Category Archives: News

Nordstjernan issues call options in Alligo

Nordstjernan

The chairman of the board of Alligo AB (publ), Göran Näsholm, has acquired call options for shares in Alligo. The call options were issued on market-based terms by Alligo’s principal owner, Nordstjernan AB. The call options do not entail any dilution for the other shareholders. Alligo is not participating in the issue of the call options and will not be charged with any related costs.

Peter Hofvenstam
President and CEO
Nordstjernan AB

Questions will be answered by:

Peter Hofvenstam, CEO, Nordstjernan
E-mail: peter.hofvenstam@nordstjernan.se

Stefan Stern, Head of Communications, Nordstjernan
Telephone: +46 70 636 74 17
E-mail: stefan.stern@nordstjernan.se

Nordstjernan is a family-controlled investment company whose business concept is to be an active owner that creates long-term value growth. More information about Nordstjernan can be found on www.nordstjernan.se.

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Active Capital Company invests in German machine building company LIEB

ActiveCapital

The new phase for the family business enables succession and continues growth in the semiconductor industry

Active Capital Company (ACC) acquired the shares of Werner Lieb GmbH & Co KG (LIEB). LIEB is a German machine building company and a specialist in developing and manufacturing automation solutions with a focus on the semiconductor industry. With this next platform investment, ACC is expanding its portfolio in Germany whilst leveraging on its hands-on investment approach and strong track record in investing in machine building companies.

Expand and internationalise offering for the semiconductor industry

Hartwig Ostermeyer, partner at ACC: “We believe that LIEB has an excellent position to grow with the increasing demand for chip production capacity, especially in Europe. LIEB is standing for more than 60 years of highest German machine building expertise and has built an excellent reputation and customer base in the semiconductor industry in recent years”. ACC sees huge potential in further innovation and internationalisation. “LIEB has an impressive innovation pipeline, and we will invest in commercialisation and offering these solutions to an international customer base.”

Secure company succession of family-owned SME

Steffen Lieb, previous co-shareholder of Lieb: ”We started this process to sort out a succession plan and have found not only a trustworthy new shareholder but a true partner, who will actively support LIEB in realising its strategic ambitions.” His brother and previous co-shareholder Michael Lieb added: “We have been impressed by the technical expertise, the entrepreneurship and active approach and we are convinced that ACC is the right partner for our family-heritage.”

About LIEB

LIEB, based in Rödental, Germany, was founded in 1955 by Werner Lieb, the grandfather of the current managing partners Steffen and Michael Lieb. After the sudden death of the company founder in 1982, the company was continued by his son, Dieter Lieb, until 2006. At the beginning of 2007, he transferred the management of the company to his two sons. Core competence is to engineer and produce specialised automation machinery increasing efficiency and quality in high precision production processes. In recent years the company has specialised in automation solutions for the semiconductor industry and these machines are used by leading chip manufacturers worldwide. www.werner-lieb.de

About Active Capital Company

ACC is an independent hands-on private equity investor focused on small and medium sized enterprises in the Netherlands and Germany. ACC invests in companies active in the sectors Industry, Technical Wholesale and Business Services with revenues between € 10m and € 100m. Through a highly entrepreneurial and active approach, ACC maximises the long-term value of its investments by supporting management in the execution of value enhancing projects and providing access to its extensive partner network. ACC currently invests from its fourth fund and started its German operations in 2019 with the investment in and successful transformation of SchahlLED. ACC has offices in Amsterdam and Munich. www.activecapitalcompany.com

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Médisup Sciences Group Acquires a Majority Stake in Take the Wind

Stirling Square

Médisup Sciences Group acquires a majority stake in Take the Wind. Combined group creates leading global medical education and simulation provider.

‍The holding company of Médisup Sciences (“Médisup”), a leading French medical education company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a majority stake in Take The Wind S.A (TTW).

Take The Wind is a Portuguese specialist technology leader in the virtual medical simulation market, serving medical, nursing, community colleges and high schools, scientific societies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies globally. The Company operates primarily under the Body Interact brand, which simulates real world scenarios with virtual patients via 700+ clinical cases, dynamically integrating multiple internal and external drivers of patients’ health conditions. The product is available in eight languages, and currently serves over 180,000 users in over 50countries.

