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Record-breaking fundraising of €486 million for Qonto, to further accelerate European growth and become the finance solution for 1 million SMEs and freelancers by 2025

KKR

January 11, 2022

Paris, January 11 2022 – Qonto, the leading European business finance solution, announced today it has raised €486 million in Series D funding, bringing Qonto’s valuation to €4.4 billion. With this fundraising – one of the largest ever in French history – Qonto sets a new record valuation for a French scale-up. This latest round is jointly led by new investors Tiger Global and TCV, in addition to eight other new contributors: Alkeon, Eurazeo, KKR, Insight Partners, Exor Seeds, Guillaume Pousaz, Gaingels and Ashley Flucas. They will join current investors Valar, Alven, DST Global and Tencent who are all renewing their support by participating in this new funding round.
Since its launch in France in 2017, Qonto has been committed to building the first all-in-one finance solution for SMEs and freelancers. Qonto simplifies everything from everyday banking and financing to bookkeeping and spend management, allowing its customers to focus on what truly matters. The company currently has more than 220,000 clients across four markets (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain). With this new funding round, Qonto’s ambition is to become the finance solution of choice for 1 million European SMEs and freelancers by 2025.
To support its high-level goals, Qonto will:
● Continue expanding its product offer through in-house development, new strategic partnerships and potential acquisitions to ensure it offers its clients the best product available on the market;
● Further grow its market penetration across Germany, Italy and Spain and new markets. In 2021, the company opened local offices in Barcelona, Berlin and Milan to fully tailor its offer to each market and lay down roots in those local ecosystems to foster closer partnership. Qonto is expanding particularly rapidly across these markets: the company has quadrupled its revenue over the past two years. Qonto will further accelerate its strong momentum across Europe by investing over €100 million in each market (Germany, Italy and Spain) over the next two years. Qonto also plans to reinforce its European leadership by launching in new markets by 2023. In 2025, it is expected that 75% of new clients will come from outside France.
● Recruit new talent and quadruple its team to more than 2,000 by 2025, 50% of new hires to be based outside of France. In part, this will be achieved thanks to the creation of a new Customer Support Operations Hub, to be based in Barcelona and designed to maintain its outstanding customer support while further scaling. To reinforce its international recruitment strategy and meet the expectations of an increasingly agile and mobile talent pool, the company will also launch a European “Qonto Campus” program to enable international mobility between the local offices.
Alexandre Prot, co-founder and CEO of Qonto: “Since our launch in 2017, we’ve constantly strived to create the finance solution that energizes SMEs and freelancers, empowering them to achieve more. This new Series D funding round is an amazing opportunity for us to accelerate our hyper-growth trajectory by investing in our product, our customer service and our power to attract new talents. This funding round reveals the incredible dynamism of the French and European Tech ecosystem. We count on policymakers
to continue their efforts to ensure entrepreneurship can succeed, leading to European and global champions that deliver innovation. This is only the beginning of our journey to best serve SMEs and freelancers and we couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds for us and our ambitions. The Qonto team is honored to welcome the most prestigious international investors to support our mission to become the leading business finance solution.”
John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global: “Qonto has revolutionized business finance for SMEs and freelancers by marrying simplicity with a unique all-in-one service. The company has seen a significant increase in clients across its European markets during the coronavirus pandemic. This also shows that customers’ needs are evolving during these unprecedented times. We have tracked Qonto’s incredible growth for some time and are delighted to partner with the entire Qonto team and support their mission to serve a rapidly growing European market.”
“We at TCV love to back visionary founders and could not be more excited to partner with Alexander, Steve and the rest of the Qonto team, said John Doran, General Partner at TCV. “We look forward to supporting them as they continue to bring best-in-class banking and finance solutions to millions of SMEs and freelancers across Europe.”

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Faraway Road Productions Acquired by Candle Media, Next-generation Media Company Backed by Kevin Mayer, Tom Staggs, and Blackstone

Blackstone

LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK, & TEL AVIV – Candle Media (“Candle”), the next-generation media company run by leading entertainment executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs and backed by investment capital from Blackstone, today announced it has acquired Faraway Road Productions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded by Lior Raz & Avi Issacharoff, the creators of FAUDA and Hit & Run, Faraway Road Productions is a global media and entertainment company delivering high-impact, original stories to audiences around the world. Season Four of FAUDA is set to premiere later this year on Israel’s YES TV and streaming worldwide on Netflix. Other current development projects include the film Siege of Bethlehem – to be directed by Antoine Fuqua – and a non-scripted spy thriller for Showtime with director Greg Barker.

