Eamon Murphy
BlackRock raised over $630 million for its third direct co-investment private equity fund, BlackRock Private Opportunities Fund III, L.P. Investors included public and private pension funds, insurers, and foundations in North America and Europe.
The Riverside Company has acquired German leak detection and repair business Locatec as an add-on to its Dwyer Group platform. Locatec will complement Dwyer's Rainbow International, which provides restoration services for water damage, and is the fifth add-on since Riverside invested in 2014.
Third Kind Venture Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Allen & Company together invested $2 million in CodeCombat, a computer science learning platform. The seed round funding will help CodeCombat finish its new education program for classroom use.
Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca invested $300,000 each in early education app Brightwheel, following a segment of the ABC television show "Shark Tank." The software platform serves educators and parents of kids in daycare and preschool.
M&A and debt advisory firm Livingstone has opened an office in Los Angeles, the company announced. The new branch is staffed by longtime LA residents including partner Brennan Libbey, formerly head of business services at Houlihan Lokey.
Prime Risk Partners agreed to buy Old National Insurance, which will operate as ONI Risk Partners. The Midwest insurance agency will keep its existing offices and intends to expand. Prime Risk Partners will also acquire ONI subsidiaries JWF Specialty Co. and Employee Plans, LLC.
Bain Capital Private Equity and Vista Equity Partners will jointly acquire insurance technology company Vertafore from TPG Capital. The deal comes shortly after Vertafore's acquisition of two cloud software providers, Keal Technology and QQSolutions.
Altas Partners LP, the Toronto-based private equity firm with a long-term orientation, has completed a $1 billion fundraise. The fund, Altas Partners Holdings LP, was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap.
To wrap up your Friday, Medivation rejects a $9.3 billion takeover offer by Sanofi, Berkshire Hathaway acquires Goodall Homes, and Google expands an experimental feature allowing companies to post content directly to its search results.
ARCH Venture Partners led a $34 million Series A financing in Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., which is pursuing new technologies in medical aesthetics and dermatology. Altitude Life Science Venture Partners, Partner Fund Management, and Venvest Capital also invested in the development stage company.