Category Archives: News

Alro Group is taking an important step in its rapid growth as an e-mobility surface treatment specialist

No Comments
GIMV
Gimv makes an additional investment in Alro Group following an important step in the company’s evolution: Alro Group has concluded a strategic partnership with IPC, the German specialist in fire-resistant coatings. In collaboration with IPC, Alro Group will apply fire-resistant coatings in electric vehicles (‘EVs’). With this, Alro Group is responding to the new e-models that many car brands are launching and to the challenges that the fire safety of batteries entails.

The electrification of the vehicles on our roads is gathering pace. With a concern for greater sustainability and driven by climate standards and emerging legislation, many car brands are rolling out their e-models more quickly. An increasing pain point for electric cars is the fire safety of batteries. Lithium-ion battery cells can overheat, which in a chain reaction (‘thermal runaway’) can lead to a rapid and life-threatening fire.

It is precisely this risk to which IPC’s innovative technology provides an answer. Responding to the rapid arrival of electric cars and stricter fire safety regulations, IPC has developed a new solution for coating EV battery housings. IPC’s unique fireproof coating outperforms competing technologies and has generated interest among electric vehicle manufacturers worldwide. Where IPC has in-house expertise in fire-resistant coatings, Alro Group specialises in the professional application of coatings on a large industrial scale, including for demanding automotive industry customers. The cooperation and complementarity of Alro Group and IPC create a promising future.

Christophe Van Quickenborne, Partner at Gimv, explains: “In the past year, Alro Group has taken some very attractive steps in the functional coating of EV parts. In addition to the Audi e-Tron, Alro now also provides the functional surface treatment of critical parts of Volvo and Porsche electric powertrains. IPC’s innovative fire protection coating is a particularly attractive additional product that will enable Alro Group to accelerate its strong growth in the EV segment. We are of course also very pleased to be able to contribute in this way to the further and safer greening of the world’s vehicle fleet.”

For more information, we refer to the attached press release of Alro and IPC.

Read the full press release:

English – French – Dutch – German
Gimv
Karel Oomsstraat 37, 2018 Antwerpen, Belgium
www.gimv.com

Categories: News

Tags:

EQT introduces longer-hold investment strategy – announces first investment in Anticimex

eqt
  • Leading global pest control specialist Anticimex becomes the first investment by EQT’s longer-hold strategy with impact at the core
  • The investment in Anticimex is made alongside long-term investors such as Melker Schörling AB (who will be the second largest shareholder), GIC, AMF, Interogo Holding Long-Term Equity and Alecta
  • Natural next step on EQT’s overall strategic development – EQT’s Private Capital business segment adds longer-hold impact at scale strategy to its palette of investment strategies

Building on three decades of future-proofing businesses, EQT is today proud to announce the acquisition of leading global pest control specialist Anticimex which becomes the first investment of EQT’s new purpose-driven strategy with longer-term investments and impact at its core. The transaction, where the selling party is the EQT VI fund, has an enterprise value of SEK 60 billion and the investment is made together with several long-term investors, such as Melker Schörling AB (MSAB), who will be the second largest shareholder, GIC, AMF, Interogo Holding Long-Term Equity and Alecta.

Per Franzén, Partner and Head of Private Capital’s Advisory Teams, said, “EQT has always been a thematic-driven investor. In order to best catch the opportunities that today’s global challenges bring, we are introducing a new longer-hold strategy. Having a positive impact on societal and environmental problems takes huge investments, real commitment, and time. To meet these challenges, we are introducing a longer-hold strategy to capture the largest business opportunity of our time, spotting investment opportunities that will reshape the future. This is also a natural development of EQT’s Private Capital platform – our digital focus, with EQT Ventures, Motherbrain and EQT Growth, is now complemented by a longer-hold strategy with impact at the core which is the next step on our sustainability journey.”

Andreas Aschenbrenner, Partner within EQT Private Equity’s Advisory Team, said, “Pest control is vital for both industries and society by reducing pest-borne diseases and food waste. Anticimex is a digital leader in the pest control industry with its SMART technology, driving change towards pesticide-free solutions and increasing efficiency in preventing infestations – together with Jarl and his team, the plan is to further accelerate the roll-out of the SMART solution, over time contributing to a cleaner and healthier world. As such, we believe Anticimex is a perfect example of a company that long-term can reshape an industry and have a substantial positive impact.”

Jarl Dahlfors, CEO at Anticimex, said, “After nine intense years of transformation, with expansion across Europe, North- & South America and APAC, we are thrilled to embark on the next phase of Anticimex’ journey. Together with EQT and the significant investment step-up from MSAB as well as the support from other strong partners like GIC, AMF, Interogo Holding Long-Term Equity, and Alecta, we will be in a strong position to capitalize on the great opportunities ahead.”

Gun Nilsson, CEO at MSAB, said, “MSAB is an active owner, like EQT, with a strong track record in supporting businesses on growth journeys. We share a Nordic heritage and a global mindset and have well-grounded values and a deeply rooted culture. Together, we are natural partners to support Anticimex on this journey. Long-term, we have a firm ambition to remain a major shareholder in Anticimex in line with our established model for industrial holdings.”

Choo Yong Cheen, Chief Investment Officer of Private Equity at GIC, said, “We are pleased to partner with EQT, our longstanding partner, on this investment in Anticimex. The company has been generating strong revenue growth with its local branch-level leadership in every market they operate in, coupled with achieving global scale through acquisitions. In addition, Anticimex utilizes its digital SMART solution of accurate and fast monitoring sensors as well as environmentally-friendly, non-toxic products to be a leading sustainable pest prevention operator. As a long-term investor, we believe Anticimex will bring about positive impact such as keeping societies healthy, reducing societal costs such as food wastage and preventing hazardous events.”

Anders Oscarsson, Head of Equity at AMF, said, “This form of long-term investments, with clear impact objectives, is central to how AMF as an investor aims to create returns to our clients. We look forward to continuing to be part of the Anticimex digital and sustainability story, it is an amazing company with a great potential to further disrupt the entire pest-control industry but now on a truly global scale.”

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2021.

Contact
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

About EQT
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization focused on active ownership strategies. With a Nordic heritage and a global mindset, EQT has a track record of almost three decades of delivering consistent and attractive returns across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies. Uniquely, EQT is the only large private markets firm in the world with investment strategies covering all phases of a business’ development, from start-up to maturity. Including Exeter, EQT today has more than EUR 67 billion in assets under management across 26 active funds within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets.

With its roots in the Wallenberg family’s entrepreneurial mindset and philosophy of long-term ownership, EQT is guided by a set of strong values and a distinct corporate culture. EQT manages and advises funds and vehicles that invest across the world with the mission to future-proof companies, generate attractive returns and make a positive impact with everything EQT does.

The EQT AB Group comprises EQT AB (publ) and its direct and indirect subsidiaries, which include general partners and fund managers of EQT funds as well as entities advising EQT funds. EQT has offices in 24 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and has more than 975 employees.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram

Categories: News

Tags:

Market Wagon Announces Series A

New Stack Ventures

We are proud to announce that Market Wagon has secured a $5M investment led by our venture partner, Hyde Park Venture Partners.

This investment will help Market Wagon expand to more than 50 markets by the end of the year.

“Market Wagon’s business bringing regionally farmed foods and goods to meet consumers growing appetite for local fare fits right into our logistics investing experience and our love for food tech,” said Guy Turner, managing partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners. “We are excited to partner with the Market Wagon team and support their vision, and we love being customers too.”

Congratulations Market Wagon!

Quotes taken from Inside Indiana Business – see full article here.

Categories: News

Tags:

Mentha invests in Dutch specialist in sustainable packaging Multitubes Group

Mentha

Mentha has entered into a partnership with Multitubes Group to enable further growth. Multitubes was founded in 1999 by the Rensen family and has since grown into a specialist in sustainable packaging with customers throughout Europe. The company was the first in the world to launch a negative CO2 emission tube onto the market made from sugar cane. In addition, all tubes produced by the Multitubes Group are fully recyclable. The investment supports organic growth and paves the way for strategic acquisitions.