Kevin Mayer & Tom Staggs, Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs of Candle, said: “Lior and Avi are world-class storytellers who produce exhilarating content that strikes a chord globally with audiences across cultures and languages. They are exactly the type of partners we and Blackstone are looking to invest behind – and we are excited to work with them to further accelerate Faraway Road’s growth trajectory.”

Joe Baratta, Global Head of Private Equity at Blackstone, and David Kestnbaum, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “We are proud to back Lior and Avi, who stand for the highest standards of quality in international media and entertainment. Content creation is one of our highest-conviction investment themes, and we believe that elite talent like the Faraway Road team is exceptionally well positioned to thrive in today’s increasingly global, digital media environment.”

Lior Raz & Avi Issacharoff Co-CEO’s of Faraway Road Productions said: “Faraway was founded to bring authentic and engaging international stories to global audiences.  Partnering with Kevin, Tom, Blackstone and the unbelievable creators that are part of the Candle family will allow us to significantly accelerate that, while participating in creating the next-generation media company that puts creators first.”

About Candle Media
Candle is an independent, creator-friendly home for cutting-edge, high-quality, category-defining brands and franchises that is built for the digital age. By bringing together elite talent operating at the intersection of content, community, and commerce, it helps position leading entertainment businesses for accelerated, sustainable growth in the current market and beyond. The company has acquired Hello Sunshine, the mission-driven media company that puts women at the center of every story it creates, founded by Reese Witherspoon; and Moonbug Entertainment Ltd., the digital-first, global children’s entertainment company behind highly popular shows such as CoComelon, Blippi, Little Baby Bum; as well as made a strategic minority investment in Westbrook Inc., the media company founded by Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Miguel Melendez and Ko Yada, focused on empowering artists to tell stories that connect the world. Candle is run by its Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs, leading entertainment executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, and backed by investment capital from funds managed by Blackstone’s flagship private equity business.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $731 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

About Faraway Road Productions
Founded and led by award-winning creator, writer and actor Lior Raz and creator, writer and award-winning journalist Avi Issacharoff, Faraway Road is a global media entertainment company developing and producing bold, high-impact and engaging original content. In addition to creating original material, the duo and their team are trusted with bringing to screen many deeply personal experiences from authentic voices around the world. They give a platform to these voices and adapt them into sophisticated, character-driven stories that wouldn’t be told otherwise. Faraway Road oversees each of their projects from conception to production and release, developing film and television series for the US, Israeli and international markets.

Faraway Road is best known for creating and producing the critically acclaimed series FAUDA, a political thriller in which Raz also stars, based on his and Issacharoff’s time serving in the Israeli Defense Force’s special forces unit. The series is one of the biggest successes in Israeli television, with all three seasons available for streaming on Netflix and the fourth season in production. Also, airing on Netflix is the action thriller series HIT & RUN starring Raz and Sanaa Lathan, which Issacharoff and Raz co-created with the award-winning team behind THE KILLING. Upcoming for Faraway Road is a robust slate of film and television projects in various stages of development.

Media Contact

Blackstone
Matt Anderson
518-248-7310
Matthew.Anderson@Blackstone.com

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Apollo Debt Solutions BDC Launches with More Than $1 Billion in Assets Under Management

Continuously Offered BDC Breaks Escrow with Approx. $657 Million of Equity

Apollo Global Wealth Expands its Alternative Solutions for Individual Investors

NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Apollo Debt Solutions BDC (“ADS” or the “Fund”) today announced that it has launched with more than $1 billion in assets under management. On Friday, January 7, the Fund broke escrow with approximately $657 million in equity net proceeds for its continuous public offering (the “Offering”). In connection with breaking escrow, the Fund issued and sold 26,258,912 shares of beneficial interest in the Offering. The Fund intends to continue selling shares in the Offering on a monthly basis.

