Category Archives: News

IK Partners leads carve-out of parts of PwC Norway’s audit and advisory business alongside existing partners

IK Partners

IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap IV Fund (“IK SC IV”), together with re-investing partners from PwC Norway, has signed an agreement to acquire parts of PwC Norway’s audit, consulting and tax & legal services dedicated to local Norwegian clients (“the Company”). This represents the second transaction signed from IK SC IV, which held a final close on €2.0 billion last month. Financial details of the transaction are not disclosed and completion of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

The Company’s core offering focuses on audit services, including financial audits and attestation work such as independent reviews and technical compilation for financial and tax reporting. Primarily serving local Norwegian clients, it also provides consulting services in strategy, business transformation and operations, as well as tax and legal services. Following the carve-out from PwC Norway, the Company will be the second-largest independent audit firm in its target market, with over 280 individuals spread across 20 offices in seven different geographical locations.

Backed by IK’s proven track record in Professional Services and carve-outs, the Company aims to strengthen its position as a leading audit and advisory firm for Norwegian clients. IK will leverage its platform and collaborate with the incumbent partner group to accelerate growth in the core Norwegian market, while continuing to attract and develop top talent. Strategic investments in technology and delivery model optimisation will drive efficiency and enhance the quality of audits and compliance services. In parallel, the Company will look to pursue consolidation opportunities in the highly fragmented Norwegian and broader Nordic market.

Erik Sønsterud, CEO of the newly formed Company, commented: “We are very excited about the prospect of working closely with the team at IK, leveraging IK’s platform and experience in the sector to increase our market share in the audit and advisory space in Norway and beyond. With a core base of both experienced employees and loyal clients across Norway, we are well-positioned to explore attractive M&A prospects, source new business opportunities and improve our operational efficiency to take our quality offering to an even broader range of clients.”

Henrik Geijer, Partner at IK and Advisor to the IK Small Cap IV Fund, added: “We are pleased to announce this investment, which follows shortly after the successful close of our largest ever Small Cap fund. This partnership represents an opportunity to back a market-leading business and team with compelling growth prospects. By leveraging the operational expertise of our pan-European team, we aim to accelerate growth through several organic initiatives and a well-identified pipeline of M&A opportunities to create a leading Norwegian audit firm. We look forward to working alongside Erik and his team to support the Company’s continued expansion both locally and internationally.”

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

H/Advisors Maitland
Finlay Donaldson
Phone: +44 (0) 7341 788 066
finlay.donaldson@h-advisors.global

About IK Partners

IK Partners (“IK”) is a European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €20 billion of capital and invested in over 200 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 ikpartners.com

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EQT broadens access to private markets for individual investors – introduces ELTIF evergreen fund

eqt

EQT Nexus ELTIF Private Equity

  • EQT introduces a European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) structure to its Nexus evergreen product suite – providing a new way to access private markets to more non-professional individual investors across the EU and EEA
  • EQT Nexus ELTIF Private Equity aims to provide exposure to a globally diversified portfolio of EQT’s well-established Private Capital strategies investing across healthcare, technology, and services
  • EQT Nexus ELTIF Private Equity marks an important step in EQT’s European Private Wealth strategy, enabling strategic distribution partnerships in key growth markets

ELTIF 2.0 (“ELTIF”) is a European Union legislative regime for a regulated fund structure designed to channel capital into long-term, illiquid asset classes, such as private equity, infrastructure and real estate, enabling access for both eligible individual investors and institutions.

EQT Nexus ELTIF Private Equity (the “Fund”) is an extension of the existing EQT Nexus evergreen product suite. The Fund can give individual investors exposure to a similar portfolio as institutions, focused on EQT’s Private Capital strategies spanning early-stage investments, growth and large-scale buyouts, investing in healthcare, technology, and services across Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.

The ELTIF regulatory framework expands access to private markets for the non-professional investor category, increasing coverage to more countries within the EU and EEA, and at a lower minimum investment threshold than traditional private asset structures. Like EQT’s broader platform of evergreen products, the Fund will be made available via third-party distributors, including private banks and wealth platforms, with third party subscriptions starting in November 2025.

Peter Beske Nielsen, Global Head of Private Wealth & Evergreen Solutions at EQT, said: “The launch of EQT Nexus ELTIF Private Equity is an exciting evolution of EQT’s European Private Wealth offering, paving the way for new strategic distribution partnerships and client segments that are meaningfully under-allocated to private markets. Today, many individual investors’ portfolios are concentrated in shares, bonds, and mutual funds with publicly listed companies – even though public markets only account for a fraction of the total investable economy. The ELTIF expands access to private markets for non-professional investors across the EU and EEA, enabling broader diversification beyond traditional public holdings.”

With the launch of EQT Nexus ELTIF Private Equity, EQT’s evergreen platform now includes five evergreen solutions, including private equity, infrastructure and real estate strategies and solutions available to eligible individual investors and institutions in a number of jurisdictions in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security, and may not be used or relied upon in connection with any offer or solicitation. Any offer or solicitation in respect of the Fund will be made only through a confidential private placement memorandum and related documents which will be furnished to qualified investors on a confidential basis in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. The information contained herein is not for publication or distribution to persons in the United States of America. Any securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold without registration thereunder or pursuant to an available exemption therefrom. Any offering of securities to be made in the United States would have to be made by means of an offering document that would be obtainable from the issuer or its agents and would contain detailed information about the issuer of the securities and its management, as well as financial information. The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration.

Contact
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

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Ardian Announces Sale of Hill Top Energy Center to Blackstone

Ardian

Successful outcome demonstrates Ardian’s investment and operational expertise in power generation sector

Ardian, a world-leading private investment firm, today announced a definitive agreement to sell Hill Top Energy Center (“Hill Top” or the “Project”), a state-of-the-art combined cycle gas turbine facility in Western Pennsylvania.

Hill Top, a 620-megawatt natural gas-fired facility, sells energy and capacity to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (“PJM”) transmission organization, the largest competitive power market in the U.S. Ardian, through its Ardian Americas Infrastructure Funds series, acquired a co-control 41.9% stake in Hill Top in July 2019 and purchased the remaining stake in the Project in April 2025.

Over the course of Ardian’s ownership, the firm’s Infrastructure team generated significant value through proactive industrial asset management, including on-time and on-budget construction execution, operational optimization, and capital structure enhancement. Through these initiatives, Ardian has positioned Hill Top as the premier asset in PJM with efficient and reliable power generation facilities.

“Investing at the start of construction, we had the conviction that a new state-of-the-art power plant in PJM with access to cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas was a winner. For more than 20 years, Ardian has invested in clean, efficient power generation in growing markets, and we plan to continue to do so long into the future.” Mathias Burghardt, Executive Vice-President, Head and Founder Infrastructure, Ardian

“Rapid growth in AI workloads and hyperscale data centers are fueling extraordinary power demand and driving our mission to lead the energy transition and meet demand for reliable baseload generation. Ardian’s follow-on investment in Hill Top earlier this year demonstrated the firm strategic vision and anticipation of market trends. Our control position allowed us to opportunistically right size the Project’s capital structure to provide liquidity to our investors.” Kevin Rohde, Director Infrastructure, Ardian

“Hill Top is a prime example of how Ardian continually adds value throughout an assets lifecycle – from funding and actively managing construction to an on-time, on-budget result and working with management to smoothly manage operations to best-in-class availability levels. We look forward to witnessing the continued success of the Project and are confident that Blackstone will be great stewards of this asset into the future.” Mark Voccola, Co-Head of Infrastructure Americas and Senior Managing Director, Ardian

Solomon Partners and Macquarie Capital served as financial advisors to Ardian in connection with the sale of Hill Top Energy Center, and Gibson Dunn served as legal advisor.

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment firm, managing or advising $180bn of assets on behalf of more than 1,850 clients globally. Our broad expertise, spanning Private Equity, Real Assets and Credit, enables us to offer a wide range of investment opportunities and respond flexibly to our clients’ differing needs. Through Ardian Customized Solutions we create bespoke portfolios that allow institutional clients to specify the precise mix of assets they require and to gain access to funds managed by leading third-party sponsors. Private Wealth Solutions offers dedicated services and access solutions for private banks, family offices and private institutional investors worldwide. Ardian’s main shareholding group is its employees and we place great emphasis on developing its people and fostering a collaborative culture based on collective intelligence. Our 1,050+ employees, spread across 19 offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Middle East are strongly committed to the principles of Responsible Investment and are determined to make finance a force for good in society. Our goal is to deliver excellent investment performance combined with high ethical standards and social responsibility.
At Ardian we invest all of ourselves in building companies that last.

ardian.com

Media Contacts

ARDIAN

H/ADVISORS ABERNATHY

ardian@h-advisors.global212-371-5999

Categories: News

Blackstone Announces Agreement to Acquire Hill Top Energy Center in Western Pennsylvania for Nearly $1 Billion

Blackstone

New York, NY – September 15, 2025 – Blackstone (NYSE: BX) announced today that private equity funds affiliated with Blackstone Energy Transition Partners (collectively, “Blackstone Energy Transition Partners”) have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hill Top Energy Center (“Hill Top”), a 620-megawatt natural gas power plant in Western Pennsylvania for nearly $1 billion, from Ardian, a global private investment firm.

