Tag Archives: Information technology

IK invests in Infradata

ik-investment-partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”), a leading Pan-European private equity firm, is pleased to announce that the IK VIII Fund has acquired a majority stake in Infradata Group (“Infradata”) from Waterland Private Equity Fund V (“Waterland”). Infradata is a leading provider of cybersecurity and secure networking solutions across Europe. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Infradata was founded in the Netherlands in 2004, where it continues to be headquartered. The company has an additional presence in Germany, UK, France (Nomios), Belgium, Poland and the US, with ambitious expansion plans. The company provides cybersecurity and secure networking solutions, from design and delivery to aftermarket support and managed services. Infradata supports many large blue-chip clients with high security and data requirements across the industrial, advanced manufacturing, financial, telecommunications and e-commerce sectors.

Infradata

As part of the transaction, Infradata’s founder and CEO, Leon de Keijzer will transition to the Board of Directors. Nino Tomovski, currently International Vice President, will be appointed CEO of Infradata as of 1 January 2019.

Leon de Keijzer, Founder of Infradata commented: “I have been proud to lead Infradata since its inception and during its period of transformation from a local player in the Netherlands to a European sector leader. Given IK’s understanding of our sector paired with their extensive history of building and growing European businesses, we are very happy with them as a new shareholder.”

Nino Tomovski, incoming CEO of Infradata said: “I am very pleased to take on the role of CEO and work together with IK to build the largest and most trusted cyber security player in Europe.”

Wouter Roduner, Partner at Waterland commented: “We’re very proud to have supported Infradata in the second phase of its European expansion from 3 to 7 countries, having more than tripled the company in size as a result. We wish Nino, Leon, IK, and the broader Infradata team the best of luck in continuing this successful growth trajectory.”

Norman Bremer, Partner at IK Investment Partners said: “Our decision to back Infradata was driven by two prominent megatrends, namely the increase of cybersecurity threats in recent years, and rising data consumption. We are excited to be backing a management team with a fantastic track record and a highly innovative service offering. We are especially impressed with the company’s multi-country footprint and its outstanding people. We look forward to helping expand Infradata’s capabilities both through organic and acquisitive growth opportunities and building it into a truly European leader.”

For further questions, please contact:

Infradata
Richard Landman
Phone: +31 71 750 1525
Richard.landman@infradata.com

IK Investment Partners
Mikaela Murekian
Director Communications & ESG
Phone: +44 77 87 573 566
mikaela.murekian@ikinvest.com

About Infradata
Founded by Leon de Keijzer in 2004, Infradata is a leading pan-European provider of secure networking and cybersecurity solutions. The company is headquartered in Leiden, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.infradata.com.

About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €9.5 billion of capital and invested in over 116 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

About Waterland Private Equity
Waterland is an independent private equity investment group that acts as an active shareholder in its portfolio companies, playing a key role in their strategic and operational development, growth and performance. Waterland has offices in Belgium (Antwerp), the Netherlands (Bussum), UK (Manchester), Germany (Munich and Hamburg), Denmark (Copenhagen), Switzerland (Zürich) and Poland (Warsaw) and currently manages €6 billion of investor commitments. To date, Waterland has made investments in over 470 companies.

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Carlyle Makes Strategic Investment in iCapital Network

Carlyle

Underscores value of market-leading technology in providing advisor access to alternative investments

NEW YORK — iCapital Network, the financial technology platform democratizing alternative investments, today announced that The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) has invested in the company as a strategic partner.

The firm joins BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX), BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK), Credit Suisse Group AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co(NYSE: JPM), Morgan Stanley Investment Management (NYSE: MS), and UBS Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: UBS) as a strategic partner and investor, further expanding the consortium of industry leaders aligned with iCapital’s development of an industry standard technology solution for alternative investments.

iCapital’s modular technology and service platform is purpose-built to provide an end-to-end solution that is fully configurable, highly scalable, and able to support the unique subscription, administration, and reporting processes for private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and other alternative investments. It is designed to overcome many of the long-standing challenges of investing in alternatives by using technology to streamline access, ease operational burdens, and improve the user experience, enabling iCapital’s partners to provide the highest level of service to their clients.