The Fund invests primarily in directly originated assets, including debt securities, and in particular focuses on large-cap origination. The Fund is managed by an affiliate of Apollo (NYSE: APO), which has one of the world’s largest alternative credit businesses with approximately $341 billion in credit AUM.

Apollo Partner Earl Hunt, Chair and CEO of ADS, said, “We are pleased to break escrow and begin actively investing the Fund, leveraging our extensive experience across private credit, direct origination and our status as a preferred lending partner to thousands of companies and sponsors. We look forward to working with our distribution partners to continue growing ADS.”

Apollo’s Chief Client and Product Development Officer Stephanie Drescher added, “Individual investors have long been under-allocated to alternatives, and we believe this strong initial fundraise for ADS demonstrates the pent-up demand investors and their wealth advisors have for strategies of this kind. We’re excited for a growing set of investors and advisors to access Apollo’s asset management expertise through ADS and other current and prospective offerings.”

Apollo’s Global Wealth business is one of the Firm’s key strategic growth areas. The unit, focused on development and distribution of products for individual investors, has made significant new hires since its launch last year and, in December 2021, Apollo agreed to buy the wealth distribution and asset management businesses of Griffin Capital. Recently, Apollo also made venture equity investments in CAIS and iCapital, two of the leading technology platforms helping wealth and financial advisors access alternative strategies.

ADS is the first non-traded business development company sponsored by affiliates of Apollo and adds to a growing suite of solutions from the Firm that qualifying investors can access through their financial advisors. To learn more about the Fund and see important disclosures, please visit: https://gwms.apollo.com/debtsolutionsbdc.

About Apollo Debt Solutions BDC
Apollo Debt Solutions BDC (the “Fund”) is a regulated, non-listed BDC that provides individual investors access to investments targeted by the largest institutions. We believe it provides investors with a stronger and more diversified path to value than is typically available — and aims to offer a more beneficial risk-adjusted profile than public equivalents. The Fund focuses on senior secured large corporate direct origination, broadly syndicated loans, and, to a lesser extent, middle market direct lending. Together, we believe these attributes help position our BDC to perform.

About Apollo
Apollo is a global, high-growth alternative asset manager. In our asset management business, we seek to provide our clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum from investment grade to private equity with a focus on three business strategies: yield, hybrid, and equity. For more than three decades, our investing expertise across our fully integrated platform has served the financial return needs of our clients and provided businesses with innovative capital solutions for growth. Through Athene, our retirement services business, we specialize in helping clients achieve financial security by providing a suite of retirement savings products and acting as a solutions provider to institutions. Our patient, creative, and knowledgeable approach to investing aligns our clients, businesses we invest in, our employees, and the communities we impact, to expand opportunity and achieve positive outcomes. As of September 30, 2021, Apollo had approximately $481 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information contained in this communication constitutes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as “outlook,” “indicator,” “believes,” “expects,” “potential,” “continues,” “may,” “can,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,” “approximately,” “predicts,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates”, “confident,” “conviction,” “identified” or the negative versions of these words or other comparable words thereof. These may include financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements about plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, statements regarding future performance, statements regarding economic and market trends and statements regarding identified but not yet closed investments. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and there are or may be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements. ADS believes these factors also include but are not limited to those described under the section entitled “Risk Factors” in its prospectus, and any such updated factors included in its periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this document (or ADS’s prospectus and other filings). Except as otherwise required by federal securities laws, ADS undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Apollo Contact Information

For Investors:
Noah Gunn
Global Head of Investor Relations
(212) 822-0540
IR@apollo.com

For Media:
Joanna Rose
Global Head of Corporate Communications
(212) 822-0491
Communications@apollo.com

 


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Source: Apollo Global Management, Inc.

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CAIS Announces $225 Million Financing Round Led by Apollo and Motive Partners, Exceeds $1 Billion Valuation

New Capital, Including Investment from Franklin Templeton, to Accelerate the Digitization of Alternative Investments Access, Education, and Execution

Executives of Apollo and Motive Partners Join Fintech Pioneer CAIS Board of Directors

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform, today announced a $225 million round of funding led by Apollo (NYSE: APO) and Motive Partners (“Motive”), with additional investment from Franklin Templeton (NYSE: BEN), which values CAIS at more than $1 billion. This new investment follows a previous investment by Eldridge and accelerates CAIS’s mission to modernize how financial advisors access alternative investments. Blythe Masters, Founding Partner of Motive, and Andrew Gosden, Managing Director in Financial Services & Strategy at Apollo, will join CAIS’s board of directors.

