Archives

Majesco Closes Acquisition of Vitech, Advancing Cloud and AI-Native Innovation for Insurance and Pension & Retirement

Thomabravo

MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY — Majesco, a leader in cloud-native and AI-native insurance technology for the P&C and L&AH markets, today announced the close of its previously announced acquisition of Vitech, a provider of cloud-native pension and benefits administration solutions. The transaction expands Majesco’s leadership into the Group & Benefits and Pension & Retirement segments and strengthens its position as the category leader for next-generation core platforms.

“We are thrilled to officially welcome Vitech to Majesco,” said Adam Elster, CEO of Majesco. “This is a powerful moment for our customers as we significantly expand into new markets and add capabilities and expertise to drive innovation, growth, and efficiency. We’re bringing unmatched AI-leadership and expertise across P&C, Group & Benefits, and Pension & Retirement to support our customers and the market in the new era.”

With the addition of Vitech, Majesco now offers an even broader product portfolio with expansion into the Pension & Retirement market. The broader and more innovative portfolio of solutions help Majesco customers lower expense ratios, streamline complex operations, accelerate product innovation, and respond faster to evolving regulatory and customer demands. Together, Majesco’s intelligent, cloud and AI-native solutions provide a future-ready platform to drive operational optimization, innovation, and growth.

“This marks an important milestone for both organizations,” said James Ousley, CEO of Vitech. “Our combined talent and solutions portfolio create a powerful foundation to improve efficiency, extend capabilities, and prepare for a rapidly evolving market. We’re excited to join Majesco and about the unique possibilities it brings to our customer base.”

Today’s close marks the start of Majesco’s next phase of growth, focused on delivering industry-leading, AI-native innovation and strengthening the technology foundation to the P&C and L&AH insurance and Retirement & Pension markets to adapt, innovate, and compete in an increasingly complex landscape. Majesco recently announced it is quadrupling its AI investment to accelerate its P&C roadmap and extend customer value for the P&C market.

Additionally, CVC Funds have completed a minority investment in Majesco as part of this transaction. The additional resources will support the ongoing expansion and innovation across Majesco’s AI-native product portfolio.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Majesco and Thoma Bravo. White & Case LLP served as legal advisor to CVC Capital Partners. RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisor to Vitech.

About Majesco

Majesco isn’t just riding the AI wave – we’re leading it for the P&C and L&AH insurance industry. Born in the cloud and built with an AI-native vision, we’ve reimagined the insurance core as a platform that lets insurers move faster, see farther, and operate smarter. As leaders in intelligent SaaS solutions, we’ve embedded AI and Agentic AI throughout our robust product portfolio of core, underwriting, loss control, distribution, and digital solutions so our customers can reimagine their business with real-time business insights, optimized operations, and enhanced business outcomes. Everything we build is designed to strip away complexity and let our clients focus on what matters: delivering exceptional products, experiences, and outcomes.

In a world where change is constant, our native-cloud SaaS platform empowers insurers the agility to adapt to market and risk shifts quickly, reshape their operational cost structure, accelerate innovation readiness, and rethink how insurance can be done with the intelligence to stay ahead. With 1000+ implementations, we are the AI insurance leader that over 350 insurers, reinsurers, MGAs rely on to rethink how insurance can be done in today’s modern era of insurance. Break free from the past and build the future of insurance at www.majesco.com.

Categories: News

Tags:

KKR and Oak Hill Capital Commit Nearly $2 Billion to Leading European Data Center Platform Global Technical Realty

KKR

Investment to accelerate GTR’s expansion as demand for next-generation data center infrastructure continues to rise across Europe

NEW YORK & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that it is making an additional $1.5 billion equity commitment to Global Technical Realty (“GTR”), a multi-billion dollar European built-to-suit data center platform. In connection with this investment, Oak Hill Capital (“Oak Hill”), a thematic, middle-market private equity firm, will join as an investor in the company, committing approximately $400 million.

Founded by leading data center entrepreneur Franek Sodzawiczny and KKR, GTR has grown into one of Europe’s premier developers and operators of mission-critical data center capacity. Since the launch of the platform in 2020, GTR has established a strong footprint across both primary and emerging high-growth markets, delivering innovative data centers designed to meet the requirements of hyperscale, cloud and AI-driven workloads, supported by a team drawn from some of the industry’s most experienced participants.

The new commitments from KKR and Oak Hill will support GTR’s substantial development pipeline, including additional greenfield capacity and new market entries across Europe to meet rising demand for high-performance and power-dense compute and cloud infrastructure. With a growing operating team and multiple projects already in execution, GTR is positioned to scale rapidly across Europe as demand for AI-ready data center capacity continues to accelerate.

