Firms and Funds

UK venture secondaries firm Shackleton Ventures has closed its second fund on £25m and made its first acquisition with the purchase of a 13-strong investment portfolio from 3i for an undisclosed amount. Shackleton Secondaries II (SSIILP) received the majority of its backing from an unnamed European fund-of-funds investor with over €1.5bn under management. The new […]

Target: Undertone Networks Price: $40 million Sponsor: JMI Equity Financial Adviser: Seller: Jordan Edmiston Group Inc. Legal Adviser: Sponsor: Goodwin Procter LLP; Seller: Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigan, LLP JMI Equity has committed $40 million in growth equity to Undertone Networks, a manager of online advertising campaigns, after courting the company’s founder for […]

More money is the key to making good returns on investments in the biotech sector says a survey by HBM Partners, the Swiss venture capital house. It looked at all trade sales of venture-backed biotechnology and specialty pharma companies from 2005 to 2007 and found that investments that generated returns of 3x or more, known […]

UK venture firm MTI has reached a first close on University of Manchester spin-out vehicle UMIP Premier Fund, raising £32m of a final target of £50m. The fund will have first approval of any investment opportunities generated by the university’s technology research, which has already produced companies like Renovo, a wound treatment business, which floated […]

DN Capital, the UK-based software and digital multimedia venture capital firm, has reached a first closing on its second fund, Global Venture Capital II (GVC II). The London-headquartered VC has raised just under half of its €100m target, and expects to reach final close by the end of the year. The fund will invest two-thirds […]

UK venture secondaries firm Shackleton Ventures has closed its second fund on £25m and made its first acquisition with the purchase of a 13-strong investment portfolio from 3i for an undisclosed amount. Shackleton Secondaries II (SSIILP) received the majority of its backing from an unnamed European fund-of-funds investor with over €1.5bn under management. The new […]

Entrepreneurs in the UK are not concerned about protecting intellectual property (IP) and do not see it as a barrier to success according to a survey carried out by VentureNavigator, the online service for small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs. Respondents also revealed that their primary motivation behind starting a business was not financial reward, which […]

Isango!, an online travel agency which has become a market leader in under two years, has closed its first institutional round on US$8m. The round was led by London’s SPARK Ventures which committed half of the total round amount, with Beringea, manager of the ProVen suite of VCTs, added US$2.5m and the remaining US$1.5m came […]

Small, private companies in the UK could find the year ahead a challenging one according to Modwenna Rees-Mogg, managing director of Venture Index. Following a year which saw investment in British enterprise reach a record high of £85m, the current economic turmoil hitting the buyouts market is threatening to spread to early-stage investment. Rees-Mogg said: […]