“We are honored to have Apollo, Motive, and Franklin Templeton as our new shareholders and partners,” said Matt Brown, Founder and CEO of CAIS. “This investment advances the critical role CAIS plays in revolutionizing how the alternative investment and wealth management communities engage, learn, and transact.”

Alternative assets are expected to make up to 24% of the global investable market by 2025, according to the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, up from 12% in 2018. CAIS has doubled its headcount in the last year to meet demand, as transaction volume has increased by 65 percent year-over-year with the number of platform users increasing by 60 percent. Building on that momentum, CAIS will use the proceeds of this financing round to fuel further advancements in technology, enhance the customer experience, invest in the digitization of product operations and processes, and explore strategic opportunities.

“We are excited to invest in CAIS, one of the fintech leaders transforming alternative investment access for wealth management. At Apollo, we want more individuals to access alternative strategies and companies like CAIS help to bridge the gap between asset managers and advisors through their growing platform. We believe this latest funding round will support the Company’s continued growth and success,” said Marc Rowan, Co-Founder and CEO of Apollo.

“CAIS has built a unique marketplace for alternatives through a commitment to excellent service and education. This investment will turbo-charge the technology transformation of the business towards a modular, flexible cloud-based architecture, which will modernize the way investors gain access to this asset class, allowing managers, investors, and their advisors to focus less on process and more on value-added interactions,” said Blythe Masters, Founding Partner at Motive.

CAIS serves the independent wealth management community, which has been historically under-allocated to alternatives when compared with large national broker-dealers or institutional investors, whether due to complexity, higher minimums, and fees, need for education, or other barriers to entry. As the first truly open marketplace for alternative investments, where financial advisors and asset managers can engage and transact at scale, CAIS seeks to remove these barriers, enabling advisors to enhance outcomes for their investors and providing managers with centralized access to a highly fragmented wealth management community.

“We believe that individual investors should have access to the same alternative investment solutions as large institutions, and CAIS is doing just that through its innovative and user-friendly platform,” said Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of Franklin Templeton. “CAIS shares our goal of making it easier for advisors and individual investors to diversify into alternatives to meet their investment objectives.”

Financial Technology Partners served as financial advisor to CAIS on the transaction.

About CAIS
CAIS is the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to, and education about, alternative investment funds and products. CAIS provides financial advisors with a broad selection of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real estate, digital assets, and structured notes, allowing them to capitalize on opportunities and/or withstand ever-changing markets. CAIS also provides an industry-leading learning system, CAIS IQ, to help advisors learn faster, remember longer, and improve client outcomes.

All funds listed on CAIS undergo Mercer’s independent due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Mercer diligence reports and fund ratings are available to advisors on the CAIS password-protected platform. CAIS streamlines the end-to-end transaction process through digital subscriptions and integrated reporting with Fidelity, Schwab, and Pershing, which make investing in alternatives simple.

Founded in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, is empowering over 4,400+ unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2T+ in network assets. Since inception, CAIS has facilitated over $13.8B+ in transaction volume as the first truly open marketplace where financial advisors and asset managers engage and transact directly on a massive scale. CAIS has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco.

Securities offered through CAIS Capital LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.

About Apollo
Apollo is a global, high-growth alternative asset manager. In our asset management business, we seek to provide our clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum from investment grade to private equity with a focus on three business strategies: yield, hybrid, and equity. For more than three decades, our investing expertise across our fully integrated platform has served the financial return needs of our clients and provided businesses with innovative capital solutions for growth. Through Athene, our retirement services business, we specialize in helping clients achieve financial security by providing a suite of retirement savings products and acting as a solutions provider to institutions. Our patient, creative, and knowledgeable approach to investing aligns our clients, businesses we invest in, our employees, and the communities we impact, to expand opportunity and achieve positive outcomes. As of September 30, 2021, Apollo had approximately $481 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.