“As rapid cloud growth continues and scaled AI demand begins to materialize, the need for high-quality, power-efficient, and scalable data center infrastructure in Europe has never been greater,” said Andrew Peisch, Partner at KKR. “GTR has established itself as one of Europe’s most capable developers of next-generation facilities, and we are thrilled to deepen our commitment to the platform while expanding our long-standing relationship with Oak Hill.”

“We are pleased to invest in GTR and collaborate with KKR to support a platform that sits at the intersection of cloud, AI, and critical infrastructure,” said Adam Hahn, Partner at Oak Hill. “GTR has built a differentiated platform with a strong management team, and we look forward to supporting the company as it continues to scale to meet the growing digital infrastructure needs across Europe.”

Franek Sodzawiczny, CEO and founder of GTR, added: “This investment marks a major inflection point for GTR. Demand from hyperscale and AI-driven customers across Europe continues to accelerate, and this capital enables us to scale our team, deepen our operating capabilities, and move faster into new markets. KKR has been an exceptional strategic partner since our inception, and their renewed commitment positions us to execute against a substantial development pipeline. We are also delighted to welcome Oak Hill, whose deep experience in digital infrastructure and telecommunications will be invaluable as we scale the platform for its next phase of growth.”

KKR is funding its investment primarily from its Global Infrastructure Strategy. The firm has committed approximately $34 billion of equity into digital infrastructure across 24 investments, alongside more than $20 billion in power and renewables. KKR’s portfolio includes five data center platforms across the U.S., APAC, and EMEA totaling more than 155 facilities and a 12-gigawatt development pipeline, twelve fiber platforms reaching nearly 30 million homes, and over 130,000 wireless infrastructure sites across Europe and APAC.

Oak Hill and its predecessors have been investing in digital infrastructure for over 30 years, with 30 investments to date. The investment in GTR marks the firm’s fourth platform investment in the data center space and draws on Oak Hill’s deep experience in scaling digital infrastructure businesses.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as 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 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. For additional information about Global Atlantic Financial Group, please visit Global Atlantic Financial Group’s website at www.globalatlantic.com.

About Oak Hill Capital

Oak Hill Capital is a thematic, middle-market private equity firm focused primarily on investing in resilient, defensive growth-oriented services businesses. The firm takes a systematic approach to identifying and building enduring franchises aligned with high conviction themes in (i) digital infrastructure; (ii) financial services; and (iii) essential services. Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Menlo Park and Stamford, over its ~40-year history, Oak Hill has invested in over 115 companies and has raised over $25 billion of initial capital commitments and co-investments since inception. For more information, please visit www.oakhill.com.

About Global Technical Realty

GTR is a build-to-suit European data center platform. The company’s focus is the design and construction of tailored and sustainable data centers for global hyper-scalers in key global markets. GTR’s management team comprises seasoned professionals with extensive technical real estate experience and a proven track record in the data center sector. For further information: www.globaltechnicalrealty.com.

Media Contacts

KKR

Liidia Liuksila
Media@KKR.com

Oak Hill

Trevor Gibbons / Alex Hinson
Pro-OakHillCapital@prosek.com

Global Technical Realty
Clare Shepard
Clare.Shephard@maillot-jaune.co.uk

Source: KKR

 

Download PDF

Categories: News

Tags:

Mediar Therapeutics Announces Oversubscribed $76 Million Series B Financing and Clinical Advancement of First-in-Class Fibrosis Portfolio

GIMV

Series B Co-led by New Investors Amplitude Ventures and ICG
MTX-474 Global Phase 2a study Initiated in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc)
MTX-463 Global Phase 2a Study in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Enrolling & Partnered with Lilly
MTX-439 Advancing to Phase 1 studies for Fibrosis Associated with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

BOSTON, Mass., (January 7, 2026) – Mediar Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing first-in-class therapies designed to halt fibrosis, today announced an oversubscribed $76 million Series B financing co-led by Amplitude Ventures and ICG, with participation from new investors Longwood Fund, Asahi Kasei Pharma Ventures, Alexandria Real Estate Trust (ARE), and existing Series A investors. Joining the Mediar board from Amplitude Ventures is Bharat Srinivasa, PhD, and from ICG is Allan Marchington, PhD. Proceeds from the financing will further support advancement of Mediar’s wholly owned assets, including MTX-474, an antagonist of EphrinB2, being studied in a Phase 2a study in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and MTX-439, a SMOC2 antagonist, proceeding to Phase 1 studies for the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated fibrosis.