In addition to the investment, The Carlyle Group has also partnered with iCapital to leverage its proprietary technology to help manage Carlyle’s operations and administration of its private equity vehicles targeting the wealth management marketplace.

“We are fortunate to have The Carlyle Group as a strategic partner at both the financial and commercial level supporting our efforts to advance industry standards for accessing alternative investments,” said Lawrence Calcano, Chief Executive Officer of iCapital Network. “It’s an exciting time to be involved in the alternative investment industry and this announcement underscores the confidence placed in iCapital, and in our ability to achieve our goal of streamlining access to alternatives and automating the industry overall.”

“Carlyle has developed a strong relationship with the team at iCapital as they’ve rapidly grown from a fintech startup to an established leader working with some of the most respected participants in alternatives,” said Norma Kuntz, Managing Director and the Global Head of Fund Management at The Carlyle Group. “Using technology to improve operational processes and infrastructure, iCapital’s platform is a potential game-changer for the industry.”

Paul Ferraro, Managing Director and Head of Carlyle’s Private Client group, added, “We have seen firsthand how iCapital’s technology facilitates access to alternative investments for high net worth clients and eases fund administration for GPs. Their technology has become the standard in the marketplace. We look forward to enhancing our relationship with iCapital and working together to help shape the future of this important channel.”

Carlyle’s investment came from its balance sheet.

* * * * *

About iCapital Network

iCapital Network is the financial technology platform democratizing alternative investments with complete tech-based solutions for investors, advisors and asset managers. The firm’s flagship platform offers high-net-worth investors and independent wealth advisors a curated menu of private equity and hedge funds at lower minimums with a full suite of due diligence and administrative support in a secure digital environment. Banks and asset managers leverage iCapital’s tech-enabled services to streamline and scale their private investments operational infrastructure. iCapital was included in the 2018 Forbes FinTech 50 and as of June 30, 2018, serviced more than $6 billion in invested capital across more than 14,000 underlying accounts.

For additional information, please visit the Company’s website at www.icapitalnetwork.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icapital-network-inc | Twitter: @icapitalnetwork | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/icapitalnetwork/

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $212 billion of assets under management across 339 investment vehicles as of September 30, 2018. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,625 people in 31 offices across six continents.

Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: www.youtube.com/onecarlyle
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary

Disclosures: This material is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice, a recommendation, or as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to purchase or a recommendation of any interest in any fund or security offered by iCapital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Alternative investments are complex, speculative investment vehicles and are not suitable for all investors. An investment in an alternative investment entails a high degree of risk and no assurance can be given that any alternative investment fund’s investment objectives will be achieved or that investors will receive a return of their capital. The information contained herein is subject to change. Securities may be offered through iCapital Securities, LLC, a registered broker dealer, member of FINRA and SIPC and subsidiary of Institutional Capital Network, Inc. iCapital is a registered trademark of Institutional Capital Network, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contacts

For iCapital Network media inquiries, please contact:
Emma Murphy
Tel 718-875-4545
Cell 347-968-6800
icapital@neibartgroup.com

or

Morgan Cretella
Tel 718-875-7606
Cell 919-602-2806
icapital@neibartgroup.com

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THOUGHT MACHINE announces strategic partnership with LLOYDS BANKING GROUP

IQ Capital

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP (LLOYDS) HAS TODAY ANNOUNCED A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH THOUGHT MACHINE, AN INNOVATIVE FINTECH COMPANY, TO ACCELERATE THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE BANK’S BUSINESS.

Thought Machine has been developing innovative banking technology with the potential to bring significant improvements to the Group’s customers. This partnership is in line with Lloyds’ Strategic Review, announced earlier this year, and is consistent with its ongoing drive to enhance the customer experience, become more agile, and build on its market-leading efficiency.

Thought Machine is a UK-based growth stage technology company whose core product, Vault, is a cloud-native next generation banking platform. Over the past three years, the Thought Machine team has written Vault using the latest software engineering techniques to help simplify the technical and operational complexity of banking, whilst maintaining the advantages of security and reliability.

