Leading investors back next growth phase of David Lloyd
TDR Capital LLP (“TDR”), a leading UK-based private equity firm, is pleased to announce the successful closing of a newly formed continuation vehicle (“TDR Capital Titan”) which has been formed to acquire majority control of David Lloyd Leisure (“David Lloyd”), Europe’s largest operator of premium racquets, health and fitness clubs, from TDR Capital III and its co-investors (“TDR III”).
TDR Capital Titan will look to build on the success of TDR III and to continue the company’s ambitious growth plans. It also enables TDR III investors to realise their investment in a high-quality, well-performing asset, and provides new investors with the opportunity to invest behind David Lloyd and its future expansion.
TDR Capital Titan has been backed by a range of leading investors and asset managers, including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (acting by its investment manager, TCI Fund Management), investment funds managed by Coller Capital, Apollo’s Sponsor and Secondary Solutions (S3) business, CVC Secondary Partners and Hollyport Capital.
TDR believes that the high quality of this new investor base demonstrates the attractive nature of the opportunity and the belief in David Lloyd’s excellent performance and growth prospects. TDR Capital Titan and its co-investors have set aside over £100m of additional capital to invest in the business and support its ongoing expansion. David Lloyd currently has a strong pipeline of future club openings across Europe and the UK and continues to roll out its premium spa and wellness offering and build additional padel courts to attract new members.
Completion of the acquisition by TDR Capital Titan, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to take place in October 2025.
Russell Barnes, CEO David Lloyd Leisure, said:“We are delighted to have TDR’s continued backing as we enter our next phase of growth. Coming off the back of our strongest year yet – both in terms of membership numbers and the performance of the business – we continue to see huge opportunities for David Lloyd across Europe and in the UK. Our focus will remain on investing in premium site features, including spas and facilities for fast-growing sports like padel, where we are the UK’s leading operator. These investments are driving improved customer satisfaction levels and record numbers of members choosing premium packages, and we are confident that this strategy will continue to deliver results.”
Tom Mitchell, Managing Partner at TDR Capital, said: “David Lloyd has been a highly successful investment for TDR to date, achieving significant growth and operational transformation over the first period of our ownership. We remain excited by the opportunities ahead for the business which are supported by growing consumer demand for premium wellness services. We saw significant investor interest in TDR Capital Titan and look forward to working with our new partners to support David Lloyd’s next stage of growth. The transaction has allowed our current investors the option for a full exit, and we are very pleased to be continuing our work with Glenn, Russell and the wider David Lloyd team.”
Since acquiring David Lloyd in November 2013, TDR III has worked in partnership with the company’s management team to transform the business, delivering sustained growth and improved customer experience. Since 2013, David Lloyd has nearly doubled the number of clubs, opening over 40 new locations in the UK and 30 across Europe, tripled the number of employees to 11,600 and nearly doubled membership numbers to over 800,000.
Jefferies acted as sole financial advisor to TDR on the transaction and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal adviser in relation to the transaction and the establishment of TDR Capital Titan.
Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc acted as financial adviser to David Lloyd and Travers Smith advised David Lloyd management in relation to the transaction.
The CEFC and global investment group La Caisse (formerly CDPQ) have launched a AU$250 million landmark, large-scale, diversified agricultural platform to generate high-quality Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), with Rio Tinto as a foundation offtaker.
La Caisse has invested AU$200 million alongside a AU$50 million commitment from the CEFC to create the Meldora platform (Meldora), managed by Australian agriculture and natural capital asset manager, Gunn Agri Partners (GAP). Meldora has purchased its first asset, a broadacre and irrigation farm of more than 15,000 hectares in Central Queensland.
Meldora will combine sustainable agricultural production with large-scale Environmental Plantings under the ACCU scheme, underpinned by a long term offtake from Rio Tinto for part of the ACCUs to be issued, creating both economic and environmental benefits. Under the Environmental Plantings methodology for ACCUs, native vegetation is planted and maintained for a minimum of 25 years for some projects and as long as a century for others, providing long term carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits.