This transaction follows Blackstone’s recent July 2025 announcement that it would invest over $25 billion to support the build out of Pennsylvania’s digital and energy infrastructure supporting the AI revolution and help catalyze an additional $60 billion investment into the Commonwealth.

Hill Top is one of the newest and most efficient combined cycle gas turbine plants in the country with among the best-in-class operating performance – situated in an area of the country that is well suited to serve as a strategic hub to power America’s AI future. Completed in 2021 and located in Greene County, Pennsylvania, Hill Top will continue to help support the power needs related to data center development and other use cases in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (“PJM”) electric market.

Bilal Khan, a Senior Managing Director, and Mark Zhu, a Managing Director, at Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, said: “The electricity infrastructure required to power the AI revolution requires a tremendous amount of capital. We are proud to make our latest investment in this sector – which is among our highest conviction investment themes – in Western Pennsylvania. Hill Top is among the best-in-class and a highly efficient modern power generation facility that is exceptionally well positioned to help Pennsylvania and the region serve as a key center of AI innovation.”

“In addition to the historic $25 billion investment they announced at our Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh this summer, I am thrilled to see Blackstone deepening its commitment to Pennsylvania’s energy infrastructure,” said Senator Dave McCormick.

Blackstone is a leader in investing in the infrastructure powering AI – across not just energy but a wide array of areas. Blackstone is the largest data center provider in the world with major investments in both Pennsylvania and globally. Blackstone also recently made an investment in Potomac Energy Center, a 774-megawatt natural gas power plant in Loudoun County, Virginia, and has been in late stage development or construction for approximately 1,600 megawatts of new-build power generation capacity over the last three and a half years in the United States.

Santander and Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis served as a legal advisor to Blackstone Energy Transition Partners on this transaction.

About Blackstone Energy Transition Partners
Blackstone Energy Transition Partners is Blackstone’s energy-focused private equity business, a leading energy investor with a successful long-term record, having committed over $27 billion of equity globally across a broad range of sectors within the energy industry. Our investment philosophy is based on backing exceptional management teams with flexible capital to provide solutions that help energy companies grow and improve performance, thereby delivering cleaner, more reliable and affordable energy to meet the needs of the global community. In the process, we build stronger, larger scale enterprises, create jobs and generate lasting value for our investors, employees and all stakeholders. Further information is available at https://www.blackstone.com/our-businesses/blackstone-energy-transition-partners/.

About Ardian
Ardian is a world-leading private investment firm, managing or advising $180bn of assets on behalf of more than 1,850 clients globally. Our broad expertise, spanning Private Equity, Real Assets and Credit, enables us to offer a wide range of investment opportunities and respond flexibly to our clients’ differing needs. Through Ardian Customized Solutions we create bespoke portfolios that allow institutional clients to specify the precise mix of assets they require and to gain access to funds managed by leading third-party sponsors. Private Wealth Solutions offers dedicated services and access solutions for private banks, family offices and private institutional investors worldwide. Ardian’s main shareholding group is its employees and we place great emphasis on developing its people and fostering a collaborative culture based on collective intelligence. Our 1,050+ employees, spread across 19 offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Middle East are strongly committed to the principles of Responsible Investment and are determined to make finance a force for good in society. Our goal is to deliver excellent investment performance combined with high ethical standards and social responsibility. At Ardian we invest all of ourselves in building companies that last. Ardian.com 

Media Contacts

Blackstone
Jennifer Heath
Jennifer.Heath@Blackstone.com

Ardian
H/Advisors Abernathy
ardian@h-advisors.global

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AmTrust Financial Services and Blackstone Credit & Insurance Enter Into Strategic Transaction for AmTrust’s Global MGA and Fee Businesses

Blackstone

Strategic Transaction Unlocks Value for AmTrust and Positions Global MGA and Fee Businesses for Accelerated Growth

AmTrust President Adam Karkowsky to Leave to Become Chairman and CEO of New Multinational MGA Platform

New York, NY – September 15, 2025 – AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. (“AmTrust” or the “Company”), a global specialty property casualty insurer, and Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”), today announced a definitive agreement under which AmTrust and funds managed by BXCI will partner in the spin-off of certain of AmTrust’s Managing General Agencies (“MGAs”) and fee businesses in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Continental Europe into a new, independent company.