Since 2017, Lloyds has completed extensive testing and proofs of concept, and continues to work with Thought Machine to develop the capabilities of Vault. The new technology can provide customers with more tailored products, as well as enable faster development cycles and further digital banking improvements. Lloyds will enter into a development and deployment phase in 2019.

In conjunction with this partnership, Lloyds has made an £11 million investment in Thought Machine, representing a 10 per cent stake, as part of its ‘Series A’ £18 million investment round. Lloyds will continue to look at further investment opportunities to help accelerate the delivery of the ambitious transformation programme.

Read the full article originally published on lloydsbankinggroup.com her

 

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GP Bullhound invests in leading SaaS enabled B2B platform Partnerize

Gp Bullhound

GP Bullhound announces its investment in Partnerize, the leading provider of partner marketing software for global brands, in a $9MM round
The proceeds will be used for additional sales and marketing expansion and support further growth and development of a global partner ecosystem centred on the company’s SaaS partner management platform.

Partnerize joins existing GP Bullhound portfolio companies, including Slack, Spotify, Unity and Tradeshift, on the list of fast-growing, global businesses.

“GP Bullhound has been a great advocate for us over the years and they share our belief in the potential for partnerships at global scale,” said Mal Cowley, Partnerize Co-founder and CEO. “This additional funding enables us to invest aggressively in our platform, further expanding our technological lead, as we make partnerships a central component of every marketer’s strategy. It also enables us to invest in acquiring new customers, which in turn adds new partner relationships.”

Hugh Campbell, Managing Partner of GP Bullhound said: “We are excited to back Partnerize in its next stage of growth. Having known Mal and the team for many years, we have seen the business going from strength to strength. The company was able to build a strong and sustainable competitive advantage on the back of a long list of blue-chip customers, who have successfully on-boarded their partners onto the platform and are now in direct control of their own marketing campaigns”.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact Alon Kuperman, Director at GP Bullhound, at alon.kuperman@gpbullhound.com

About Partnerize
Partnerize helps the world’s leading brands build powerful business partnerships that drive extraordinary business growth. The Partnerize Partner Management Platform (PMP) is an end-to-end, SaaS-based solution for forming, managing, analyzing, and predicting the future results of partner marketing programs using artificial intelligence. Hundreds of the world’s largest brands leverage our real-time technology to manage more than $7B in partner programs and financial exchanges across 214 countries and territories worldwide. Partnerize is the trading name of the Performance Horizon group of companies. Founded in 2010, Partnerize has expanded to eight offices worldwide, with over 200 employees. The firm has built an ecosystem of more than 325,000 companies worldwide, including more than 300 leading global brands. To learn more about Partnerize and partner marketing, visit partnerize.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm today has offices in London, San Francisco, Stockholm, Berlin, Manchester, Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid and New York. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com, or follow on Twitter @GPBullhound.

 

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ConvergeOne agrees to be acquired by CVC Fund VII for $1.8 billion

Company expects all-cash transaction to close fourth quarter 2018 or first quarter 2019

ConvergeOne Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CVON, “ConvergeOne” or the “Company”), a leading global IT and managed services provider of collaboration and technology solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by affiliates of CVC Fund VII (“CVC”) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.8 billion. Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, ConvergeOne expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of 2018 or the first quarter of 2019. ConvergeOne will maintain its corporate headquarters in Eagan, MN and continue to be led by its current executive team.

Pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement, affiliates of CVC will commence a tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of the Company in an all-cash transaction valued at $12.50 per share of common stock of the Company, representing a 35% premium to the thirty-day VWAP prior to October 25, 2018 and representing over a 56% premium to the closing price on ConvergeOne’s debut date on the Nasdaq on February 23, 2018. ConvergeOne’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the agreement and believes the transaction maximises shareholder value. Following the execution of the merger agreement, affiliates of Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (collectively, “Clearlake”), the majority shareholder and private equity sponsor of ConvergeOne along with the directors and officers of the Company, together holding approximately 68 percent of the outstanding shares of common stock of the Company, have agreed to tender their shares in the offer pursuant to a tender and support agreement.

John A. McKenna Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ConvergeOne commented, “Today’s announcement is a tremendous accomplishment for ConvergeOne and highlights the continued success of the Company. We are extremely proud of the ConvergeOne team, and we truly appreciate our phenomenal partnership with Clearlake and our other shareholders that has resulted in significant value creation. Our team is thrilled to partner with CVC to execute on the compelling growth opportunities in the rapidly evolving collaboration and technology services market.”

Behdad Eghbali, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Clearlake, added, “The success we have achieved working alongside ConvergeOne’s team since our initial investment in June 2014 is a perfect example of our operational approach, O.P.S.®, in action, as well as our buy-and-build strategy. Together with management, we transformed the Company into a world-class managed services franchise, achieving approximately 400% EBITDA growth through the period of our ownership since 2014, completing a public listing, and ultimately maximising shareholder value through this transaction. We are proud to have partnered with John and his team and look forward to watching the Company’s continued growth in the future.”

Chris Colpitts, Senior Managing Director of CVC, said, “We are very impressed by the momentum of ConvergeOne and share their excitement for the Company’s growth potential. ConvergeOne has a significant opportunity to capitalise on the cloud adoption and digital transformation tailwinds of its enterprise customers. Using our industry expertise and global network, we look forward to supporting ConvergeOne’s continued growth, both organically and through its proven M&A program.”

Raymond James & Associates and William Blair acted as financial advisors to ConvergeOne in connection with the transaction. Raymond James & Associates, William Blair, and Jefferies LLC provided fairness opinions to ConvergeOne’s Board of Directors. Cooley LLP served as legal counsel to ConvergeOne. Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank acted as financial advisors to CVC, and White & Case LLP served as CVC’s legal counsel in connection with the transaction.

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ARDIAN acquires a majority stake in TRUSTTEAM from Naxicap

Ardian

Paris, November 5 2018. Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, today announces the acquisition from Naxicap of a majority stake in Trustteam, an integrated one-stop-shop ICT (Information & Communication Technology) provider for SMEs based in Courtrai, Belgium.

Founded in 2002 by its current CEO, Stijn Vandeputte, Trustteam offers a broad range of IT outsourcing solutions for SMEs, which includes infrastructure, datacenters, cybersecurity, communications, software and maintenance services. The Company, which has a wide customer base of around 1,500 clients, supports SMEs which have limited internal IT capabilities by acting as a trustworthy and reliable partner to run their IT systems. Thanks to the high efficiency of its operational staff, Trustteam has built a strong reputation for delivering high-quality services and has developed long-lasting relationships with its clients.

The Company has established a strong track record of growth and profitability since its creation, expanding through a combination of both organic and external growth with eight acquisitions completed over the past 10 years to extend its product portfolio and client base. Alongside Ardian, the Company aims to actively pursue and strengthen its Buy-and-build strategy, notably in cross-border countries such as France.

Stijn Vandeputte, CEO & Founder of Trustteam said: “Ever since our creation, Trustteam has been focusing on delivering exceptional client service, which has enabled us to have a robust growth. After the great journey with Naxicap, we are now very excited to continue our successful growth path together with Ardian. Ardian has a proven track record of developing companies and can support our further expansion both in Benelux and in France, notably through acquisitions.”

Arnaud Dufer, Head of Ardian Expansion France, added: “We have been impressed by Trustteam’s track record  and ambition to consolidate the business both in Belgium and in France. Indeed, Trustteam operates in a highly fragmented market which presents a number of build-up opportunities. The transaction fits perfectly with the investment strategy of Ardian Expansion which has a strong expertise in the implementation of ambitious Buy-and-Build strategies.”