The investment will promote the integration of sustainable Australian agricultural production with restoration of local species vegetation that generates carbon credits, harnessing carbon sequestration and supporting the efforts of the sector to remain competitive in the global net zero economy.
Emmanuel Jaclot, Executive Vice-President and Head of Infrastructure and Sustainability, La Caisse said: “This investment is a timely step toward advancing resilient, climate-smart agriculture in Australia, while delivering measurable environmental and economic value. Teaming up once again with the CEFC and GAP – and with Rio Tinto as a foundation offtaker – reinforces our confidence in this platform’s ability to scale. It reflects La Caisse’s commitment to sustainable land use and our broader net zero ambition, as we position ourselves early in a growing market for high-quality carbon credits.”
La Caisse’s investment highlights growing global interest in carbon farming and sustainable agriculture as a valuable asset class.
CEFC Head of Natural Capital, Heechung Sung, said: “This initiative represents a long term investment in nature and land-based strategies in Australian agriculture. It’s a great privilege to again be able to work with La Caisse and GAP to invest in this strategy and alongside Rio Tinto, who have demonstrated with their long term offtake, a commitment to invest in high-integrity carbon credits.”
“By adopting an integrated sustainable land management model, this strategy can produce high-quality agricultural commodities while also increasing biodiversity, improving ecosystems, and earning carbon revenues through the investment in native landscape restoration. ”
“Sustainable agricultural practices across Australian farmland paves the way for a more resilient future with better environmental outcomes for the sector. By utilising a high-integrity method – Environmental Plantings – that also supports biodiversity, these carbon credits have the potential to command a premium in the market. This reinforces the role of nature-based solutions in climate action and underscores the increasing value of sustainable land management and investment in the restoration of trees and vegetation, as we transition to a low carbon economy.”
Gunn Agri Partners’ joint Managing Director, Bradley Wheaton, said: “The scale of this investment and the scope of the Meldora platform means that it is uniquely ambitious in integrating the restoration of native vegetation in the landscape of an institutional-quality agricultural investment. Through diversification across irrigation, dryland cropping and carbon credit generation, the investment model redefines the future of farming.”
ABOUT LA CAISSE
At La Caisse, formerly CDPQ, we have invested for 60 years with a dual mandate: generate optimal long-term returns for our 48 depositors, who represent over 6 million Quebecers, and contribute to Québec’s economic development.
As a global investment group, we are active in the major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. As at June 30, 2025, La Caisse’s net assets totalled CAD 496 billion. For more information, visit lacaisse.com or consult our LinkedIn or Instagram pages.
La Caisse is a registered trademark of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec that is protected in Canada and other jurisdictions and licensed for use by its subsidiaries.
ABOUT CEFC
The CEFC is Australia’s specialist climate investor, helping cut emissions in the race towards net zero by 2050. We invest in the latest technologies to generate, store, manage and transmit clean energy. Our discounted asset finance programs help put more Australians on the path to sustainability, in their homes and on the road. CEFC capital is also backing the net zero transformation of our natural capital, infrastructure, property and resources sectors, while providing critical capital for the emerging climate tech businesses of tomorrow. With access to more than $32 billion from the Australian Government, we invest to deliver a positive return for taxpayers.
ABOUT GUNN AGRI PARTNERS (GAP)
Gunn Agri Partners was established in 2013 and is managed by a highly credentialed team of agricultural and investment industry professionals, managing over $1.1 billion in assets and commitments. They combine decades of experience in institutional investment management and farm asset and natural capital management.
Gunn Agri Partners adopts an industry-leading framework that integrates sustainability in the design and delivery of its strategies and a mandate to transparently report against our investor’s targets. Investments strategies currently managed by Gunn Agri Partners include row crops, horticulture, mixed farming, livestock and natural capital. For more information, visit www.gunnagri.com.
ABOUT RIO TINTO
Rio Tinto operates in 35 countries where our 60,000 employees are working to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs. Our portfolio includes iron ore, copper, aluminium and a range of other minerals and materials needed for people, communities and nations to grow and prosper, and for the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
We have more than 150 years of mining and processing experience guiding our work. We have put climate change at the heart of our strategy, committing to a 50% reduction in Scope 1&2 emissions by 2030 and net zero operational emissions by 2050. We are combining investments in commodities that enable the energy transition with actions to decarbonise our operations and value chains.
