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Francisco Partners Completes Acquisition of IBM’s Healthcare Data and Analytics Assets;

Truewind

Launches Healthcare Data Company Merative

Merative will deliver industry-leading data and technology across the healthcare value chain

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 30, 2022 – Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that
specializes in partnering with technology businesses, today announced that it has completed the
acquisition of healthcare data and analytics assets that were part of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) Watson Health
business, previously announced in January.

Under the ownership of Francisco Partners, the new standalone company will be called Merative and will
be headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Merative brings together market-leading offerings that deliver value across the global healthcare
ecosystem, serving clients in life sciences, provider, imaging, health plan, employer, and government
health and human services sectors.

Seasoned healthcare CEO Gerry McCarthy has been tapped to lead the new organization. McCarthy has
been in healthcare information technology for 30 years, most recently serving as CEO of eSolutions, a
Francisco Partners portfolio company, which exited to Waystar in October 2020. Prior to eSolutions,
Gerry was the President of TransUnion Healthcare and an executive at McKesson.

“Merative has market leading products, top clients and talented leadership,” said McCarthy. “With the
commitment, support and deep experience of Francisco Partners, we will invest heavily in expanding the
reach of these products as we continue to work with clients to improve healthcare delivery, decision
making and performance.”

Paul Roma, General Manager of the Watson Health business, will be transitioning to Senior Advisor to
Francisco Partners. McCarthy said, “Paul has been instrumental in driving crucial transformation of the
business. His relentless focus on customers has laid a solid foundation to build on, and we thank him for
his leadership.”

Merative’s products will be organized into six product families, including Health Insights; MarketScan;
Clinical Development; Social Program Management and Phytel; Micromedex, and Merge Imaging
solutions. Francisco Partners’ investment will provide Merative with significant resources and
opportunities for new investment, acquisitions, partnerships, and growth.

“Francisco Partners is excited about the opportunity to partner with the team and employees at Merative
to help them achieve their mission, bringing technology and expertise to clients across healthcare through
industry-leading data and analytics solutions,” said Ezra Perlman and Justin Chen of Francisco Partners.

“We appreciate IBM’s work in developing this business, and our ownership will help Merative drive
crucial focus in executing on organic and inorganic growth strategies.”

True Wind Capital and Sixth Street are investing in Merative. True Wind Capital is a San Francisco-based
private equity firm focused on investing in leading technology companies, and the team has a longstanding track record of partnering with healthcare businesses. Sixth Street is a global investment firm
that uses its long-term flexible capital, data-enabled capabilities, and One Team culture to develop themes
and offer solutions to companies across all stages of growth.

Deutsche Bank served as exclusive financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to
Francisco Partners.

About Francisco Partners
Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and
technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in
over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the
technology industry. With more than $45 billion in assets under management, the firm invests in
opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize
their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.Franciscopartners.com.

About Merative
Merative is a data, analytics and technology partner for the global health industry – including providers,
payers, life sciences companies and governments. With trusted technology and human expertise, the
company works with clients to drive real progress. Merative helps clients orient information and insights
around the people they serve to improve healthcare delivery, decision making and performance. Formerly
IBM Watson Health, Merative became a new standalone company under Francisco Partners’ ownership in
2022. Learn more at www.merative.com.

Media Contacts

For Francisco Partners & Merative:
Whit Clay
wclay@sloanepr.com

Sarah Braunstein
sbraunstein@sloanepr.com

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Eurazeo to sell the remaining 51% of its stake in Trader Interactive based on a $1.897 Billion valuation

Eurazeo

Eurazeo is announcing the sale of its remaining 51% stake in Virginia (USA)-based Trader Interactive, a leading platform of branded marketplaces in the United States providing digital marketing solutions and services across the commercial truck, recreational vehicle, power sports and equipment industries, to carsales, the largest online automotive advertising platform in Australia with a growing presence in Latin America and Asia. This transaction follows the acquisition by carsales in August 2021 of 49% of Trader Interactive.

carsales, which operates several marketplaces across both the automotive and specialty vehicle segments, brings to Trader its extensive knowledge in building and developing scaled online marketplaces.