Take the Wind was founded in 2008 by Teresa and Pedro Pinto, who will both retain a significant stake in the Company and will continue to lead its management team.

Arnaud Dreyfuss, founder and CEO of Médisup said, “We are delighted to partner with the Take the Wind team in the next phase of the business’s growth. Body Interact is the best-in-class operator providing exceptional levels of education that enables medical students and professionals to dramatically improve their clinical abilities in a cost-efficient way.”

Teresa Pinto, co-founder and COO of TTW added, “We are very excited to collaborate with Médisup, and foresee a strong cultural fit given the similar founder-led mentality. We express our profound gratitude to the whole TTW team, including its business partners and customers, for being part of the development of a game-changer product and a global company, which will consolidate its industry leadership and continue its high innovative performance in this new stage.”

As with Take The Wind, Médisup continues to be founder-led, following its 2021 sale of a majority stake to StirlingSquare Capital Partners, a leading pan-European mid-market private equity firm.

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General Mills Continues Portfolio Reshaping Strategy, Expands Away-from-Home Presence with the Acquisition of TNT Crust

Peak Rock Capital

MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)– General Mills (NYSE: GIS) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TNT Crust, a manufacturer of high-quality frozen pizza crusts for regional and national pizza chains, foodservice distributors, and retail outlets. TNT Crust is currently a portfolio company of Peak Rock Capital.

“This acquisition advances our Accelerate strategy and builds on our strong position in the fast-growing away-from-home frozen baked goods category,” said Shawn O’Grady, Group President of North America Foodservice, General Mills. “We have clear competitive advantages in Foodservice with our strategic customer partnerships, best-in-class supply chain, and operator-first innovation capabilities. By adding the high-growth TNT Crust business to our frozen baked goods platform, we are adding to our scale in a category that is on trend with consumers and poised for continued rapid growth.”

TNT Crust manufactures partially baked, self-rising and better-for-you pizza crusts that are highly complementary to General Mills’ existing frozen baked goods portfolio. The TNT Crust business has leveraged its differentiated products and strong relationships with key foodservice distributors and pizza chain operators to drive double-digit compound annual net sales growth over the past four years, with net sales totaling approximately $100 million in 2021.

As part of the acquisition, General Mills will also acquire two manufacturing facilities in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and one manufacturing facility in St. Charles, Missouri.

The company intends to fund the acquisition with cash on hand and short-term borrowings. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions.

Jones Day is serving as legal adviser to General Mills for the transaction. Evercore is advising TNT Crust and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is co-advising; Kirkland & Ellis is serving as TNT Crust’s legal adviser.

About General Mills

General Mills makes food the world loves. The company is guided by its Accelerate strategy to drive shareholder value by boldly building its brands, relentlessly innovating, unleashing its scale and being a force for good. Its portfolio of beloved brands includes household names such as Cheerios, Nature Valley, Blue Buffalo, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Annie’s, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, General Mills generated fiscal 2021 net sales of U.S. $18.1 billion. In addition, the company’s share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1.1 billion.

(Investors) Jeff Siemon: +1-763-764-2301
(Media) Kelsey Roemhildt: +1-763-764-6364

Source: General Mills

Categories: News

Lodha Announces US $1 billion Green Digital Infrastructure Partnership with Ivanhoé Cambridge and Bain Capital

BainCapital

Mumbai, May 11, 2022 – Lodha, India’s No.1* real estate developer, today announced a partnership with Bain Capital and Ivanhoé Cambridge to develop a next-generation green digital infrastructure platform. The platform will establish a pan-India presence in the digital infrastructure space that includes logistics and light industrial parks as well as in-city fulfillment centers. The platform will jointly invest ~USD 1 billion to create ~30 million sq. ft. of operating assets to serve India’s digital economy. Each of the 3 partners will have a ~33% equity interest in the property ownership, whilst Lodha will lead the development, operations and management of the assets.

Commenting on the partnership, Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Lodha said; “With the rapid digitization of our economy and the progress of ‘Make in India’ combined with the China + 1 strategy of most global manufacturers, we see that there is a huge demand for Grade-A digital infrastructure in our country. Following the government’s focus on improving logistics efficiency and creating jobs in different parts of the country, the platform will plan the development of industrial and logistics parks as well in-city fulfillment centers across multiple cities in India. And we will focus on building and operating this infrastructure to the highest levels of environmental sustainability with the view to creating a global benchmark. We’re delighted to expand our partnership with 2 marquee global investors –  Ivanhoé Cambridge and Bain Capital, who bring extensive experience in this asset class and dedicated resources to support the growth of this platform.”

