive Partners to extend its connectivity across technology and financial services and to deepen its industry insight and technical expertise. These proprietary capabilities ensure dedicated expertise is applied to the origination, execution and operating of investments from the outset.

Stephen C. Daffron, President at Dun & Bradstreet and Industry Partner at Motive Partners, commented: “Motive’s success, both raising MCFI and with the portfolio so far, is the product of our team’s ability and experience in identifying long-term, secular growth themes and trends over the last 25 years. Having witnessed it first hand, it is clear that the combination of investors, operators and innovators with the Industry Partners and Motive Labs gives a unique perspective for identifying and growing portfolio companies.”

Houlihan Loukey served as placement agent and Gibson Dunn provided legal counsel.

About Motive Partners
Motive Partners was formed to address the unique opportunity in financial technology through an integrated platform with the capability to invest, operate and innovate across the financial technology ecosystem. Motive Partners was established by a team of the world’s leading financial services and technology investors, operators and innovators with exceptional domain expertise and relationships.
Motive Labs, the value-creation and innovation focused arm of Motive Partners, seeks to identify industry trends, working with a group of international Financial Institutions to help prepare for the next generation of financial services infrastructure. The intelligence and technology expertise within Motive Labs works in collaboration with Motive Capital and the Industry Partners to efficiently execute against MCFI portfolio company growth opportunities.
More information on Motive Partners, its strategy and team can be found at www.motivepartners.com

PRESS RELEASE

TOKYO, November 1, 2019 – Monument Group, one of the industry’s leading placement agents, was engaged by Japanese middle-market buyout firm Aspirant Group, Inc. (“Aspirant”) to raise offshore capital for Aspirant Group III Series Funds* (“AG III”). AG III had its final close at the hard cap of ¥50 billion in commitments after only seven months of formal marketing.
AG III was the first global institutional fund raised by Aspirant and commitments were secured from European and U.S. investors, and several global fund of funds, as well as major Japan institutional investors. Investors included major financial institutions, pension plans, asset managers, and family offices. AG III closed on October 31, 2019.

“The successful fundraise of AG III demonstrates a clear interest in the Japanese buyout market from the international investing community,” said Kay Sano, Representative Director, Monument Group. “It was a pleasure to leverage our long standing investor relationships to support Aspirant in this effort.”

“With a global footprint and strong presence in Asia, Monument Group proved an ideal partner for our first international fundraise,” said Akitoshi Nakamura, Chief Executive Officer, Aspirant Group, Inc. “With the raise of AG III, we are very well positioned to build on Aspirant’s established record of sourcing, executing, managing and realizing investments in Japan’s vibrant middle market. We thank our new and returning investors for their confidence in Aspirant, and extend our gratitude to Monument Group for their guidance in this fundraise.”

Monument Group served as the exclusive placement agent to Aspirant Group.

About Aspirant Group
Founded in 2012, Aspirant Group is an operationally-focused, deep value Japanese middle-market buyout firm specializing in business successions, corporate carve-outs and turnarounds. The firm primarily targets the business services, industrial technology and consumer sectors. Aspirant has a complementary and cohesive team of 21 investment and dedicated operating professionals with decades of combined experience. For more information, visit www.aspirantgroup.jp.

About Monument Group
Monument Group is a leading, independent private fund placement agent managed by a senior team with significant buy-side investment heritage. Since its inception in 1994, Monument Group has assisted a range of general partners around the world to raise 100 funds, totaling more than $101 billion of equity. These clients represent a broad variety of investment strategies including buyouts, debt, distressed, energy and natural resources, growth, infrastructure and real estate. Monument Group has offices in Boston, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Monument Group also has a strategic alliance with boutique secondaries advisor Mozaic Capital. For more information on Monument Group’s primary and secondary capabilities, visit www.monumentgroup.com.

PRESS RELEASE

SINGAPORE, Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Jungle Ventures, one of Southeast Asia’s largest early stage venture capital firms, today announced that it closed its third fund, Jungle Ventures III. The firm raised a total of $240 million, which includes $40 million raised in separately managed account commitments, for investments in innovative technology and digital-driven consumer businesses across Southeast Asia.

Jungle raised more than double the amount of its previous fund, Jungle Ventures II (2016), with nearly 60% of committed capital coming from outside Asia. More than 90% of the capital came from institutional investors spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia, with new investors accounting for nearly 70% of the fundraise, and returning investors for the rest.

Investors range from endowments, funds of funds, and development financial institutions to strategic family offices and leading technology players. Investors include DEG, Germany’s development finance institution; IFC, a member of the World Bank Group; Bualuang Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund of Bangkok Bank; Dutch development bank FMO; Cisco Investments; and Singapore’s Temasek, among others.

“Our team is honored to have received such enthusiastic support from our investors,” said Amit Anand, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures. “Our understanding of growing consumer demand in Southeast Asia gives us an unmatched advantage as we deploy early stage investment capital to businesses with enormous growth potential.”

“The traditional view of Southeast Asia is that it’s a fragmented region of countries with more differences than similarities,” explained Mr. Anand. “Thanks to rising internet penetration, demographic shifts and mobile-technology adoption over the last decade, the region is now home to a fairly homogenous addressable market of more than 250 million cyber-sophisticated young people comparable to any ‘developed’ market. We saw the tide shifting and focused on companies that demonstrated an early leadership position in one market,” he said. “Then we supported these companies with capital, expertise and resources to help them become regional category leaders.”

Jungle Ventures was the earliest institutional investor in a number of category leaders in Southeast Asia, including: travel and hospitality startup RedDoorz, which in August announced a $70 million series C funding round; fashion e-tailer Pomelo Fashion, which announced a $52 million Series C funding round in September; and Kredivo, Indonesia’s largest online consumer lending and payments platform, which raised $30 million in series B funding last year. Jungle also won the AVCJ 2018 Deal of the Year for early stage technology for leading a $60 million investment in Deskera. Jungle Ventures III has already invested in Sociolla, KiotViet, WareSix, SweetEscape and Engineer.ai.

“We’re proud of our track record of recognizing, investing in and supporting high potential companies from the region,” said Jungle Ventures Co-Founder and Managing Partner Anurag Srivastava. “Seven of our early stage investments from our second fund, Jungle Ventures II, have grown to over $2 billion in portfolio valuation, up more than 10-fold over the last 4 years. This is noteworthy because we make only 10 to 15 key investments in each fund and no single company is responsible for delivering a disproportionate share of this growth,” added Mr. Srivastava.

To learn more about the close of Jungle Ventures III and Jungle Ventures’ approach to venture capital success in Southeast Asia, please check out our blog post here.

