Author: asormani

DPE Deutsche Private Equity has closed DPE Germany II and its related feeder fund (DPE II). Offshore law firm, Mourant Ozannes advised on the fundraising.

PRESS RELEASE

Leading offshore law firm, Mourant Ozannes, has advised on a €350 million Private Equity Fund for DPE Deutsche Private Equity. The team, led by partner Joel Hernandez and assisted by Kerill O’Shaughnessy, Jonathon MacFeeters, Matt Satchell and Stefan Chinniah, provided Jersey advice in connection with the launch and closing of DPE Germany II and its related feeder fund (DPE II).
DPE II is the second fund for DPE Deutsche Private Equity (DPE), a leading German investment firm. DPE II has closed with approximately €350 million of capital commitments from approximately 20 institutional investors. DPE Fund II intends to invest in medium-sized companies with enterprise values of between €10m and €100m in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
P+P Pöllath + Partners advised DPE as the lead law firm (advising in relation to German law), alongside Proskauer Rose LLP (advising on US and UK law), Canadian law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP (advising on Canadian law), the Luxembourg office of Arendt & Medernach (advising on Luxembourg law) and Mourant Ozannes (advising on Jersey law).
ENDS
For all media enquiries and interview requests, please contact:
Nicola Nicholson Head of Marketing & Communications, Mourant Ozannes E [email protected]

Editor’s Notes
Mourant Ozannes’ vision is to be consistently recognised as the leading law firm offshore. Mourant Ozannes:
• advises on the laws of the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey from these jurisdictions and from offices in Hong Kong and London;
• has over 50 partners and 440 staff in six offices, spanning Asian, American and European time zones;
• has the largest litigation practice of any offshore firm; • has more top tier directory rankings across its locations than any other offshore law firm
(Chambers & Partners, IFLR1000, Legal 500, 2012/13); • has more Leading Lawyer recommendations in Citywealth than any other offshore firm (2013) • advises more FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies than any other offshore law firm (Hemscott,
2012); • advises 19 of the world’s top 20 banks (Bankers Almanac, 2012); • Best Offshore Law Firm – Client Service: HFMWeek US Hedge Fund Services Awards 2012; • M&A Deal of the Year: International Financial Law Review 2012; and • Equity Deal of the Year: International Financial Law Review 2012.

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UK-based debt management company MoneyPlus Group has appointed Richard Elgott as commercial director. The company is backed by Palatine Private Equity.

PRESS RELEASE

Debt management company MoneyPlus Group (MPG), backed by Palatine Private Equity, has appointed Richard Elgott as Commercial Director.

Elgott has spent the past seven years working in professional services, most recently at Deloitte and, prior to that, KPMG. He is an accountant by profession and has worked in corporate finance and transaction services providing specialist operational advice on strategy, integration and disposals.

Elgott has significant experience across a range of industry sectors including telecoms, oil and gas, consumer goods and energy. He has also worked with financial services clients including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, ING and Virgin Money. Prior to that he worked in industry in roles for Virgin Media and Littlewoods Pools.
MPG offers a range of services to improve consumers’ financial situations, including debt management plans and Individual Voluntary Arrangements. It is also extending its offering into other areas, such as insurance and legal services, under the MoneyPlusbrand.
Palatine originally backed the management buyout of MPG in June 2011. Since then MPG has completed sixacquisitions and employs more than 190 people at its offices in Manchester city centre.
Chris Davis, Chief Executive Officer at MoneyPlus Group, said: “I am delighted that Richard has decided to join MoneyPlus. This senior appointment underlines our commitment to the future growth of the company. Richard brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise in the financial services sector which will be put to good use by way of our continued expansion in the debt advice sector and in other financial areas in general.”

Richard Elgott, Commercial Director at MoneyPlus Group, said: “I am delighted to have joined MoneyPlus Group and look forward to working with Chris and his team to deliver against the growth strategy and desire to create an industry leading organisation, both in terms of the range of services we offer and the way in which we provide a quality service to our consumers.”