Multitubes offers a full range of packaging for cosmetics, food, pharmaceuticals and industrial products with its two factories and various sales offices. Flexibility, innovation, sustainability, and quality form the basis for the company which currently employs about 135 people. Multitubes focuses on custom tubes, in addition to standard sizes, and therefore has the capacity to make and deliver almost every conceivable tube packaging including a range of prints and labels.

Rob Rensen, Managing Director of Multitubes: “Our company has grown rapidly in recent years, which is down to the teamwork, dedication and motivation of everyone who works here. With Mentha as a financial partner, this growth can be sustained, and we have more clout to make a sustainable difference in packaging internationally.”

Mentha chose to take a stake in Multitubes because of the company’s innovation efforts, the importance placed on sustainability, as well as the entrepreneurial character of the founders. The focus in the coming period will be on growth, including growth through acquisitions, and the joint development of the most innovative and qualitative packaging for the various sectors served by Multitubes.

Mark van Ingen, partner at Mentha: “Multitubes originated from the drive and pioneering mentality of the Rensen family. In the past 21 years they have managed to turn it into a very mature company. The culture of Multitubes and the DNA of the founders is very much in line with that of Mentha; we speak the same language and are clearly complementary to each other. The initiatives taken on the sustainability of plastics also appeal to us, and together we will work hard to remain at the forefront of the packaging industry.”

Categories: News

Tags:

Mecenat to partner with IK Investment Partners

ik-investment-partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that funds advised by IK will be investing in Mecenat Holding AB (“Mecenat” or “the Company”). Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Mecenat is a leading marketing technology company which promotes unique discounts to its community of students and young professionals. The Company is headquartered in Gothenburg and operates across Sweden with over 4,500 vendors offering discounts and deals to more than 1.2 million students and recent graduates.

The Company was founded in 1998 by its CEO Jonas Levin and has pioneered the Swedish student discount market. The platform provides special offers across a range of products and services, including electronics, clothing, books, entertainment, sport, food and health. Notable brands include Apple, Adobe, Adidas and ASOS, in addition to service and transport providers such as state-owned train operator SJ.

Since 2018, Mecenat has extended its membership to include university alumni, expanding the platform’s reach and growth potential even further. Funds advised by IK will be investing in the business alongside Jonas Levin, who will remain as CEO. With the support of IK, Mecenat plans to build on its success and further develop its technology platform in order to ensure a continued relevant and trusted offering towards students as well as young professionals.

Jonas Levin, Founder and CEO of Mecenat, commented: “We are excited to be partnering with IK as we enter the next stage of our journey. Our success to date has been driven by remaining relevant for tomorrow’s trendsetters and students by developing our technology to connect them with the most appealing products and services from today’s leading brands. With IK’s support, we aim to further develop our business by expanding into complementary affinity groups and ensuring we remain the top-of-mind marketing channel for reaching students and young professionals.

Carl Jakobsson, Director at IK Investment Partners and Advisor to IK funds, said: “Mecenat is synonymous with trusted and unique student discounts in Sweden and has demonstrated an impressive ability to adapt to the changing dynamics of this demographic over the last two decades. We are highly excited about partnering with Jonas and his team on continuing the journey of building the Nordics’ leading marketing channel within and beyond the current affinity group focus.”

For further questions, please contact:

IK Investment Partners
Maitland/AMO
James McFarlane
Phone: +44 (0) 7584 142 665
Email: jmcfarlane@maitland.co.uk

IK Investment Partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €14 billion of capital and invested in 150 European companies. IK supports companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

Mecenat

Mecenat is a leading Swedish marketing technology company specialising in the delivery of world-class student discount schemes through proprietary technology. Mecenat prides itself on negotiating the very best discounts for students, alumni and young professionals; and working in close partnership with student unions, universities as well as top and emerging brands. For more information, visit www.mecenat.com

Categories: News

Tags:

Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman to Invest in Medline

Carlyle

Partnership to Accelerate Medline’s Growth and International Expansion

Northfield, Illinois – June 5, 2021 – Medline Industries, Inc., the nation’s largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies with 2020 revenue of $17.5 billion, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement through which it will receive a majority investment from a partnership comprised of funds managed by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman. Following the close of the transaction, Medline will remain a privately held, family-led company.