About Jungle Ventures
Jungle Ventures is one of the largest early stage venture capital firms in Southeast Asia. We strive to be the first to champion teams with the ambition to build lasting, impactful companies in the region. Our portfolio broadly covers three verticals: consumer brands for the digitally native; digital platforms for transforming SMEs; global technology leaders born in Asia.

PRESS RELEASE

ATLANTA, Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — BIP Capital, one of the most active venture capital firms in the southeastern United States, announced today the successful close of BIP Capital Venture Fund IV, surpassing its target of $100 million. Venture Fund IV will provide Series A and Series B financing for market-disrupting B2B SaaS and tech-enabled services companies focused on Enterprise SaaS, Healthcare IT, Digital Media, Dev Tools, and MarTech.

The firm will continue to focus on companies in the southeastern United States’ startup ecosystem, while also expanding into the Midwest where it has already begun making investments. BIP Capital currently has more than 30 companies in its investment portfolio.

In August, BIP Capital was named the most active venture capital investor in Georgia for the fourth consecutive time, as assessed by CB Insights. The market intelligence company also identified the rise in importance and number of investments in second-tier cities, a trend BIP Capital has noted in its own research.

“Increasingly, Atlanta and other cities outside Boston, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area are being recognized as vibrant innovation centers with promising opportunities for investment,” said Mark Buffington, co-founder and CEO of BIP Capital. “Since our founding, our mission has been to drive top quartile returns while also growing emerging company ecosystems. The close of Venture Fund IV will support us in continuing these endeavors. We’re proud of the successes we’ve been a part of to date, and we’re excited by the prospect of helping more companies grow into market leaders.”

BIP Capital’s focus on B2B SaaS in particular is indicative of the innovation in this category occurring in the Southeast. Georgia remains the Southeast’s SaaS innovation leader, with 349 deals totaling $1.7 billion invested since 2014.1

Buffington added that the $101 million Venture IV fund is comprised of capital invested by family offices, high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), and institutional investors.

Earlier this month, BIP Capital released its 2019 The State of StartupsSM in the Southeast eBook, which delivers a comprehensive overview of the venture capital and startup ecosystem in the region. The third annual report takes an in-depth look at startup activity throughout nine southeastern U.S. states over the five-and-a-half-year time period from January 1, 2014 through June 30, 2019. The report is free and can be read online.

About BIP Capital
BIP Capital is recognized as one of the most active and successful venture investors in the Southeast, serving entrepreneurs, investors, and operators to grow the emerging company ecosystem. It applies experience and process to make investment decisions and operational recommendations, allowing its portfolio companies to achieve and stay on a glide path of growth. Areas of focus include Enterprise SaaS, Healthcare IT, Digital Media, Dev Tools, and MarTech. For more information, visit www.bip-capital.com or follow BIP Capital on LinkedIn or Twitter @BIPCapital.

1 BIP Capital. The State of Startups SM in the Southeast. October 2, 2019.

PRESS RELEASE

October 28, 2019 (WASHINGTON, DC)—Just two years after launching Revolution’s first Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, the firm announced today a second $150 million fund, again backed by an extraordinary list of well-known entrepreneurs, investors, and executives, almost all of whom invested in the inaugural Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.

The investor list includes returning investors such as Jeff Bezos, Sara Blakely, Jim Breyer, Ray Dalio, John Doerr, Roger Ferguson, Dan Gilbert, Henry Kravis, the Koch family, Ted Leonsis, William M. Lewis, Jr., Adebayo “Bayo” Ogunlesi, David Rubenstein, Eric Schmidt, Megan Smith, and Meg Whitman, as well as new investors such as Joshua Harris, Bill Haslam, James Murdoch, Kevin Plank, and Intuit’s Brad Smith (a list of Rise of the Rest Seed Fund investors can be found here).
Revolution’s first Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, launched in late 2017, has backed nearly 130 companies in nearly 70 cities across 32 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico. The balance of its capital will be reserved for follow-on investments in these companies as many have grown faster than predicted, with nearly a dozen companies raising money at valuations above $100M. Investments in new companies will be made from the second Rise of the Rest Seed Fund announced today.

Starting with the Rise of Rest bus tours in 2014, Revolution has built a proprietary network of startup ecosystem relationships, including with over 200 regional venture firms, to help find the most promising companies in rising cities.

“At the launch of our first Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, we were confident that we could identify a wide range of promising startups based outside of Silicon Valley,” said Steve Case, the CEO of Revolution and anchor investor in both Rise of the Rest Seed Funds. “But the results to date have exceeded our most optimistic expectations. We have made initial investments at a faster pace than we originally anticipated, and we’re seeing a stepped up pace of follow-on investments in companies that have scaled faster than expected. We were once a lonely voice in the venture world in touting this regional investment opportunity and are delighted to see the momentum now building in cities across the country.”

Leading the new fund as Managing Partner is David Hall, an investor at Revolution for more than a decade. Partners Anna Mason and Mary Grove will also have expanded leadership roles on the team. The diversity of the senior leadership at the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund will continue the effort to yield a portfolio with diverse founders that is reflective of the cities in which the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund invests.

“I have joined Steve and the team for every Rise of the Rest road trip since we started touring startup communities in 2014,” said Hall. “And while each city is unique, they all have one thing in common: they recognize the power of entrepreneurship to revitalize and grow economies by providing jobs and opportunity. I am thrilled to take this next step in backing more companies that will help cities outside the coastal tech hubs thrive.”

This announcement comes on the heels of waves of research detailing the challenges of scaling companies and achieving a quality standard of living in the coastal tech hubs. Most recently, a report from LinkedIn illustrated that the San Francisco-to-Silicon Valley hub is struggling to gain residents from other cities, due to housing costs that now exceed over half of residents’ income.
As the momentum around investing in rising cities grows, Revolution continues to look for ways to support the entrepreneurs building companies in those geographies. Earlier this year, the team completed its eighth Rise of the Rest bus tour, visiting Orlando, the Florida Space Coast, Tampa Bay, Miami, and Puerto Rico. The Revolution team has now visited 43 cities and logged more than 11,000 miles touring startup ecosystems. A ninth tour will be announced in early 2020.

Additionally, next month Revolution will host its second annual Rise of the Rest CEO Summit in Washington D.C., bringing together portfolio company CEOs to discuss best practices and lessons learned. The team has developed a portfolio support platform that has enabled companies to become even more capital efficient with access to software and tools at reduced rates and to connect to subject matter experts.
Case added: “We are incredibly pleased to have so many of our investors reaffirm the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund strategy and again commit to the idea that great companies can—and do—start anywhere. Through our network of relationships in startup communities across the country, we have a unique window into the next generation of successful companies. We believe that supporting their growth will yield success for our funds, and help level the playing field so that geography is no longer a barrier to the pursuit of the American Dream.”