Under this agreement, Trader Interactive is valued at $1.897bn corresponding to 25,0x CY 2021 Adjusted EBITDA. With this operation, Eurazeo and its affiliates show a return on a realized basis of 3.1x their original investment.

The sale of the 51% stake represents pre-tax proceeds of ~$350m for Eurazeo and its affiliates, of which $238m for Eurazeo.

Since 2017, with the support of the Eurazeo’s Mid-large buyout team and its partner, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Trader Interactive has significantly reinforced its leading position across each of its verticals. Through its relentless focus on building a world class technology and data platform along with targeted and strategic M&A, Trader continues to deliver increasing value to its dealers every day.

Marc Frappier, Member of the Executive Board, Managing Partner, Mid-large buyout:

“Over the last five years, Eurazeo has supported Trader Interactive in its journey to become a leading platform of branded marketplaces in the United States. This investment exemplifies our strategy to select and support market leaders across attractive industries supported by strong fundamentals and clear growth drivers.”

Vivianne Akriche, Managing Director, Mid-large buyout, added:

“We are proud to have worked with the team at Trader over the last five years. This partnership with carsales will allow Trader to continue in its journey to cement its position as a leader with global ambitions. We also want to thank our partners at Goldman Sachs Asset Management for their strong partnership and support for the company.”

About Eurazeo

  • Eurazeo is a leading global investment company, with a diversified portfolio of €32 billion in assets under management, including nearly €23.2 billion from third parties, invested in 530 companies. With its considerable private equity, venture capital, private debt as well as real estate and infrastructure asset expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 360 professionals and by offering deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a responsible and stable foothold for transformational growth. Its solid institutional and family shareholder base, robust financial structure free of structural debt, and flexible investment horizon enable Eurazeo to support its companies over the long term.
  • Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Luxembourg, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore and Sao Paulo.
  • Eurazeo is listed on Euronext Paris.
  • ISIN: FR0000121121 – Bloomberg: RF FP – Reuters: EURA.PA

EURAZEO CONTACT

Virginie CHRISTNACHT

DIRECTRICE DE LA COMMUNICATION

+33 (0) 1 44 15 76 44

Pierre BERNARDIN

DIR. RELATIONS INVESTISSEURS

+33 (0) 1 44 15 16 76

PRESS CONTACT

David Sturken

MAITLAND/AMO

+44 (0) 7990 595 913

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Rotunda Capital Closes Oversubscribed Fund III at $405 Million

Rotunda Capital Partners

BETHESDA, Md. – Rotunda Capital Partners (“Rotunda”) is pleased to announce the successful closing of Rotunda Capital Partners Fund III, L.P. (the “Fund” or “Fund III”), with $405 million in total capital commitments. The Fund was oversubscribed above its initial target of $295 million. Fund III received capital commitments from a diverse set of investors, including public pensions, corporate pensions, insurance companies, healthcare companies, multi-manager funds, consultants, and family offices. Rotunda is especially thankful for the continued support by way of fund commitments from several former Rotunda portfolio company executives and family-founders with whom we have partnered in the past.

“We appreciate the continued support from our existing investors and are grateful for the strong interest from the new limited partners joining us in Fund III,” said Managing Partner John Fruehwirth. “This successful fundraise is the result of a cohesive, passionate team that works with our family-founders to implement our replicable and differentiated value creation strategy – Rotunda Performance System.”

“Rotunda has built our brand around transforming family-founder owned industrial firms into data-driven growth platforms and we will continue that specialized focus in Fund III,” said Partner Bob Wickham.

Dan Lipson, Partner at Rotunda, noted that “Our investors have provided guidance and support as we seek to expand and implement the Rotunda thematic sourcing and operational improvement model. We are excited to continue partnering with great companies and their management teams.”

“We seek to achieve success by partnering with great management teams and recognize that our potential for success is dependent on their success. We thank them for the work they have done, which has contributed to the success of Rotunda,” said Partner Corey Whisner.

Rotunda would like to recognize Campbell Lutyens for their partnership in raising Fund III expeditiously and with significant capital from new investors, as well as Kirkland & Ellis LLP for providing fund formation counsel.

About Rotunda Capital Partners

Rotunda Capital Partners is an operationally oriented private equity firm focused on transforming family-founder owned companies into dynamic, data-driven platforms able to achieve and manage significant growth. Since its founding in 2009, Rotunda has partnered with management teams to build great businesses within three primary sectors: value-added distribution, asset-light logistics and industrial & business services. Rotunda strives to achieve replicable results by implementing its Rotunda Performance System to create strategic alignment, develop lean processes and create robust, data-driven infrastructures. For more information, visit www.rotundacapital.com.

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Clearlake Capital portfolio company Alkegen completes majority investment in Luyang Energy Savings Material CO.

Clearlake

Alkegen acquires controlling ownership in leading Chinese specialty materials platform

BUFFALO, N.Y. and SANTA MONICA, C.A. – June 28, 2022 – Alkegen, one of the largest specialty materials platforms in the world that provides high performance materials used in advanced applications such as filtration media, battery technologies, high temperature insulation and fire protection, announced today that it has successfully completed a tender offering resulting in Alkegen obtaining a controlling ownership interest in Luyang Energy-Saving Materials Co. Ltd. (“Luyang” or the “Company”), a Shenzhen A-share listed platform headquartered in Yuquan, Shandong province, China.

Luyang produces energy-saving materials in the fields of ceramic fibers, soluble fibers, alumina fibers, and other high temperature insulating materials, and has been partnered with Alkegen since 2015.

“From the very start of our partnership with Luyang seven years ago, we have been continuously impressed by the Company’s management team and their ability to deliver on financial and commercial performance targets” said John Dandolph, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alkegen. “With this increased investment, we plan to leverage Luyang as our platform in Asia to extend and cross-sell many of Alkegen’s other products and technologies that are core to the strategic direction of our global economy. These include systems that are defining our collective future such as filtration media, battery technologies, electric vehicle products, and specialty insulation materials. We are excited to continue investing in Luyang and deploying the Company’s resources to help our customers live greener, breathe easier, and go further than ever before.”

“This transaction marks another milestone in Alkegen’s journey toward becoming the global leader in advanced materials focused on lowering energy usage, reducing emissions and pioneering innovative solutions for the future of attractive high growth industries such as lithium-ion batteries and advanced filtration,” said José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Colin Leonard, Partner and Managing Director, at Clearlake.

“We couldn’t be more excited to sponsor John and the Alkegen team in this complex, transformative transaction that we believe will create meaningful value for customers and stakeholders globally, and is a great example of Clearlake’s O.P.S.® value creation playbook in action,” added Nate Mejías, Principal at Clearlake.

About Alkegen

Alkegen creates high performance specialty materials used in advanced applications including electric vehicles, energy storage, filtration, fire protection and high temperature insulation, among many others. Alkegen’s products are designed with the ultimate goal of saving energy, reducing pollution, and improving safety for people, buildings and equipment by delivering on our mission of helping the world breathe easier, live greener and go further than ever before. Alkegen has 75 manufacturing facilities operating in 12 countries with 9,000+ employees globally. More information is available at www.alkegen.com.

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is an investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.® The firm’s core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $72 billion of assets under management, and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 400 investments. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with affiliates in Dallas, TX, London, UK and Dublin, Ireland. More information is available at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @Clearlake.

Media Contacts:

 

Kristen Weiss

Alkegen

kweiss@alkegen.com

352.424.3169

 

Jennifer Hurson

Clearlake

jhurson@lambert.com

845.507.0571

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Enlightenment Capital closes new $540M fund

Enlightenment

Government market investment firm Enlightenment Capital has closed its fourth fund after fetching $540 million in capital from both new and existing investors.

That figure is nearly double the amount Enlightenment raised for its third fund closed in 2019 at $250 million and three times that of the second fund closed in 2016 at $147 million.

Fund IV was oversubscribed above its $350 million target and original $500 million cap with commitments from university endowments and foundations, pensions, insurance companies and family offices.

Chevy Chase, Maryland-headquartered Enlightenment said Thursday its strategy for Fund IV remains the same: invest in middle-tier aerospace, defense, government and technology companies to help them grow organically and through acquisitions.

“Enlightenment has been fortunate enough to be part of the backing and build of outstanding companies doing crucial work in support of the U.S. government and national security operations,” Devin Talbott, founder and managing partner, said in a release.

“This latest fund will let us grow the team and the portfolio, with the same objective of developing great teams and great businesses doing mission-critical work.”

Some of Enlightenment’s current government tech market backings include Boecore, Expression Networks, IntelliBridge and System High Corp.

“We remain committed to supporting talented management teams and developing top-tier businesses that support vital government operations and help safeguard our national security,” added Jason Rigoli, an Enlightenment partner.

Earlier this year, Enlightenment invested in the program management and professional services firm PM Consulting Group through the former’s “NextGen Leaders of GovTech” program focused on women- and minority-owned companies

A more recent high-profile exit was announced in May when Booz Allen Hamilton said it would acquire EverWatch, the national security software developer and integrator formed by Enlightenment nearly four years ago.

Metric Point Capital was the exclusive placement agent for Enlightenment’s fourth fund. Hogan Lovells acted as legal counsel.

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Norstella announces agreement to merge with Citeline

HG Capital

Citeline and Norstella Unite to Offer Life Sciences Clients a Full Suite of Commercial and Clinical Solutions

The new organization will help life sciences companies improve strategic decision-making and accelerate the mission of smoothing access to therapy from pipeline to patient

June 28, 2022 – Norstella, an organization that helps life sciences companies navigate the complexities of the drug life cycle, and Citeline (formerly Pharma Intelligence)—a leading provider of specialist intelligence, data and software for clinical trials, drug development and regulatory compliance—have announced an agreement to merge the companies.

By uniting Norstella, which is comprised of four prominent pharmaceutical solutions providers—Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group—with Citeline, the combined company will be well positioned to help life sciences companies reach patients faster by providing clients with the intelligence and answers they need from early clinical development through to commercialization. This move reflects the shared goal of becoming an end-to-end solution provider, helping patients access life-saving therapies.

As life sciences companies drive innovation toward more specialized therapeutics across all disease areas including oncology and rare disease, and patient populations become more targeted, they need to make critical decisions about how to bring the right drugs to market, how to construct clinical trials leveraging the latest innovations in real-world data and data science—and with end points that consider future payer reimbursement decisions—and, ultimately, how to reach patients in need.

“Accelerating innovation and ensuring that every patient gets the therapy that they need is our North Star. By bringing clinical and commercial intelligence together—along with real-world data—the combined company will be well positioned to deliver on its mission.”

Norstella CEO Mike Gallup

Together, Norstella and Citeline will play a critical role in helping pharmaceutical manufacturers plan for and overcome barriers to access, not just during clinical trials but at every stage in the drug development life cycle. Citeline’s solutions, including its portfolio of clinical trial products, provide insights that improve the speed and efficiency of clinical trials and reduce risk. Now, the Citeline solutions—along with MMIT’s PAR data and other complementary Norstella data assets—can be powered by Panalgo’s Instant Health Data Analytics platform to provide transformative answers that will improve workflow and decision-making and, ultimately, help products get to market and to patients quicker than ever before.

“At Citeline, our mission is to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. Ultimately, this marriage of commercial and clinical capabilities will advance the mission and enable the pharmaceutical C-suite to manage portfolio strategy like never before. This includes deciding which drug to bring to market, what new indications to pursue for a drug and how to target patients for clinical trials more quickly and with reduced cost. And now, this includes understanding how to design clinical trials that yield the types of data that payers need to make appropriate reimbursement and formulary decisions.”

Ramsey Hashem, CEO, and Jay Nadler, Executive Chair, of Citeline

“It’s about making a difference in the lives of patients,” said Gallup. “This move will help us make our vision of a more innovative, accessible healthcare marketplace a reality.”

The merger is expected to close in the second half of 2022 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

 

 

About Norstella
At Norstella, our mission is simple: to help patients gain access to life-saving therapies. Norstella consists of several prominent organizations—Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group—that have united to offer a full range of pharmaceutical consultancy services and solutions. As one organization, Norstella provides life sciences clients with the right tools and expertise to navigate complexities at each step of the drug development life cycle, from pipeline to patient. For more information, visit Norstella and follow on LinkedIn.

About Citeline
Citeline (formerly Pharma Intelligence) powers a full suite of complementary business intelligence offerings to meet the evolving needs of health science professionals to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. These patient-focused solutions and services deliver and analyze data used to drive clinical, commercial, and regulatory related-decisions and create real-world opportunities for growth.

Our global teams of analysts, journalists and consultants keep their fingers on the pulse of the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medtech industries, covering it all with expert insights: key diseases, clinical trials, drug R&D and approvals, market forecasts and more. For more information on one of the world’s most trusted health science partners, visit Citeline.

Media Contacts

Norstella
Melody Udell |Director, Communications
+1 312-618-5968 | melody.udell@norstella.com

Citeline
Blair Dawson| Vice President, Communications and Employee Engagement
+1 919-413-4616 | blair.dawson@informa.com

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Norstella announces agreement to merge with Citeline

HG Capital

Citeline and Norstella Unite to Offer Life Sciences Clients a Full Suite of Commercial and Clinical Solutions

The new organization will help life sciences companies improve strategic decision-making and accelerate the mission of smoothing access to therapy from pipeline to patient

June 28, 2022 – Norstella, an organization that helps life sciences companies navigate the complexities of the drug life cycle, and Citeline (formerly Pharma Intelligence)—a leading provider of specialist intelligence, data and software for clinical trials, drug development and regulatory compliance—have announced an agreement to merge the companies.

By uniting Norstella, which is comprised of four prominent pharmaceutical solutions providers—Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group—with Citeline, the combined company will be well positioned to help life sciences companies reach patients faster by providing clients with the intelligence and answers they need from early clinical development through to commercialization. This move reflects the shared goal of becoming an end-to-end solution provider, helping patients access life-saving therapies.

As life sciences companies drive innovation toward more specialized therapeutics across all disease areas including oncology and rare disease, and patient populations become more targeted, they need to make critical decisions about how to bring the right drugs to market, how to construct clinical trials leveraging the latest innovations in real-world data and data science—and with end points that consider future payer reimbursement decisions—and, ultimately, how to reach patients in need.

“Accelerating innovation and ensuring that every patient gets the therapy that they need is our North Star. By bringing clinical and commercial intelligence together—along with real-world data—the combined company will be well positioned to deliver on its mission.”

Norstella CEO Mike Gallup

Together, Norstella and Citeline will play a critical role in helping pharmaceutical manufacturers plan for and overcome barriers to access, not just during clinical trials but at every stage in the drug development life cycle. Citeline’s solutions, including its portfolio of clinical trial products, provide insights that improve the speed and efficiency of clinical trials and reduce risk. Now, the Citeline solutions—along with MMIT’s PAR data and other complementary Norstella data assets—can be powered by Panalgo’s Instant Health Data Analytics platform to provide transformative answers that will improve workflow and decision-making and, ultimately, help products get to market and to patients quicker than ever before.

“At Citeline, our mission is to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. Ultimately, this marriage of commercial and clinical capabilities will advance the mission and enable the pharmaceutical C-suite to manage portfolio strategy like never before. This includes deciding which drug to bring to market, what new indications to pursue for a drug and how to target patients for clinical trials more quickly and with reduced cost. And now, this includes understanding how to design clinical trials that yield the types of data that payers need to make appropriate reimbursement and formulary decisions.”