The first project is a 110-acre logistics and industrial park development at Palava, an established location for digital infrastructure in Mumbai. Additionally, the platform has already started looking at the pan-India acquisitions of land and developed/ under-development projects in these asset classes.

“This is an exciting partnership that brings together an experienced real estate developer with deep digital infrastructure capabilities with the complementary support of global investors with long track records of success in commercial real estate,” said Ali Haroon, a Managing Director at Bain Capital. “We see a sustained, thematic opportunity to support India’s journey to a digital-first economy with high-quality infrastructure, which we believe can have a very positive impact on communities, consumers and businesses throughout the country” he added.

“This partnership opens up new perspectives for expansion of our logistics portfolio in India, a high conviction thesis well supported by strong sector fundamentals as India enters a digital super cycle”, commented Chanakya Chakravarti, Vice President & Managing Director, India, at Ivanhoé Cambridge. “We believe the Indian logistics ecosystem continues to offer opportunities driven by positive trends in urbanization, domestic consumption, new impetus to the light manufacturing sector, modernizing multi-modal infrastructure and the rapidly evolving e-commerce sector, which remains largely underpenetrated, compared to other major economies globally. We look forward to expanding our logistics footprint by leveraging Lodha’s proprietary in-city sites, access to land pads in key warehousing nodes and their execution capabilities. The new partnership potentially enables Ivanhoé Cambridge access to near city logistics opportunities as operators pivot to establish same day delivery solutions thus creating differentiated value in our portfolio construct and its scale”, he added.

Bain Capital is a leading global investment platform with deep experience supporting the development of best-in-class logistics, industrial, warehousing and digital assets. Real estate is a core focus of Bain Capital Asia’s Special Situation business and this transaction follows the firm’s approach to building value-added partnerships with skilled local developers.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, a global real estate industry leader and subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global investment group, is involved in developing and investing in high-quality real estate properties.

Lodha is already developing 300 acres of Industrial and Logistics Park near Navi Mumbai, which is almost completely leased out. The company had recently announced a JV with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) for developing 72 acres at the park.  The park is home to global clients such as FM Logistic, Flyjac Logistics, Aptar Pharma and many more, testifying the unique proposition of Grade-A industrial and warehousing park with high-quality infrastructure.

* By residential sales for FY 16-22

About Lodha: 
Lodha is among the largest real estate developer in India that delivers with scale since 1980s. Core business of Lodha is residential real estate development with a focus on affordable and mid-income housing. The company also has a growing industrial & logistics park business where in a short span of time, it has scaled up and made its mark with JVs already signed with marquee investors. Lodha has delivered more than 85 million square feet of real estate and is currently developing ~95 million square feet under its ongoing and planned portfolio. The Group has approximately 4,400 acres of land beyond its ongoing and planned portfolio which will be utilized in developing further Residential, Commercial and Industrial & Logistics spaces. Thriving at building the world’s finest developments, Lodha has created several iconic landmarks across the MMR notable among which are The World Towers, Lodha Altamount, Lodha Park, Lodha New Cuffe Parade and Palava City.

About Bain Capital:  
Bain Capital is a global private investment firm with offices on four continents, more than 1,350 employees and approximately $160 billion in assets under management. Bain Capital’s Special Situations has $15 billion in assets under management and has invested $28 billion since its founding. We provide bespoke capital solutions to meet the diverse needs of companies, entrepreneurs and asset owners – in all market cycles. We partner with companies through their growth journey to raise capital for expansion or M&A, to provide liquidity or for capital structure change. Our dedicated, global team of 100 investment and portfolio professionals contribute the local expertise and capabilities that enable complex investments across markets and cycles.