Winnipeg, MB – September 8th – Payworks, a Canadian leader in total workforce management, has entered a strategic partnership with Hg, a leading software and services investor with deep expertise in human capital management (HCM).
The partnership marks a defining milestone in Payworks’ 25-year trajectory, fast-tracking the company’s growth, diversification and leadership strategy across the sector. By combining Payworks’ local expertise with Hg’s specialization in scaling software businesses, the investment will help to drive enhanced product development, expansion across the Canadian HCM landscape and an elevated client experience.
“For 25 years, Payworks has been building proprietary workforce management solutions tailored to Canadian employers,” said Barbara Gamey, Co-founder of Payworks. “The Payworks ownership group is excited to welcome Hg to our partnership. Their investment enables us to accelerate our innovation and value creation agenda, positioning Payworks for sustained leadership and diversification in the Canadian market.”
Payworks’ operations in Canada remain unchanged. Its team of more than 600 employees and network of offices across the country continue to support the company’s strategy, anchoring growth in service to Canadian businesses and their employees.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Payworks. In our research we surveyed more than six hundred payroll and HR customers in Canada and found that Payworks has a best-in-class product with the highest customer satisfaction. We look forward to supporting the business in its next era of growth” said Alexander Johnson, Director, and Hector Guinness, Partner, at Hg.
“Payworks’ track record of serving Canadian businesses, combined with our global HCM and software expertise, creates an exciting opportunity to accelerate innovation and reach more Canadians” added Robert Citrino, Principal at Hg.
Ardian, a world-leading private investment firm, today announces the arrangement of a unitranche facility to support the primary LBO of implid and the entry of EMZ Partners as a minority shareholder alongside over fifty managers reinvesting in the transaction. The financing package also includes a sizeable, committed line to support the group’s external growth strategy.
Founded in 1973, implid is a leading player in accounting, legal, and business consulting services in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. implid is the first company in France to offer the integrated expertise of more than 900 professionals: chartered accountants, statutory auditors, lawyers, notaries, judicial officers, as well as consultants and recruiters. This combination of regulated professions and high value-added services enables implid to meet all the needs of companies and their executives, in a constantly evolving regulatory and technological environment.
The group has experienced a strong growth trajectory, fueled by a successful digital transformation, and driven by robust organic momentum and strategic acquisitions carried out in recent years under the leadership of its founder, Jean-Loup Rogé, and the current management team.
” We are delighted to be partnering with Ardian, whose support will enable us to accelerate our development and take our collective project to the next level. We are now eager to roll out our growth strategy, combining organic development and external growth, to make implid a leading player on a national scale.” Jean-Loup Rogé, CEO and Founder of implid Group
” We are proud to support implid, its management team, and EMZ in this new phase of growth. The group has demonstrated a remarkable growth trajectory, supported by a comprehensive service offering and a strong regional presence. We are convinced that our partnership will help the group achieve its ambitions, through the consolidation of its existing expertise and strategic acquisitions.” Jean-David Ponsin, Co-Head of Private Credit France, Ardian
List of participants
Ardian
Ardian: Jean-David Ponsin, Melchior Huet, Alexis Bernet
EMZ Partners: François Carré, Ludovic Bart, Sara Toublanc
Financial Advisor: Amala Partners (Nicolas Royer, Jad Sader)
Legal Advisor (financing): Paul Hastings (Sebastien Crepy, Olivier Deren, Vincent Načinović, Adèle P., Marc Zerah, Peter Pedrazzani, Charles Filleux Pommerol, Capucine Chareton, Camille Paulhac, Milica Antić)
ABOUT ARDIAN
Ardian is a world-leading private investment firm, managing or advising $180bn of assets on behalf of more than 1,850 clients globally. Our broad expertise, spanning Private Equity, Real Assets and Credit, enables us to offer a wide range of investment opportunities and respond flexibly to our clients’ differing needs. Through Ardian Customized Solutions we create bespoke portfolios that allow institutional clients to specify the precise mix of assets they require and to gain access to funds managed by leading third-party sponsors. Private Wealth Solutions offers dedicated services and access solutions for private banks, family offices and private institutional investors worldwide. Ardian’s main shareholding group is its employees and we place great emphasis on developing its people and fostering a collaborative culture based on collective intelligence. Our 1,050+ employees, spread across 19 offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Middle East are strongly committed to the principles of Responsible Investment and are determined to make finance a force for good in society. Our goal is to deliver excellent investment performance combined with high ethical standards and social responsibility.
At Ardian we invest all of ourselves in building companies that last.
Investment will help fund long-term growth capex for grid expansion
NEW YORK, Sept. 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Apollo (NYSE: APO) today announced that Apollo-managed funds and affiliates have agreed to commit €3.2 billion of equity to a newly established joint venture with RWE, Germany’s largest power producer and a global leader in renewable power generation. The JV will be operationally controlled by RWE and hold and fund RWE’s 25.1% stake in Amprion, a Transmission System Operator (TSO) spanning across seven German federal states and serving approximately 29 million people and industrial corporations.
The JV will provide the required equity capital for its 25.1% stake to support Amprion’s major investment program for grid expansion over the next decade, enhancing critical German energy infrastructure. The JV is supported by reliable and stable dividend returns from Amprion’s regulated asset base. For RWE, the partnership with Apollo also aligns with its strategy to grow its generation portfolio of renewables, batteries and flexible generation assets and to focus on its core activities of power generation and energy trading.
Apollo Partner Jamshid Ehsani said, “This partnership with RWE will help fund long-term capex for critical grid expansion in Germany to power homes and industry, and it underscores our focus on delivering tailored capital solutions to leading global companies and essential infrastructure. It also reflects Apollo’s commitment to strong, lasting partnerships across both the private and public sectors. Looking ahead, we expect to further accelerate our investment activity in Europe, with a particular focus on Germany, France, Italy and the UK.”
The JV investment builds on Apollo’s significant record of providing scaled capital solutions to leading companies. Since 2020, Apollo has originated more than $100 billion of bespoke, high-grade solutions, including for European companies and/or European assets such as EDF, BP, Vonovia, Air France-KLM, AB InBev and Intel’s Fab 34 in Ireland, among others. Earlier this year, the Firm announced that it expects to deploy more than $100 billion in Germany alone over the next decade, helping to meet market demand for long-term financing and investments.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and it is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025. Latham & Watkins LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP are serving as legal counsel to the Apollo funds.
About Apollo
Apollo is a high-growth, global 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 credit to private 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 June 30, 2025, Apollo had approximately $840 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.
Contacts
Noah Gunn
Global Head of Investor Relations
Apollo Global Management, Inc.
(212) 822-0540 IR@apollo.com
How can startups and developers actually monetize their AI products? A startup called Koah, which recently raised $5 million in seed funding, is betting that ads will be a big part of the answer.
If you spend any time online, there’s a good chance you’ve seen plenty of ugly, AI-generated ads — but few to none when interacting with AI chatbots. Koah co-founder and CEO Nic Baird argued that will inevitably change.
“Once these things get outside San Francisco, there’s only one way to make [them profitable] on a global scale,” Baird told TechCrunch over Zoom. “It’s happened time and time again.”
To be clear, Koah isn’t trying to introduce advertising to ChatGPT. (That’s probably something OpenAI will do for itself one day.) Instead, it’s focused on the “long tail” of apps that are built on top of the big models, including apps with a user base outside the United States.
Baird suggested that when consumer AI products were first becoming popular, it made sense for them to focus on “wealthier, prosumer” users and to monetize those users by converting some of them into paid subscriptions.
But now someone could build an AI app that reaches millions of users in Latin America, and those users are “not paying 20 dollars a month,” Baird said. So the developer could struggle to bring in subscription revenue, but “they have the same inference costs as everyone else.”
Image Credits:Koah
Baird suggested that by successfully figuring out how to make advertising work in AI chats, Koah could actually unlock more potential for “vibe coded” apps that might otherwise be “too expensive to operate at scale” unless their creators raise VC funding.
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In fact, Koah is already serving ads in apps like AI assistant Luzia, parenting app Heal, student research tool Liner, and creative platform DeepAI. Its advertisers include UpWork, General Medicine, and Skillshare.
These ads are marked as sponsored content, and they’re supposed to appear at relevant moments in your chats. For example, if you’re asking for advice about startup business strategies, the app could show you an ad from UpWork offering to connect you with freelancers who could work with your company.
When Koah talks to publishers, Baird said many of them believe that ads simply don’t work in AI chats, while others have found limited success with AI offerings from older adtech companies like AdMob and AppLovin.
But Baird said Koah is 4x to 5x more effective, delivering clickthrough rates of 7.5%, and with early partners earning $10,000 in their first 30 days on the platform. He added that Koah achieves all that while having less of a detrimental effect on user engagement — though his ultimate goal is for Koah ads to feel relevant enough that they actually improve engagement.
Image Credits:Koah
Koah’s seed round was led by Forerunner, with participation from South Park Commons and AppLovin co-founder Andrew Karam.
Forerunner partner Nicole Johnson echoed many of Baird’s points when discussing the investment over email. She said that when it comes to AI, monetization is “the elephant in the room amongst builders and investors.” And while the “going standard for monetizing consumer AI services is subscription,” focusing exclusively on subscriptions can “quickly lead to fatigue and churn.”
“Multiple revenue models in Consumer AI are inevitable, and if the past decades of internet services are any indicator, ads will play a major role,” Johnson said. In her view, Koah is “building the essential monetization layer for consumer AI services.”
As for where AI chats fall in the larger advertising ecosystem, Baird and his team have found they represent the middle of the purchase funnel — somewhere between the awareness raising of an Instagram ad and the actual purchase that might be driven by ads in Google search.
“People are not transacting on AI — they’re just not,” Baird said. They might ask a chatbot for recommendations or product details, but then “they’re going to Google to buy.” So part of the challenge for Koah is figuring out the best ways to capture a user’s “commercial intent.”
“It’s not interesting to me to try to figure out, ‘How do we show a display ad in AI?” Baird said. Instead, he wants to understand, “What is the user looking for and how do we give that to them?”
Anthony Ha
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.
LOS ANGELES (September 5, 2025) – Platinum Equity announced today it led a recapitalization for Kodak Alaris.
Headquartered in Rochester, NY, Kodak Alaris operates two business units: Kodak Moments, a global provider of film and photo solutions; and Alaris, a leading global provider of data capture and processing solutions to enterprises and consumers. The company is owned by Kingswood Capital Management, LP.
“This transaction reflects Platinum’s ability to move quickly and decisively, even in a complex market. Our industry expertise and commitment to partnership allowed us to craft a bespoke financing solution for Kodak Alaris.”
Jacob Kotzubei and Louis Samson, Co-Presidents, Platinum Equity
“This transaction reflects Platinum’s ability to move quickly and decisively, even in a complex market,” said Co-Presidents Jacob Kotzubei and Louis Samson. “Our industry expertise and commitment to partnership allowed us to craft a bespoke financing solution for Kodak Alaris.”
The Kodak Alaris financing was led by Platinum Equity’s dedicated credit team, which seeks opportunities to provide debt capital to companies for a variety of uses, including acquisitions, refinancings and recapitalizations.
“We aim to be a true strategic partner, leveraging Platinum’s resources to deliver meaningful value to borrowers and their sponsors,” said Platinum Equity Managing Director and Global Head of Credit Michael Fabiano. “We think Kodak Alaris is a great match for our approach. It’s a mature business with an iconic brand and a deep connection to its customer base. We believe it also has a lot of untapped commercial opportunity. We are excited to partner with Kingswood to help Kodak Alaris realize its potential.”
Platinum’s credit team targets companies that generally have $15 to $75 million of EBITDA and are primarily based in North America.
“Our credit team is actively looking for new opportunities to provide tailored financing solutions to borrowers and their sponsors as they pursue their strategic objectives,” added Fabiano.
Houlihan Lokey acted as the exclusive placement agent to Kodak Alaris.
About Platinum Equity
Founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with approximately $50 billion of assets under management and a portfolio of approximately 60 operating companies that serve customers around the world. Platinum Equity specializes in mergers, acquisitions and operations – a trademarked strategy it calls M&A&O® – acquiring and operating companies in a broad range of business markets, including manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, equipment rental, metals services, media and entertainment, technology, telecommunications and other industries. Over the past 30 years Platinum Equity has completed more than 500 acquisitions and debt financings.
LOS ANGELES (Sept. 5, 2025) – Platinum Equity confirmed today the recent completion of capital raising for Platinum Equity Small Cap Fund II, L.P., its latest fund focused on investment opportunities in the lower middle market. The fund exceeded its target of $1.75 billion and closed with $2.28 billion in commitments.
It employs Platinum Equity’s highly specialized M&A&O® strategy that integrates investment expertise with deep operational capabilities and is being deployed by the firm’s dedicated lower middle market investment team, which was established more than a decade ago to focus on the space as the firm’s flagship funds moved upstream into larger deals.
“We’ve built a powerful lower-middle market franchise that draws on three decades of experience and allows us to create value across the full spectrum of investment opportunities. The team has deep roots and tremendous momentum, and the overwhelming response to our latest fund is a testament to that.”
Tom Gores, Chairman and CEO, Platinum Equity
“We’ve built a powerful lower-middle market franchise that draws on three decades of experience and allows us to create value across the full spectrum of investment opportunities,” said Platinum Equity Chairman and CEO Tom Gores, who founded the firm in 1995. “The team has deep roots and tremendous momentum, and the overwhelming response to our latest fund is a testament to that.”
The firm’s lower middle market team comprises more than 40 M&A and Operations professionals across North America and Europe. The group specializes in transactions involving founder- or family-owned businesses, complex corporate divestures, public-to-private transitions, and acquisitions from a diverse range of private sellers. Recent acquisitions include home appliance distributor R&B Wholesale Distributors, Italian pesto maker Polli, and HVAC/R distributors Global and MARS.
Small Cap II marked Platinum Equity’s second successful capital raise in back-to-back years. The flagship Platinum Equity Capital Partners VI closed in 2024 with $12.4 billion in capital commitments. The firm has raised more than $47 billion in equity commitments from institutional investors since launching its funds business more than two decades ago.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is Platinum’s fund counsel and legal adviser for Small Cap II.
About Platinum Equity
Founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with approximately $50 billion of assets under management and a portfolio of approximately 60 operating companies that serve customers around the world. Platinum Equity specializes in mergers, acquisitions and operations – a trademarked strategy it calls M&A&O® – acquiring and operating companies in a broad range of business markets, including manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, equipment rental, metals services, media and entertainment, technology, telecommunications and other industries. Over the past 30 years Platinum Equity has completed more than 500 acquisitions.
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. and LONGARONE, Italy – VSP Vision™ announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Marcolin from PAI Partners, a pre-eminent private equity firm, and other minority shareholders. The acquisition of Marcolin, a global leader in eyewear design, manufacturing, and distribution, will mark a significant eyewear investment by VSP Vision to provide even more value to its stakeholders.
“The addition of Marcolin is another example of our commitment to purposeful growth that will provide greater value for VSP members, clients, doctors, and key customers,” said VSP Vision President and CEO Michael Guyette. “With a portfolio of some of the world’s most sought-after brands and advanced in-house manufacturing capabilities, Marcolin will strongly complement our existing offerings through Marchon Eyewear as we continue to deliver high-quality eyewear that meets diverse and evolving global customer needs.”
Founded in Northern Italy in 1961, Marcolin today distributes its eyewear collections in more than 125 countries. Its portfolio of luxury and lifestyle brands includes Tom Ford, Zegna, Christian Louboutin, ic! berlin, Max Mara, Guess and many others.