“It has been a transformative 12 months for Mediar, from our deal with Eli Lilly and Company on MTX-463, to this oversubscribed Series B financing with leading biotech investors,” said Rahul Ballal, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Mediar Therapeutics. “With $175 million raised through these transactions, we can advance our novel anti-fibrotics through clinical studies and potentially bring life-changing therapies to patients suffering from fibrosing diseases of the skin, lung, and kidney. I would like to take this moment to thank our entire Mediar team for their dedication and demonstration that direct targeting of the myofibroblast holds promise to halt fibrosis.”

The company has initiated the EncompaSSc trial, a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled 24-week Phase 2a study designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of MTX-474 in approximately 90 patients living with SSc, using the validated mRSS (Modified Rodnan Skin Score) tool, as the primary endpoint.

“The EncompaSSc study marks an important milestone in our effort to bring new treatment options to patients living with SSc,” said Lorinda Chung, MD, MS, Global Principal Investigator of the trial and professor of Medicine and Dermatology at Stanford Medicine. “Emerging research shows that EphrinB2 signaling may contribute to the progression of fibrosis in multiple organ systems impacted by systemic sclerosis. These patients have a large unmet need, and this Phase 2a trial will allow us to evaluate MTX-474’s potential to treat patients suffering with this disease.”

“By addressing the fundamental causes of fibrosis, Mediar is paving the way for transformative clinical advances in the field,”said Allan Marchington, PhD, Head of Life Sciences at ICG. “We are proud to co-lead this financing to accelerate these vital therapies.”

“We are excited about Mediar’s unique approach to targeting fibrosis across multiple organ systems,” added Bharat Srinivasa, PhD, Principal at Amplitude Ventures. “Together, we aim to translate this deep scientific understanding into novel therapies that positively impact patient lives.”

Andreas Jurgeit, PhD, Partner in Gimv’s Life Sciences team comments: “We are proud to continue our support of Mediar following this oversubscribed USD 76 million Series B financing. Mediar is advancing three first-in-class programs targeting key drivers of fibrosis, including two global Phase 2 studies in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and Systemic Sclerosis (SSc), as well as a progressing Phase 1 program in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). We look forward to collaborating with ICG and Amplitude, who joined this round.”

The company is also finalizing an IND-enabling package for MTX-439, a SMOC2 antagonist, for the treatment of fibrosis associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), with plans to initiate Phase 1 studies in the first half of 2026.

Categories: News

Tags:

Apollo Backs $5.4 Billion Valor and xAI Data Center Compute Infrastructure Transaction with $3.5 Billion Capital Solution

No Comments
Apollo logo

GPU Lease Financing to Support xAI’s Second Data Center

NEW YORK, Jan. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Apollo (NYSE: APO) today announced that Apollo-managed funds and affiliates (the “Apollo Funds”) have led a $3.5 billion capital solution for Valor Compute Infrastructure L.P. (“VCI”), a fund managed by Valor Equity Partners (“Valor”), to support its $5.4 billion acquisition and lease of data center compute infrastructure, including NVIDIA GB200 GPUs, to a subsidiary of xAI Corp (“xAI”). The financing uses a triple net lease structure and will support one of the world’s most powerful compute clusters for ongoing model training and development of Grok.

NVIDIA invested in VCI as an anchor Limited Partner alongside many of Valor’s institutional investors. Since inception in 2023, xAI has rapidly established its position as one of the leading companies in artificial intelligence, with Grok 4 demonstrating strong performance across benchmarks.

“This transaction represents a hallmark, downside-protected investment for Apollo in the AI infrastructure space and underscores our role as a leading provider of flexible, asset-based capital for next-generation assets,” said Apollo Partner Christopher Lahoud. “We are supporting the growth of this transformative technology by investing in the critical infrastructure that enables it, alongside highly regarded partners like Valor and NVIDIA, who are driving the next wave of innovation.”

“VCI is an extension of our continued service as a firm to xAI. The fund provides investors with the opportunity to invest in critical artificial intelligence compute infrastructure with quarterly cash distributions and upside through ownership of the compute assets,” said Valor Founder, CEO and CIO Antonio Gracias.

Apollo estimates that global data center infrastructure will require several trillion dollars of investment over the next decade, driven by secular trends associated with the Global Industrial Renaissance and accelerating demand for compute capacity and AI workloads. Since 2022, Apollo-managed funds and affiliates have deployed over $40 billioni into next-generation infrastructure, including compute capacity, digital platforms and renewable energy.

Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel to the Apollo Funds, Proskauer Rose LLP served as legal counsel to VCI and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP served as legal counsel to xAI.