About Ivanhoé Cambridge:     
Ivanhoé Cambridge develops and invests in high-quality real estate properties, projects and companies that are shaping the urban fabric in dynamic cities around the world. It does so responsibly, with a view to generate long-term performance. Ivanhoé Cambridge is committed to creating living spaces that foster the well-being of people and communities, while reducing its environmental footprint.
Ivanhoé Cambridge invests internationally alongside strategic partners and major real estate funds that are leaders in their markets. Through subsidiaries and partnerships, the Company holds interests in more than 1,200 buildings, primarily in the industrial and logistics, office, residential and retail sectors. Ivanhoé Cambridge held C$69 billion in real estate assets of December 31, 2021 and is a real estate subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (cdpq.com), a global investment group. For more information: ivanhoecambridge.com

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ARIANEE’S raises €20M series A, led by Tiger Global

Isai

Arianee, the leading web3 solutions platform for brands, today announced that it has raised its €20M Series A funding round led by Tiger Global. BPI, ISAI, Cygni Labs and Noia Capital, Arianee’s existing investors, have renewed their support by participating in this second round. They are joined by Commerce Venture and Motier Ventures.

Web3 is a unique opportunity for companies and individuals to regain control over their digital presence, especially their data. It’s the time for businesses to free themselves from the dependency on big platforms and lead new usage and innovation.

Since 2018, Arianee’s ambition has been to disrupt CRM by leveraging web3 technologies. Its mission is to provide businesses with simple solutions to build direct-to-consumer relationships, respectful of user data, and independent from big tech platforms.

Arianee is an end to end web3 solution built to create, distribute and interact with NFTs. The platform and products enable brands to tokenize, distribute and leverage value through NFTs.

The range of technological solutions developed by Arianee has enabled the startup to become a globally recognized reference. Arianee’s platform, built on its open source protocol, is used in a wide range of industries and by major brands such as Printemps, Breitling, Groupe Casino, Vacheron Constantin, Paris Fashion Week, Panerai and IWC. Its SaaS platform allows brands to create enriched NFTs packed with exclusive and unique features (Airdrop claim, CRM, time-stamping, transparency, AR, metaverse deployment, etc) and distribute them to all kinds of audiences, crypto native or not, with seamless consumer journeys, from physical to digital redeem, from claim to drop, free to auction. Its architecture has been built to fit the integration needs of enterprises’ information systems and its end user interface solutions are designed to be fully embedded within each brand’s user journeys with white label and SDK options.

Since 2000, the retail and distribution sectors have undergone unprecedented changes with new practices emerging. The digitization of customer relations, the circular economy, transparency, traceability and responsible consumption have become key issues for today’s consumers.

The emergence of new distribution channels has reinforced this strong trend: besides the traditional physical and digital channels used by brands to establish and maintain the relationships with their customers, new immersive channels in the metaverse are now added. Web3 is considered one of the biggest opportunities for brands since the creation of the Internet. With Arianee’s solutions, they can build their token and wallet real estate and create paths for their communities to move seamlessly from one world to another, from physical to digital to immersive.

The company, whose staff has tripled since its last funding round in March 2021, currently has more than 50 clients and partners (including IBM and the metaverse The Sandbox) in Europe and North America. With this new round of financing, Arianee is looking to accelerate its international presence by growing its New York office, recruiting new talent and continuing the development of its products and services.

Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, CEO & co-founder of Arianee adds: “We are thrilled to welcome one of the most influential global investors to our journey and to see our historical partners continue to back us. The structure of the investment in both equity & $ARIA20 token shows how a diverse global range of investors, from BPI to Tiger Global, is willing to invest on open source and SaaS web3 solutions. Web3 is eating the world and we believe brands can leverage this revolution to regain control of their digital presence. We also want to build for each and every user and not just for a minority. This requires robust and seamless tools and interfaces allowing communities to move from one world to another, from physical to digital to immersive.”

Griffin Schroder, Tiger Global said: “As a web3 pioneer, Arianee has developed innovative solutions that are reinventing customer relationship management. We are excited to support Arianee’s development and believe they are well positioned to become a leading global web3 solution for brands.”

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Peak Rock Capital affiliate completes acquisition of Mojix

Peak Rock Capital

Austin, Texas, May 10, 2022 – An affiliate of Peak Rock Capital (“Peak Rock”), a leading middlemarket
private investment firm, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Mojix Inc.
(“Mojix” or the “Company”), a leading supply chain SaaS platform.
Mojix’s item-level inventory management and traceability solutions are used by leading food &
beverage, luxury brand, manufacturing, industrial, aerospace & defense, and retail clients across the
globe. Founded in 2004 and with offices in the United States, Europe, and South America, Mojix
provides a cloud-based platform for modernizing inventory and asset management to facilitate
omnichannel order fulfillment, increase operational efficiency, improve inventory accuracy, and
enhance the customer experience.