“With a shared passion for bringing the highest quality eyewear to as many people as possible, joining VSP Vision is a perfect fit,” said Fabrizio Curci, CEO & General Manager of Marcolin. “We look forward to combining our expertise, focus on craftsmanship, commitment to product innovation and complementary portfolios and geographic presence to give customers the very best in eyewear and service.”
With the backing of PAI, Marcolin broadened its international reach and enhanced operational efficiency, establishing itself as a leading player in the wholesale eyewear market. Under PAI’s ownership, Marcolin’s performance has advanced significantly, supported by a strong focus on commercial excellence, a strategic corporate reorganization, and the expansion of its brand portfolio through targeted acquisitions, new licensing agreements and key renewals.
“We are delighted to have backed Marcolin’s transformation into a world leader in the wholesale eyewear business”, said Raffaele Vitale, Partner at PAI. “We are grateful to the management team for their partnership and are confident that Marcolin is well positioned to continue thriving in the years ahead, with plenty of runway for growth and a portfolio of iconic brands.”
CapM Advisors acted as the exclusive financial advisor, and Latham & Watkins acted as the legal advisor to the shareholders of Marcolin. Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Chiomenti acted as legal advisors to VSP.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals.
Following strong performance and 7x profit growth, it has been acquired by Genuit Group, with the exit generating one of BGF’s highest-ever returns.
1 September 2025
BGF has completed the successful exit of its investment in Monodraught, a British green tech business, based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Monodraught has been acquired by Genuit Group plc, for a total consideration of £55.6m.
Due to Monodraught’s strong performance, the exit has generated a return of 11x MM and an IRR of 37.5%, making it one of the highest returns delivered by BGF.
Under the leadership of CEO Andrew McCubbin and CTO Nick Hopper, Monodraught is a UK leader in low-energy, low-carbon solutions for the built environment. It designs, makes and installs ventilation systems, as well as other sustainable and zero-carbon technologies.
Andrew McCubbin, CEO of Monodraught, said: “In 2017, we set out to build on our already-strong business foundations, and we knew BGF would be the right partner to help us do that. Growth capital has allowed us to accelerate our plans and, more than that, BGF’s team has also brought valuable strategic expertise, and both commercial and operational support. As a result, the business is now in an even stronger position, and we look forward to the next chapter of our journey with Genuit.”
During the investment partnership with BGF, Monodraught has generated strong financial growth, with a 7x increase in profitability. This has supported job creation, with 95 people now employed at its High Wycombe headquarters.
BGF backed Monodraught in 2017, with a multi-million-pound investment. Since then, and with support from BGF’s team, the company has delivered significant product innovation, broadened its commercial offering, consolidated its position in the education sector, and expanded into new sectors and geographical markets.
Monodraught has benefited from the growing demand for energy-efficient buildings and the increased focus on the green agenda. BGF also helped the company to embed ESG into its internal operations, and introduced Ewan Wilson, as Non-Executive Chair.
Nick Hopper, CTO of Monodraught, said: “BGF provided an inspirational platform for the company’s growth. Our technologies have established strong market traction and built a scalable foundation. We’ve invested heavily in creating a sustainable product range that leverages embedded sensors, IoT, and data analytics, positioning us at the forefront of the market. We look forward to expanding the influence of our technologies across new sectors.”
For BGF, the deal was led by Partner Jon Earl, who sat on the Board of Monodraught, and Investors Daria Polunina and Sam Giurani. BGF’s original investment was led by Mark Nunny.
“This exit is a fantastic result for BGF, but even more so for Andrew, Nick, and the team at Monodraught. They have shown exemplary leadership and a quiet, but determined, ambition — that’s delivered not only strong financial results, but also meaningful innovation and positive environmental impact, through their work in the built environment. It’s been a privilege to support them on this journey.”
Jon Earl Partner at BGF
The Monodraught exit adds to a series of recent, successful realisations for BGF, including Brisant Secure, Braidwater, Panthera Biopartners, and OrganOx. Together, they highlight the breadth of BGF’s portfolio, and the strength of its partnership model, which supports ambitious management teams in achieving both commercial success and long-term impact.