Medline will continue to be led by the Mills family, who will remain the largest single shareholder. The entire senior management team will stay in place. The company plans to use the new resources from the partnership to expand its product offerings, accelerate international expansion and continue to make new infrastructure investments to strengthen its global supply chain.

“Making healthcare run better has been our focus for decades. This investment from some of the world’s most experienced and successful private investment firms will enable us to accelerate that strategy while preserving the family-led culture that is core to our success,” said Charlie Mills, Chief Executive Officer of Medline.

Medline partners with healthcare providers around the world, delivering products and solutions that reduce costs, increase supply chain efficiency, and improve the quality of care. The breadth of the company’s product portfolio and its dedication to customer service, responsiveness, and partnership provide significant value for its customers.

Joe Baratta, Global Head of Private Equity at Blackstone, said: “The Mills family has built an exceptional business, and we are proud to partner with them and Medline’s management to support the company’s continued strong growth. Large corporate partnerships with family-led companies are an area where we have deep experience and we look forward to investing in Medline’s further expansion.”

Steve Wise, Carlyle’s Global Head of Healthcare, said: “We are excited to partner with Medline’s impressive management team to accelerate growth through continued execution, innovation, and investment. With a deep commitment to sustainable value creation, we look forward to leveraging our combined operational capabilities, expansive healthcare network and capital to support organic and inorganic growth initiatives for the Company.”

Allen Thorpe, Partner at Hellman & Friedman said: “Medline is known for its unwavering commitment to its customers, providing high-quality medical products that are used to treat patients every day. We are excited to support that commitment and partner with Medline to continue bringing the broadest and deepest capabilities to the healthcare industry.”

GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, is also investing as part of the partnership.

Transaction Details

The investment is expected to be completed in late 2021 and is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as lead financial advisor, BDT & Company, LLC acted as financial advisor and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal advisor to Medline. BoA Securities, Inc., J.P. Morgan, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and Centerview Partners are acting as financial advisors to Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal advisor to Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman.

About Medline Industries

Medline is a healthcare company: a manufacturer, distributor and solutions provider focused on improving the overall operating performance of healthcare. Medline works with both the country’s largest healthcare systems and independent facilities across the continuum of care to provide the clinical and supply chain resources required for long-term financial viability in delivering high quality care. With the size of one of the country’s largest companies and the agility of a family-owned business, Medline is able to invest in its customers for the long-term and rapidly respond with customized solutions. Headquartered in Northfield, Ill. Medline has 28,000+ employees worldwide and does business in more than 110+ countries. Learn more about Medline at www.medline.com.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $649 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

About Carlyle

Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $260 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2021, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 1,800 people in 29 offices across five continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.

About Hellman & Friedman

Hellman & Friedman is a preeminent global private equity firm with a distinctive investment approach focused on large-scale equity investments in high quality, growth businesses. H&F seeks to partner with world-class management teams where its deep sector expertise, long-term orientation and collaborative partnership approach enable companies to flourish. H&F targets outstanding businesses in select sectors including healthcare, software & technology, financial services, consumer & retail, and other business services.  The firm is currently investing its tenth fund, with over $23 billion of committed capital, and has over $70 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021. Learn more about H&F’s defining investment philosophy and approach to sustainable outcomes at www.hf.com.

Media Contacts

For Medline Industries, Inc.:
Blair Klein
+1-847-643-3308
BKlein@medline.com

For Blackstone:
Matt Anderson
+1-518-248-7310
Matthew.Anderson@blackstone.com    

For Carlyle:
Brittany Berliner
+1-212-813-4839
Brittany.Berliner@carlyle.com

For Hellman & Friedman:
Dan Abernethy
+1-646-238-3902
Dan.Abernethy@fgh.com

Categories: News

Tags:

Element Logic announces partnership with Castik Capital

Castik Capital

Funds managed by Castik Capital S.à r.l. (“Castik”) have entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Element Logic, in partnership with its co-founder and CEO Dag-Adler Blakseth, co-founder Kjell Blakseth and the broader management team. Castik will jointly own the company alongside Element Logic’s founders, management team and employees.