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 September 30, 2025, Apollo had approximately $908 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.

About Valor Equity Partners

Valor Equity Partners is an operational growth investment firm focused on investing in high-growth companies across various stages of development. For decades, Valor has served its companies with unique expertise to solve the challenges of growth and scale. Valor partners with leading companies and entrepreneurs who are committed to the highest standards of excellence and the courage to transform their industries. As of December 31, 2025, Valor had approximately $55 billion of assets under management. For more information on Valor Equity Partners, please visit www.valorep.com.

Contacts

Noah Gunn

Global Head of Investor Relations

(212) 822-0540

IR@apollo.com

Joanna Rose

Global Head of Corporate Communications

(212) 822-0491

Communications@apollo.com

________________________________
i Includes certain transactions that have signed but not yet closed. There can be no assurance that these transactions will close as expected or at all.

Categories: News

Tags:

Warburg Pincus Closes on $3.0 Billion Financial Services Fund

Warburg Pincus logo

Warburg Pincus Financial Sector III exceeds initial target, reflecting strong support for the firm’s Financial Services strategy and compelling set of investment opportunities

January 7, 2026 – New York – Warburg Pincus, the pioneer of global growth investing, today announced it has successfully raised Warburg Pincus Financial Sector III, L.P. (“WPFS III”), closing on $3.0 billion of capital. WPFS III launched in 2024, with a target of $2.5 billion.

Over the past five decades, Warburg Pincus has been a leader in investing in financial services companies, deploying nearly $27 billion in over 160 companies across market cycles and remains highly active in today’s dynamic environment. The firm invests across the full spectrum of financial services sub-sectors globally, including banks, insurance, asset & wealth management, specialty finance, payments, and financial services-focused software, infrastructure and services. Notable investments of the firm’s financial services strategy include AA, Avanse, Banc of California, EverBank, Foundation Risk Partners, GCash, IntraFi, Kestra, Mellon Bank, McGill & Partners, and Procare.

“Despite a complex macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop, Warburg Pincus demonstrated the strength and global reach of our platform, successfully closing our third Financial Services fund, marking our largest Financial Services fund to date. We believe our strong fundraise reflects the substantial momentum and trust of our limited partners, earned through consistent engagement, rigorous execution, and deep sector experience across financial services,” said Jeff Perlman, CEO, Warburg Pincus. “Guided by a long‑term, collaborative approach, we continue to offer differentiated strategies and innovative solutions while remaining disciplined and focused on our investor-first approach.”

“Our Financial Services investing practice leverages a broad global platform and deep experience across a variety of sub-sectors, with the flexibility to pursue what we view as the most attractive opportunities. Secular trends like rapid digital transformation, rising financial product use in emerging markets, and growing household wealth are creating new investment opportunities and making financial services a prime sector for long-term growth,” said Dan Zilberman, Global Co-Head of Financial Services and Global Head of Capital Solutions.

“We believe that the strong performance of our first two Financial Services companion funds, driven by our demonstrated ability to consistently return capital to investors, has fueled this strong demand for our latest fund. With this fresh set of capital, we believe we are well-positioned to pursue both secular and cyclical trends shaping the financial services sector to build durable companies that are capable of delivering value,” added Vishal Mahadevia, Global Co-Head of Financial Services and Head of Asia Private Equity.

The firm’s Financial Services practice is a cohesive, global platform comprising over 40 investment professionals, one of the largest dedicated global financial services teams in the industry.

WPFS III follows the success of the firm’s global flagship fund, Warburg Pincus Global Growth 14, which closed with $17.3 billion, also exceeding its initial target fund size of $16 billion. It also succeeds the successful $4.0 billion close of the firm’s Capital Solutions Fund (WPCS FF), exceeding its initial target of $2.0 billion.

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus LLC is the pioneer of global growth investing. A private partnership since 1966, the firm has the flexibility and experience to focus on helping investors and management teams achieve enduring success across market cycles. Today, the firm has more than $85 billion in assets under management, and more than 215 companies in their active portfolio, diversified across stages, sectors, and geographies. Warburg Pincus has invested in more than 1,000 companies across its private equity, real estate, and capital solutions strategies.