AmTrust and the newly formed company will enter into a ten-year capacity agreement through which AmTrust will remain underwriter of the existing books of business offered through the MGAs.

The agreement includes seven AmTrust subsidiaries: ANV, Risico, Collegiate, AmTrust Nordic, Arc Legal, Qualis, and Abacus. These businesses provide diverse risk and insurance coverages including cyber excess and surplus (E&S), directors and officers (D&O), transaction risk insurance, professional indemnity, legal expense, mortgage and structured credit, warranty, agricultural workers’ compensation, income protection, accident and health (A&H), and residential and commercial niche property. The new company is expected to have over 700 employees.

Adam Karkowsky, who is currently President of AmTrust, will leave to become Chairman and CEO of the new company. He brings deep insurance leadership experience, having first joined AmTrust in March 2011 and becoming President in December 2018. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. since January 2019. Prior to his current role, Karkowsky held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategic Development and Mergers & Acquisitions. He has served in various finance and strategy roles in the private equity and insurance industries.

Karkowsky’s leadership team at the new company will include Joseph Brecher, currently SVP, Head of Alternative Investments at AmTrust, in the role of Chief Financial Officer, and Jacob Decter, currently Chief Strategy Officer, Global Fee Businesses, at AmTrust, in the role of Chief Operating Officer.

The new company will operate under a new brand name, which will be announced at a later date.

Barry Zyskind, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AmTrust, said, “We are very pleased to partner with Blackstone to unlock the substantial embedded value that we have built in our global MGA and fee businesses. With this transaction, these businesses will be positioned to further invest in their operations, meaningfully grow their portfolio, and continue to deliver outstanding service to their clients. With our significant retained equity interest, AmTrust looks forward to participating in the future success of the new company. I am confident in the strength and experience of Adam and the leadership team to drive the new company to great heights.”

Adam Karkowsky, President, AmTrust, said, “Bringing these businesses together as a standalone company creates a diversified, multinational MGA platform with significant value creation potential through organic growth, expanded partnerships, and acquisitions. I deeply appreciate the opportunities I have had at AmTrust and am grateful for what we achieved together. I look forward to working with our talented team in the U.S., UK, and Europe, in the delivery of services for our brokers, partners and clients, with the support of our partners AmTrust and Blackstone.”

“AmTrust has built an impressive franchise and we are excited to support the new standalone MGA platform, which should have significant tailwinds,” said Louis Salvatore, Senior Managing Director, BXCI.  “BXCI has extensive experience investing in and supporting insurance services businesses, helping them achieve their full potential. We look forward to partnering with AmTrust and the new company’s executive team to create long-term value.”

Following the close of the transaction, AmTrust will remain a leading multinational insurance company with approximately 6,000 employees providing risk and insurance solutions with a broad offering across industries and classes globally.

Approvals and Closing Timeline
The transaction has been approved by AmTrust’s Board of Directors.  It is expected to close by year-end 2025, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Advisors
Evercore is serving as financial advisor to AmTrust in connection with the transaction, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is legal counsel. Latham & Watkins LLP is acting as legal advisor to BXCI.
 
About Blackstone Credit & Insurance
Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”) is one of the world’s leading credit investors. Our investments span the credit markets, including private investment grade, asset based lending, public investment grade and high yield, sustainable resources, infrastructure debt, collateralized loan obligations, direct lending and opportunistic credit. We seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for institutional and individual investors by offering companies capital needed to strengthen and grow their businesses. BXCI is also a leading provider of investment management services for insurers, helping those companies better deliver for policyholders through our world-class capabilities in investment grade private credit.

About AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.
AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., a multinational insurance holding company headquartered in New York, offers specialty property and casualty insurance products, including workers’ compensation, business owner’s policy (BOP), general liability and extended service and warranty coverage. For more information about AmTrust, visit http://www.amtrustfinancial.com.

Contact
Blackstone
David Vitek
David.Vitek@blackstone.com
(212) 583-5291

AmTrust Financial Services
Mairi Mallon
mairi.mallon@rein4ce.co.uk
+44 (0)7843 076533

Cathy Loos
amtrust@ketchum.com
(212) 729-3753

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Simon AI Launches Agentic Marketing Platform to Unlock Data for Contextual Personalization

.406 Ventures

Simon AI acts as a marketer’s data and execution team, uncovering hidden signals, activating real-world context, and accelerating high-performing launches that elevate customer experiences

 

NEW YORK — Sept. 15, 2025 — Simon AI, formerly known as Simon Data, today announced the launch of the Simon AI™ Agentic Marketing Platform, to enable marketing teams at fast-growing and enterprise brands to break free from the limitations and trade-offs that hold back high-performing personalization. With Simon AI, marketers set business goals, then purpose-built agents turn live customer and contextual data into adaptive campaigns that deliver higher conversion, increase customer lifetime value, and drive measurable growth.

