| |  | | NEWSLETTER | 17 Jul 2020 |
 | | PE backing AI tech to combat fake news ahead of US election Monument Group, one of the world’s most renowned placement agents, completed two high profile fund closures last week: Charlesbank Credit Opportunity Fund II closed at its hard cap of USD700 million, and Manila-based private equity firm Navegar‘s final close of Navegar II at USD197 million. This week, PEWire caught up with Janet Brooks, a partner in Monument Group’s London office, to talk about her experiences of raising funds during the pandemic.
The beginning of the week saw NPIF - Mercia Equity Finance and XTX Ventures investing GBP2.5 million in Logically, a tech startup using AI to detect misinformation and to provide a fact-checking service to combat fake news ahead of the US election.
TrueBridge Capital Partners closed its sixth venture capital fund-of-funds, TrueBridge Capital Partners Fund VI, with USD600 million in capital from LPs. Investors into TrueBridge Fund VI include new and existing global LPs, including foundations and endowments, pension funds, family offices, as well as high net worth individuals.
IQ Capital led a GBP5.5 million series A funding round in CyberSmart, which helps small to medium-sized businesses combat cyber-attacks, while Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) became the first US university to invest in Cosimo Ventures’s new, blockchain-focused tokenised fund, Cosimo X.
On Thursday, Sumeru Equity Partners led a USD100 million investment in SocialChorus, a workforce communications SaaS company, along with existing investors. Kohlberg Ventures and Arrowroot Capital will continue as backers in the company.
New data by Invest Europe that came out this week showed that PE firms invested in 464 companies in Central and Eastern Europe in 2019 – a new record for the region. Investment into CEE countries increased by 7 per cent year-on-year to EUR2.95 billion the data showed, as the private equity industry boosted its support for start-ups that are fuelling the region’s economic growth.
The private equity space seems to be mirroring the non-uniformity seen in the rebounds of global economies. According to the latest research from Pitchbook, European PE deal volume in Q2 dropped to its lowest point since Q3 2013. It is believed this will pick up again however, as confidence returns further down the line.
An interesting effect of Brexit is that it has reduced the number of available deals in the UK – Europe’s biggest market- and is shifting a portion of deal activity to the France & Benelux region instead, which has seen a significant uptick in deal activity.
Karin Wasteon
Editor, Private Equity Wire
| | ADVERTISEMENT |  | | | | Q&A with Monument Group's Janet Brooks: PE fundraising during the pandemic | | Fri | 17 Jul 2020, 12:46 | | Monument Group, one of the world’s most renowned placement agents, completed two high profile fund closures last week: Charlesbank Credit Opportunity Fund II closed at its hard cap of USD700 million, and Manila-based private equity firm Navegar‘s final close of Navegar II at USD197 million. |
| | | | | | | | Sponsored Article | | Rocketing Scrutiny, Eroding Trust – The Changing PE Legal Spend Landscape | | Fri | 17 Jul 2020, 12:46 | | In May, the first major investigation into the changing private equity legal spend landscape surveyed 100 senior in-house legal stakeholders in PE houses in the UK and US, with an average of more than USD10 billion under management. With an average of USD10.5 million and USD8.6 million spent in the US and UK on external legal services respectively, it is clear that legal is a significant and necessary cost of doing business for PE houses. Join a virtual panel debate to discuss these findings on the 29 July. The session will be hosted by legal spend management platform Apperio and Richard Fogg (CEO, CC Group), with various senior legal stakeholders on the panel. |
| | | | | | | | | | | | ADVERTISEMENT | | | | | | RIT invests in COSIMO Ventures tokenised fund | | Fri | 17 Jul 2020, 12:46 | | Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has become the first US university to invest in Cosimo Ventures’s new, blockchain-focused tokenised fund, Cosimo X. |
| | | | RIT invests in COSIMO Ventures tokenised fund | | Fri | 17 Jul 2020, 12:46 | | Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has become the first US university to invest in Cosimo Ventures’s new, blockchain-focused tokenised fund, Cosimo X. |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | Calling all private equity CFOs and COOs! Join leading practitioners and colleagues at the PEWlive Europe Digital Summit (2-3 Sep) as we uncover and resolve the operational issues facing GPs in an increasingly competitive marketplace. |
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