About Revolution’s Rise of the Rest
Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Funds are investment funds that are part of a nationwide platform led by Steve Case focused on spotlighting regional startup hubs and investing in early stage, high growth companies across the country. The team executes a proven strategy of partnering with regional ecosystem leaders and co-investors to build and scale the next wave of transformational companies. The Rise of the Rest Seed Funds are backed by a group of iconic entrepreneurs and business leaders who believe that the next great startups are located outside of coastal tech hubs. The Rise of the Rest Seed Funds are headquartered in Washington, DC and part of Revolution’s family of funds including Revolution Growth and Revolution Ventures. Visit us online at revolution.com/rotr or @RiseOfRest

PRESS RELEASE

New York, 28 October, 2019 – J.P. Morgan Asset Management today announced the final closing of its Lynstone Special Situations Fund (“Lynstone”), with $1.06 billion in capital raised from a broad set of global investors comprising of pension funds, insurance companies, banks, foundations, endowments and family offices across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. More than half of investors are first-time investors in a J.P. Morgan Alternatives fund.
Lynstone will invest in stressed, distressed and event driven situations across North American and European private and public credit markets, where underlying assets are discounted due to illiquidity or market disruption and where an event or catalyst has the strong potential to drive a positive total return. Lynstone, which surpassed its $750 million target, represents the first special situations fund from J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives, a $146 billion platform spanning real estate, infrastructure, transportation, hedge funds, private equity, private credit and liquid alternatives.

“In the current late-cycle market, we see significant investment opportunities in both the North American and European private credit markets, including providing bespoke solutions to companies in need of liquidity or capital structure solutions,” said Brad Demong, Co-CIO, Global Special Situations, J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Leander Christofides, Co-CIO Global Special Situations, J.P. Morgan Asset Management said, “The flexible nature of the Lynstone Fund allows us to invest opportunistically across the capital structure to take advantage of both the current environment and any future downturn. The significant demand for Lynstone demonstrates the confidence investors have in our 16 year investment strategy to drive performance across the credit cycle.”

About J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives
J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives is the alternative investment arm of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. With more than $146 billion in assets under management and 750 professionals (as of September 30, 2019), we offer strategies across the alternative investment spectrum including real estate, private equity and credit, infrastructure, transportation, liquid alternatives, and hedge funds. Operating from 18 offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, our independent alternative investment engines combine specialist knowledge and singular focus with the global reach, vast resources and powerful infrastructure of J.P. Morgan to help meet each client’s specific objectives. For more information: www.jpmorganassetmanagement.com.

About J.P. Morgan Asset Management
J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with assets under management of $1.9 trillion (as of September 30, 2019), is a global leader in investment management. J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s clients include institutions, retail investors and high net worth individuals in every major market throughout the world. J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers global investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity.

Securities products, if presented in the U.S., are offered by J.P. Morgan Institutional Investments, Inc., member of FINRA.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management is the brand for the asset management business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates worldwide.
This communication is issued by the following entities: in the United Kingdom by JPMorgan Asset Management (UK) Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; in other European jurisdictions by JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) S.à r.l.; and in the United States by J.P. Morgan Institutional Investments, Inc., member of FINRA; J.P. Morgan Investment Management, Inc.

PRESS RELEASE

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced the launch of the Qualcomm Ventures 5G Ecosystem Fund to invest up to an aggregate of $200 million in companies building the 5G ecosystem.

The global fund will focus on investing in startups developing new and innovative 5G use cases, driving 5G network transformation and expanding 5G into enterprise markets. This fund is designed to help accelerate 5G innovation beyond the smartphone and drive 5G adoption.

Qualcomm is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator, inventing foundational technologies, like 5G, that will transform how the world connects, computes and communicates. As 5G continues to roll out faster and more broadly than 4G, industry experts expect it to have a significantly greater impact than any previous generation of cellular technology and fuel a new era of innovation.

“5G will transform industries and should be viewed as a business strategy for all,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “The intent of this fund is to fuel innovative 5G businesses that will be poised to take advantage of the $13.2T economic benefit that 5G will enable by 2035.”

Last year, Qualcomm announced the launch of the Qualcomm Ventures AI Fund, with a focus on investing in innovative startups using on-device AI. The 5G Ecosystem Fund announced today builds on this strategy of investing in technology areas that will drive the economy forward and where Qualcomm has a demonstrated expertise.

“The 5G Ecosystem Fund will invest in startups developing 5G applications beyond smartphones and across the entire 5G value chain” said Quinn Li, Senior Vice President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and global head of Qualcomm Ventures, “from companies developing new use cases leveraging 5G’s unique capabilities to solutions that transform networks into an intelligent, software-defined connectivity fabric. We want to fuel the innovations in the 5G ecosystem and unlock the potential of 5G.”

Qualcomm Ventures has a strong track record of investing in leading global startups with over 350 investments made since the group started in 2000. This includes notable companies like Zoom, Cloudflare, AMEC, Xiaomi, Cruise Automation, 99, Thundersoft, Fitbit and Waze.

This fund will continue to invest in those that share Qualcomm Ventures’ vision to transform yet-to-be seen innovations and technologies into reality by using the power of 5G. Qualcomm’s industry-leading research and pioneering development of 5G will allow Qualcomm Ventures to serve as an ideal investor in startups that can leverage 5G’s capabilities and bring forth the next wave of innovation.

About Qualcomm
Qualcomm invents breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes and communicates. When we connected the phone to the Internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, our inventions are the foundation for life-changing products, experiences, and industries. As we lead the world to 5G, we envision this next big change in cellular technology spurring a new era of intelligent, connected devices and enabling new opportunities in connected cars, remote delivery of health care services, and the IoT – including smart cities, smart homes and wearables. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including, our QCT semiconductor business. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.

About Qualcomm Ventures
As the venture capital investment group of Qualcomm Incorporated, a world leader in next-generation wireless technologies, Qualcomm Ventures has been making strategic investments in technology companies that have the potential to dramatically transform our world since 2000. As a global investor, we’re focused on building the connections that bring our mobile future forward. For more information please visit: www.qualcommventures.com.

PRESS RELEASE

Fort Worth, TX – October 28, 2019 – Crestline Investors, Inc. (“Crestline”), a credit-focused institutional alternative asset manager, today announced the final closing of its first European Opportunity Fund, Crestline Opportunity Fund III Europe (“OFIII Europe”). This new fund will serve as an extension of the firm’s global series of opportunistic funds and exclusively target European opportunities. Crestline secured over $360 million in equity capital commitments, exceeding its fundraising objective.

This new fund is the tenth in Crestline’s series of opportunistic funds, which started in 2005 and have attracted more than $7.7 billion in client commitments to date. The fund is managed by Crestline’s European Credit Strategies team, which has closed 19 transactions. Investors in the fund include leading public pension plans, insurance companies, and other institutional investors.