Pete Leibman, Managing Director at Peak Rock, said, “Our investment in Mojix will provide
significant growth capital to accelerate the Company’s product roadmap and pursue organic growth
and strategic acquisitions. Mojix’s track record as a leading item-level inventory management software
platform is impressive and we look forward to partnering with management to expand the Company’s
technology capabilities, geographic footprint, and core industry verticals.”

Dan Doles, CEO of Mojix, commented, “We are excited to partner with Peak Rock as we embark on
our next phase of growth. Peak Rock has a deep understanding of our customers’ use cases and our
technology capabilities, as well as a compelling track record of supporting companies and management
teams in driving innovation and building leading software platforms. We look forward to our
partnership, which will position the Company to accelerate its rapid growth by expanding our team,
supporting our traceability capabilities, and better serving our customers.”
“This transaction exemplifies Peak Rock’s commitment to invest in high growth software platforms.
Our investment in Mojix is also an important example of our broader focus on investing in wellpositioned
technology businesses serving durable, growing end markets. We look forward to
supporting the Mojix team in their next phase of growth.” added Anthony DiSimone, Chief Executive
Officer of Peak Rock.

ABOUT MOJIX
Mojix is a global leader in item-level supply chain intelligence software. The firm is leading the way in
item-level traceability solutions utilizing its high security, globally scalable cloud-hosted SaaS platform.
Mojix builds business intelligence from event-triggered actions tracking billions of unique identities,
following item lifecycles from source to shelf. Companies can leverage the seamlessly integrated data
to increase their sales and operational efficiency, reduce major risks and enhance their customer
experience. With offices across the United States, Europe and South America, Mojix is now a
recognized expert in end-to-end, item-level track and trace, product authentication and automated
inventory management. Learn more at www.mojix.com

ABOUT PEAK ROCK CAPITAL
Peak Rock Capital is a leading middle-market private investment firm that makes equity and debt
investments in companies in North America and Europe. Peak Rock’s equity investment platform
focuses on opportunities where it can support senior management to drive rapid growth and
performance improvement, with expertise in corporate carve-outs and partnering with families and
founders seeking first-time institutional capital. Peak Rock’s credit platform invests across capital
structures, with a broad mandate to provide flexible, tailored capital solutions to middle-market and
growth-oriented businesses. Peak Rock’s real estate platform makes equity and debt investments in
small to mid-sized real estate assets in attractive, growing geographies. For further information about
Peak Rock Capital, please visit www.peakrockcapital.com.

Media Contact:
Daniel Yunger
Kekst CNC
(212) 521-4800
daniel.yunger@kekstcnc.com

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Ardian acquires a stake in Nutripure, a digital brand specializing in sports nutrition and food supplements

Ardian

Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, announced today that it has acquired a stake in Nutripure, with Bpifrance completing the financing round. Founded at the end of 2017 by two brothers, Christophe Carrio, five-time world karate champion, and Florent Carrio, Nutripure is a Digital Native Vertical Brand (DNVB), which develops and distributes food supplements and organic superfoods, mostly via its own website.

Nutripure has experienced strong growth of over 90% per year since its creation and has been profitable since its inception. The company is becoming a leader in its market, notably due to its unique positioning covering a variety of sports and health needs. The brand is recognized by consumers for its premium quality, relying on naturality, purity and traceability of components, with all of its products manufactured in France.

Initially created to address the needs of professional athletes, Nutripure is now targeting anyone wishing to take care of their health. The depth of the offering is materialized by four categories of products: Health & Metabolism, Muscle Gain & Endurance, Tendons & Ligaments, and Healthy Nutrition. The brand offers a growing range of products dedicated to specific needs, including sleep quality, stress reduction, joints care, blood circulation improvement, which now represent the majority of the company’s revenues.

Ardian’s investment in Nutripure will allow the company to prepare for the next phase of its development, while maintaining its strong growth trajectory. Ardian Growth’s team, with its investment track record in the sector, will provide Nutripure with access to its vast network. The team will work with the founders on the company strategic pillars, including product development, marketing positioning, sales channel optimization, as well as the company’s internal organization. Bpifrance will also contribute to the plan by providing its support services.