Element Logic, headquartered in Kløfta, Norway, is a specialized integrator for automated warehouse solutions centred around the AutoStore® system. Founded in 1985, the company now employs 170 specialists across Europe who design, implement, deliver and service a wide range of automated and static warehouse automation solutions for customers in a range of industries across Europe, complemented by proprietary software and technology. Not only did Element Logic deliver the world’s first ten AutoStore® installations, but they have also implemented more AutoStore® solutions in 2020 than any other competitor worldwide. After delivering organic revenue growth at a c. 50% CAGR since 2014, Element Logic today has a leading market position in the Nordics and across Europe.

Element Logic’s focus on being a pure-play AutoStore® system provider has made it a trusted one-stop shop for warehouse automation solutions in Europe, underpinned by expertise and technology. Castik aims to further support Element Logic with its rapid organic expansion across Europe and to explore further avenues to expand its service and software capabilities, partly through selective M&A.

“We are thrilled to have Castik on board as our partner of choice with a great fit to Element Logic. Together we plan to continue our growth journey, while we retain the Element Way and the company’s unique culture, as Element Logic truly is a people business. There are an incredible number of exciting opportunities ahead of us that open up further when we add Castik’s support together with our competence, experience and ambitions”, says Dag-Adler Blakseth, co-founder and CEO of Element Logic.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to partner with Dag-Adler Blakseth and the entire Element Logic team, and to support the company in its continued growth story. The company has grown tremendously over the last years in a market for warehouse automation that is still in its infancy,” Michael Phillips, Partner at Castik Capital, says.

Element Logic and the sellers were advised by Carnegie, CLP, Bain and PwC. Castik was advised by Skadden, Arntzen de Besche, Kearney, PwC and GCA Altium. Ares provided financing for Castik.

About Element Logic

For over 30 years Element Logic has been optimizing warehouse performance. In 2020, we installed more AutoStore® solutions than any other company in the world and we continue to create smart solutions to help warehouses deal with their customer’s increasing demand for fast deliveries. Our robotic solutions, software and consulting help businesses improve their value chains and to be more profitable. We optimize warehouses of all sizes in a wide range of industries including electronic components, parts distribution, consumer electronics, 3PL, pharmaceuticals, apparel, sports equipment, and more.

As the original AutoStore® partner, we have a wealth of experience designing, delivering, and installing tailormade solutions that improve customers workflow.

Element Logic has more than 170 employees in Europe and had a turnover of €100 million in 2020. Our headquarter is in Norway, with subsidiaries all over Europe.

For more information visit www.elementlogic.net.

About Castik Capital

Castik Capital S.à r.l (“Castik”) manages investments in private equity. Castik is a European multi-strategy investment manager, acquiring significant ownership positions in European private and public companies, where long-term value can be generated through active partnerships with founders and management teams. Founded in 2014, Castik is based in Luxembourg and focuses on identifying and developing investment opportunities across Europe. The advisor to Castik is Castik Capital Partners GmbH, based in Munich. Investments are made by the Luxembourg-based EPIC II Fund.

Categories: News

Tags:

CVC completes investment in A Bathing Ape to accelerate global expansion

CVC Capital Partners

BAPE has been among the world’s most iconic streetwear brands since its founding in Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan in 1993

CVC announces the completion of an investment in A Bathing Ape (“BAPE”) after the brand became an independent company from I.T Limited. This follows the successful privatization of I.T Limited by Brooklyn Investment Limited, owned by CVC Capital Partners Asia V Limited (“CVC”) and the Founder Group of I.T on Friday 30 April 2021. With the investment, CVC has acquired co-control of BAPE.

BAPE has been among the world’s most iconic streetwear brands since its founding in Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan in 1993. BAPE’s line up of labels includes A Bathing Ape, AAPE, Baby Milo, BAPE Black, and Mr. Bathing Ape, which are sold in stores across Asia, North America and Europe.

CVC plans to support the expansion of the business both online and geographically. BAPE will pursue the growth of its presence in overseas markets such as China, the United States and Europe, as well as evolving its online offering to enhance the customer experience and optimizing its marketing and sales channels through increased digitalization.

Yann Jiang, Director at CVC, said: “BAPE is an iconic brand with a loyal fan base that has defined the fashion industry with its premium streetwear designs. We are looking forward to bringing this exciting brand to more markets and new customers around the world.”

CVC has a twenty-year track record of expanding businesses in Asia, and will leverage its respective experience in internationalization, commercial expansion and digitalization, as well as the strength of its existing portfolio of global brands to support BAPE’s growth ambitions.

Sham Kar Wai, Chairman, CEO and co-founder of I.T Limited, said: “I take great pride in the success of the brand to date, which has been thanks to the commitment of our leadership and staff. CVC is the right partner to support the transformation of BAPE as we focus on our long-term growth.”

“CVC is very pleased to partner with Chairman Sham and the BAPE team, which has developed and expanded BAPE’s position as a leading global streetwear brand. We will work closely together and drive the continued success of the business.” added Yann Jiang.

The completion of the investment follows I.T Limited’s shareholder meetings on 16 April 2021, where disinterested shareholders holding over 99.99% of shares voted in favor of the Scheme of Arrangement.

Categories: News

Tags:

WEFOX CLOSES RECORD SERIES C FUNDING ROUND FOR INSURTECH – US$650m, MARKET VALUE US$3bn

Horizons Ventures

wefox, the Berlin-based digital insurance company has raised a record US$650 million for its Series C funding round led by Target Global, resulting in a post-money valuation of US$3 billion.

This round is the largest for an insurtech globally and one of largest series C rounds ever recorded. wefox intends to invest the proceeds in strengthening its presence in existing markets and expanding globally within the next two years.

wefox, which was launched in 2015, has grown its revenues to more than US$140m in the 2020 financial year and reported a profit for 2020 through its insurance carrier, wefox Insurance.

Julian Teicke, CEO and founder of wefox, said: “We’ve grown our business significantly over the last six years since we launched and we have delivered strong year-on-year growth. This year we took several important steps, such as unifying the business under one wefox brand, expanding into Poland, and setting up a deep tech team in Paris. Within the next few years, we will expand our global footprint, increase our presence in Europe, and move into both the US and Asian markets. wefox will become the leading personal insurance company within the decade.”

“We have set out to improve the customer experience for both our advisors and our customers through technology to increase customer satisfaction, reduce customer acquisition costs, increase cross-selling, and decrease churn.”

“This is why wefox has built a huge network of advisors across Europe. We believe that insurance is all about people, and we believe that technology is an enabler and should not replace the human connection”, added Mr Teicke.

wefox is a fully licensed digital insurance company that sells insurance through intermediaries and not directly to customers, which has resulted in significant growth with a clear path to profitability.

wefox continues to deliver a loss ratio supported in large part by its straight-through- processing (STP) of more than 80%, and a central product factory that swiftly distributes new products to the market due to its full stack insurance technology.

Fabian Wesemann, CFO and founder of wefox, said: “This investment strengthens our growth strategy and moves us closer to realising our vision – to prevent 30% of risks from happening – in order to offer the most advanced service to our customers. As part of this, we want to ensure that we are building the technology to automate our business processes to have a STP ratio consistently above 80%.”

“This investment round is the culmination of six years of hard work and we are still at the very early stage of our business. I want to thank the entire wefox team for their hard work in enabling us to achieve such incredible results.” added Mr. Wesemann.

“The future of insurance service is tech-centric, and we believe Wefox’s data driven platform serving insurance agents and brokers will enable positive changes througout the value chain.” Frances Kang from Horizons Ventures said.

“We are keen to connect Wefox with local partners in South East Asia, their speed and agility could offer transformative changes in innovative fair pricing, cost- efficiency and much more satisfied customers”, added Ms Kang.

Yaron Valler, General Partner at Target Global, said: “wefox continues to deliver exceptional results backed with demonstrable year-on-year revenue growth, which saw their insurance carrier, wefox Insurance, report a profit earlier this year, marking them out to be the first insurtech to reach profitability. We invested in wefox in their series A round in 2016 and we are delighted to be leading this series C round. wefox is unique among the insurtech players with ample room for growth ahead.”

Goldman Sachs International was hired as the private placement agent to wefox for the financing round.

The Series C funding round was led by Target Global. New investors include FinTLV, LGT, Partners Group, Jupiter, Decisive Wealth, and Ace & Co. Investment from existing investors included Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures, Eurazeo, Mubadala, Merian, Gsquared, Creditease, Salesforce Ventures, Speedinvest, Alma Mundi Ventures, Victory Park Capital, GR Capital, Mountain Partners, Seedcamp, and Sound Ventures (founded by Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher).

 

About wefox

wefox was founded in 2015 by Julian Teicke, Fabian Wesemann, and Dario Fazlic. wefox is a full-stack digital insurance company driven by a single purpose: to make people safe and prevent risk by reinventing insurance at scale through technology. wefox is the parent company of wefox Insurance, which is the in-house regulated insurance carrier.

Timeline of funding rounds

  • ●  2021: Series C round $650M led by Target Global.
  • ●  2019: Series B round $235M led by Mubadala Ventures.
  • ●  2017: Series A round of $30M led by Horizons Ventures and Target Global.
  • ●  2016: Seed round of $5.5M led by Salesforce Ventures.

For more information contact:

John Shewell

Director of Communications – wefox HQ Ph: +49 (0)1731406796
E: john.shewell@wefox.com

UK / Europe
Sallyanne Heywood
Ph: +44 (0)7884 187 074
E: sallyanne.heywood@ext.wefox.com

US/North America
Michael McMullan / Lori Rhodes
Ph: +1 201-826-6226 / +971 56 455 7105
E: mmcmullan@bcg-pr.com / lrhodes@bcg-pr.com

DACH
Fatih Aydin
Ph: +49 151 64504430 E: mail@fatihaydin.de

Categories: News

Tags:

DIF Capital Partners commits to Net Zero emissions today

DIF

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce its commitment to Net Zero. As a globally operating private markets fund manager, DIF supports the goal of Net Zero greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions by 2050, in line with global efforts as a result of the Paris Agreement to have net zero emissions by 2050, or sooner. Since 2019, DIF has been measuring its own GHG emissions, taking steps to reduce its per capita emissions and offsetting the remainder. DIF is committed to continue doing this.

In addition, DIF commits to invest in line with the Paris Agreement targeting to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050, or sooner, by taking the following steps:

  • Continue working with DIF’s portfolio companies to measure GHG emissions and identifying pathways to reduce emissions with the Paris aligned goal of net zero target by 2050, or sooner;
  • Continuing DIF’s global investment program into renewable energy and related infrastructure to support the global energy transition to decarbonised sources of energy;
  • Reporting in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (“TFCD”) recommendations; and
  • Reporting on DIF’s progress annually.

Finally, DIF has become a signatory to the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (“IIGCC”) as part of its advocacy on climate change. Together with this initiative DIF will work towards Net Zero solutions for the infrastructure investment market.

Wim Blaasse, Managing Partner, further comments: “We believe that the single biggest threat faced by our generation is climate change. At DIF we see it as our responsibility to apply the same urgency of action to climate issues, as we have done in our response to coronavirus, and we invite all our stakeholders to join us on this commitment.”

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent fund manager, with €9.0 billion of assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF Capital Partners invests in greenfield and operational infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • Traditional DIF funds target equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and (renewable) energy projects.
  • DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized economic infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy and transportation sectors.

DIF Capital Partners has a team of over 160 professionals, based in nine offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. For further information please visit www.dif.eu

Contact: Allard Ruijs, Partner; a.ruijs@dif.eu.

Categories: News

Tags: