| Private equity betting on biotech companies’ scientific breakthroughs
The private equity space is seeing continued deal flow in the technology sector, in particular the biotech and medical technology industries.
British Patient Capital invested USD65 million in SV Health Investors’ USD265 million fund, the SV7 Impact Medicine Fund (IMF), which is dedicated to investing in biotech companies. The IMF is SV’s first biotech fund, and it will aim to turn scientific breakthroughs into biotech companies producing high impact precision medicine drugs for poorly treated diseases.
SFC Capital led a GBP 500,000 seed round for biotech startup Novai, a product of University College London. Founded by Professor Francesca Cordeiro from UCL and Imperial College London and headquartered in London, Novai was created using Wellcome Trust funding.
On Thursday, Evolution Equity Partners announced a Series C round in Quantexa, a decision intelligence software company that enables organisations to make better decisions.
Existing investors AlbionVC, HSBC, and Dawn Capital also joined the round. In addition to British Patient Capital, ABN AMRO Ventures joined as a new investor alongside previous investor Accenture Ventures.
RedBird Capital Partners agreed to acquire an 85 per cent majority stake in the French League 2 football club Toulouse FC. The club was relegated, along with Amiens, from the top tier of French football in April when clubs voted to end the season early due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Impact investment private equity fund Vital Capital, which is focused on companies in sub-Saharan Africa, partnered up with the US Government’s Kenya Investment Mechanism to provide funding to Kenyan agri-businesses that have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
New guidance has been released on mask wearing in the UK this week as the country continues to ease restrictions. The UK economy follows in central Europe’s suit as the hospitality and travel industries attempt to recover from the havoc of the last four months.
Despite shops, restaurants and bars opening their doors, one aspect of the lockdown that has not changed is the continued preference to work from home for many employees. Indeed, new research from Theta Financial Reporting suggests that 70 per cent of employees in the London finance sector do not want to return to the office, a sentiment shared by their employers.
Keeping up morale will be important in the upcoming months, and news from Deloitte that Central Europe’s deal-doers are feeling more confident than they were in 2008 might help. Central Europe’s private equity markets are feeling the impact of Covid-19 – but there is more optimism than during the 2008 global financial crisis, suggesting the experience the region’s deal-doers have accumulated may buoy investments, according to the latest Deloitte Central Europe Private Equity Confidence Survey.
“Given the ongoing uncertainty which lingers over markets, as well as the omnipresent element of the Covid-19 crisis, we can only hypothesise that these current expectations are buoyed by one variable which was less present in 2008: experience,” commented Mark Jung, partner at Deloitte.
On another positive note, LGT Capital Partners ESG Report 2020 revealed that 81 per cent of private equity managers already integrate ESG into their investment process, and a large part of the focus is shifting toward climate awareness. Keimpe Keuning, executive director at LGT Capital Partners, explained that climate issues continue to grow as a priority on the agenda for firms in the financial industry, in this week's feature.
One final note, voting for the annual Private Equity Wire US awards is now open! Support your clients and partner networks by voting today. This year, we are proud to be partnering with Bloomberg and thank the organisation for providing pre-selection data for the GP manager categories.
Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire
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