Axel Bernia, Board Member of Naxicap Partners said: “It is with pride that we have supported Trustteam’s management in accelerating the company growth during the last four years. Trustteam has developed a high quality and efficient set of services that we helped to extend through acquisitions, and that we believe constitutes a robust platform for future growth. The company has reported a substantial revenue increase over the period, thereby consolidating its position as leader in the SME-oriented ICT sector. The arrival of a recognized shareholder such as Ardian demonstrates the quality of the project.”

ABOUT TRUSTTEAM

Trustteam is an all-round IT partner for SMEs, focusing on cloud solutions, hardware and networks, software, VoIP telephony and support.
Trustteam has two in-house managed data centres which are also ISO 27 001 certified. This means that Trustteam meets the most stringent information security requirements. The organization has been in operation since 2002, with offices in Belgium (Kortrijk and Heusden-Zolder), France (Paris) and Romania (Iași). With 120 employees and around 1,500 customers, Trustteam is a major player in the Belgian IT market.

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$72bn 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 530 employees working from fourteen 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). It manages funds on behalf of more than 750 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.
Ardian on Twitter @Ardian
www.ardian.com

ABOUT NAXICAP PARTNERS

One of France’s leading private equity companies, Naxicap Partners – an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers* – totals 3.2 billion euros of capital under management. As a committed and responsible investor, Naxicap Partners builds solid and constructive partnerships with entrepreneurs for the success of their projects. The company has 35 investment professionals and 5 offices in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes and Frankfurt.
For more information visit: www.naxicap.fr

*ABOUT NATIXIS INVESTMENT MANAGERS

Natixis Investment Managers serves financial professionals with more insightful ways to construct portfolios. Powered by the expertise of 27 specialized investment managers globally, we apply Active ThinkingSM to deliver proactive solutions that help clients pursue better outcomes in all markets. Natixis ranks among the world’s largest asset management firms ($988.4B / €846.5 billion AUM).
Headquartered in Paris and Boston, Natixis Investment Managers is a subsidiary of Natixis. Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Natixis is a subsidiary of BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. For additional information, please visit the company’s website at im.natixis.com.
Natixis Investment Managers includes all of the investment management and distribution entities affiliated with Natixis Distribution, L.P. and Natixis Investment Managers S.A.
Natixis Distribution, L.P. is a limited purpose broker-dealer and the distributor of various registered investment companies for which advisory services are provided by affiliates of Natixis Investment Managers.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

ARDIAN

Ardian Expansion: Arnaud Dufer, Maxime Séquier, Arthur de Salins, Romain Gautron, Claire d’Esquerre
Legal advisor: Laurius (David Ryckaert, Arnaud Vanitterbeek, Koen Van Cauter)
Commercial Due Diligence: Ernst & Young Parthenon (Etienne Costes, Hugo Den Breejen)
Financial, Tax, Social, IT Due Diligences and tax memo: Ernst & Young (Marc Guns, Roelant Bibbe, Cédric Van Damme, Nick Van Gils, Tim Cypers)
Insurance Due Diligence: Marsh (Jean-Marie Dargaignaratz, Denis Van Der Elst)

NAXICAP PARTNERS

Naxicap Partners: Axel Bernia, Zeineb Slimane, Gwendoline Lafarge
M&A advisor: Kumulus Partners (Henk Vivile, Bart Collier)
Legal Advisor: Stibbe (Dries Hommez)
Financial, Tax, Social and ESG Due Diligences: Deloitte (Philippe Serzec, Anthony Vinckier, Stijn Dingenen)

FINANCING

KBC (Jan Serneels)
ING (Karen De Vits)
Banks’ Legal Advisor: Jones Day (Laurent Vercauteren)
Trustteam’s Legal Advisor: Simont Braun (Vanessa Marquette)

PRESS CONTACTS

ARDIAN
Headland
Harriet Smith
Tel: +44 20 3435 7466
hsmith@headlandconsultancy.com
Naxicap Partners
Valérie Sammut
Tel: +33 4 72 10 87 99
valerie.sammut@naxicap.com

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Dispelix raises €12 million in Series A for the mass production ramp up of its next generation Augmented Reality (AR) see-through displays

Tesi

INVESTMENTS IN COMPANIES – 2.11.2018

Dispelix Ltd, the designer and manufacturer of its proprietary see-through displays for Augmented Reality, announces today the €12 million funding round from Lifeline Ventures, VTT Ventures, Finnish Industry Investment, 3M Ventures and an undisclosed investor. Earlier in 2016, Dispelix raised €1.7 million from Lifeline Ventures and VTT Ventures as a spin-out from VTT Technical Research Center of Finland.

