| Thoma Bravo raises largest tech-focused buyout fund ever at USD22.8bn
This week technology and software focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo raised USD 22.8 billion across three funds in what is one of the largest tech-focused private equity fundraising efforts to date. TB's new tech fund ranks as the largest tech-focused buyout fund raised by an independent private equity firm.
Blackstone announced the final close of the group’s second vintage of its long-hold private equity strategy – Blackstone Core Equity Partners. BCEP II was oversubscribed according to the PE group and closed at its hard cap of USD8 billion, which is more than 70 per cent larger than its predecessor fund. It also represents the largest amount of capital raised from outside investors for a long-hold private equity vehicle in history.
Also this week, global investment firm Carlyle agreed to acquire a majority stake in global funds network Calastone from its current shareholders, including Octopus Ventures and Accel, while Calastone management retains a minority stake.
Industry organisation Black Women in Asset Management wrote an open letter to the asset management industry calling on investment firms to promote racial equity. BWAM’s letter encourages senior leaders to set out actions which are aimed at leading to progress and give black women a greater voice in shaping investment decisions, by urging the investment community to go beyond the earlier solidarity statements issued during this year’s reckoning on racism that has swept over the world.
Finance industry network 100 Women in Finance will be hosting the largest ever international meeting of female investment managers and asset allocators during Global FundWomen Week in November, with the intention of facilitating capital introductions for women.
“The pandemic, coupled with technology, is acting as a great leveller in improving access to capital introduction opportunities for women managers,” Ulrika Robertsson, co-founder and COO of Impactus Partners and Chair of 2020 Global FundWomen Week, commented on the initiative.
Robust due diligence processes, both investment and operational, are a critical part of successful fund or manager selection, but how has this changed during the pandemic? Joanna Kirby, managing director, Time Partners, explores this in her thought piece for Private Equity Wire.
Consumer tech such as apps are often free to download today, and with software being such a vital part of any financial organisation’s infrastructure, Jamie Nascimento, co-founder at alternative asset management platform LemonTree Software, asks why it should be any different, in his guest article this week.
Early-stage Israeli proptech investor BuiltUp Ventures invested in Trusstor and StructShare, two Israeli construction tech startups. Other proptech companies BuiltUp Ventures has invested in over the last two years include data analytics tool MyTower, asset tokenisation platform SolidBlock, virtual marketing company Augmind, AI-based platform Innovesta, and Everflow.
EQT Ventures led a USD 12.7 million Series A round into Amsterdam-based development startup CodeSandbox, which is used by the likes of Stripe and Shopify, from its AI platform Motherbrain. Other participants in the round included existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Arches Capital, as well as angel investor Guillermo Rauch. They were also joined by two new angels – Andreas Blixt and Daniel Gebler.
Tech-focused private equity firm Accel-KKR closed its latest fund, Accel-KKR Emerging Buyout Partners LP at USD640 million, bringing Accel-KKR’s total assets under management to over USD10 billion and marking its fifth fund close since the beginning of 2019.
“Despite the less-than-ideal conditions imposed by the pandemic, we completed a very efficient, successful fundraise almost completely during the lockdown,” Rob Palumbo, managing partner of Accel-KKR, commented on the fundraise.
Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire
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