Ramsey Hashem, CEO, and Jay Nadler, Executive Chair, of Citeline

“It’s about making a difference in the lives of patients,” said Gallup. “This move will help us make our vision of a more innovative, accessible healthcare marketplace a reality.”

The merger is expected to close in the second half of 2022 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

About Norstella
At Norstella, our mission is simple: to help patients gain access to life-saving therapies. Norstella consists of several prominent organizations—Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group—that have united to offer a full range of pharmaceutical consultancy services and solutions. As one organization, Norstella provides life sciences clients with the right tools and expertise to navigate complexities at each step of the drug development life cycle, from pipeline to patient. For more information, visit Norstella and follow on LinkedIn.

About Citeline
Citeline (formerly Pharma Intelligence) powers a full suite of complementary business intelligence offerings to meet the evolving needs of health science professionals to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. These patient-focused solutions and services deliver and analyze data used to drive clinical, commercial, and regulatory related-decisions and create real-world opportunities for growth.

Our global teams of analysts, journalists and consultants keep their fingers on the pulse of the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medtech industries, covering it all with expert insights: key diseases, clinical trials, drug R&D and approvals, market forecasts and more. For more information on one of the world’s most trusted health science partners, visit Citeline.

Media Contacts

Norstella
Melody Udell |Director, Communications
+1 312-618-5968 | melody.udell@norstella.com

Citeline
Blair Dawson| Vice President, Communications and Employee Engagement
+1 919-413-4616 | blair.dawson@informa.com

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BDC and bd-capital agree to merge Private Sport Shop and SportPursuit

Bridgepoint

The merger of Private Sport Shop and SportPursuit combines the leading positions in France and the UK and fast-growing presence in Germany. It brings together highly complementary category and product coverage to create Europe’s most compelling destination for millions of current and prospective members looking for great sports and outdoor products at exceptional value

PARIS, LONDON – 21 June 2022 – bd-capital, the pan-European, operationally-led private equity firm, and Bridgepoint Development Capital, the mid-market growth-focused team of Bridgepoint, today announce the merger of their respective portfolio companies, SportPursuit and Private Sport Shop to form Sportscape Group.

The combination creates a business with more than €200m sales across France, UK, Germany and 10 other countries, and accelerates the group’s shared vision to create Europe’s leading sports and outdoor hub: delivering daily inspiration, unbeatable deals, amazing brands and engaging content for sports and outdoor enthusiasts across Europe and beyond.

Sportscape Group will be led by Sébastien Rohart, the current CEO of Private Sport Shop. He will be supported by the current executives from both companies, with Adam Pikett, current CEO and co-founder of SportPursuit, taking up the role of Chief Vision Officer overseeing the strategy of the group. Both Luke Pikett, Managing Director and co-founder of SportPursuit and Yannick Leouffre, Managing Director of Private Sport Shop, will continue to lead both businesses.

The newly combined group creates a powerful distribution channel for more than 2,500 existing brand partners with access to an audience of over 24 million sports and outdoor enthusiasts – 90-95% of the Group’s daily traffic originating organically from its own audience. The merger also combines two unique and highly engaged digital and social communities with over 3 million followers.

Millions of existing active customers will enjoy larger product ranges with an even greater selection of leading sport and outdoor brands available across more sports, more of the time. Private Sport Shop and SportPursuit will continue to operate as consumer-facing brands in their home markets, building on their strong consumer recognition and high repeat rates which have been built over many years.

Technology will play an ever-increasing role in consumer-facing industries and Sportscape Group’s shared expertise in data analytics, custom algorithms and machine learning will further improve user experience, helping to create unique communications at a customer level, leading to higher engagement and lifetime value.

As European consumers come under increasing spending pressure, as a result of increases in the cost of living, Sportscape Group’s proposition becomes even more compelling; to offer consumers access to the best products at the very best prices, helping them afford to stay active and healthy.