“Our see-through display technology is now ready for the mass production ramp up. This is a remarkable milestone in product and process development. Unlike our competitors, we have chosen an approach based on using only one waveguide. Based on our ultra-thin display technology, it is possible to design AR glasses that are attractive in design and appeal to mainstream consumers”, comments Antti Sunnari, CEO and Co-Founder of Dispelix Ltd.

“Although the Dispelix see-through display is the thinnest on the market, we have not compromised the image quality: both eye-box and field-of-view are large, resolution is high and color balance is excellent. In addition, our technology platform enables mass customization of displays according to the individual needs of our customers”, comments Juuso Olkkonen, CTO and Co-Founder of Dispelix Ltd.

“Before Dispelix, Augmented Reality optics have been too bulky to wear, too costly to be embedded in consumer products and too difficult to manufacture in large volumes. Dispelix is the next generation that enables real growth in the industry”, comments Jyrki Saarinen, chairman of the board, professor and optics entrepreneur.

The Dispelix technology is currently being embedded into increasing number of customers’ products under development. The respective announcements are expected in 2019.

More information:
Antti Sunnari, CEO and Co-Founder
antti.sunnari@dispelix.com

Keith Bonnici, Investment Director, Tesi
keith.bonnici@tesi.fi
+358 40 179 9584

About Dispelix Ltd
Dispelix Ltd (http://www.dispelix.com) is the producer of high performance Augmented Reality see-through displays from high-end industrial applications to mass-market consumer products, thanks to manufacturing scalability and the resulting price points. The Augmented Reality technology by Dispelix is a result of five years of optics and manufacturing science and research at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, further developed by Dispelix since 2015. More information: www.dispelix.com

About Lifeline Ventures
At Lifeline Ventures, we invest in strong founders in sectors we know by heart from our experience as entrepreneurs. Due to our background, we often start working with founders before they have launched their first product. Our goal is to be the first person the entrepreneur reaches out to in times of trouble and joy. So far, we have invested in category-leading companies such as Applifier (acquired by Unity 3D), Enevo, NonStop Games (acquired by King.com), Moves app (acquired by Facebook), Supercell (acquired by Tencent), Umbra 3D and ZenRobotics. More information: www.lifelineventures.com

About VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and VTT Ventures
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd is one of Europe’s leading research, development and innovation organisations. We help our customers and society to grow and renew through applied research. The business sector and society in general benefit most from VTT when we solve challenges requiring world-class know-how together, and convert them into business opportunities. 
VTT Ventures is the venture arm of VTT with 20 companies in its portfolio. It spins out and invests in the most promising VTT technologies with strong founders. More information: www.vttventures.fi

About Tesi
Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a venture capital and private equity company that accelerates companies’ success stories by investing in them directly and via funds. Tesi always invests together with other investors, providing them with access to high quality deal-flow in Finland. Our investments under management total €1.2 billion and we have altogether 700 companies in portfolio. www.tesi.fi, www.dtg.tesi.fi and @TesiFII

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IK Investment Partners to support SCHEMA Group

ik-investment-partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap II Fund together with the founders has reached an agreement to acquire SCHEMA Group (“SCHEMA” or “the Company”), a leading developer and provider of software solutions for demanding product- and process-related content. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed, and the completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

Founded in 1995 by Marcus Kesseler and Stefan Freisler, SCHEMA provides sophisticated component content management system (CCMS) software for creating modular documentation in technical content and other editing contexts and targets a broad range of different global industries such as engineering, pharmaceuticals and medical technology. CCMS solutions are required to efficiently master the high complexity when writing, managing, and publishing product-related content while at the same time ensuring process security. The software addresses the increasing global complexity created by tightening of regulations, digitalisation and globalisation trends as well as shorter product lifecycles. SCHEMA is an innovation leader and has set international industry standards regarding the range of features and standardisation of CCMS over the last 20 years. Its products enable customers to realise substantial cost and time savings and increase the content processes efficiency.

