H.I.G. Capital Sells RGIB’s Bathroom Furniture Division to Roca

H.I.G. Europe

MADRID – January 20, 2021 –  H.I.G. Capital, (“H.I.G.”), a leading global private equity investment firm with over €35 billion of equity capital under management, and the Royo family have entered into an agreement to sell the bathroom furniture division of RG International Bathroom (“RGIB or the “Company”) to Roca Sanitario, S.A. The Royo family will retain a minority stake in the division. Both H.I.G. and the Royo family will continue as shareholders of the shower tray business of RGIB, operating under the Fiora brand.

H.I.G. partnered with the Royo family in December 2016 and has achieved a number of important milestones, including:

  • Developing a new factory and brand in Poland (Maximus) that contributed to strengthening the leading position that RGIB already had in the Polish market under the Elita brand
  • Entering new segments, channels and countries; one of the most relevant achievements was the entry into the DIY channel in Germany where RGIB is now a leading player
  • Consolidating RGIB’s leading position in Spain and France, where the group has grown its distribution network to more than 5,000 points of sale
  • Launching Amizuva, an exclusive brand that targets the online channel
  • Increasing RGIB´s revenues by over 50%

The Royo family and H.I.G. will retain ownership of Fiora and will continue to strengthen the Company’s innovation, design and product development capabilities in order to consolidate Flora’s leading position in the European premium shower trays segment. The shareholders will also focus on further expanding Fiora’s international footprint beyond the 30 countries where it is currently present through its widespread distribution network and its customer service team.

Raul Royo, CEO of RGIB, stated: “We would like to thank H.I.G.for their support over the past four years, which has allowed us to strengthen our leading position in Europe. The agreement with Roca, a global leader in the bathroom sector, will help us enhance our state-of-the-art business, with almost 150 years of combined experience in the sector between the two families.”

Jaime Bergel, Managing Director of H.I.G. Spain commented: “We are very pleased with the success of this investment, which proves our capabilities in the Spanish market. Together with the Royo family, we have positioned RGIB as one of the leading companies in the bathroom sector in Europe, and we will continue supporting Fiora to consolidate its leadership in the European market.”

The deal is subject to approval by antitrust authorities in some European markets.

About RGIB
RG International Bathroom, founded more than 45 years ago by Pascual Royo, is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of bathroom products, mainly focused on furniture and resin shower trays. The group has factories in Valencia, Nájera and Poland and operates on five continents under the brands Royo, Elita, Maximus and Fiora. RGIB has an annual turnover of more than €110 million and employs more than 1,000 professionals.

About Roca Group
Roca Sanitario is dedicated to the design, production and marketing of bathroom products, as well as ceramic floor and wall tiles for architecture, construction and interior design. The family-owned Spanish group is the market leader in Europe, Latin America, India and Russia. It also has a strong presence in China and the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Africa. It is the international leader in the field.

About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with over €35 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Bogotá, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:

  1. H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
  2. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
  3. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of  €27 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.

* Based on total commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates.

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Acacia Pharma wins BEL Company of the Year for the second consecutive year

GIlde Healthcare

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

Cambridge (United Kingdom) and Utrecht (the Netherlands) – Acacia Pharma Group plc (EURONEXT: ACPH), a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel products to improve the care of patients undergoing serious medical treatments such as surgery, invasive procedures, or chemotherapy, announces that it has been awarded BEL Small Company of the Year 2020 by Euronext Brussels at its annual New Year’s Ceremony held virtually last night. This is the second consecutive year that Acacia Pharma has won this award.

“We are delighted to be recognized again with this award. 2020 has been a very successful year for Acacia Pharma, having gained approval for two new products in the US: BARHEMSYS®, a new antiemetic for surgical patients to treat post-operative nausea & vomiting, and BYFAVO™, a rapid acting and reversible sedative for patients requiring moderate sedation to undergo short medical procedures. We launched BARHEMSYS in August and are in the very final stages of the launch process for BYFAVO, which we expect to complete imminently,” commented Mike Bolinder, CEO of Acacia Pharma.

Mr. Bolinder added: “Looking to the future, our strategy is to drive the sales of both products in the US through our own organization and we believe we are well positioned for success. This potential success has been recognized in the recent initiation of coverage of the company by the healthcare analysts at Jefferies, who included Acacia Pharma as one of their top European biopharma/biotech investment ideas for 2021. We are pleased with the progress we have been able to make during the last year, especially given the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic during the same period.”

The annual New Year’s Ceremony recognizes the best performing companies on Euronext Brussels. The BEL Small Company of the Year is awarded to a company that has demonstrated the highest relative increase in market capitalization, within the BEL Small index in 2020. The award was announced by the CEO of Euronext Brussels, Vincent Van Dessel, in the presence of Vincent Van Peteghem, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Contacts

Acacia Pharma Group plc
Mike Bolinder, CEO
Gary Gemignani, CFO
+44 1223 919760 / +1 317 505 1280
IR@acaciapharma.com

International Media
Mark Swallow, Frazer Hall, David Dible
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
+44 20 7638 9571
acaciapharma@citigatedewerogerson.com

US Investors
LifeSci Advisors
Irina Koffler
+1 917-734-7387
ikoffler@lifesciadvisors.com

Media in Belgium and the Netherlands
Chris Van Raemdonck
+32 499 58 55 31
chrisvanraemdonck@telenet.be

About Acacia Pharma

Acacia Pharma is a hospital pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of new products aimed at improving the care of patients undergoing significant treatments such as surgery, other invasive procedures, or cancer chemotherapy. The Company has identified important and commercially attractive unmet needs in these areas that its product portfolio aims to address.

Acacia Pharma’s first product, BARHEMSYS® (amisulpride injection) is available in the US for the management of postoperative nausea & vomiting (PONV).

BYFAVO™ (remimazolam) for injection, a very rapid onset/offset IV benzodiazepine sedative is approved in the US for use during invasive medical procedures in adults lasting 30 minutes or less, such as colonoscopy and bronchoscopy. BYFAVO is in-licensed from Paion UK Limited for the US market.

APD403 (intravenous and oral amisulpride), a selective dopamine antagonist for chemotherapy induced nausea & vomiting (CINV) has successfully completed one proof-of-concept and one Phase 2 dose-ranging study in patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy.

Acacia Pharma has its US headquarters in Indianapolis, IN and its R&D operations are centred in Cambridge, UK. The Company is listed on the Euronext Brussels exchange under the ISIN code GB00BYWF9Y76 and ticker symbol ACPH. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.acaciapharma.com.

About Gilde Healthcare

Gilde Healthcare is a specialized healthcare investor managing over $1.5 billion across two fund strategies: Venture & Growth and Private Equity.

Gilde Healthcare Venture & Growth invests in fast growing companies active in digital health, MedTech and therapeutics. The Venture & Growth companies are based in Europe and North America.

Gilde Healthcare Private Equity participates in profitable European lower mid-market healthcare companies with a prime focus on the Benelux and DACH region. The Private Equity fund targets healthcare providers, suppliers of medical products and service providers in the healthcare market.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.gildehealthcare.com.

Forward looking statements

This announcement includes forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations and projections about future events. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as “believe”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “plan”, “will”, “should”, “could” and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements may and often do differ materially from actual results. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about the Company and its subsidiaries and investments, including, among other things, the development of its business, trends in its operating industry, and future capital expenditures and acquisitions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances. Any forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current view with respect to future events and are subject to risks relating to future events and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the Group’s business, results of operations, financial position, prospects, growth or strategies and the industry in which it operates. Save as required by law or applicable regulation, the Company and its affiliates expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any forward-looking statement contained in this announcement whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.

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Changed date for Ratos’s Year-End report and conference call to February 8, 2021

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Ratos

2021-01-20

On Monday, February 8 2021, Ratos will publish the Year-End report for 2020. The report will be published at approximately 07.00 CET. The date has been changed from the previously communicated date, February 11, as a result of the date for the 2021 Annual General Meeting being brought forward to March 10, 2021.

At 09.00 CET on February 8, a telephone conference will be held, participant connection: UK: +44 333 300 9031, SE: +46 8 505 583 50, US: +1 833 526 83 47. The telephone conference will be webcasted live at www.ratos.com where presentation material will be available as soon as the report is released.

The telephone conference will be recorded and available at www.ratos.com.

For further information, please contact:
Helene Gustafsson, Head of IR- and Press, +46 70 868 40 50, helene.gustafsson@ratos.com

About Ratos:
Ratos is a business group consisting of 11 companies divided into three business areas: Construction & Services, Consumer & Technology and Industry. In total, the companies have SEK 34 billion in sales and EBITA of SEK 1.3 billion. Our business concept is to develop mid-sized companies headquartered in the Nordics that are or can become market leaders. We enable independent mid-sized companies to excel by being part of something larger. People, leadership, culture and values are key focus areas for Ratos. Everything we do is based on Ratos’s core values: Simplicity, Speed in Execution and It’s All About People.

Categories: News

Onex to Announce Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2020 Resultson February 26, 2021

Onex

Toronto, January 20, 2021 – Onex Corporation (TSX: ONEX) will release its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020 on February 26, 2021. A live broadcast of Onex’ webcast to discuss the results will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET on February 26, 2021.
A link to the live webcast and the 90-day on-line replay will be available at www.onex.com/events-and-presentations.

About Onex
Founded in 1984, Onex invests and manages capital on behalf of its shareholders, institutional investors and high net worth clients from around the world. Onex’ platforms include: Onex Partners, private equity funds focused on larger opportunities in North America and Europe; ONCAP, private equity funds focused on middle market and smaller opportunities in North America; Onex Credit, which manages primarily non-investment grade debt through collateralized loan obligations, senior loan strategies and other private credit strategies; and Gluskin Sheff’s wealth management services including its actively managed public equity and public credit funds. In total, as of September 30, 2020, Onex has approximately $36.6 billion of assets under management, of which approximately $6.7 billion is its own shareholder capital. With offices in Toronto, New York, New Jersey and London, Onex and its experienced management teams are collectively the largest investors across Onex’ platforms.

The Onex Partners and ONCAP businesses have assets of $36 billion, generate annual revenues of $22 billion and employ approximately 149,000 people worldwide. Onex shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONEX. For more information on Onex, visit its website at www.onex.com. Onex’ security filings can also be accessed at www.sedar.com.

For further information:
Jill Homenuk
Managing Director, Shareholder Relations and Communications
Tel: +1 416.362.7711

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Montagu to acquire majority position in ITRS Group

Montagu

Montagu to acquire majority position in ITRS Group from TA Associates

Montagu, today announces it has agreed to acquire a majority position in ITRS Group (“ITRS”), a leading global provider of real-time monitoring and analytics software from TA Associates (“TA”), who will remain a minority holder alongside Montagu and Management. Completion is expected next month, subject to customary closing requirements. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ITRS’ software portfolio supports the “always on” enterprise, ensuring operational resilience for businesses operating in environments where technology failure means business failure. Headquartered in London, the company has established itself as an innovative and trusted partner, and today has over 3,000 clients across the globe, including nine out of the ten Tier 1 investment banks. In addition, its recent acquisition of Uptrends, a Netherlands-based website and web performance monitoring solution, has further strengthened ITRS’ product suite.

Since its establishment in 1997, ITRS has transformed from a European, single product solution to the capital markets industry, to today providing a comprehensive product suite to customers across a range of industries, including capital markets, telecommunications and healthcare. This has been achieved through impressive organic growth and M&A activity, and Montagu intends to work with the management team and leverage its experience, network and resources to continue to drive growth and further expansion.

Guy Warren, CEO of ITRS, said: “We are delighted to welcome Montagu into ITRS Group. Under TA Associates’ ownership, we have broadened our product suite and significantly expanded our customer base, and we thank them for their continued support. The Montagu team have shown a strong understanding of our business and its potential, and share our ambitions, and we are excited to partner with them for the next stage of growth.”

Christoph Leitner-Dietmaier, Director at Montagu, said: “It is a privilege for Montagu to back Guy and his leadership team, and we look forward to partnering with TA on this investment in ITRS.  We are truly impressed by the leading position ITRS has established and are excited to support their vision of becoming the single pane of glass for IT monitoring for the enterprise customer.”

Morgan Seigler, Managing Director at TA, said: “We have greatly enjoyed partnering with Guy and the entire team at ITRS over the last four years to help drive the company’s growth and expansion. We look forward to collaborating with the ITRS team and Montagu to continue this successful journey.”

The sellers were advised by Jefferies International and Travers Smith LLP. Montagu was advised by Arma Partners and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

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ChannelEngine raises €5M Series A funding round to expand its marketplace integration platform across key global markets

Inkef Capital

Amsterdam – January 19, 2021 – ChannelEngine, the marketplace integration platform for distributed e-commerce, enabling brands and retailers to manage and optimize their product listings and orders across online sales channels, announces €5 million in Series A funding led by INKEF Capital, with participation from existing investor Airbridge Equity Partners.

ChannelEngine is on a mission to bridge the gap between the backend systems of its customers and online sales channels such as Amazon, Zalando, Google, eBay and many more, on a global scale. The current need for new solutions in the market, combined with the rapid speed at which companies are moving to direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketplace sales, makes it the ideal time for companies to leverage ChannelEngine’s innovative e-commerce platform, to scale up faster and more efficiently.

Having more than tripled its revenue in 2020 with limited funding, ChannelEngine has raised this €5 million Series A round to accelerate its global rollout and continue the development of their product and channels. The funding round will be used to continue the rollout in Europe, and to expand into APAC, Russia, the Middle East as well as both North and South America. In addition, the company plans to hire 70 new employees worldwide in 2021 across various levels and roles.

Kyang Yung, Junior Partner at INKEF comments that “It goes without saying that the company has grown like a rocket ship off the back of COVID, although pre-COVID rates were already more than impressive. And, as brands across the globe are finally taking the leap to go direct-to-consumer, ChannelEngine’s customer roster now also boasts some pretty impressive global brands. For us, it was the interesting market position, the traction, and last but not least, the team’s deep domain knowledge of e-commerce which made us decide to make this strong, conviction-based investment.”

With e-commerce currently driving more than 18% of global retail, a number increasing rapidly since the dawn of the pandemic, and marketplaces generating more than 50% of this revenue, growing towards 75%, it is clear that the market is heading in one direction. With new marketplaces being launched globally, this shift further underlines the importance of connecting to, managing and integrating with a range of sales channels through one central platform. Trusted by global brands such as JBL, Bugaboo and Staples, amongst hundreds of others, ChannelEngine is ready to claim its position as a global market leader within the e-commerce marketplace space.

Jorrit Steinz, CEO & Founder of ChannelEngine adds, “On a global scale, e-commerce is becoming a driving force of all retail sales. Customers have shifted their search behavior for products from search engines to marketplaces. Large e-commerce players, as well as search engines, social media platforms and comparison sites are turning into marketplaces themselves. While this creates more sales opportunities for brands and retailers, they are faced with the challenge of managing all these different channels at the same time. That’s why we’ve built ChannelEngine, a powerful Software as a Service platform that enables Brands, Retailers and Distributors to connect, automate and manage their sales on all these international sales channels.”

About ChannelEngine
With a single powerful Software as a Service integration, ChannelEngine.com connects a sellers systems to international marketplaces and sales channels while optimizing sales, minimizing time, and maximizing profit and reach. It offers brands, distributors, and retailers automated order and return systems, an advanced management suite and rich partner ecosystem, to bring their sales to the next level.
ChannelEngine empowers companies by creating a seamless integration between businesses and marketplaces. Learn more: www.channelengine.com.

About InkefINKEF Capital is a leading venture capital firm based in Amsterdam with a proven history in backing promising early stage companies in Europe. INKEF takes pride in being a patient, long-term investor with the ability to support companies through several rounds of funding. From the early stages of being a technology or life science venture, INKEF Capital supports entrepreneurs building their ideas into successful international businesses. Learn more: www.inkef

Media Contact
Vanessa Stroet
PRLab
vanessa@prlab.co

Categories: News

Crafting a modern insurance brand

Felix Capital

At Felix, our core thesis is that digital technologies are shaping consumer lifestyles, giving rise to a new generation of loved and trusted brands and platforms that offer a better customer experience (and the enabling software that helps companies do this). While these changes are deeply evident in the way we now discover and buy products (see Farfetch, Goop, Mejuri, HighSnobiety, etc.), eat (see Deliveroo, HungryPanda, Frichti etc.), travel and get around (see Heetch, Dott, VanMoof etc.), and improve wellness & fitness (see Peloton, Urban, Unmind etc.) it’s becoming increasingly obvious that consumers also want this from one of the most important parts of their life — their personal finances.

For the past few years, we’ve proactively started deep-diving into the consumer finance and insurance sectors, building our conviction in the opportunity to create a modern, better insurance brand and customer proposition. The market presents an exciting opportunity — large in size, a necessary purchase, dominated by legacy practices and almost entirely lacking in customer love. In fact, the industry has one of the lowest average Net Promoter Scores and customer churn has been growing.

However, it’s not an easy industry to disrupt, and transforming it requires founders that are passionate to change the standard ways of working, able to navigate the regulatory and operational complexity of the industry, and deliver product innovation and a truly better customer experience. We believe we have found such a company in France with Leocare, and are excited to share our investment as we lead their Series A!

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Leocare’s founders Christophe and Noureddine started the company with the mission to provide “services to protect all the most important moments in your life” offering insurance for your car, home, smartphone, motorbike (and soon other areas too). They built a digital platform where consumers can easily buy, customise and manage their personal insurance — all from their mobile app. The founders have the ambition for Leocare to become a new type of insurance, not only providing comprehensive coverage but also superior service and ease of use, and over time providing preventative assistance and becoming a highly trusted brand.

We first met Christophe and Noureddine over a year ago and have been consistently impressed by their passion and focus (some would even say obsession) with creating a great customer experience and clear product vision. Despite — or perhaps because — neither of the founders come from an insurance background, they were able to tackle the problem with a fresh pair of eyes. Tired of the lengthy process they’ve experienced themselves in getting an accurate quote for insurance, and the “black box” nature of the pricing, they built one of easiest and more seamless customer experiences with 4 steps to a quote and a live, dynamic pricing calculator that shows potential customers exactly what goes into it. Customers can manage all their insurance policies from the same app and easily make changes or updates to their policies (for example, if they’ve moved to a new house, or had a baby, or to pause or cancel a policy) as well as purchase additional policies

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Being mobile-first isn’t just a gimmick, but is actually one of the keys to Leocare creating a service that customers love. While most other insurance providers fervently hope customers never contact them, Leocare makes it as easy as possible for customers to get ongoing support, from providing thoughtful reminders and notifications in the app (for example, the company updated its customers on changing confinement rules in their location during the recent Coronavirus lockdowns), to personalised driving suggestions for car owners. Customers can also chat with customer support in the app and file claims digitally, without traditionally lengthy paperwork. As a result, instead of the industry standard of engaging with customers once a year, Leocare’s customers often interact with their insurer monthly, deepening their sense of loyalty.

And this approach of simplicity, transparency, flexibility (as the insurance is charged as a monthly subscription), and superior customer service is clearly resonating well with consumers! To date, the Leocare app has been downloaded 160k times and is trending on the French app store, growing 40% month over month and having now reached over 10,000 French households. Impressively, the company continues to earn its customer love and loyalty with increasing customers choosing to buy a second or even third policy line from Leocare.

Christophe and Noureddine won’t rest on their laurels though. They have an ambitious plan to continue improving and evolving their product and service. The roadmap includes exciting plans such as:

  • Developing a bot to automate and facilitate the management of claims, and keep Leocare customers informed in real-time of the processing of their claims, via push notifications and a dedicated timeline in the app
  • TakeCare — a brand new road safety service for car insurance customers
  • An in-app marketplace to connect customers with licensed and vetted professionals to help with home and car maintenance and repair

Where most insurers hardly know their customers at all, Leocare is building its brand on the trust of customers who love the service and winning that customer love by putting them first. We are thrilled to be partnering with the team today (alongside our friends at Ventech and Daphni) and look forward to the journey ahead!

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Coller’s eighth fund holds final close at just over US$9bn

Coller Capital

Coller Capital, a leading global investor in private equity secondaries, closed Coller International Partners VIII (CIP VIII) on 18 January 2021, with committed capital (including co-investment vehicles) of just over $9 billion.

Like its seven predecessor funds, CIP VIII will take a flexible approach. Advised by a multinational team based in London, New York and Hong Kong, the fund will target a wide array of secondary transactions, targeting assets and sellers located anywhere in the world, and making individual investments of up to $1 billion or more in size.

CIP VIII has over 200 Limited Partners worldwide. At the end of December 2020, the fund had already committed almost one third of its final committed capital.

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SPINS Announces Growth Investment Led by Warburg Pincus

General Atlantic and Georgian also invest in business; partnership to accelerate SPINS’ strategic initiatives and growth opportunities

SPINS, a leading wellness-focused data, analytics and technology provider in the U.S., today announced a significant investment from Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic and Georgian. The growth investment will support future strategic initiatives including sales and marketing expansion, retail partner value expansion, new product development, and new vertical expansion. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For two decades, SPINS has been a passionate advocate for the Natural and Specialty Products Industry. SPINS is committed to laying the foundation for the next generation of growth, providing dynamic data, actionable insights, product attributions, and digital activation solutions. SPINS helped establish a common language across the health and wellness ecosystem for key stakeholders including retailers, brands, distributors and consumers.

“Our mission has always been to increase the presence and accessibility of natural and better-for-you products that help people live their healthiest and best lives and drive sustainable production practices in North America. This mission, combined with our expertise in product intelligence and insights, is leading to more vibrant living for consumers and bigger success of our clients,” said Tony Olson, Founder & CEO, SPINS LLC. “We are beyond thrilled to take our vision to the next level with Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic and Georgian by leveraging their global resources and experience in data and information businesses to enable SPINS to meet the rapidly growing demand for our services.”

“SPINS is the leading provider of omni-channel and retailer-specific product measurement, mission-critical performance data, and unique insights into consumer trends and digital activation. We are incredibly excited to partner with Tony and the rest of the SPINS team,” said Stephanie Geveda, Managing Director, Head of Business Services, Warburg Pincus. “This investment underscores our long-term commitment to strategically investing in market-leading, vertical-specific B2B information services businesses that capture unique data,” added Justin Sadrian, Managing Director, Technology, Warburg Pincus.

“SPINS has developed a highly-differentiated industry platform that serves as a pivotal source for business performance and market information to retail and consumer brands. Supported by Tony’s strategic vision, SPINS continuously innovates on its platform to meet customers’ evolving needs, which has allowed the company to build deep relationships in the wellness retail market,” said Peter Munzig, Managing Director, General Atlantic. “We’re looking forward to working alongside the SPINS team as they continue to expand the reach of their suite of digital solutions to address untapped growth opportunities in the market.”

“SPINS has been on a mission to accelerate the rapidly growing Natural and Specialty Products Industry by providing unique insights to retailers and brands,” said Margaret Wu, Lead Investor at Georgian. “The company’s rich dataset has enabled the team to develop a high-value AI roadmap that will drastically enhance its product intelligence offerings. We are excited to partner with SPINS on this journey and support the team in helping customers realize greater value, faster.”

Jefferies LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor and Reed Smith LLP served as legal advisor for SPINS.

About SPINS

SPINS is a wellness-focused data company and advocate for the Natural Products Industry. Over the past two decades, SPINS’ investments have led to a common language used across the industry as well as laid the foundation for the next generation of innovation, while providing dynamic data, actionable insights, and digital activation solutions that drive growth for our clients & partners and contribute to a healthier and more vibrant America. Learn more at www.spins.com.

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $56 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm’s active portfolio of more than 190 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography. Warburg Pincus has been a long-time, active investor in vertical-specific data and information businesses, with investments including, Reorg Research, Intelligent Medical Objects, RS Energy, CAMP Systems, Gordian Group, Interactive Data Corporation, and TurnItIn. Warburg Pincus also has significant experience investing across the food and food retail technology value chain, with investments including, Certified Sciences, GA Foods, and Grubhub Seamless, Salsify, and Trax. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 19 private equity funds, which have invested more than $86 billion in over 910 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com.

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. Established in 1980, General Atlantic combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to build market-leading businesses worldwide. General Atlantic has more than 175 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Greenwich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.

About Georgian

Georgian is a fintech company investing in high growth software companies that harness the power of data in a trustworthy way. At Georgian, we’re building a platform to provide a better experience of growth capital to software company CEOs and their teams. Georgian’s platform is designed to identify and accelerate the best growth-stage software companies, taking an intelligent, data-first approach to solving the key challenges CEOs face as they grow their businesses. Based in Toronto, Georgian’s team brings together software entrepreneurs, machine learning experts, experienced operators and investment professionals. For more information, visit https://georgian.io/.

Media Contacts

Mary Armstrong & Emily Japlon
General Atlantic media@generalatlantic.com

Michael Erwin
SPINS merwin@spins.com

Sarah McGrath Bloom
Warburg Pincus Sarah.Bloom@warburgpincus.com

Katie Schiefer
Georgian katie@georgian.io

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Vera Therapeutics Launches with $80 Million Series C Financing to Develop Phase 2b Novel Biologic for Kidney Disease

Abingworth

Potential first-in-class disease-modifying biologic in late-stage clinical studiesExperienced executive development team from Gilead Sciences

 

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., January 19, 2021 – Vera Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing treatments for immunological and inflammatory diseases, today announced its launch backed by $80 million Series C financing led by Abingworth LLP. Other investors included Sofinnova Investments, Longitude Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Octagon Capital, Kleiner Perkins, GV (formerly Google Ventures), and Alexandria Venture Investments.

Proceeds from the financing will support the advancement of Vera’s lead clinical candidate, atacicept, a novel inhibitor of B cells and plasma cells, in patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN). The proceeds will also be used to scale the company’s manufacturing capabilities and expand Vera’s therapeutic pipeline in immunologic and inflammatory disease.

In-licensed from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, atacicept has been studied previously in autoimmune diseases and shown to reduce autoantibodies in a dose-dependent fashion with once-weekly subcutaneous dosing and has a well-established and acceptable clinical safety profile. New clinical trial results in patients with IgAN presented in 2020 showed that atacicept significantly reduces galactose-deficient immunoglobulin A (Gd-IgA1) – the source of immune complexes that cause disease­ – and proteinuria. Vera is on track to start a Phase 2b study in IgAN patients in mid-2021 and is investing in commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities.

“The strong support of our syndicate reflects strong conviction in Vera’s clinical development experience and the potential of our lead asset to target the source of immune complexes in patients with IgAN and change the standard of care,” said founder and CEO Marshall Fordyce, MD. “Unlike other drugs in development to treat IgAN, a rare disease with no approved treatments, atacicept significantly reduces galactose-deficient immunoglobulin A (Gd-IgA1) – the source of immune complexes that cause disease – at doses with a well-established and acceptable safety profile. Therefore, atacicept may be uniquely positioned to be disease-modifying for these patients with no current treatment options.”

Vera has executive and clinical development teams with deep experience in drug development and commercialization from Gilead Sciences. Joanne Curley, previously Vice President of Project and Portfolio Management, joined as Chief Development Officer; Lauren Frenz, who previously led US marketing of GENVOYA, joined as Chief Business Officer; and Tom Doan, previously Executive Director, Clinical Operations and Therapeutic Area Head, Inflammatory/Respiratory, was appointed Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations.

The Company’s Board of Directors includes Kurt von Emster (Managing Partner, Abingworth), Patrick Enright (Managing Director, Longitude Capital), Maha Katabi (General Partner, Sofinnova Investments), Beth Seidenberg (General Partner, Kleiner Perkins), Scott Morrison (former Partner and U.S. Life Sciences Leader, Ernst & Young), Andrew Cheng (President and CEO, Akero Therapeutics), and Marshall Fordyce (President and CEO, Vera Therapeutics).

“Vera has an outstanding team with track records in successful clinical and commercial development,” said Abingworth’s Managing Partner Kurt von Emster. “Dr. Fordyce brings significant leadership and entrepreneurial experience to this unique opportunity, where we have a clear line-of-sight from a well-validated biologic target to a substantially de-risked drug product, in a disease area that is commercially underserved, presenting a near-term opportunity to demonstrate disease modification for patients with limited options.”

 

About Vera Therapeutics

Vera Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing treatments for immunological and inflammatory diseases. Vera’s mission is to develop and commercialize transformative new therapies that improve patients’ lives. Vera’s lead program is atacicept, a fusion protein that is a dual inhibitor of B lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS) and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), which is in development for IgA nephropathy (IgAN), also known as Berger’s disease. Longer-term, the Company is building a pipeline of clinical-stage molecules with the potential to substantially improve lives. For more information please visit: www.veratx.com.

 

About Abingworth
Abingworth is a leading transatlantic life sciences investment firm. Abingworth helps transform cutting-edge science into novel medicines by providing capital and expertise to top calibre management teams building world-class companies. Since 1973, Abingworth has invested in 168 life science companies, leading to 44 M&As and 69 IPOs. Our therapeutic focused investments fall into three categories: seed and early-stage, development stage, and clinical co-development. Abingworth supports its portfolio companies with a team of experienced professionals at offices in London, Menlo Park (California), and Boston. For more info, please visit abingworth.com.

 

About Atacicept

Atacicept is a recombinant fusion protein that contains the soluble TACI receptor that binds to the cytokines B lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS) and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL). These cytokines are members of the tumor necrosis factor family that promote B-cell survival and autoantibody production associated with certain autoimmune diseases, including IgA nephropathy, also known as Berger’s disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Unlike other drugs currently in development for IgAN, atacicept is a novel, disease-modifying agent that is a dual inhibitor of BLyS and APRIL, positioned for best-in-class targeting of B-cells and plasma cells, to reduce autoantibodies, and a well-established and acceptable clinical safety profile. Atacicept also has a proven dose-dependent effect on key biomarkers and clinical markers and a well-established safety profile compared to other drugs in development for IgAN.

 

Media Contact:

Greig Communications, Inc.
Kathy Vincent
(310) 403-8951
kathy@greigcommunications.com

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