Commenting on the combination, Sébastien Rohart said: “I am excited to become the CEO of Sportscape Group. The combination creates a European leader with a unique proposition to our customers and brand partners alike. In particular, the combination of Private Sport Shop’s huge sport coverage and social media presence with SportPursuit’s technology and data expertise creates significant additional growth opportunities, over and above what we could have created individually. We are very pleased to open this exciting chapter with the full backing of our shareholder Bridgepoint Development Capital who have been our highly supportive partner from the very beginning.”

Adam Pikett added: “At SportPursuit, we have known and admired the Private Sport Shop team for many years. As a co-founder of SportPursuit it is super exciting to have this opportunity to bring the two businesses together to create something special: a true European leader across multiple markets, multiple categories, with substantial headroom for further growth.”

Jean-Baptiste Salvin, Director at Bridgepoint Development Capital, also commented: “We are excited to be working with bd-capital to support the combination of our two investments. We have created fantastic alignment between our organisations and look forward to supporting the combined group as we move forward together.”

Andrey Russinov, Director at bd-capital added: “We are focused on partnership at bd-capital, and this merger creates both a partnership between two operational companies and two investors. The combination of SportPursuit and Private Sport Shop substantially increases the growth potential of both, and we are excited to support that growth alongside Bridgepoint and management.”

In addition to driving significant growth through organic expansion, the combination will create a strong foundation to support further M&A activity across Europe and beyond.

Private Sport Shop and SportPursuit executed the transaction in close partnership with advisory teams from PwC (financial and tax), Stephenson Harwood (legal), Mayer Brown (legal), and Goodwin Procter (legal). The financing of the transaction is provided by Permira. Financial terms of the transaction remain confidential.

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EURAZEO ENTERS INTO EXCLUSIVE DISCUSSIONS TO INVEST IN SEVETYS, A FASTGROWING FRENCH VETERINARY CLINICS PLATFORM

Eurazeo

Eurazeo has entered into exclusive discussions to invest in Sevetys, a French group of veterinary
clinics.

Founded in 2017, Sevetys is one of the largest groups of veterinary clinics in France with more than
200 clinics throughout the country.

The investment in Sevetys would be made by the funds managed by the teams of Eurazeo Mid Cap
S.A.
The transaction remains subject to the consultation process of the employees’ representative
bodies and to the approval of the transaction by the French competition authority.
Financial details would be disclosed following these discussions.

ABOUT EURAZEO
 Eurazeo is a leading global investment company, with a diversified portfolio of €32 billion in
assets under management, including nearly €23.2 billion from third parties, invested in
530 companies. With its considerable private equity, venture capital, private debt as well as
real estate and infrastructure asset expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes,
supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 360 professionals and
by offering deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a responsible and stable
foothold for transformational growth. Its solid institutional and family shareholder base,
robust financial structure free of structural debt, and flexible investment horizon enable
Eurazeo to support its companies over the long term.

 Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Luxembourg,
Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore and Sao Paulo.
 Eurazeo is listed on Euronext Paris.
 ISIN: FR0000121121 – Bloomberg: RF FP – Reuters: EURA.PA

EURAZEO CONTACT
Virginie Christnacht
HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS
vchristnacht@eurazeo.com
+33 (0)1 44 15 76 44

Pierre Bernardin

HEAD OF INVESTOR RELATIONS
pbernardin@eurazeo.com
+33 (0)1 44 15 16 76

PRESS CONTACT
David Sturken
MAITLAND/AMO
dsturken@maitland.co.uk
+44 (0) 7990 595 913

Categories: News

Flowdesk, the french digital asset financial technology provider, raises $30 million

Isai

Flowdesk announced that it has raised $30 million from leading investors such as Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, ISAI, Speedinvest, Fabric.vc, Ledger, and Coinbase, and 20 well-known business angels, including Alexandre Prot (Qonto), Nicolas Julia (Sorare), Pascal Gauthier (Ledger) and Sébastien Borget (The Sandbox).