The acquisition of SCHEMA represents IK’s second investment in the DACH region for the newly established IK Small Cap II Fund. IK will work with the founders and SCHEMA’s management to accelerate the Company’s organic growth strategy in its existing and new markets and will continue to invest in its operations, product development, and sales activities.

Stefan Freisler, Founder of SCHEMA, said:
”We are very proud of the Company’s progress and the high loyalty of our customers. With IK we have found the right partner to further expand SCHEMA’s market position and embark on a new chapter.”

Marcus Kesseler, Founder of SCHEMA, commented:
”IK shares our vision for the future strategic roadmap and opportunities of SCHEMA. Their support and experience will be a true added value for our success and we look forward to working together with IK to continuously develop the Company and its product offering.”

Nils Pohlmann, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK Small Cap II Fund said:
“SCHEMA is an innovative niche market leader addressing global trends which will become fundamentally important to every company. Its impressive blue-chip and loyal client base demonstrates SCHEMA’s success in providing efficiency and cost benefits to its customers. We are excited to support the Company’s growth and expansion strategy going forward and to work closely with the founders and its strong management team.”

For further questions, please contact:

SCHEMA Group
Marcus Kesseler, Managing Director
Stefan Freisler, Managing Director
+49 911 586861 0

IK Investment Partners
Nils Pohlmann
Partner
Phone: +49 40 369 88 50

Mikaela Murekian
Director Communications & ESG
Phone: +44 77 87 573 566
mikaela.murekian@ikinvest.com

About SCHEMA Group
Founded by Marcus Kesseler and Stefan Freisler in 1995, the SCHEMA Group has been providing software solutions for complex documentation for more than 20 years. The Company is headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany. For more information, visit www.schema.de

About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €9.5 billion of capital and invested in over 120 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

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Workable raises $50M to automate recruiting

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Zouk Capital
BOSTON – NOVEMBER 2018

Workable, the world’s most popular recruiting automation platform for SMBs, raised an additional $50 million of growth financing. The round was led by London-based private equity firm Zouk Capital with participation from previous investors 83North, Balderton, Notion and TriplePoint.

The six-year-old software company has been growing at a dramatic pace. More than 20,000 companies have used Workable to source and evaluate 50 million job candidates in 100 countries around the world.

Several million SMBs do 70% of the hiring in the world. The old tech stack of separate point solutions for sourcing, evaluation and workflow isn’t serving them well. Workable packs everything a modern recruiting operation needs into a single tool: recruitment marketing, passive candidate sourcing, interview scheduling, candidate assessment and workflow automation.

Workable has developed AI technology that draws upon hundreds of millions of human decisions to recommend candidate matches and programmatically advertise to individual candidates alongside a network of 180 partners including LinkedIn, Indeed, Facebook, and Google. It is now rolling out new technology to automate the screening and evaluation process, such as candidate self-scheduling, resume enrichment, machine-powered screening and more than 30 integrated evaluation and video interviewing tools.

Most of the effort that goes into recruiting today gets consumed by administrative tasks, sifting through data, email outreach, interview scheduling or conducting assessments. Workable wants to automate the tasks that computers are better at and free up recruiters’ time to focus on the substance: talking to qualified job candidates and working with hiring managers to build great teams.

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Omegapoint acquires Qurit AB

Priveq

31 October, 2018

Omegapoint Group AB – a leading information security and secure-application development consultant company has acquired Qurit AB, a specialized IT-consultant company within e-Health, Pharmaceutical and Life Science sectors.

Omegapoint will, based on the acquisition, accelerate the development of the business area e-Health and Pharmaceutical, to address a rapidly growing need for expert competence related to secure application development and IT-security in the rapidly growing digitized Healthcare value chain.

 

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