About Motive Partners
Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm with offices in New York City and London, focusing on growth equity and buyout investments in software and information services companies based in North America and Europe and serving five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments, Capital Markets, Data & Analytics, Investment Management and Insurance. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies. More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com.

About Franklin Templeton
Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 165 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the Company brings extensive capabilities in equity, fixed income, multi-asset solutions and alternatives. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has over 70 years of investment experience and over $1.5 trillion in assets under management as of November 30, 2021. For more information, please visit franklinresources.com.

Media

For CAIS:

Nadia Damouni

Pro-CAISPR@Prosek.com

For Apollo:

Joanna Rose, Global Head of Corporate Communications

Communications@apollo.com

Noah Gunn, Global Head of Investor Relations

IR@apollo.com

For Motive Partners:

Sam Tidswell-Norrish

Investor Relations

sam@motivepartners.com

For Franklin Templeton:

Matthew Walsh

matthew.walsh@franklintempleton.com

Source: CAIS

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Audax Private Equity Announces Investment in Centerline Communications

Audax Private Equity Announces Investment in Centerline Communications

JAN 11, 2022

Audax Private Equity (“Audax”) announced today that it has acquired a controlling interest in Centerline Communications LLC (“Centerline”), a leading professional services organization focused on the design, build, and maintenance of wireless and wireline network infrastructure from Wincove Private Holdings, LP (“Wincove”) and Stone-Goff Partners (“Stone-Goff”). This transaction took place in August 2021 and terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Josh Delman, Founder and CEO of Centerline, will continue to lead the company alongside the existing management team. Josh and Wincove will maintain minority ownership positions in the company alongside Audax.

The investment will support Centerline’s continued organic and acquisition growth as it pursues its mission to grow its national footprint and further expand its scope of services focused on the development and maintenance of critical network infrastructure.

Since Audax’ initial investment, Centerline has completed three acquisitions that have helped expand the company’s geographic coverage and range of service offerings: Maicom LLC (“Maicom”), which closed in August 2021; P. Marshall & Associates (“PM&A”), which closed in December 2021; and J5 Infrastructure Partners (“J5”), which closed in December 2021.

Maicom is a critical infrastructure focused services organization based in North Andover, MA, that provides critical infrastructure installation and maintenance for major multiple-system operators (“MSO’s”) throughout the United States and Canada in support of their networks. Centerline acquired Maicom from the Boston-based investment firm, Heritage Holding.

PM&A is an engineering, real estate, and construction management organization based in Atlanta, GA that provides professional services to national wireless operators and major infrastructure owners throughout the southeast and gulf coast of the United States.

J5, based out of Irvine, CA, is a real-estate, construction management, and engineering firm supporting national wireless operators and several national and regional broadband providers throughout the western United States. Centerline acquired J5 from Raleigh-based investment firm, Ridgemont Equity Partners. The founders of each business (Paul Maiuri from Maicom, Patrick Marshall from PM&A, and John Barker from J5) and their respective management teams are planning to remain with the combined platform. With these strategic acquisitions, the Centerline platform now has over 1,200 professionals helping to support the deployment of critical infrastructure throughout the United States and Canada.

Josh Delman, Founder and CEO of Centerline, said, “We are thrilled to be partnering with Audax and look forward to benefitting from their deep industry expertise. We believe this partnership will help us to meet the growing demand within our customers to work with larger, self-performing service organizations that can provide turn-key solutions to critical infrastructure within their national networks. We are excited to have expanded our coverage through our recent acquisitions and to be diversifying our services within the platform to better support our customers.”

“We believe Centerline is well-positioned to grow organically and through acquisitions as it continues its mission to build out a broad range of critical infrastructure services nationally,” said David Wong, Managing Director of Audax. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the company’s highly-experienced management team to help take the business to the next level.”

Keybanc Capital Markets acted as an advisor to Centerline in the transaction with Audax and Husch Blackwell served as legal counsel. Ropes & Gray LLP and Fredrikson & Byron served as legal counsel to Audax.