A trading infrastructure made in France

Active in the cryptocurrency sector for several years, the four co-founders of Flowdesk, Guilhem Chaumont, Paul Bugnot, François Cluzeau and Balthazar Giraux have been working in this sector since 2017 after careers in banking, algorithmic trading, engineering and entrepreneurship. During their respective experiences, they were marked by the siloing and fracturing of marketplaces and the technological barrier to properly handle the liquidity of crypto-asset projects. In 2020 they chose to develop an infrastructure that would allow them to interconnect and trade on these exchanges, while guaranteeing the redundancy and scalability needed to support the growing number of crypto projects.

An innovative product: Market-Making-as-a-Service (MMaaS)

Flowdesk is thus the originator of a trading infrastructure that allows interconnection with more than 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms. A technology that its teams use on behalf of Flowdesk as well as for their clients and which allows them to offer four types of services:

  • Asset management

  • Brokerage

  • Custody

  • Market-making

Market-making is Flowdesk’s flagship service and its most differentiating product. It addresses the needs of the majority of the 10,000 cryptocurrency issuers with significant liquidity issues. By making its technology and traders available to these players, Flowdesk allows them to manage their cryptocurrency token liquidity themselves with their own funds. The service is called Market-Making-as-a-Service in reference to digital models based on simply providing technology to customers who commit their own resources.

A decisive fund-raising to change scale

Although Flowdesk’s team consisted only of its four co-founders at the beginning of 2021, the company now employs 35 people and plans to recruit to reach 100 employees before the end of 2022. A change of scale for which fundraising was necessary. Flowdesk is indeed facing an extremely strong demand in market-making and after having opened offices in Singapore in March 2022, is now targeting the United States to deploy sales and trading teams as well as legal compliance specialists, a particularly strategic topic for the company and its constantly changing regulatory market.

For Guilhem Chaumont, co-founder and CEO of Flowdesk: “This fundraising is a key step that will allow us to accelerate at all levels to meet the growing demand in Europe, Asia and North America. It will also give us the means to develop our technological infrastructure to meet the new needs that will emerge in market making. Our vision is that within 10 years a large proportion of assets will be tokenized using blockchain technology, which will require a rethinking of financial services with a more scalable and counterparty agnostic approach. We will have to scale up quickly to integrate this new financial situation. ”

For Thomas Turelier, Vice President at Eurazeo: “An increasing number of companies are issuing tokens and are thus confronted with the complexity of managing a liquid asset in different markets. Most of these companies do not, however, see themselves as financial market professionals: they are technology providers, game developers… A financial infrastructure such as the one proposed by Flowdesk is therefore crucial to allow all these web3 players to develop with the least possible friction while trusting a regulated player aligned with its customers in terms of financial interests. ”

For Cyril Guenoun, Partner at Aglaé Ventures: “We were convinced by Flowdesk’s positioning as a technology provider for cryptocurrency issuers. This emerging and fast-growing market needs scalable tools to ensure secure and sustainable development. The team has proven the robustness of its solution as well as a business model adapted to its customers. With an already international presence and strong speed of execution, Flowdesk has the means to drive the growth of financial services for cryptocurrencies. ”

Innovating to empower customers

Another ambition of this fundraising is to continue to invest in innovation with the aim of developing a complete platform for Flowdesk’s clients, allowing them to carry out the simplest to the most complex trading operations themselves. A model that will contribute to Flowdesk’s position as a leader in Market-Making-as-a-Service.

About Flowdesk

Founded in 2020 by Guilhem Chaumont, Paul Bugnot, François Cluzeau and Balthazar Giraux, Flowdesk is a digital asset service provider registered in France with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). Flowdesk is the originator of a trading infrastructure that allows interconnection with more than 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms. The company offers four types of services: asset management, brokerage, custody and market-making. The company has offices in Paris and Singapore.

PR Contacts
flowdesk@wachsman.com

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