The firm is headquartered in New York with more than 15 offices globally. For more information, please visit www.warburgpincus.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Contact

Kerrie Cohen | Managing Director, Global Head of Communications & Marketing
kerrie.cohen@warburgpincus.com

Categories: News

Tags:

Blackstone Announces Additional Investment in AIR Control Concepts

Blackstone

Blackstone to Acquire Madison Dearborn’s Remaining Stake to Become Sole Institutional Investor Supporting AIR’s Next Phase of Growth

Norfolk, Virginia – January 7, 2026 – Air Control Concepts (“AIR”), the largest commercial HVAC, electrical, and controls platform in North America, announced today that funds managed by Blackstone’s private equity strategy for individual investors (“Blackstone”) have signed and closed the acquisition of Madison Dearborn Partners’ (“MDP”) remaining equity stake in AIR, following Blackstone’s original investment in July 2024. Founder, President and CEO of AIR, Brad Hobbs, and his family will also invest alongside Blackstone. With this transaction, Blackstone becomes AIR’s sole institutional investor, deepening its partnership with AIR’s management and positioning the company for its next phase of growth.

Headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, AIR operates across 35 states and Canada through a network of more than 38 operating companies and over 1,900 associates. The platform supports leading OEM partners and their customers by combining deep local market expertise with the scale, resources, and connectivity of a national organization. AIR’s operating model is designed to preserve the entrepreneurial culture and trusted relationships of each operating company while enabling collaboration, shared services, and long-term growth.

Brad Hobbs, Founder, President and CEO, and Hayden Bland, COO of AIR said:

“Blackstone has been a fantastic partner since joining us in 2024. Their strategic insights and resources have helped AIR continue to scale rapidly while strengthening our commitment to excellence on behalf of our OEM partners and customers. As we look to the future – including our further expansion, the substantial opportunity in data centers and exciting adjacency strategies – we are thrilled to deepen our partnership. We thank the MDP team for their collaboration and support in helping build the AIR platform into what it is today.”

Seth Meisel, Senior Managing Director, and Karl Eber, Managing Director, at Blackstone, stated:

“We thank MDP for a terrific partnership, and we are thrilled to support Brad, Hayden and the entire AIR leadership team to help drive the company’s continued success. The 18 months since our original investment have seen tremendous growth and we are excited to help perpetuate that going forward. We believe AIR is exceptionally well positioned to continue delivering leading solutions for its customers and OEM partners as the platform continues to scale.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Centerview Partners served as lead financial advisor to Blackstone, and RBC Capital Markets, LLC also served as financial advisor to Blackstone. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to AIR and MDP. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to Blackstone.

About AIR Control Concepts
AIR Control Concepts (“AIR”) is a leading commercial HVAC, electrical, and controls platform operating across 35 states and Canada. Headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, AIR partners with and supports a network of operating companies by providing shared resources, technology, and strategic support while preserving the local culture, leadership, and customer relationships that define each business. Through its collaborative platform model, AIR enables long-term growth and scalable solutions for OEM partners and the customers they serve. More information is available at www.aircontrolconcepts.com.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Blackstone seeks to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which the firm invests. Blackstone’s over $1.2 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries and hedge funds. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

About Madison Dearborn Partners
Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (“MDP”) is a leading private equity investment firm based in Chicago. Since its formation in 1992, the firm has invested $27 billion and completed 168 platform investments across its dedicated industry verticals. For more information, please visit www.mdcp.com.

Contacts
 
For Blackstone:
Hallie Dewey
Hallie.dewey@blackstone.com
 
For AIR:
Kelly Duffy
Kduffy@aircontrolconcepts.com

Categories: News

Tags:

Bain Capital, Revcap and Black Swan Invest in Prime Mixed-Use Asset on the Champs-Élysées to Support Landmark Paris Redevelopment

BainCapital

LONDON/PARIS – January 7, 2026 – Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm, Revcap, a pan-European real estate private equity firm, and Black Swan today announced the investment in 29–33 Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, a prime mixed-use building located on one of the world’s most prominent retail corridors. The investment, being conducted as a joint venture between Bain Capital’s European Real Estate strategy and Revcap’s Real Estate Platforms strategy, will support the redevelopment of the vacant asset into three flagship retail units and modern office space designed to meet long-term demand from global brands and corporate occupiers.

The project is structured as a comprehensive repositioning initiative, benefitting from an existing building permit and a fully stripped interior that enables an efficient redevelopment program. The investment reflects the investors conviction in high-quality European real estate, particularly in corridors with sustained international tourism, limited availability of large flagship units and resilient rental dynamics. The firm is partnering with Black Swan Real Estate Capital on the execution of the business plan.

Bain Capital’s European Real Estate strategy continues to focus on high-quality assets in markets where long-term operating fundamentals remain resilient and demand is structurally supported.

“This investment highlights the strength of our European real estate strategy and our ability to underwrite unique assets in globally strategic locations,” said Ali Haroon, a Partner and Head of Special Situations and Real Estate in Europe at Bain Capital. “The Champs-Élysées remains one of the most recognizable and resilient retail avenues in the world, and we see compelling long-term potential in delivering a next-generation retail and office destination in the heart of Paris.”

