Private Equity
Spark Capital, an early and growth-stage venture firm, has raised a total of $1 billion for two funds, according to a news post. The firm closed $400 million for its fifth venture fund and $600 million for its second growth fund. Investors included foundations and university endowments.
1 min read · 15 November 2016
TandemLaunch has raised $15 million in the close of its third seed fund. TandemLaunch Ventures II hit maximum capitalization thanks to additional commitments from BDC Capital, as well as new commitments from investors in China, Singapore, the United Kingdom and United States. In all, 44 limited partners invested. They included Guy Laliberté's Lune Rouge Innovation, Speed of Trust Ventures, YUL Ventures, Nathalie Marcoux and Jean-Francois Grenon. Montréal's TandemLaunch will use the funds raised to build another dozen synthetic startups that respond to innovative trends. PE Hub Canada interviewed TandemLaunch's founder, Helge Seetzen, in June.
3 min read · 15 November 2016
3 min read · 11 November 2016
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Canada's biggest public pension plan, said it ended the second quarter of its fiscal year with $300.5 billion in assets, up from $287.3 billion three months earlier, Reuters reported. CPPIB, which manages Canada's national pension fund and invests on behalf of 19 million Canadians, said it delivered gross investment returns of 4.83 percent in the second quarter, or 4.75 percent net of all costs. That compared with returns of 1.5 percent in the previous quarter.
1 min read · 10 November 2016
BDC Capital has committed $50 million to support technology startups led by women entrepreneurs. The commitment is on top of the $700 million allocated by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) last year to fund women-owned businesses. A total of $40 million of the new pool will go to women-led startups backed by BDC Capital or its partner accelerators. An additional $10 million will to regional initiatives. The first of these will engage MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), the early-stage venture fund of Toronto's MaRS Discovery District. Michelle McBane, investment director at MaRS IAF, will lead the initiative.
3 min read · 09 November 2016
The European Commission has committed up to 400 million euros to a new venture capital fund-of-fund. The fund will seek to invest in a variety of venture funds that back small businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe.
4 min read · 08 November 2016
Plexus Capital has closed its fourth fund at $400 million. Fund IV will focus on backing profitable businesses that have between $10 million and $100 million in revenue. According to the firm, the fund's investors include 57 banks, 208 individuals and family offices and eight institutions. Plexus has also raised funding from SBA's Small Business Investment Company program.
2 min read · 08 November 2016
2 min read · 08 November 2016
A majority of private equity firms in the United Kingdom and many across the continent delayed fund launches following the Brexit vote, and a sizable number of them anticipate European startups will see less investment as a result of the election-box decision in the U.K. to leave the European Union, according to a study.
2 min read · 07 November 2016
Canadian specialty finance firm Wellington Financial has been named to Preqin’s 2016 list of most consistent top-performing private debt fund managers. Preqin named Wellington and thirteen other firms for consistently generating first and second quartile returns since inception out of a global universe of 140 fund managers. It is the second time in three years that Wellington has made the list. Led by President and CEO Mark McQueen, Toronto-based Wellington provides term, venture, amortizing and unitranche loans of up to $40 million, primarily to technology-focused companies. Its latest fund, Wellington Financial Fund V, raised $300 million in late 2015.
3 min read · 07 November 2016