ENDS

Press contact: Chris Hopper / Liam Buckley @ MC2 (0161 236 1352)

Notes to editors

About Palatine Private Equity:
Palatine Private Equity (“Palatine”) was originally known as Zeus Private Equity before rebranding in January 2011. The firm was formed in 2005 by Gary Tipper, Ed Fazakerley and Tony Dickin and closed its maiden fund in December 2007 at £100m.

From offices in Manchester, London and Bristol, Palatine seeks to invest in established UK companies with enterprise values of up to £50m. The investment team looks at opportunities and provides funding for MBOs, buy and build strategies, acquisition finance, equity release and restructuring. Palatine completed its first successful exit in September 2010, generating a 4.5x return with the secondary buyout of telecommunications provider XLN Telecom, after three consecutive years of profit growth. Palatine’s portfolio currently comprises:

– Hallmark Hotels: a UK regional 4* hotel chain (Buy and build)
– MJ Quinn: an infrastructure services business providing electrical, mechanical and fire protection services to the London Underground and rail sector (Buyout)
– Electranet: a specialist networking services supplier, primarily to public sector organisations (Buyout)
– MoneyPlus Group: a provider of consumer financial services including Debt Management Plans, IVAs and other financial solutions (Buy and build)
– Wealth at Work: a provider of financial education and employee wealth management services in the workplace (Buy andbuild)
– Selection Services: a provider of IT services, delivering a broad array of managed services, hosting and cloud solutions along with bespoke projects and strategic advice (Buy and Build)
– Chase Templeton: a the leading private medical insurance intermediary (Buy and Build)
– Playnation: the leading supplier of amusement and entertainment machines and supplies to holiday parks, motorway services, bowling centres and airports (Buyout)

Liam Buckley

0161 236 1352 [email protected]

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Cloud data management business ParElastic Corporation has raised $5.7 million in a Series A round financing led by General Catalyst Partners. The company’s existing investors including Point Judith Capital, CommonAngels and LaunchCapital also participated in the round. The Series A brings ParElastic’s total financing to $8.7 million.

PRESS RELEASE

ParElastic Corporation, an emerging leader in cloud data management, announced today that it has raised $5.7M in a Series A round financing led by General Catalyst Partners. The company’s existing investors including Point Judith Capital, CommonAngels and LaunchCapital also participated in the round. The Series A brings ParElastic’s total financing to $8.7M.
Larry Bohn, Managing Director at General Catalyst, will join the ParElastic board of directors alongside the company’s founders, Ken Rugg and Amrith Kumar, and noted industry veterans and entrepreneurs, Jit Saxena, founder and CEO of Netezza and Applix, and John Landry, a serial entrepreneur who has held strategic technology leadership positions at IBM, Lotus, Dun & Bradstreet and Cullinet.
“We are thrilled to have Larry join the ParElastic board,” said Mr. Rugg, founder and CEO of ParElastic. “Larry brings tremendous experience both because he knows what it takes for companies like ours to be successful and scale, and because he has seen his own portfolio companies struggle with exactly the challenges that our solution can address.”
The company’s product, the ParElastic Database Virtualization Engine™ allows users to execute workloads that exceed the capabilities of a single database server. Unlike NoSQL or NewSQL solutions, however, which require the migration to new database technologies, ParElastic does this by making multiple standard database servers work together as a single virtual database, provisioning only the resources needed to satisfy the demands of the application at any given instant, and requiring absolutely no changes in application code.
In addition to allowing clients to handle high volume database workloads like digital gaming, eCommerce and social media applications, the product’s multi-tenancy features make it ideal for SaaS environments and, in the future, true relational Database as a Service.
“The unique combination of elastic scalability and multi-tenancy creates the perfect platform to deliver a transparently-scalable, relational Database as a Service (DBaaS), something that has been impossible until now,” said Bohn. “This presents an opportunity to disrupt the $30B relational database industry as traditional IT migrates to the cloud and new cloud-native applications emerge.”
In its short life, the company has already been issued 3 patents for the innovative technology behind its product, the ParElastic Database Virtualization Engine™. The solution combines the proven scalable architecture of a parallel database with the flexibility of the cloud and the maturity and stability of standard MySQL servers, while requiring no changes to application code or the introduction of complex sharding code.
About General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA and Palo Alto, CA. For more information, visit: www.generalcatalyst.com
About Point Judith Capital
Point Judith Capital (PJC) is a leading early stage venture capital firm based in Boston, MA. The firm focuses on three rapidly growing sectors rich with innovation: Clean Technology, Internet Technology, and Healthcare Technology. Building positive and collaborative relationships with portfolio company management, the Point Judith Capital Partners take a hands-on approach to investing. PJC’s investment approach is based on the core belief that with the right capital and support, great entrepreneurs can build market-leading companies. For more information, visit: www.pointjudithcapital.com.
About ParElastic
Founded in 2010, ParElastic is led by industry veterans with deep database expertise. Heralding from Progress Software and Netezza, co-founders Ken Rugg, CEO, and Amrith Kumar, CTO, understand scalability from years of hands-on experience building some of the world’s largest and most complex systems.
ParElastic’s patented technology is the only solution that brings the flexibility of cloud architectures to all dimensions of your database. Leveraging existing MySQL servers ParElastic enables unprecedented adaptability to ever changing workloads and information consumption patterns. The ParElastic Database Virtualization Engine™ dramatically increases flexibility by enabling elastic capacity.