The fund will provide capital solutions (ranging from senior debt to structured equity) to under-served small and medium sized businesses in Europe. Consistent with Crestline’s global approach, the European Fund will prioritize asset-backed transactions, those with recurring revenue, or situations with multiple and separable pools of value.

“With these additional capital commitments, we are well positioned to further execute on the significant market opportunities across the opportunistic spectrum in Europe,” said Douglas Bratton, Managing Partner & CIO of Crestline. “With 8 dedicated investment professionals in Europe, we believe we are well positioned to identify opportunities that can meet our clients’ return objectives.”

“The closing of our OFIII Europe fund represents a natural extension of our Opportunistic platform and enables us to fund our significant pipeline of investment opportunities in Europe,” said Michael Guy, Chief Investment Officer – Europe, who will oversee the fund. “We are grateful to the strong support by our institutional partners and we look forward to executing our investment strategy in the same disciplined manner as we have since 2015.”

About Crestline Investors, Inc.
Crestline Investors, Inc., founded in 1997 and based in Fort Worth, Texas, is an institutional alternative investment management firm with approximately $12.8 billion of assets under management.[1] Crestline specializes in credit and opportunistic investments, including financing and restructuring solutions for mature private equity funds. In addition, the firm manages a multi-PM equity market-neutral hedge fund, and provides beta and hedging solutions for institutional clients.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the company maintains affiliate offices in New York City, Chicago, London, Toronto and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.crestlineinvestors.com.

As part of the fund close, the early-stage firm announced that Bilimoria will become sole GP as Lee moves to a chairman role.

The firm says it invests in such areas as “synthetic biology, consumer wellness, chemicals, computational drug discovery, consumer biology, as well as other fundamental human problems in areas such as aerospace, agriculture, and transportation.”

Source: Medium blog post

PRESS RELEASE

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Sunstone Partners, a San Mateo, CA-based growth equity firm founded in 2015, announced today the closing of its oversubscribed second fund, Sunstone Partners II (“Fund II”), at its $475 million hard cap of limited partner commitments. Sunstone Partners’ Fund I and Fund II together have nearly $800 million of committed capital.

Gustavo Alberelli, Managing Director, said, “We are grateful to Sunstone’s existing and new investors who share our excitement for the opportunities that lie ahead. This level of overwhelming support is a result of the positive response to our investment strategy, portfolio operations approach as well as the strong performance of our existing portfolio companies.”

Fund II’s investors include university endowments, corporate pension plans, foundations, insurance companies, investment advisors, state and local retirement systems and family offices.

Sunstone Partners seeks to invest $25 to $75 million of equity per portfolio company in founder-owned software and technology-enabled services companies having annual revenue of at least $10 million, often as their first institutional capital partner. The firm focuses on four core industry sectors – Cloud, Cybersecurity, Healthcare IT and Marketing Services. Since its founding in 2015, Sunstone has grown to a team of 20 investment professionals, operating executives and administrative personnel.

“Fund II will focus on growth equity and growth buyout investments in technology companies that we believe are poised for rapid growth and market share gains. Our sector-focused approach, extensive track record and collaborative portfolio operations model, position Sunstone to be the partner of choice to founders looking to scale their companies,” said Mike Biggee, Managing Director.

Arneek Multani, Managing Director, said, “We are proud of the platform we have built at Sunstone and are excited to continue our mission of finding and building great businesses. With Fund II, we will continue to make investments in our team, operating capabilities and technology, that will position us to drive further success to our portfolio companies.”

About Sunstone Partners
Sunstone Partners is a growth equity firm focused on majority and minority investments in technology-enabled services and software businesses. The firm seeks to partner with exceptional management teams, often as their first institutional capital partner, to help accelerate organic growth and fund acquisitions. The firm was founded in 2015 and has nearly $800 million of committed capital under its first two funds. For more information, visit www.sunstonepartners.com

SOURCE Sunstone Partners

PRESS RELEASE

TPG Sixth Street Partners Hits Cap on First TSSP Capital Solutions Fund with $2.2 Billion Close
New platform provides market-leading growth companies with custom, flexible capital solutions

San Francisco and New York – October 22, 2019 – TPG Sixth Street Partners (“Sixth Street”), a global finance and investment business with over $32 billion in assets under management, and its TSSP Capital Solutions (“Capital Solutions”) platform today announced the final close of its first Capital Solutions fund. In addition to commitments from the Sixth Street team, the fund raised approximately $2.2 billion of total third-party commitments, reaching its hard cap. Capital Solutions is actively investing out of the fund and has already deployed over $500 million.

Capital Solutions makes non-control investments in growth-oriented companies. The team partners with companies to provide bespoke, accretive financing solutions that often differ from traditional growth equity. Capital Solutions has flexibility to invest in a range of opportunities from $25 million to over $500 million.

The creation of a dedicated Capital Solutions platform formalizes a strategy Sixth Street incubated through its flagship investment vehicles investing over $3 billion across more than 30 growth-oriented portfolio companies since its inception in 2009.

“We are thankful for the support of our limited partners, many of whom have been with our firm over the past decade, as we continue to grow our proven private growth capital solutions strategy in its own dedicated platform,” said Robert (Bo) Stanley, Co-Head of Capital Solutions and Partner at Sixth Street. “Private companies are looking for more options and greater flexibility when funding their next phase of development, and we look forward to creating those solutions.”

“We are excited to work with great management teams seeking to grow their businesses and are proud to be their partner in helping them achieve their strategic goals,” said Michael McGinn, Co-Head of Capital Solutions and Partner at Sixth Street. “Our team’s deep sector expertise combined with our ability to provide flexible and customized financing is the key to our partnership-driven investment philosophy.”

Select current and past investments representative of the Capital Solutions platform include AirTrunk, AvidXchange, Clinicient, Kyriba, Lucidworks, Paycor, PayScale, PaySimple and Spotify.

About TSSP Capital Solutions
TSSP Capital Solutions is the growth capital solutions platform of TPG Sixth Street Partners. Capital Solutions makes customized, non-control private investments in growth-oriented companies. The team partners with companies to provide bespoke, accretive financing solutions that often fall between commercial debt and traditional growth equity. For more information, visit www.tssp.com/tcs

About TPG Sixth Street Partners
TPG Sixth Street Partners (“Sixth Street”) is a global finance and investment business with over $32 billion in assets under management. Co-founded in 2009 by Managing Partner Alan Waxman and Sixth Street’s management team, the firm’s long-term oriented, highly flexible capital base allows it to invest across industries, geographies, capital structures and asset classes. TPG Sixth Street Partners is in a strategic partnership with TPG, the global alternative asset firm. For more information, visit www.tssp.com.

PRESS RELEASE

YEREVAN, Armenia, Oct. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Within the WCIT 2019 a ground-breaking initiative was announced by Aybuben Ventures – the first Pan-Armenian venture capital fund primarily dedicated to Armenian tech entrepreneurs from all over the world to launch with an initial $50 million fund.

The average deal size is expected to be between $500,000 and $3 million with Aybuben Ventures targeting a capital share of between 5 to 25%.

Alexander Smbatyan, Founding Partner, Aybuben Ventures, said: “Our mission is to support Armenian entrepreneurs in the most rapidly growing tech industries with a core focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality.”

Alexandr Yesayan, Founding Partner, Aybuben Ventures, added: “Aybuben means alphabet in Armenian. Ayb and Ben are for A and B. That is the first move, the first completed action one should make towards the success and we want to do it together. We see our mission as follows: ten million Armenians live around the world. Hundreds of thousands are infused with entrepreneurial spirit and the will to create and develop new and exciting developments. We want to partner with at least 1,000 of these entrepreneurs to launch tech companies that will make a difference within the coming five years.”

Arman Vardanyan, CEO of C-Quadrat Ampega Asset Management Armenia, said: “IT is one of the most successful and fastest growing industries in Armenia and many people are leveraging great potential in this area. Making Armenia an IT hub, building links between the disruptive tech businesses and the capital market is a forward looking initiative of Aybuben Ventures. It will help to keep talent in the country, cultivate great ideas and build on the potential that Armenia has, so its growth and development potential is realised. We at C-Quadrat Ampega Armenia and our German and Austrian shareholders are happy to support this great initiative and will consider making investments in Aybuben Ventures at its set-up and subsequent rounds, within the framework of the company’s investment policy. We will also put our best efforts into raising the Fund’s awareness through our network and partners in Armenia and abroad.”

Jean Mazedjian, CEO of Amundi-ACBA Asset Management, in his launch speech said: “This is a significant move by Aybuben and one which we fully support. Significant and innovative tech developments have been taking place in Armenia for some time but limited investment opportunities have been an issue Aybuben’s investment, however, will provide a catalyst for further growth and we look forward to the emergence of groundbreaking Armenian tech companies.

Equally, there will be many compatriots from the diaspora interested in this new fund. But what about us? Amundi-ACBA Asset Management is a subsidiary of Europe’s largest Asset Management company. We benefit from our mother company’s expertise and we are eager to support Aybuben to set up the required processes. In fact one of our aims is to share our expertise in Armenia. We are looking forward to others joining and supporting us with this kind of initiatives.”

PRESS RELEASE

BEND, ORE. (PRWEB) OCTOBER 17, 2019
Cascade Seed Fund today announced it is rebranding from Cascade Angels Fund and that it has held an initial close on the sixth fund since 2014 at $5.4 million.

Focused on early stage technology and consumer products companies located in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, the Fund seeks to support entrepreneurs who are seeking their first outside capital for their companies after having a product and initial customer traction. Unlike previous funds, Cascade Seed Fund will invest more like a traditional venture fund over 3 years with follow on investments while still benefiting from the expertise and experience of an Investment Committee to help review and evaluate potential investments. Investors in the fund include individual and institutional investors including Oregon Community Foundation and the State of Oregon.

“I’m excited to be part of the Cascade Seed Fund and on the Investment Committee,” said Jill Nelson, Founder and former CEO of Portland-based Ruby Receptionists. “Being involved in this way provides me the ability to help review investment opportunities as well as make direct connections with great entrepreneurs early in their journeys.”

Cascade Seed Fund is managed by 44North Ventures, under the leadership of Julie Harrelson and Robert Pease. Harrelson, an entrepreneur, investor and leader in Oregon’s startup community, founded Cascade Angels Fund in 2013 and managed all five predecessor funds to Cascade Seed Fund totaling over $6.5 million in early stage capital and over 30 investments. Pease has over 20 years of experience as an investor, founder, operational executive, and consultant. He joined Julie in the management of Cascade Angels Fund V and serves as a Venture Partner to the previous Cascade Angels Funds.

“Our target average investment of $250,000 fills the gap between individual angel investors and larger institutional funds that have higher minimum investment amounts,” said Robert Pease, Managing Director of 44North Ventures, Fund Manager for Cascade Seed Fund. “Our fund size also gives us flexibility in the stage, industry, and return potential of our investments that is aligned with our regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

In addition, Harrelson and Pease have personally established the Cascade Seed Fund Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scholarship at Oregon State University – Cascades intended to provide tuition assistance to students who demonstrate an interest in entrepreneurship and possess leadership potential. To learn more or donate, please visit https://cascadeseedfund.com/scholarship/.

“We invest in overlooked entrepreneurs: market disruptors, minorities, and those located outside major metropolitan centers and in rural communities.” said Julie Harrelson, Managing Director of 44North Ventures, Fund Manager for Cascade Seed Fund. “ This fund and our new name are building upon six years of seed stage investing and we are excited to begin the next phase of our work.”

About Cascade Seed Fund
Founded in 2013 and investing as Cascade Angels Fund across five funds, we became Cascade Seed Fund in 2019 building on more than six years of early stage investing experience. Today we continue to seek out opportunities to work with amazing entrepreneurs in Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Fund’s investors include prominent business leaders, exited entrepreneurs and institutional investors who are committed to contributing to a sustainable economy and building Oregon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since 2014, all of the Cascade Funds combined have raised over $12 million and invested in a total of 30 early-stage companies that cumulatively employ over 200 people. For more information, visit http://www.CascadeSeedFund.com, https://gust.com/organizations/cascade-seed-fund or http://www.twitter.com/CascadeFund.

Participation in the Cascade Seed Fund is by referral and invitation only. Angel and venture investments involve a high degree of risk. Participation is limited to “accredited investors,” as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

PRESS RELEASE

MILWAUKEE – October 17, 2019 – As part of our ongoing commitment to women and diversity, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures announced today that it will dedicate $20 million of its funding to invest in startup companies founded by women. This funding allocation will advance the company’s investment strategy of engaging startups whose technologies have the potential to transform how clients experience financial security, as well as increase focus on technological disruption.

Female-founded startups receive less than three percent of the approximately $80 billion in venture capital annually. Companies founded by both men and women receive around eight percent of the total capital, coming second to male-founded companies that secure 89 percent of all venture capital invested globally each year.[i]

“Women play an essential role in financial decision-making for themselves and their families and by investing in women-owned startups, we can create more opportunities for women through a dedication of funds, but also gain strategic insights to better serve our clients,” said Souheil Badran, chief operating officer and executive vice president, Northwestern Mutual. “We’re committed to supporting female entrepreneurs and providing access to capital and resources to help them grow their businesses. Allocating $20 million is only the beginning – we will continue to invest in and provide opportunities for female founders.”