Personalization previously took weeks to months to execute. Now, Simon AI Agents identify signals and patterns, prepare data for execution, and automate high-volume micro-segmentation into engagement channels. As a result, marketing is now fast and nimble enough to activate customer moments, elevating both scale and performance.

“Agentic AI is changing how marketing gets done, representing the biggest shift since the move to SaaS and cloud computing,” said Jason Davis, co-founder and CEO of Simon AI. “Until now, marketers have faced a painful trade-off — launch more campaigns and watch performance drop, or push for deeper personalization and lose volume. With Simon AI, that trade-off ends.

“Agentic Marketing is a new model where embedded agents operate across the most complex workflows on an AI-first, composable CDP, accessing all customer and contextual data live in the data cloud. Simon AI Agents can reason over that data, enrich it, and execute at a scale that was previously impossible. Now, marketing teams can finally overcome the data and execution complexity that has held personalization back.”

Solving Data and Execution Complexity for Marketers

For most brands, personalization is still constrained by four challenges:

  • Data access: Marketers can’t get the right signals in time to act.
  • Execution bottlenecks: Campaigns take weeks to launch, making “real-time” and “continuous” impossible.
  • The missing context: First-party data leaves out signals like weather, inventory, and trends that drive customer decisions.
  • AI acceleration: Teams use surface-level AI tools for content generation and predictive analysis, yet struggle to apply AI to the most complex marketing problems that are blockers to insight and execution.

Together, these challenges prevent marketing teams from achieving true personalization — and they define why a new way of marketing and a new solution are needed.

The Simon AI Agentic Marketing Platform

Simon AI combines a goal-based workflow, agents that deliver insights and automate execution, and an AI-first composable CDP powered by best-in-class integrations. With unified customer and contextual data in a brand’s existing cloud data environment, real-world signals define audiences and trigger messaging, adaptive campaigns launch faster, and personalization executes with governance and control.

Simon AI Personalization Studio

The workspace where marketers turn strategy into performance. The Personalization Studio starts with goals, not static segments, and gives teams a guided environment to connect data to campaigns that adapt automatically to live signals. With it, marketers can:

  • Define business goals in plain language and turn them into data-driven campaigns.
  • Use Blueprints—reusable playbooks that translate goals into strategies and execution plans—to guide agents and launch thousands of micro-campaigns.
  • Continuously evolve campaigns with AI Fields and AI Moments. AI Fields create new attributes about customers or products, such as a “Cold-weather readiness score” or “Price sensitivity”. AI Moments detect and operationalize real-world triggers, such as a weather swing, social trend, or inventory change, that signal when to act.
  • Automate execution across every channel—engagement platforms, owned channels, and paid media—with campaigns that stay aligned to outcomes.

Simon AI Agents

The marketer’s data and execution team that builds personalization based on insights and customer moments. Agents handle the complexity of surfacing signals, preparing data, and activating campaigns so that marketers can focus on strategy, creative, and customers. With Simon AI Agents, marketers can:

  • Detect hidden signals such as churn risk, demand spikes, inventory changes, weather, and social trends.
  • Transform messy customer and contextual data into campaign-ready attributes.
  • Orchestrate workflows and activation across platforms like Braze, Attentive, Iterable, and more.

Simon AI Composable CDP

The data foundation and semantic layer that makes AI work. Running natively in your cloud, the composable CDP makes customer and contextual data actionable, enables high-volume personalization, and enriches the enterprise source of truth. With the AI-first CDP, marketing teams can:

  • Explore and activate all customer, business, and contextual signals.
  • Run personalization directly on live data with zero ETL pipelines.
  • Enrich data and write back new fields, segments, and results into the data cloud for enterprise use.
  • Maintain enterprise-grade governance and control inside the data warehouse.

What It Means for Customers

With Simon AI, brands accelerate differentiation and growth by launching campaigns frequently, acting on more signals, and scaling personalization without trade-offs. Early adopters have reported:

  • Rapid execution of contextually relevant campaigns.
  • Higher conversion rates driven by contextual signals and adaptive personalization.
  • Material revenue growth, powered by more campaigns in market at a greater speed.

The New Model: Agentic Marketing

AI is reshaping how brands engage customers. To compete, marketers must act on 100x more signals, make 100x more decisions, and run thousands of micro-campaigns. Simon AI introduces Agentic Marketing — a new model that removes bottlenecks, unlocks insights, and gives marketers direct control of fast, precise personalization:

  • AI-Powered Execution: Agents handle insights, data preparation, and orchestration as part of the marketing team. Campaigns adapt quickly to live customer and contextual data, scaling personalization without overhead.
  • Contextual Personalization with Real-World Signals: Marketers see customers in full context, connecting profiles and behavior to signals like inventory, weather, and trends. Marketing moves past assumptions and acts on what matters now.
  • Marketer-First, Goal-Based Workflows: Instead of starting with static segments, marketers define business goals. Agents turn those goals into personalized campaigns that launch faster and continuously optimize as new signals emerge.

Alongside the launch of the Simon AI Agentic Marketing Platform, the company has rebranded from Simon Data to Simon AI, reflecting its evolution into an AI-first company. The new name underscores the central role of agentic AI in enabling personalization and highlights the value of connecting data to execution through AI.

Visit simon.ai to learn more and connect with our team to see how Simon AI works.

About Simon AI

Simon AI empowers marketing teams with the data, tools, and support needed to deliver personalized experiences for each customer across every touchpoint. The platform combines an AI-first, composable customer data platform with AI agents, enabling marketers to start with a goal while agents analyze signals, create attributes, identify triggers, and orchestrate campaigns that continuously adapt to meet that goal. By uncovering hidden signals, activating 100x more customer and contextual data, and automating execution across engagement channels, Simon AI allows even small teams to perform like much larger ones. Leading brands such as ASOS, SeatGeek, and others rely on Simon to turn complex data into faster launches, personalized experiences at scale, and revenue-driving performance. Visit simon.ai to learn more.

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GreenLite Raises $49.5M Series B to Advance the Privatization of Construction Permitting with AI-Powered Solutions

Insight Venture

Walgreens, O’Reilly Auto Parts, and TD Bank are among the Fortune 500 companies using GreenLite’s AI-driven Private Plan Review for permitting efficiency

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — GreenLite, the construction technology company accelerating permit timelines by 75% through AI-powered plan review and compliance solutions, today announced a Series B funding round of $49.5M, led by global software investor Insight Partners with participation from Energize Capital, as well as existing investors Craft Ventures, LiveOak Ventures, and Chicago Ventures. GreenLite will utilize the new capital to expand its go-to-market efforts and enter new verticals, including lodging, industrial and logistics, clean energy infrastructure, and residential development, while further advancing its AI-powered technology platform.

As demand for construction surges, jurisdictions and building departments face unprecedented challenges, including labor shortages, limited adoption of technology, and rising backlogs.

This strain is renewing focus on technologies and policies for permitting solutions, including Private Plan Review (PPR), where qualified third-party experts conduct official code compliance reviews instead of the city. Nearly a quarter of U.S. states have advanced legislation for PPR in the past three years, aiming to reduce delays and streamline development. Today, GreenLite is the only Private Provider combining regulatory expertise with AI to deliver PPR at a national scale.

“The permitting backlog is holding back America’s ability to build at the scale and speed we need,” said James Gallagher, Co-Founder and CEO of GreenLite. “By combining a growing database of proprietary compliance comments with advanced automation, we’re catching violations faster and providing builders, developers, and jurisdictions with the predictability and transparency they need to move projects forward, dramatically transforming the plan review and construction code compliance process.”

GreenLite’s AI-powered digital plan review tool, LiteTable, rapidly ingests plan sets, identifies compliance flags and code requirements, and surfaces relevant guidance from GreenLite’s extensive comment library based on compliance patterns within specific jurisdictions. Today, GreenLite is trusted by nearly a hundred Fortune 500 customers, including retailers, REITs, quick service restaurants, industrial owner-developers, and production home builders to advance permitting nationwide. The company is expanding into lodging, logistics, multifamily, and additional verticals this year.

“GreenLite’s full-stack Private Plan Review approach delivers building permits in days, not months, and is driving growth in America’s local communities and economies,” said Jeff Horing, Co-founder and Managing Director at Insight Partners. “We’re thrilled to back GreenLite as it continues to partner with the commercial sector and local governments to power the future of construction permitting.”

GreenLite was founded in 2022 by James Gallagher and Ben Allen, former Gopuff executives. The company has 50 full-time employees today, and is actively hiring across engineering, product, sales, marketing, operations, and executive roles.

To learn more about GreenLite’s AI-powered permitting and private plan review capabilities, please visit: https://greenlite.com/.