Flex Your Database™, ParElastic Database Virtualization Engine™ and the ParElastic logo are trademarks of ParElastic Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Contact Information
Contact:
Cathy Maynard-Stedman
781-609-7901
Email Contact

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Online coding education platform Treehouse Island has closed its Series B Preferred financing round for a total of $7 million. The funding was led by Kaplan Ventures, with The Social+Capital Partnership also participating in the round.

PRESS RELEASE

Treehouse Island, Inc., the online coding education platform, today announced they closed their Series B Preferred financing round for a total of $7 million dollars, led by Kaplan Ventures, with The Social+Capital Partnership also participating in the round.
“At Treehouse we’re thrilled to be able to wake up every day and work to change lives by making technology education affordable and accessible to everyone in the world. Kaplan’s 75 years of leadership in education and The Social+Capital Partnership’s drive to change the world through innovation are truly inspiring to us, and we’re excited to work with them to achieve our mission,” stated Ryan Carson, Founder and CEO of Treehouse.
Treehouse reached the customer milestone of 25,000 active students, standing ahead of competitors by employing a full-time teaching staff made up of experienced professionals who develop proprietary, high quality instructional content rather than utilizing crowd-sourced methods. The company’s platform has experienced rapid adoption and continues to grow its active student base. Subscribers are able to access a variety of compelling educational offerings, including virtual video teaching, coding live in the web browser with Treehouse Code Challenges, and learning by doing with Treehouse Console.
“Improving access to education and delivering outcomes-based learning are at the core of Kaplan’s mission. We actively support companies like Treehouse that share in this mission. We believe that Treehouse has the market-leading offering for delivering targeted, in-demand technology skills training at a low cost, and we are thrilled to support their growth,” said Kate Eberle Walker, Vice President for Corporate Investment and Strategy at Kaplan Ventures — the investment arm of Kaplan, Inc. Ms. Walker will join the Board of Treehouse.
“Treehouse is already the biggest computer science school in the world and has the potential to be one of the most important,” says Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and managing partner of The Social+Capital Partnership. “They’re creating an education model that massively reduces debt, increases job readiness and drives value in today’s economy. This is exactly what America needs right now.”
About Kaplan
Kaplan, Inc. is a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools, and businesses. Kaplan serves students of all ages through a wide array of offerings including higher education, test preparation, professional training, and programs for kids in grades K through 12. Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) and its largest division. Kaplan operates an active venture capital fund, Kaplan Ventures, which invests in and supports early-stage education companies. For more information, please visit www.kaplanventures.com.
About The Social+Capital Partnership
The Social+Capital Partnership (“Social Capital”) is a partnership of philanthropists, technologists and capitalists utilizing venture capital as a force to create value and change on a global scale. The Partnership is based in Palo Alto, California.
About Treehouse
Our mission is to bring affordable Technology education to people everywhere, in order to help them achieve their dreams and change the world.

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InnoBio, a biotech fund managed by CDC Entreprises, and Sofinnova Partners have announced a joint investment in MedDay for 8 million euros ($10.5 million). Created in 2011 by Dr Frédéric Sedel and Dr Guillaume Brion, MedDay is specialised in the treatment of neuro-metabolic diseases.

PRESS RELEASE

InnoBio, a biotech fund managed by CDC Entreprises, which is part of the soon to be created BPIFrance[1], and Sofinnova Partners, a leading venture capital firm in Europe specialised in life sciences, announce a joint investment in MedDay for a total amount of 8 million euros.

Created in 2011 by Dr Frédéric Sedel and Dr Guillaume Brion, MedDay is specialised in the treatment of neuro-metabolic diseases. This investment will finance the development of three compounds all the way through to 2016, including the phase IIb/III studies for a progressive multiple sclerosis treatment stemming from the Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris. It will also finance the development of an R&D platform in partnership with the Metabolomics Team at the Institute for Biology and Technology, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA, Saclay). MedDay’s technology platform relies on the work of Dr Frédéric Sedel, a neuroscientist at La Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris), who has been carrying out pioneering research in neurology to identify rare hereditary metabolic diseases in adults for more than a decade. Dr Frédéric Sedel’s research has led to the identification of new treatments and diagnostic tools for diseases in a field where few treatments, if any, are available. These discoveries are expected to be applicable more broadly in the area of neuropsychiatric diseases. The company is currently incubated at l’Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière in Paris (ICM).

Rafaèle Tordjman, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners says: “We are thrilled to contribute to MedDay’s development and help further Dr Frédéric Sedel’s research. His metabolic approach to neurologic diseases is radically new and will allow for the development of ground breaking solutions in a field which still suffers from significant unmet need”.
Chahra Louafi, Investment Director at CDC Entreprises says: “We are convinced that MedDay will confirm the fantastic growth potential we can already foresee through the promising initial results observed in patients”.
Dr Frédéric Sedel and Dr Guillaume Brion, co-founders of MedDay, add: “We are delighted to welcome Sofinnova Partners and InnoBio as shareholders. Their experience and commitment will allow us to further the development of our technology platform and products”.

MedDay’s fundraising will finance the phase IIb/III clinical trial of a treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis, MD 1003. Two other proprietary compounds will also benefit from this investment: MD 1103 targeting a subgroup of resistant psychoses and MD 1105 targeting Alzheimer’s disease. The first two compounds have already proven their efficacy and tolerability in small patient groups. By choosing MedDay, CDC Entreprises illustrates InnoBio’s strategy, which consists of supporting innovation within promising start ups and fostering the development of their products in fast growing and new markets. With MedDay, Sofinnova Partners deploys a key component of its investment strategy which focuses on funding entrepreneurs who are developing disruptive technologies or products in the biopharmaceutical, medical devices and industrial biotechnology fields.

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Boathouse Capital has made an investment in Accurate Background. The firm invested $5 million of subordinated debt to support the working capital needs associated with Accurate Background’s continued growth and to facilitate its future strategic plans, including add-on acquisitions. Headquartered in Irvine, CA, Accurate Background offers a complete set of on-demand employment screening services, including criminal, motor vehicle, and other public records searches, employment history, education and professional license verifications, credit checks, and drug and health screening services.

PRESS RELEASE

Boathouse Capital is pleased to announce an investment in Accurate Background, Inc. (“Accurate Background” or the “Company”) on March 26, 2013.

Boathouse Capital invested $5.0 million of subordinated debt to support the working capital needs associated with Accurate Background’s continued rapid growth and to facilitate its future strategic plans, including add-on acquisitions.

Headquartered in Irvine, CA, Accurate Background offers a complete set of on-demand employment screening services, including criminal, motor vehicle, and other public records searches, employment history, education and professional license verifications, credit checks, and drug and health screening services.

As one of the largest providers in the $2.6 billion background screening market, Accurate Background operates across the globe servicing large Fortune 500 public companies as well as midsize, family-owned businesses. The Company is recognized throughout the industry for its technologically-advanced solutions and deep customer relationships within the retail/consumer, technology, and distribution industries. Accurate Background’s ability to streamline processes and increase productivity has helped the Company to develop durable relationships with its customers that have enabled it to enjoy an impressive 97% customer retention rate and annual revenue growth of 26% over the past three years.

Dave Dickerson, President and CEO of Accurate Background, said “We are delighted to bring on Boathouse Capital as a partner that not only understands and appreciates the value of our business but also shares our excitement about the potential for the Company’s bright future. I look forward to entering the next phase of Accurate Background’s development with Boathouse.”

Bill Dyer, Partner at Boathouse Capital, added “Dave Dickerson and the Accurate Background team have done a fantastic job of creating a well-respected and highly differentiated business model within the fragmented background screening industry. We have been most impressed by the Company’s ingrained focus on achieving high customer satisfaction by offering flexible product solutions and top quality customer service. We look forward to supporting Accurate Background with its growth initiatives as it continues to roll out new products and services to its customer base.”

As part of the investment, Bill Dyer will join Accurate Background’s Board of Directors.

D.A Davidson & Co. and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP advised Accurate Background, and Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP represented Boathouse Capital.

About Boathouse Capital
Boathouse Capital is a $120 million private equity firm that invests mezzanine debt and equity into lower middle market businesses across the U.S. Based in Wayne, PA, Boathouse Capital invests $3 million to $12 million into companies in a variety of industries generating EBITDA of $2 million or greater.

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NiXEN Partners has appointed Vincent Houlot as a partner. Houlot joined the firm in 2002.

PRESS RELEASE

Vincent Houlot, 37 years old, graduated from Ecole Centrale Paris and Oxford University, began his career in 1998 with the consulting firm Bossard Gemini Consulting.
In 2002, he joined NiXEN Partners where he has been involved especially in operations such as Aerocan (aluminium aerosol cans), Asteelflash (electronics manufacturing services), Ceva (laboratory specialising in animal health), Malherbe (road haulage), Saverglass (luxury glass bottles), Titanobel (explosives for industrial use).
About NiXEN Partners:
NiXEN is an independent private equity firm specialising in Flexible Equity with €634 million of funds under management. As a lead investor, NiXEN provides flexible and personalised solutions addressing all types of capitalistic and strategic development issues for companies with revenues higher than €50 million. Working in its sectors of expertise, NiXEN invests more than €10 million per transaction, in companies with highly committed management teams, executing an ambitious industry consolidation, through buyout and spin-off transactions.
NiXEN’s main investments include AsteelFlash (electronics manufacturing services), Babeau Seguin (builder of single-family detached homes), Buffalo Grill (steakhouse restaurant chain), Ceva (laboratory specialising in animal health), Labco (pan-European network of clinical laboratories), La Grande Récré (specialist retailer of games and toys), Maisons du Monde (decoration and furniture retailer), Vedici (private clinics for medicine, surgery and obstetrics).
Press contacts:
NiXEN Partners

SHAN
Jean-Paul Bernardini
Tel: +33 (0)1 75 77 46 01
Email: [email protected]
Pierre Rispoli
Tel: +33 (0)1 75 77 46 02
Email: [email protected]
Mélina Etorre
Tel: +33 (0)1 44 50 58 77
Email: [email protected]

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Edison Ventures has announced growth capital financing in electronic trading platform provider, OptionsCity Software. Edison’s investment marks the first institutional capital in OptionsCity, and will give Edison a minority ownership stake.