“The fundamentals supporting this asset are exceptionally strong,” said Rafael Coste Campos, a Partner at Bain Capital. “Flagship retail units of this scale and quality are extremely rare and structurally undersupplied, whilst tenant demand continues to deepen. The current macro dislocation is allowing a special window to acquire unique assets at attractive valuations. We are convinced that combining our expertise with that of Revcap and Black Swan will enable us to maximize value creation for the asset.”

“We are delighted to be partnering with Bain to acquire such an iconic asset in Central Paris. The acquisition demonstrates Revcap’s ability to execute complex transactions of scale in key European markets, whilst illustrating the capabilities of Black Swan Real Estate Capital, a platform created by Revcap. We look forward to contributing to the ongoing evolution of one of the world’s most recognisable streets,” said Andrew Pettit, Equity Partner of Revcap.

“This acquisition represents a defining step in our strategy. By acquiring this office and retail building on this iconic avenue, we are proud to join forces with prestigious partners to reimagine a landmark project at the heart of Paris,” said Rouzbeh Badi Arez, Partner at Black Swan. “This transaction represents an exceptional opportunity to acquire a truly rare redevelopment asset, located at the very heart of an internationally acclaimed address. Through its ambition and positioning, the project fully aligns with the ongoing renaissance of the Champs-Élysées and represents a unique opportunity to take part in the transformation of the world’s most beautiful avenue,” said Gautier Beurnier, Senior Advisor at Black Swan.

The redevelopment will incorporate leading environmental performance features and is targeting top sustainability certifications, including HQE, BREEAM and BBCA. Plans include enhanced natural light, energy-efficient systems and potential integration of green or solar roofing, consistent with Paris 2030 climate objectives and broader EU sustainability frameworks.

About Bain Capital

Founded in 1984, Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading private investment firms. We are committed to creating lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live. As a private partnership, we lead with conviction and a culture of collaboration, advantages that enable us to innovate investment approaches, unlock opportunities, and create exceptional outcomes. Our global platform invests across five focus areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capital Solutions, Credit & Capital Markets, and Real Assets. In these focus areas, we bring deep sector expertise and wide-ranging capabilities. We have 24 offices on four continents, more than 1,850 employees, and approximately $205 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit baincapital.com. Follow @BainCapital on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

About Revcap

Founded in 2004, Revcap is an independently owned private equity real estate principal investor. Revcap targets real estate joint ventures in partnership with local operating partners. Since inception, Revcap has partnered with institutions, foundations, endowments, and family offices to invest in over €15bn of European real estate transactions across 13 investment vehicles. The firm has closed more than 80 deals in France.

About Black Swan Real Estate Capital

Launched in February 2021, Black Swan Real Estate Capital is a real estate investment and asset management firm operating in the French market. Black Swan was founded by Rouzbeh Badi-Arez and Revcap and invests in and manages a total of €500m of office, retail and residential real estate investments predominantly in Paris, alongside leading institutional investors.

 

Media Contacts

 Europe

 Jason Lobo

 Camarco

Categories: News

Tags:

UserTesting Acquires User Interviews to Strengthen the Industry’s Most Comprehensive Customer Insights Solution for the AI Era

Thomabravo

Combination unites UserTesting’s category-leading insights platform with User Interviews’ leading participant recruitment to help enterprises make better decisions.

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON — UserTesting, the leading provider of customer insights for the enterprise, today announced it has acquired User Interviews, the leading participant recruitment platform for user research, market research, and AI training. The combination brings together powerful insights technology and premium participant access to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive and scalable customer insights solution.

“As companies reimagine their products and experiences to win in the AI era, the need for trusted customer insights has never been greater,” said Eric Johnson, CEO of UserTesting. “By bringing UserTesting and User Interviews together, we’re creating the fastest and most reliable way for teams to understand their customers and make better, smarter decisions with confidence.”

“We started User Interviews to help organizations hear from the people that matter most to their businesses,” said Basel Fakhoury, CEO of User Interviews. “Combining User Interviews’ panel capabilities with UserTesting’s platform gives enterprises a more scalable, trusted way to access the right audiences and turn insights into action.”

Advancing Panel Reach and Participant Management at Enterprise Scale

The combination of UserTesting and User Interviews brings together UserTesting’s category-leading insights platform and global general population network with User Interviews’ large-scale, premium participant marketplace. Together, the companies make it fast, easy, and cost-effective to recruit the right participants at scale across any criteria, geography, or audience type. With unmatched panel breadth, depth, and speed of access to consumers, B2B professionals, and specialized audiences, enterprises gain trusted, high-fidelity insights to support rapid and high-stakes decision-making.