About GreenLite:
GreenLite is transforming how America builds by streamlining the permitting process for developers, builders, and local governments. GreenLite pioneered AI-powered Private Plan Review (PPR), where third-party experts, supported by proprietary software, conduct official code compliance reviews instead of cities.

Its technology accelerates approvals by scanning plan sets, identifying code violations, and surfacing jurisdiction-specific guidance from a large and growing proprietary database of compliance comments. With a team of in-house architects, engineers, and plan examiners, GreenLite helps customers reduce revisions, avoid delays, and cut weeks or months off their permitting timelines.

Trusted by nearly 100 national brands, GreenLite is reshaping the future of permitting across industries from retail and banking to logistics, lodging, and multifamily development. Learn more at https://www.greenlite.com.

About Insight Partners:
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 875 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

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EQT completes public offering of common stock of Waystar Holding Corp.

eqt
  • The offering resulted in aggregate proceeds of c. USD $705.8 million, of which EQT received c. USD 304.5 million

An affiliate of the fund known as EQT VIII (“EQT”) is pleased to announce the completion of an underwritten public offering (the “Offering”) of c. 18.0 million shares of common stock of Waystar Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WAY) (the “Company”) (“Shares”), for aggregate proceeds of c. USD 705.8 million to all the selling stockholders.  As part of the Offering, EQT sold c. 7.8 million Shares (and now holds c. 24.9 million Shares) and received proceeds of c. USD 304.5 million. The remaining Shares sold in the Offering were sold by other stockholders of the Company. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as underwriter of the Offering, which was completed on September 12, 2025.  The Company did not sell any Shares in the Offering and did not receive any proceeds from the sale of the Shares sold by EQT and the other stockholders.

Contact

EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

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About EQT

EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 266 billion in total assets under management (EUR 141 billion in fee-generating assets under management) as of 30 June 2025, within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com

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About Waystar

Waystar’s mission-critical software is purpose-built to simplify healthcare payments so providers can prioritize patient care and optimize their financial performance. Waystar serves approximately 30,000 clients, representing over 1 million distinct providers, including 16 of 20 institutions on the U.S. News Best Hospitals list. Waystar’s enterprise-grade platform annually processes over 6 billion healthcare payment transactions, including over $1.8 trillion in annual gross claims and spanning approximately 50% of U.S. patients. Waystar strives to transform healthcare payments so providers can focus on what matters most: their patients and communities.

Categories: News

Thoma Bravo Completes Acquisition of Olo

Thomas Bravo

NEW YORK—Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Olo Inc. (“Olo” or the “Company”), a leading open SaaS platform for restaurants, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.0 billion in equity value. The agreement to acquire Olo was approved by Olo stockholders at the Special Meeting of Stockholders held on September 9, 2025.

With the completion of the transaction, Olo stockholders are entitled to receive $10.25 per share in cash for each share of Olo common stock they owned. The Company’s common stock has ceased trading and will be delisted from NYSE.

“Olo has grown from a pioneer in digital ordering into a world-class platform that helps restaurants engage guests and drive profitable growth,” said Noah Glass, Olo’s Founder and CEO. “We are excited to continue our ambitious journey with Thoma Bravo. Together, we will take Olo’s mission further by scaling faster and innovating deeper, while continuing to deliver industry-leading reliability and exceptional experiences for restaurants and their guests.”

“Olo has built a powerful platform and strong relationships with some of the world’s most iconic and admired restaurants brands,” said Hudson Smith, a Partner at Thoma Bravo. “We are excited to support Noah and his team’s vision for the future of Olo and the restaurant technology space. We see enormous potential ahead for them to scale their business, expand their capabilities, and deepen their impact on how restaurants operate and connect with their guests.”

Advisors

Goldman Sachs served as the exclusive financial advisor and Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal counsel to Olo. Morgan Stanley served as the financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Thoma Bravo.

About Olo

Olo is a leading restaurant technology provider with ordering, payment, and guest engagement solutions that help brands increase orders, streamline operations, and improve the guest experience. Each day, Olo processes millions of orders on its open SaaS platform, gathering the right data from each touchpoint into a single source—so restaurants can better understand and better serve every guest on every channel, every time. Over 750 restaurant brands trust Olo and its network of more than 400 integration partners to innovate on behalf of the restaurant community, accelerating technology’s positive impact and creating a world where every restaurant guest feels like a regular. Learn more at olo.com.

About Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo is one of the largest software-focused investors in the world, with over US$181 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2025. Through its private equity, growth equity and credit strategies, the firm invests in growth-oriented, innovative companies operating in the software and technology sectors. Leveraging Thoma Bravo’s deep sector knowledge and strategic and operational expertise, the firm collaborates with its portfolio companies to implement operating best practices and drive growth initiatives. Over the past 20+ years, the firm has acquired or invested in approximately 555 companies representing approximately US$285 billion in enterprise value (including control and non-control investments). The firm has offices in Chicago, Dallas, London, Miami, New York and San Francisco. For more information, visit Thoma Bravo’s website at thomabravo.com.

Read the release on PR Newswire here.

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KKR agrees to acquire NewDay’s consumer credit portfolio from Cinven and CVC

CVC Capital Partners

Cinven and CVC have agreed to sell NewDay’s portfolio of consumer credit receivables to private credit funds and accounts managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm.

The transaction effectively separates NewDay’s credit balance sheet from NewDay’s origination and servicing business (“NewDay Operating Group”). KKR will enter into a multi-year forward flow agreement with the NewDay Operating Group in respect of its future origination. The underlying portfolios of consumer credit receivables originated by NewDay (the “Portfolios”) will continue to be operated and serviced as they are today by the NewDay Operating Group. Cinven and CVC will remain invested in the NewDay Operating Group, with KKR also investing in it as part of the transaction.

This highly innovative transaction brings together NewDay’s proven origination and servicing capabilities with KKR’s proven expertise in asset-based finance. The combination is expected to enhance NewDay’s ability to scale, broaden its reach, and continue delivering market-leading innovative credit and technology solutions to UK consumer and merchant partners.

The Portfolios will continue to be funded via NewDay’s existing securitisation structures. The NewDay Operating Group will continue to service its customers as it does today and remains committed to delivering exceptional customer outcomes across the Portfolios.

NewDay is a highly profitable and cash-generative business and has demonstrated consistently strong growth. In its half year results for the six months to 30 June 2025 NewDay reported a 30% increase in underlying profit before tax, at £107 million, and a 21% increase in gross receivables, at £5.2 billion. In February 2025, NewDay acquired economic ownership of the Argos Financial Services store card portfolio, with £834 million of gross receivables and 2.2 million customers, which will be included in this transaction. NewDay’s existing retail customers and merchant and technology partners will not see any changes as a result of the transaction.

Completion is anticipated to occur at the end of September 2025 subject to customary closing conditions.

John Hourican, CEO of NewDay, commented: “We are pleased to welcome KKR as a new shareholder and strategic partner. This transaction is a strong endorsement of NewDay’s platform, people, and performance, and reflects KKR’s confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable growth.

We also want to thank our shareholders Cinven and CVC, who have been exceptional partners since their investment in the business in 2017. Together we have built NewDay into a leading provider of consumer finance across multiple brands in the UK, serving c. 5.9 million customers.”

Quotes

NewDay has become the UK’s leading provider of digital embedded finance and credit card solutions, forged key partnerships with top British retailers and developed cutting-edge, next-generation proprietary technology.

Peter RutlandManaging Partner at CVC

Peter Rutland, Managing Partner at CVC, said: “We are pleased to have partnered with NewDay, supporting the company’s impressive growth journey. During this time, NewDay has become the UK’s leading provider of digital embedded finance and credit card solutions, forged key partnerships with top British retailers and developed cutting-edge, next-generation proprietary technology.”

Rebecca Hunter, Senior Principal at Cinven, said: “Together with the management team, we identified an important yet underserved area of the market where NewDay had leading underwriting expertise. Throughout our ownership, NewDay has continued to pioneer innovation in credit, whilst also demonstrating a resilient track record. We are proud to have played a role in NewDay’s success and are confident in the continued growth trajectory of the business.”

Varun Khanna, Partner and Co-Head of Asset-Based Finance at KKR, added: “We are pleased to enter into this strategic partnership with NewDay to support their continued growth and innovation in the UK consumer credit market. We also look forward to collaborating with Cinven and CVC, whose backing has helped establish NewDay as a leading provider of consumer finance. Through our Asset-Based Finance strategy, KKR is well-positioned to support NewDay’s expanding multi-brand platform as they deliver responsible credit solutions to millions of UK consumers.”

KKR’s investment comes from KKR-managed credit funds and accounts via the firm’s Asset-Based Finance strategy.

Barclays Bank PLC served as financial advisor and Clifford Chance LLP served as legal advisor to NewDay. Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc served as lead financial advisor and structuring agent, Societe Generale, London Branch served as lead structuring advisor and provided financial advice, KKR Capital Markets LLC served as arranger, and Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal advisor to KKR.

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