PRESS RELEASE

Edison Ventures proudly announces a significant growth capital financing in leading electronic trading platform provider, OptionsCity Software. Edison’s investment marks the first institutional capital in OptionsCity, and will give Edison a minority ownership stake. The investment will accelerate the Company’s sales and marketing efforts, product innovation and international expansion.
OptionsCity is the developer of award-winning electronic trading and market-marking platform, Metro, that has powered derivative trading since its launch in early 2008. The Company has continued to innovate with the development of its latest product Freeway, a multi-asset trading platform designed to offer developers and traders a comprehensive environment to create, test and deploy algorithmic trading strategies with micro-second execution.
Mike Cichowski, Principal, and Chris Sugden, Managing Partner, led the investment. Sugden commented that “OptionsCity is a proven innovator. We believe Freeway represents the next major development for options and futures trading. Traders demand a multi-asset capability where they can quickly test and deploy new strategies. OptionsCity’s customers repeatedly confirmed this capability”. Mike Cichowski noted, “OptionsCity is a profitable, fast growing company bringing innovative technology to the derivatives market. We are excited to partner with the management team and assist with the company’s global expansion”. Rob Finn, Vice President who led Edison’s diligence, noted “Hazem and team have built a compelling brand. The technology platform is well positioned for the fast-paced evolution of trading strategies”. Along with this investment, the OptionsCity Board of Directors will expand to include Mike Cichowski, along with Joe Wald, former CEO of EdgeTrade and Executive Vice President at Gain Capital.
“We selected Edison as a partner – after thorough due diligence – based on their impressive track record of fast-growing businesses as well as their commitment and knowledge of the Financial Technology sector,” remarked OptionsCity CEO Hazem Dawani. “We’re excited to begin a new chapter in the growth of our firm.”
OptionsCity is Edison’s initial investment in Chicago, the epicenter of options and derivatives trading, and 38th overall in Financial Technology (FinTech). The industry segment includes investments in trading technology, wealth management, specialty finance, financial tech-enabled services and consumer finance. Notable current and previous investments include Gain Capital (Nasdaq: GCAP), Liberty Tax (Nasdaq: TAX), TraderTools, EdgeTrade, Scivantage, Billtrust, FolioDynamix, Princeton Financial Systems, Business Financial Services, Neat, Redvision and Best Software.
About Edison Ventures
Established in 1986 Edison partners with entrepreneurs, service providers and other financing sources to build successful companies. Edison provides capital and value-added services to later stage ($5 to 20 million revenue), information technology businesses. Initial investments range from $5 to 10 million. Edison typically serves as sole or lead investor. In addition to providing expansion capital, Edison funds management buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.
Edison’s investment professionals are based in Lawrenceville, NJ, New York, NY, McLean, VA, Needham, MA, and Cleveland, OH. Industry specialties include Financial Technology, Healthcare IT, Interactive Marketing and eCommerce and Enterprise 2.0. Other Edison successes include Best Software, Cambridgesoft, Dendrite, M5 Networks, Marcam, Mathsoft, Octagon, Tangoe, Virtual Edge, Visual Networks, Vocus and many other information technology leaders, which have a combined market value exceeding $5 billion. Edison Ventures currently manages over $700 million and actively making new investments. For more information on Edison Ventures, please visit www.edisonventures.com and follow us on Twitter @edisonventure.
About OptionsCity Software, Inc.
As developers of the award-winning Metro electronic trading and market-making platform, Chicago-based OptionsCity Software has helped options traders make markets and trade on the world’s leading derivative markets since 2006. OptionsCity continues to innovate with the development of Freeway, a multi-asset trading platform designed to build, test, and deploy algorithms with micro-second execution. OptionsCity products are built on power, speed and reliability that traders require to have full control over trading, safety, and risk management. OptionsCity is a certified Independent Software Vendor on leading global derivative exchanges and markets.

Contact:
Tricia Bradley
[email protected]
609-873-9224

Edison Ventures
1009 Lenox Drive #4
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
609-896-1900
609-896-0066 (fax)

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