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RLDatix Announces New Growth Investment by Nordic Capital

Nordic Capital
January 10 2022
RLDatix Announces New Growth Investment by Nordic Capital Image

 

  • Latest investment will help fuel the next phase of RLDatix’s rapid growth in governance, risk and compliance while accelerating its mission of making healthcare safer around the world

RLDatix, the international leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions for healthcare, announced today that Nordic Capital has made a minority equity investment in the company. Existing investors Five Arrows and TA Associates will continue to maintain a majority equity stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Nordic Capital brings decades of experience supporting the growth of innovative healthcare IT companies as well as additional financial strength and is joining Five Arrows and TA to support RLDatix in its organic and inorganic growth objectives. Most recently, RLDatix acquired Allocate Software, the leading provider of human capital management solutions that help healthcare organizations deliver safe and effective care.

“We are excited to welcome Nordic Capital to our collaborative team of strategic investors,” said Jeff Surges, CEO, RLDatix. “Nordic Capital offers the right balance of global reach, domain expertise and capital strength, that we need in our next phase of rapid growth. With this investment, we are well poised to accelerate our journey as the leading provider of SaaS solutions that make healthcare safer for patients, the workforce and organizations alike. I would also like to thank all of our employees, as well as our current investors Five Arrows and TA, for their incredible support in helping us evolve into a global healthcare IT leader and look forward to continuing the partnership in this next chapter of our growth.”

About RLDatix

RLDatix is on a mission to change healthcare. We help organizations drive safer, more efficient care by providing governance, risk and compliance tools that drive overall improvement and safety. Our suite of cloud-based software helps organizations report on adverse events, reduce healthcare-acquired infections and ensure patient safety learnings are implemented across the continuum of care. With more than 5,000 customers in over 20 countries, RLDatix software protects hundreds of millions of patients around the world. RLDatix is controlled by Five Arrows, TA Associates and Nordic Capital as major shareholders. For more information, visit www.rldatix.com.

About Nordic Capital

Nordic Capital is a leading private equity investor with a resolute commitment to creating stronger, sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative growth. Nordic Capital focuses on selected regions and sectors where it has deep experience and a long history. Focus sectors are Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services, and selectively, Industrial & Business Services. Key regions are Europe and globally for Healthcare and Technology & Payments investments. Since inception in 1989, Nordic Capital has invested more than EUR 19 billion in over 120 investments. The most recent entities are Nordic Capital X with EUR 6.1 billion in committed capital and Nordic Capital Evolution with EUR 1.2 billion in committed capital, principally provided by international institutional investors such as pension funds. Nordic Capital Advisors have local offices in Sweden, the UK, the US, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and South Korea. For further information about Nordic Capital, please visit www.nordiccapital.com.

“Nordic Capital” refers to, depending on the context, any, or all, Nordic Capital branded entities, vehicles, structures and associated entities. The general partners and/or delegated portfolio managers of Nordic Capital’s entities and vehicles are advised by several non-discretionary sub-advisory entities, any or all of which are referred to as “Nordic Capital Advisors”

About Five Arrows

Five Arrows Principal Investments (FAPI) and Five Arrows Capital Partners (FACP) (together, “Five Arrows”) are the European and US corporate private equity arms, respectively, of Rothschild & Co’s Merchant Banking business. Five Arrows is focused on investing in middle-market companies with highly defensible market positions; strong management teams; business models with high visibility of organic unit volume growth and strong free cash flow conversion; and multiple operational levers that can be used to unlock latent value. The sector focus at Five Arrows is limited to healthcare, data & software and technology-enabled business services.

For more information please visit: https://www.rothschildandco.com/en/merchant-banking/corporate-private-equity.

About TA Associates
TA is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – the firm invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 550 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $47.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA can be found at www.ta.com.

For more information:

Mike Etzinger
VP, Marketing
RLDatix
metzinger@rldatix.com

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KKR Appoints Ryan Stork as Chief Operating Officer

KKR

January 10, 2022

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– KKR & Co. Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “KKR”) today announced that Ryan Stork has joined KKR as a Partner and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220110005625/en/

Ryan Stork (Photo: Business Wire)Ryan Stork (Photo: Business Wire)

“As our investment activities continue to scale globally, so too must our operational functions that make them all possible and allow us to continue to best perform for our investors. As COO, Ryan will provide dedicated leadership support across our Human Capital, Technology and Operations functions, leveraging his global experience and expertise to help us deliver on our key strategic priorities across the Firm,” said Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall, Co-Chief Executive Officers of KKR.

Mr. Stork is joining KKR from BlackRock where he held multiple leadership roles for more than 20 years, including most recently as Deputy Chief Operating Officer. He also served as Chairman of Asia Pacific, Global Head of Aladdin – BlackRock’s investment and risk management technology platform, Head of the Institutional Client Business in Continental Europe, and Co-Head of the Financial Institutions Group. He was also a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee and a board member of BlackRock’s Foundation. Over his career, Ryan has worked and lived in New York, London, and Hong Kong.

Of the appointment, Mr. Stork added: “I am thrilled to be joining KKR at such an exciting time for the organization and look forward to partnering with colleagues globally to support the investment, technology and operating needs that will enable us to serve our clients even better.”

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Media
Cara Major
212-750-8300
Media@kkr.com

Source: KKR & Co. Inc.

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KKR-Mirastar Logistics Platform Expands European Portfolio with Investments in the Netherlands – Transaction is KKR’s first in Europe via its Core Plus Real Estate strategy

KKR

January 10, 2022

This transaction is KKR’s first via its pan-European Core Plus Real Estate strategy, which focuses on investing in high quality, substantially stabilised assets with long-term value growth potential.

The four assets are located in Eindhoven and Wijchen, strategic locations that comprise the South Netherlands’ primary logistics distribution corridor between Rotterdam and the German border. Both cities are attractively sited for logistics assets, with strong industrial sub-markets benefiting from multi-modal transportation close to major transport routes in the Netherlands. Mirastar will manage the assets.

Ian Williamson, Managing Director and Head of Core Plus Real Estate in Europe at KKR, said: “KKR’s Core Plus platform in Europe was launched to meet long-term investor demand for high quality assets in structurally growing areas of the real estate sector. These logistics assets are an excellent fit with our strategy and we expect logistics to remain a core thematic focus for KKR in Europe through our Core Plus platform. The assets have strong ESG credentials and our business plan includes transitioning them to the highest level by supporting de-carbonisation in-line with the Paris Climate Agreement.”

Diederik Schol, Principal in KKR’s European Real Estate team, added: “We are excited to continue growing our industrial portfolio in one of Europe’s top distribution markets with this high-quality portfolio. We believe these assets benefit from strong levels of occupier demand and a structural under-supply, driving long-term value appreciation. The Netherlands continues to be a key market for us across both Core Plus and Value-Add, particularly in the industrial and residential sectors.”

KKR is an active investor in logistics real estate across Europe and has a strong track record of investing across real estate sectors in the Netherlands. In 2018, KKR acquired two major student housing developments in Groningen and Utrecht, exiting the investment last year, and continues to actively seek investment opportunities in the Netherlands across all sectors. The KKR-Mirastar platform currently manages approximately 150,000 square meters of prime logistics assets in the Netherlands, which were acquired and developed in 2021 in Bleiswijk, Schiphol and Roosendaal.

-ends-

Media Enquiries

KKR: EMEA
Alastair Elwen / Sophia Johnston
Finsbury Glover Hering
+44 20 7251 3801
KKR_LON@finsbury.com

KKR: Netherlands
Corina Holla
Meines Holla
+31 6 12 75 40 36
corinaholla@meinesholla.nl

Notes to Editors

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

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BioNTech and Crescendo Biologics announce global collaboration to develop multi-specific precision immunotherapies

Andera Partners

Collaboration leverages BioNTech’s proprietary multimodal immunotherapy expertise with Crescendo’s proprietary Humabody® VH platform to develop precision immunotherapies, including mRNA-based antibodies and engineered cell therapies against targets selected by BioNTech
▪ BioNTech will hold exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to all immunotherapies arising from the collaboration
▪ Crescendo will receive $40 million upfront, including a cash payment and an equity investment from BioNTech, as well as research funding, and will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments up to a total of more than $750 million, plus tiered royalties on global net sales

BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX, “BioNTech”) and Crescendo Biologics Ltd (“Crescendo”), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing novel, targeted T cell enhancing therapeutics, today announced that they have entered a multi-target discovery collaboration to develop novel immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and other diseases. The initial term of the discovery collaboration is three years.

Crescendo will contribute its unique, proprietary, transgenic platform to deliver fully human heavy-chain antibody domains (Humabody® VH) against targets nominated by BioNTech. Humabodies represent a novel class of therapeutics that retain the high-affinity binding and specificity of conventional therapeutic antibodies while providing additional advantages such as small size, enhanced tissue and tumor penetration, stability and molecular simplicity due to the lack of a light chain. In particular, the modular nature of Humabodies make them ideally suited for the development of multi-target immunotherapies.

“Crescendo’s platform provides excellent properties for exploiting novel targets and target combinations which we believe has great potential for the development of multi-specific mRNA and engineered cell-based therapies in a variety of disease areas,” said Ugur Sahin, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of BioNTech. “We are excited to begin working with Crescendo to further strengthen and expand our multimodal immunotherapy portfolio and deliver breakthrough precision medicines for patients.”

“To collaborate with BioNTech and their world-class team is a transformational opportunity for Crescendo. We are looking forward to further leveraging our clinically validated Humabody VH platform within mRNA therapeutics to develop better treatment options for patients,” said Theodora Harold, Chief Executive Officer at Crescendo Biologics.

Under the terms of the agreement, Crescendo will receive $40 million upfront, including a cash payment and an equity investment from BioNTech, as well as research funding for the period of the collaboration. BioNTech will be responsible for global development and hold exclusive worldwide commercialization rights on any products arising from the collaboration. Crescendo will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestones up to a total of more than $750 million, in addition to tiered royalties on global net sales.

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KKR Closes $4.0 Billion Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II

KKR

January 10, 2022

Successor Fund Reaffirms Firm’s Commitment to Investing in Innovative Health Care Growth Companies

MENLO PARK, Calif. & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced the final closing of KKR Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II (“HCSG II” or the “Fund”), a $4.0 billion fund dedicated to health care growth equity investment opportunities primarily in North America and Europe.

HCSG II is the successor fund to KKR Health Care Strategic Growth Fund (“HCSG I”), KKR’s first dedicated health care growth equity vehicle, which held its final closing in November 2017 on $1.45 billion in capital commitments. Similar to its predecessor fund, HCSG II will aim to generate strong returns for clients by investing in innovative health care companies with proven products and services that are seeking a partner to commercialize and scale. With a diversified portfolio approach, HCSG II will focus on the biopharmaceutical, medical device, health care services, life science tools / diagnostics, and health care information technology sub-sectors.

“Now more than ever there is a significant demand both for innovative products and services in the health care sector and for an experienced and flexible capital partner to invest in their growth and further their reach,” said Ali Satvat, Partner, Global Head of Health Care Strategic Growth, and Co-Head of Americas Health Care Private Equity at KKR. “Building on the robust momentum and tangible results that we have achieved thus far through HCSG I, we look forward to continuing to partner with best-in-class health care businesses to bring these much-needed products and services to market for the benefit of patients globally while delivering strong returns for our investors.”

HCSG II received strong support from a diverse group of both new and existing investors globally, including public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, financial institutions, endowments, private wealth and fintech platforms, family offices, and high-net-worth individual investors. KKR will be investing approximately $500 million of capital in the Fund alongside these investors through the Firm’s balance sheet, affiliates, and employee commitments.

“We are pleased to have the backing of this diverse group of investors who share our passion for the opportunities that we see in this growing market,” said Alisa Amarosa Wood, Partner and Head of the Private Markets Strategies Group at KKR. “At nearly three times the size of its predecessor, HCSG II not only speaks to the attractive investment opportunities that we are seeing but also demonstrates the strength of our health care investment team, our Health Care Strategic Growth strategy, and our strong investment performance to date.”

KKR has established a strong track record of supporting companies across the health care ecosystem, having invested approximately $18 billion across the sector since 2004. KKR’s health care team has grown to nearly 35 dedicated investment professionals globally. In addition to providing capital, the Firm helps companies grow through its industry experience and relationships, operational expertise, global infrastructure, and resources from more than 100 portfolio companies worldwide. In 2021, KKR executed a number of new investments as part of its Health Care Strategic Growth initiatives, including in Argenta, Nordic Bioscience, Sapphiros, Geode Health, and Cordis.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit, and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life, and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Media:
Cara Major or Julia Kosygina
212-750-8300
media@kkr.com

Source: KKR & Co. Inc.

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