“We are very happy to join Florent and Christophe Carrio in this new step of the Nutripure’s development. This company and its founders are fully in line with Ardian Growth’s DNA, with a profitable growth model and a committed vision. Our investment in Nutripure will allow us to provide the founders with our expertise in e-commerce business models, as well as in the health sector and dietary supplements in particular.” Frédéric Quéru, Managing Director in Ardian’s Growth team

“In four years, Nutripure has succeeded in becoming a reference brand in the sector. Ardian’s and Bpifrance’s investment reflects our desire to secure future growth while remaining a majority stakeholder. Our mission to help everyone achieve their personal or sporting goals remains unchanged, just like the team of athletes we are supporting for Paris 2024.” Florent Carrio, Founder of Nutripure and CEO

“High level performance is always associated with three core principles: willpower – fundamentals – a progressive and rational application. I have been applying these principles personally for the past three decades and my brother and I have been passing this on and sharing this with the Nutripure community. Ardian’s and Bpifrance’s entry will allow us to progress and reach more people by helping them to make progress while improving their health.” Christophe Carrio, Founder of Nutripure

“Supporting an ambitious e-commerce player in a booming market with an authentic brand is fully in line with Bpifrance’s mission. Nutripure and its founders embody values that we hold dear. We are proud to invest alongside Ardian Growth, an investor specializing in the sector, and to support Florent and Christophe in the development of this unique player!” Arnaud Despoisse, Senior Investment Manager at Bpifrance

List of Participants

  • Ardian

    • Ardian Growth: Frédéric Quéru, Kevin Delvas
    • Bpifrance: Christine Busque, Arnaud Despoisse
    • Financial advisor: Crowe HAF (Thomas Corbineau, Julien Latrubesse, Thyl Bourgeois, Martin Lecina)
    • Transactional legal advisor: Gaftarnik Lévi Le Douarin (Mickaël Levi, Sarah Mobtahij)
    • Social legal advisor: Lys Avocats (Siham Belarbi, Chloé Van Parys)
    • Tax advisor: Mamou & Boccara (Laurent Mamou, Camille Stofati, Margot Mantez)
    • Strategic advisor: Digital Value (Arnaud de Baynast, Romain Bury)

  • Nutripure

    • Nutripure: Florent Carrio, Christophe Carrio
    • Merchant bank: Potomac Transactions (Sébastien Drouot, Ahmed Soibah Eddine)
    • Financial advisor: Exelmans (Manuel Manas, Thierry Willemin)
    • Legal advisor: Apollo Avocats (Guillaume de Ternay, Emmanuelle Prost, Quentin Nicodex)
    • Financing advisor: Caisse d’Epargne Languedoc Rousillon (Cedric Thoma, Yan Lagoutte)

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$125 billion managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base. Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world. Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 880 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul). It manages funds on behalf of more than 1,200 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Secondaries, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.

www.ardian.com

ABOUT NUTRIPURE

It was at the end of 2017 that NUTRIPURE made its entry into the food supplement market. NUTRIPURE achieved a very successful start thanks to the fame and expertise of its founder, Christophe Carrio. A five-time world champion in artistic karate, Christophe has been sharing his training and nutritional advice for over 20 years within the CTS Method, which is followed by nearly 300,000 people on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. The Method is part of a global approach based on the “foundations of health”, unavoidable principles: Sleep better/Breathe better/Move better/Eat better/Think better.
Not able to find a product offering that was meeting his level of requirement in the current market, Christophe decided to found NUTRIPURE with the help of his brother Florent. NUTRIPURE’s approach is honest, without false promises: customers are encouraged to resume good eating habits and then to accompany this process by taking supplements. The values that drive Nutripure are operational excellence, authenticity and sharing.

www.nutripure.fr

ABOUT BPIFRANCE

Bpifrance Investissement is the management company that handles Bpifrance’s equity investments. Bpifrance is the French national investment bank: it finances businesses – at every stage of their development – through loans, guarantees, equity investments and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extra financial services (training, consultancy) to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges (innovation, export…).

www.presse.bpifrance.fr

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Paddle raises $200m to supercharge SaaS companies’ global growth

KKR
  • The investment, at a valuation of $1.4bn, follows a period of rapid growth for the payments infrastructure company
  • The round is led by KKR with participation from existing investors FTV Capital, 83North, Notion Capital, Kindred Capital, with additional financing from Silicon Valley Bank 
  • Founded in the UK, Paddle will use the investment to accelerate its global expansion amid rapidly growing demand from scaling Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies

London, Tuesday 10th May: Paddle, the provider of a complete payments infrastructure for SaaS companies, today announces it has raised $200m in Series D equity and debt financing at a valuation of $1.4bn, making it the UK’s latest unicorn. Led by KKR, a leading global investment firm, with participation from existing investors FTV Capital, 83North, Notion Capital, Kindred Capital, and debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, the investment brings the total Paddle has raised to date to $293m.

Paddle will use this investment to strengthen the growth of its platform and to meet the market opportunity that exists for a complete payment infrastructure provider for software companies globally, which will assist in enabling them to scale and sell their products faster, with less risk and lower costs.

SaaS companies are experiencing a period of sustained growth, a trend that was accelerated by the surge in digital transformation during the Covid-19 pandemic and is set to continue as businesses and consumers become ever more used to using digital tools like Zoom to communicate, Miro to collaborate, or Canva to create. The SaaS sector, which was worth $397 billion in 2021, is expected to grow to $692 billion in 2025.*

SaaS companies now have an incredible opportunity to compete and sell their products in any market in the world, but to do so they must also manage payments and operations across multiple geographies and navigate an increasingly complex web of local and international tax and data regulations.

By integrating checkout, payment, subscription management, invoicing, international taxes and financial compliance processes, Paddle offers SaaS companies a completely different approach to payments infrastructure. Instead of assembling and maintaining a complex stack of payments-related apps and services, Paddle acts as a merchant of record for its customers. This enables sellers to activate new business models and enter new markets faster, more easily and with fewer operational and compliance issues.

Paddle’s complete payments infrastructure is used by over 3,000 software companies in more than 200 markets worldwide. With a suite of new platform features and integrations – including the announcement of an alternative In-App Purchasing (IAP) system for iOS developers – as well as rapid international expansion, Paddle has more than doubled its revenue growth since November 2020, contributing to an impressive average annual revenue growth of over 175% over the last four years. It has also scaled its team from 140 to 275 across offices in London and New York, with more hires expected to match its acceleration as a business.

Christian Owens, CEO and co-founder of Paddle, said: “The opportunity in software is enormous, with tens of thousands of incredibly innovative businesses bringing great products to market every year. Unfortunately, many SaaS companies still find their growth hindered by the operational challenges that arise when scaling; from handling subscriptions management or tax compliance to localizing payment options in every market. Paddle was created to remove these invisible barriers so that SaaS companies can just focus on building and selling software. 2021 was a fantastic year for us, but we are only just getting started. We have big plans for 2022 and beyond and we’re delighted to have the backing of so many fantastic investors who all share our vision.”

Patrick Devine, Director at KKR, added: “Paddle is solving a significant pain point for thousands of SaaS companies by reducing the friction and costs associated with managing payments infrastructure and tax compliance. By simplifying the payments stack, Paddle enables faster, more sustainable growth for SaaS businesses. Christian and the team have done a phenomenal job building a category-defining business in this space, and we are excited to be supporting them as they embark on the next phase of growth.”

KKR’s investment was made through its growth equity fund, Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II.

About Paddle:
Paddle helps SaaS companies grow faster with fewer distractions. Instead of wasting time, money, and resources assembling, maintaining, securing, and constantly updating a ‘best of breed’ payments stack, Paddle does it all.

Because Paddle is a SaaS merchant of record, it takes away 100% of the payments complexity—handling all payment routing, tax collection, compliance, invoicing, subscription management, renewals, reporting, and fraud protection.

Paddle has 275 employees serving over 3,000 software sellers in 245 countries and territories globally. Backed by investors including KKR, FTV Capital, Kindred, Notion, and 83North, Paddle aims to define the next wave of B2B SaaS leaders. Visit www.paddle.com or www.twitter.com/PaddleHQ for more information.

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 and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Press contact:

Paddle
Ed Jones-Davies / Cameron Morrissey
Outcast
paddle@thisisoutcast.com

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

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