The combined offering enables organizations to ground every AI deployment, product enhancement, marketing program, and customer experience in authentic customer understanding, bringing the real voices of customers directly into the decisions that matter most.

Customers benefit from:

  • Broad reach: Everyday consumers, niche audiences, specialized experts, B2B professionals, and hard to reach roles
  • Precise targeting and matching: Rich demographic, behavioral, attitudinal, and industry-specific segmentation
  • Proprietary fraud prevention: Sophisticated controls designed to protect quality and trust
  • Rapid scale: Fast access to millions of participants for live and unmoderated conversations, as well as high quality quantitative research at scale
  • Enterprise-grade trust: Built-in security, privacy, and data governance designed for global enterprises

Empowering Designers, Researchers, and Marketers

The acquisition unlocks unprecedented ability for designers, researchers, product managers and marketers to identify the exact audiences they need, engage them quickly, and extract insights at speed using AI-powered analysis. It enables teams to move from understanding to confident action faster than ever before.

Advisors

Lightning Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to User Interviews.

About UserTesting
UserTesting enables organizations to craft exceptional customer experiences through actionable customer insights. With the world’s strongest participant network, AI-driven insights, comprehensive feedback solutions, and expert-level services, enterprises can validate decisions, co-innovate at scale, and accelerate their path to better products and experiences. Trusted by 3,000+ customers, including 75 of the Fortune 100, UserTesting is the partner of choice for businesses committed to delivering experiences customers love. Learn more at www.usertesting.com.

About User Interviews
User Interviews is the most scalable way to recruit quality participants for any kind of research. With over 6 million participants, precise matching, and fraud prevention, User Interviews can reliably fill nearly any research study. Researchers, designers, product managers, and marketers can quickly connect with the right people in any niche, whether consumers, B2B professionals, or domain experts needed for model training, for any kind of study, moderated, unmoderated, in-person or remote.

Categories: News

Tags:

Ping Identity Marks Digital Trust Milestone with Zero-Knowledge Biometrics in the Age of AI

Thomabravo

Completion of the Keyless acquisition adds privacy-preserving biometric authentication and re-verification to strengthen enterprise defenses against AI-powered spoofing and fraud.

DENVER — Ping Identity, a leader in securing digital identities for the world’s largest enterprises, today strengthened its identity platform to help enterprises counter increasingly sophisticated AI-driven attacks. With the acquisition of Keyless now complete, Ping adds Zero-Knowledge Biometrics to its portfolio, expanding access to device-independent, cryptographically protected biometric authentication and re-verification, elevating the standard for verified trust across the digital ecosystem.

Keyless’ patented Zero-Knowledge Biometrics technology re-verifies the originally verified person with one glance, enabling lightning-fast multi-factor authentication and re-verification in under 300 milliseconds. Each re-verification uses advanced cryptographic techniques that ensure biometric data is never stored in a retrievable or reconstructable form. The result is a highly portable, privacy-first approach that eliminates the need for a dedicated device, while helping organizations counter deepfakes, impersonation, and account takeover.

How Will Ping’s Acquisition of Keyless Help Enterprises Create Trusted Digital Experiences?

“AI is accelerating identity-based attacks. Authentication must be resilient and simple to use, while simultaneously ensuring the originally verified user is who they say they are” said Andre Durand, CEO and Founder of Ping Identity. “Keyless delivers privacy-preserving biometrics that make strong verification effortless. Now that the acquisition is complete, we can bring this simplicity and strength to customers across every digital interaction.”

Andrea Carmignani, CEO and Co-Founder of Keyless, added: “Joining Ping Identity is a major milestone for our team and technology. Zero-Knowledge Biometrics allow organizations to re-verify the originally verified identity across the entire journey—onboarding, access, step up, and recovery—without ever exposing biometric data. Together with Ping, we can deliver that level of protection at a global scale.”

How Does This Acquisition Combine Ping and Keyless Capabilities, While Furthering Ping’s One Platform Strategy?

Keyless securely binds a user to one or more devices and can also re-verify different users on a shared device, strengthening Ping’s ability to support re-verification in environments where traditional MFA falls short. Together, Ping and Keyless provide continuous identity assurance by extending strong verification across diverse identity environments and use cases.