The investment criteria is aligned with Northwestern Mutual Future Venture’s key strategic areas of focus:
Building for consumers’ changing financial preferences
Reimagining the client experience
The digital health revolution
Transformational analytics and technologies

Since launching in 2017, the Future Ventures Fund has invested more than $50 million in 18 startups that align with Northwestern Mutual’s investment strategy and goals. Beyond providing capital, Northwestern Mutual is a strong venture partner that offers the unique advantage of the industry-leading financial strength and scale of a Fortune 500 combined with an entrepreneurial culture.

For more information on funding opportunities, contact the Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures team at nmfutureventures.com.

About Northwestern Mutual
Northwestern Mutual has been helping families and businesses achieve financial security for more than 160 years. Through a distinctive, personalized planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial advisors with a digital experience to help its clients navigate their financial lives every day. With $272.2 billion in assets, $28.5 billion in revenues, and $1.8 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than 4.5 million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. The company manages $128 billion of investments owned by its clients and held or managed through its wealth management and investment services businesses. Northwestern Mutual ranks 111 on the 2019 FORTUNE 500 and is recognized by FORTUNE® as one of the “World’s Most Admired” life insurance companies in 2019.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (securities), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (fiduciary and fee-based financial planning services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance).

PRESS RELEASE

CHICAGO (PRWEB) OCTOBER 17, 2019
RiverGlade Capital (“RiverGlade”), a healthcare-focused private equity firm, announced today the closing of its inaugural fund, RiverGlade Capital, L.P. (“the Fund”), with $325 million of commitments. Fund commitments exceeded the target size of $300 million.

RiverGlade’s founders and Managing Partners, Garrick Rice and Danny Rosenberg, have nearly two decades of investing together. The investment strategy remains focused on partnering with founders and management teams of exceptional healthcare companies. RiverGlade’s team will continue to pursue investments in the following healthcare sectors: multi-unit care models, outsourced services, tech-enabled services and medical products. RiverGlade’s target investments range in size from $25 million to $150 million in enterprise value.

About RiverGlade Capital
RiverGlade Capital is a healthcare-focused private equity firm that partners with founders and management teams to grow exceptional healthcare companies. RiverGlade invests in companies that have demonstrated strong organic growth and where value can be accelerated through human capital investments, operational improvements, strategic planning, and dynamic organic and inorganic growth initiatives. For more information, http://www.rivergladecapital.com.

PRESS RELEASE

SOFINNOVA PARTNERS RAISES €333 MILLION CAPITAL IX
EARLY-STAGE HEALTHCARE FUND
The firm manages €2B across its life sciences platform, €1B of which has been raised in the last 4 years

Paris, France – October 17th, 2019 — Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan and specialized in Life Sciences, announced today the close of its latest early-stage healthcare venture capital fund Sofinnova Capital IX, oversubscribed at €333 million. The firm now has more than €2B under management with more than €1B raised in the last four years across its platform of life sciences funds.

Pursuing the strategy it has consistently applied over the years for its flagship early-stage Capital funds, Sofinnova Capital IX will invest in the healthcare industry and more specifically in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. Sofinnova Partners will seek to invest as a founding and lead investor in start-ups and corporate spin-offs, and focus on therapeutic, paradigm-shifting technologies and products alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Capital IX will invest about two thirds of its funds in European companies, and one third outside of Europe, primarily in North America.

The new fund has commitments from leading institutional investors, predominantly endowment funds, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign funds, corporates and family offices, many of whom are continuing a long and successful relationship with the Sofinnova family of Funds. The majority of commitments came in from Europe, including France, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, but also from leading North American investors in the U.S. and Canada, as well as major investors from Asia.
Antoine Papiernik, Managing Partner and Chairman of Sofinnova Partners, said, “Our experienced team, stable strategy and exit track record resonated well with investors, hence the success of our fundraising for this latest Capital fund. Over the last three years, we have completed nine remarkable exits in the portfolio for a total enterprise value of almost 4 billion euros.”

The launch of Sofinnova Capital IX follows the formation, in just the last three years, of Sofinnova Crossover I, a fund investing in pre- and post-IPO companies; Sofinnova MD Start III, a medical device acceleration fund; Sofinnova Industrial Biotech I, a fund dedicated to industrial biotech; and Sofinnova Telethon Fund I, a fund dedicated to seed investments in gene and cell therapies based out of Milan, Italy. With these focused franchises managed by dedicated specialist teams, Sofinnova Partners has established a unique and comprehensive platform of investment vehicles across the life sciences investment value chain.

Triago acted as placement agent and Clifford Chance acted as legal counsel on Sofinnova Capital IX.

About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Headquartered in Paris, France, with offices in London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of 40 professionals from all over Europe, the U.S. and Asia. The firm focuses on paradigm-shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners invests across the Life Sciences value chain as a lead or cornerstone investor, from very early-stage opportunities to late-stage/public companies. It has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 45 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2 billion under management.
For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com

PRESS RELEASE

IDINVEST PARTNERS ANNOUNCES FINAL CLOSE OF

THE IDINVEST DIGITAL FUND iii AT €350m

London, 17th October 2019

• Volume of predecessor fund exceeded by more than 100% percent
• Nearly one quarter of the capital already committed to 15 investments

Idinvest Partners, a leading investor in SMEs across Europe, has announced the final closing of its third digital fund at €350m, having surpassed its initial fundraising target of €300m.

The fund, managed by a team of nine investors, has attracted many new LPs from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America. It has also been highly successful among investors who, following their participation in the previous fund, extended their commitment.

The final close of the Idinvest Digital Fund III has surpassed that of its predecessor, the Idinvest Digital Fund II, which secured €154 million.

Benoist Grossmann, Managing Partner at Idinvest Partners, said: “At Idinvest, we continue to place long-term importance on cultivating a dedicated ecosystem for entrepreneurs, therefore we are extremely pleased with the fundraising efforts of the team. The close demonstrates our expertise across the digital sector and shows the confidence that our institutional and corporate investors, leaders in Europe and internationally, have in our activities.”

To date, €85m has already been invested across 15 innovative European businesses, all experiencing rapid growth in the digital sector. Among these are Acinq, Kactus, October, Malt Community, Ornikar, Meero and TeleClinic, companies at the forefront of innovation across various areas of the digital sector: business software, fintech, insurtech, deeptech (AI, big data, VR, IoT, cyber security) and digital health.

Matthieu Baret, Managing Partner at Idinvest Partners, added: “Europe’s pool of entrepreneurs is constantly growing and evolving, and the third digital fund offers excellent investment opportunities, particularly in the digital sector. For many years, Idinvest Partners has supported some of the most exciting and dynamic European technology businesses achieve their ambitions, by offering a collaborative approach available for the long-term, something we will continue to do moving forward.”

ABOUT IDINVEST PARTNERS

Idinvest Partners is a leading European mid-market private equity firm. With €8bn under management, the firm has developed several areas of expertise including innovative startup venture capital transactions; mid-market private debt, i.e. single-tranche, senior and subordinated debt; primary and secondary investment and private equity advisory services. Founded in 1997, Idinvest Partners used to belong to the Allianz Group until 2010, when it branched out as an independent firm. In January 2018, Idinvest Partners became a subsidiary of Eurazeo, a leading global investment company, with a diversified portfolio of €17.7bn in assets under management, including nearly €11.6bn from investment partners, invested in nearly 400 companies.

www.idinvest.com

Veritas Capital Fund VII will invest in technology-focused companies that provide products and services to government-related and commercial customers.

The fund’s backers include Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, as previously reported by PE HUB’s sister site Buyouts.

In 2017, Veritas Capital closed its sixth fund at $3.55 billion, sweeping past its $3 billion target. No performance data was available on the fund.

Based in New York City, the private equity firm has completed more than 90 acquisitions, reported its website. Ramzi Musallam serves as CEO and managing partner.

PRESS RELEASE

TORONTO, October 15, 2019 – Whitehorse Liquidity Partners (“Whitehorse”), a specialized investment manager focused on providing structured liquidity solutions to the alternative asset class, today announced a successful final close for Whitehorse Liquidity Partners Fund III (“Fund III”) at its US$2.0 billion hard cap. This is in excess of its US$1.5 billion target and double Whitehorse’s US$1.0 billion Fund II, which closed in August 2018.

Whitehorse’s diversified investor base is comprised of leading insurance companies, public and corporate pension plans, family offices, financial institutions and individual investors.

Yann Robard, Managing Partner of Whitehorse, said, “We are pleased to announce the final closing of Fund III at our hard cap of US$2.0 billion. We remain grateful for the confidence, conviction and support provided to us by our investors. Without investors, there would be no Whitehorse. The increase in the size of Fund III reflects the scale of the market opportunity we have created and are capturing. Whitehorse’s partnership-based approach has resulted in rapid market adoption and a significant and growing pipeline of opportunities. We have executed on 39 pending or closed transactions representing US$3.2 billion since establishing Whitehorse in August 2015. We remain committed to scaling successfully through measured growth of our organization. Our team has grown to 38 people and counting as we seek to plan for rather than react to complexity.”

With regards to the fundraise, Michael Gubbels, Partner of Whitehorse, said, “Fund III was oversubscribed and completed its final closing less than a year from its launch. We attribute the speed and success of our Fund III fundraise to the continued support of our existing investor base and the conviction of investors who are new to Whitehorse. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our investors for their belief in Whitehorse.”

With regards to the market opportunity, Giorgio Riva, Partner of Whitehorse, added, “Whitehorse’s traction in the private equity market is the result of our focus on offering nimble, customized and aligned liquidity solutions and finding the win-win in all that we do. Our innovative and flexible approach has been additive to the secondary market, offering a differentiated means of accelerating liquidity for the alternative asset class.”

With regards to the growth of the team, Rob Gavin, Partner of Whitehorse said, “To effectively capture the growing market opportunity, we have continued to expand our team. The Whitehorse team is currently comprised of 38 professionals across Whitehorse’s three core functions – Capital Management, Firm Management and Asset Management – and we anticipate adding more talent in the coming year.”

Sean Connor, Chief Financial Officer and Partner of Whitehorse, added, “In the last year alone, Whitehorse has nearly doubled the size of its operations team to support the growth in the business. Through hiring a team of talented, specialized professionals, we have built an institutionalized operations department.”

Leah Boyd, General Counsel of Whitehorse, added, “We are proud of the exceptional team that we continue to build at Whitehorse and thankful to everyone for their dedication and hard work. Likewise, we are grateful for the strong support of our limited partners and focused on continuing to come through on our commitments to them.”

Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel for Whitehorse and Fund III.

About Whitehorse Liquidity Partners
Whitehorse Liquidity Partners is a private equity firm focused on providing structured liquidity solutions to the alternative asset class. Whitehorse has identified what it believes is a significant and untapped market opportunity in the utilization of structured products to generate liquidity on private equity portfolios. Whitehorse was formed in 2015 and seeks to provide customized and flexible liquidity solutions for private equity investors. Whitehorse has raised US$3.4 billion in committed capital across three funds and has closed or committed to 39 transactions with a value of over US$3.2 billion. For more information, please visit www.whitehorseliquidity.com.

PRESS RELEASE

Permira, the global private equity firm, has held a final closing for its latest buy-out fund Permira VII (“P7”), reaching its hard cap with total commitments of €11bn.
P7 will follow Permira’s long-term strategy of investing in market-leading businesses that benefit from strong and resilient underlying growth drivers. The Fund will continue to deploy across Permira’s key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Financial services, Healthcare, Industrial Tech and Services.
The Fund was strongly supported by existing investors. In addition, a substantial number of new relationships across multiple geographies made commitments to P7.
Tom Lister, co-managing partner at Permira, commented:
“We are pleased to have achieved such a strong fundraising and particularly to welcome new investors and geographies alongside our existing relationships.”
Kurt Björklund, co-managing partner at Permira, added:
“We are encouraged by the opportunities that our sector teams and geographic offices identify and have confidence that we can continue to build on our successful track record, although discipline remains paramount given the challenging environment for investing.”
Fundraising for P7 commenced in January 2019. P7 has already committed to two new investments.
Earlier this year Permira closed its $1.7bn Growth Opportunities Fund dedicated to minority equity investments in fast-growing and typically tech-enabled businesses.

PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — M13, a venture engine built by and for entrepreneurs, is pleased to announce the close of its $175M fund. Oversubscribed with an original target of $150M, M13’s Fund II will prioritize Seed and Series A with select Series B+ rounds in emerging consumer technology companies.

M13 is evolving the traditional venture model by supporting entrepreneurs with both funding and operational expertise. Founded in 2016 with offices in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, M13 executes a “founders first” approach with a team of experienced operators to help build and scale consumer technology companies.

“As former founders and operators, all of us at M13 have the experience and empathy to support our founding teams throughout their entire journey,” said M13 co-founder and partner Carter Reum. “M13 has already demonstrated success in deploying our investors’ capital into what are now household names, and we look forward to continuing our investment strategy with Fund II. Fund II will allow M13 to take meaningful ownership stakes in compelling companies and grow them in future rounds.”

With more than 80 direct investments and 16 exits, M13’s prior investments total over $137B in enterprise value and includes Lyft, Pinterest, Ring, Daily Harvest, FabFitFun, Rothy’s and others. Fund II will build on M13’s expertise in consumer behavior and the intersection of emerging technology and key sectors such as health, transportation, food, housing and personal finance. Recent investments include Capsule, Coinmine, Doorstead, Emerge and Tarform.

“M13’s goal is to capture how consumer behavior will change over the next decade and invest into that change with both our capital as well as hands-on support and expertise relevant to our founders,” said M13 General Partner Latif Peracha.

M13 investor and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson said, “I’m glad to be an investor in M13. I have followed co-founders Carter and Courtney Reum for many years. Now they have added General Partner Latif Peracha, who worked on Virgin’s US companies and looked after my US venture investments for the last seven years. M13 already has a strong track record in consumer tech and made its strength guiding entrepreneurs in a practical way. I’m excited to see how their portfolio grows.”

About M13
M13 is a venture engine whose founding teams access the necessary capital, expertise and resources to build and scale consumer technology companies. Founded in 2016 with offices in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, M13’s portfolio includes Lyft, Pinterest, Ring, Daily Harvest, FabFitFun, Rothy’s and others. Through Fund II, M13 will expand its focus to emerging technologies driving change in consumer behavior over the next decade. With more than 80 direct investments and 16 exits, M13’s portfolio totals over $137B in enterprise value. For more information on M13, please visit www.m13.co.

PRESS RELEASE

BOSTON, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Clean Energy Ventures (CEV), an investor in early-stage advanced energy start-ups, today announced the close of its first fund. The $110 million Clean Energy Venture Fund targets the current capital gap for seed and early-stage investments in promising advanced energy innovations. CEV will focus on technologies and business model innovations in the U.S. and Canada that are ready to be scaled and commercialized, and that have the potential to significantly mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions.

“After more than a decade of investing in the advanced energy sector, it’s been gratifying that this first fund, which is focused on investments that address climate risks, was significantly oversubscribed. It’s really indicative not only of investors’ appetite for innovation in these sectors, but also of the new normal in which this kind of funding is possible without compromising return on investment,” said Daniel Goldman, Managing Director at CEV. “Investors are clearly seeing that increasing commercial adoption of advanced energy innovations is creating opportunities to earn attractive risk-adjusted returns.”

The three principals – David S. Miller, Daniel Goldman, and Temple Fennell – bring extensive advanced energy and technology start-up experience, as well as over 40 years of combined investing experience at the seed and early stages. Their successful track record of investing in more than 30 early-stage advanced energy companies includes multiple exits, such as MyEnergy (acquired by Nest, subsequently acquired by Alphabet affiliate Google), and more recently, Pika Energy (acquired by Generac). The firm will leverage their decade-plus history of investing together across the advanced energy sector and their extensive network among financial and strategic investors who have co-invested or followed-on in many of the principals’ prior investments.

CEV’s investment strategy is focused on a broad range of low-cost, capital-efficient advanced energy technology solutions that have massive emissions reduction potential. The fund has already made seven investments in sectors that include grid-edge connectivity and advanced metering, innovative materials and manufacturing processes applicable to carbon fiber composites and silicon-based solar wafers, residential and industrial energy efficiency, and smart grid sensors and software. Additional areas of interest include energy storage, grid connectivity, renewable energy production, clean transportation and the water/energy nexus.

“Unique among investors in the clean energy space, we’ll continue to focus on early stage advanced energy entrepreneurs with disruptive hardware and materials technology solutions and capital-light business models that have the potential to massively scale,” continued Goldman. “That thesis continues to generate extraordinary interest for co-investment and acquisition by an increasingly broad array of energy and industrial sector incumbents seeking new business opportunities and low-carbon solutions to their operations. Our intention is to take significant steps towards realizing our ultimate goal of growing companies to scale and having a material impact on greenhouse gas emissions.”

CEV’s Strategic Advisory Board is chaired by former United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and includes Ellen Williams, former Chief Scientist of British Petroleum, and J. Michael McQuade, former Chief Technology Officer of United Technologies. The fund also has a deep bench of venture partners with whom the principals have been working for over a decade and who bring extensive technical and commercial advanced energy experience. As an engaged investor, the fund is focused on leadership team diversity and development and is supported by a world-renowned expert focused on helping leadership teams discover new ways of working together to generate profound transformation within their companies.

About Clean Energy Ventures
Clean Energy Ventures (CEV) is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage advanced energy technologies and business model innovations that are ready to be scaled and commercialized to address global climate risks. The firm’s principals – serial entrepreneurs and investors who have backed more than 30 companies in the advanced energy technology sectors – have been investing in, supporting and mentoring early-stage energy startups together since 2005. Additional information is available at CleanEnergyVentures.com.

PRESS RELEASE

Goldcrest Farm Trust Closes on Additional $300 Million in Pension Fund Commitments
NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Goldcrest Farm Trust (“GFT”), a privately held real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in U.S. farmland, announced today that it has successfully completed fundraising for its second investment vehicle. GFT raised in excess of $300 million in commitments from a group of world-class institutional investors.
GFT is managed by Goldcrest Farm Trust Advisors (“GFTA”). GFTA focuses exclusively on building and managing GFT’s investment portfolio, including its inaugural REIT, which launched in 2015. That vehicle also raised over $300 million in institutional commitments.
GFTA now manages over $600 million in committed capital across both investment vehicles.
“We are grateful for the ongoing trust and additional capital commitment from our shareholders,” said Edward Hargroves, a Partner and co-founder of GFTA. “The recent volatility in agricultural markets has created exciting investment opportunities across the United States and the long-term case for investing in the farmland asset class continues to become more compelling every year.”
Launched in 2015 as U.S. Farm Trust, and since renamed to Goldcrest Farm Trust, the REIT has invested in over 70,000 acres of farmland across the United States. Its portfolio consists of high-quality established farms, “fixer uppers,” and greenfield development projects, with medium to long-term leases with some of the best operators in each region.
About Goldcrest Farm Trust
Goldcrest Farm Trust is a privately held real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns high quality farmland across the United States. The REIT launched in 2015 and has since acquired and improved approximately 70,000 acres across the United States. The REIT is managed by Goldcrest Farm Trust Advisors (GFTA), which has a seasoned management team with a successful track record investing in farmland, as well as prominent careers at leading investment firms, including Duquesne Capital Management, SAC Capital Advisors, Goldman Sachs, and U.S. Trust. GFTA’s management includes the former founders of AgCoA, a private farmland REIT that was recently acquired by the Gates Foundation. GFTA has a unique approach to investing, combining proprietary macro research with on-the-ground knowledge of local markets.
Further information is available at www.goldcrestft.com. Follow Goldcrest Farm Trust on Twitter @goldcrestft.

Source: Jackson Square Ventures blog post