The combined capabilities across customer, workforce, and B2B identity use cases will help enterprises:

  • Support continuous identity assurance across all stages of the identity lifecycle.
  • Prevent account takeover and identity fraud with one glance at the camera.
  • Deliver passwordless multifactor authentication and seamless single sign-on.
  • Provide mobile and frontline workers with instant biometric re-verification in less than 300ms.
  • Protect critical user moments, including account creation and recovery.
  • Support compliance with global privacy and security regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, eIDAS 2.0, and the emerging PSD3.

Together, these capabilities advance Ping’s Platform vision: delivering verified trust across all identities without adding friction, compromising privacy, or reducing control.

Keyless technology is now available to customers. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Resources:

About Ping Identity 
At Ping, we make it possible to trust every digital moment—moments with customers, employees, partners, and non-human identities. Whether you’re securing millions of users, fighting sophisticated fraud, simplifying third-party access, or embracing passwordless experiences and verifiable credentials, establishing trust shouldn’t slow you down. Our enterprise-grade identity platform is built for scale, speed, and flexibility—and works seamlessly with your existing tech stack across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem. We help innovators like you accelerate growth and confidently leverage AI—making life easier for your developers, users, IT teams, and partners. With Ping, all your digital experiences start with trust. Learn more at pingidentity.com.

Categories: News

Accenture to acquire Faculty, an Apax Digital Fund I portfolio company, to scale AI capabilities

Apax

Accenture has agreed to acquire Faculty, a leading UK-based AI native services and products business built on highly technical applied AI skills and a unique decision intelligence product that features advanced simulation and optimization capabilities. The acquisition will expand Accenture’s capabilities to help its clients reinvent core and critical business processes with safe and secure AI solutions that result in tangible outcomes.

Founded in 2014, Faculty has a strong track record working with public and private sector clients to deploy AI solutions in the U.K. and other key markets. Its services – which include AI strategy, AI safety and the design, build and implementation of high-performance AI systems – support the scaled and safe adoption of AI by client organizations.

Faculty has built a distinctive market position by pairing deep technical capability with an ability to attract and retain top-tier data science talent in the UK. This is driven by its thought leadership, fellowship programme, and work on high-profile, mission-critical projects, including the NHS Early Warning System. Most recently, Faculty became OpenAI’s first global technical partner, underlining its credentials in advanced and generative AI.

Since 2021, with the support of Apax Digital and LocalGlobe, Faculty has more than quadrupled in size, evolving from an applied AI services provider into a business with a differentiated, scalable software platform at its core. Investment in Frontier, Faculty’s software platform, has also unlocked significant growth opportunities, particularly in life sciences, where Faculty’s decision intelligence capabilities address complex regulatory and operational challenges.

Faculty’s team of more than 400 AI native professionals, including highly qualified data scientists and AI engineers, will integrate with Accenture’s teams to scale world class AI capabilities for clients.

Marc Warner, CEO of Faculty, said, “Our vision has always been a world in which safe AI delivers widespread benefits to humanity. We have spent the last ten years supporting our clients to bring this world about, step by step. As AI advances rapidly, the ambition of our clients is now, rightly, no less than the reinvention of their business. I am delighted that by teaming up with Accenture, we have everything in place to support AI transformation from start to finish.”

Faculty is known for their ability to apply AI in mission-critical settings. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Faculty built the UK National Health Service’s (NHS) Early Warning System. This was used daily by NHS Gold Command to accurately predict patient demand across the country, and to optimally allocate critical care resources to where they were needed most.

Saul Klein, Co-founder and Executive Chairman at Phoenix Court, home of LocalGlobe, said: “We are proud to have invested in Faculty in January 2016, when they were a small team of around 10 people, together with the other early stage investors in the company. We extend our warmest congratulations to Marc, Andy, Angie and the whole Faculty team as they embark on this exciting next stage of their journey, together with Accenture.”

Mark Beith, Partner at Apax Digital, said: “Faculty has built the UK’s standout applied AI business, pairing serious technical depth with the discipline to deploy AI safely in the real world. We met Faculty in 2017 and became a client early on. It has been a privilege to partner with Marc, Angie, Andy, John and their world-class team, as well as LocalGlobe. Quadrupling revenues in four years, launching a successful AI software offering and becoming a unicorn – this is a great outcome for Faculty and showcases the strength of the UK’s AI ecosystem. Accenture now gives Faculty a global platform to industrialise applied AI for the world’s largest organisations.”

Faculty would like to extend our deep gratitude to Apax, LocalGlobe, our seed stage investors – Mercuri, Metaplanet, and RockSpring, and our long list of angel investors, who have all helped us along the way.

Goldman Sachs International served as sole financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP as legal advisor to Faculty, and Slaughter and May as legal advisor to management.

Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Categories: News

Tags: