Welcome back. Healthcare investor Agora-founded by former Eir Partners executive Neil Vangala-has clinched its first deal as the first institutional investor in data and analytics company Vheda Health.
And Peter Thiel-backed AI startup Cognition has nearly doubled its valuation in about four months to $48 billion as investors rush to back its flagship coding product, Devin. The latest $2 billion injection was led by new investors Andreessen Horowitz and Accel.
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Today's Top Stories
Agora, a recently founded healthcare investment firm, has closed its first deal, investing $47 million in data and analytics company Vheda Health, Chris Cumming writes for WSJ Pro. San Francisco-based Agora, which was launched earlier this year by former EIR Partners Managing Director Neil Vangala, plans to announce the deal Thursday. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed. The investment marks the first institutional money Vheda has received since its founding in 2013. The Columbia, Md.-based company's data and analytics systems allow health plans to identify high-risk patients and intervene to improve health outcomes and save money.
Andreessen Horowitz and Accel have led a $2 billion investment in Cognition in a deal that values the artificial intelligence startup at some $48 billion, nearly doubling the company's valuation since its last investment round in May, Kimberly Kao reports for WSJ Pro. Other investors in the latest transaction include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Avenir, Altimeter and Bain Capital Ventures.
Big Number
The median time to close North American deals in the second quarter, compared with 200-220 days from 2018 to 2021, according to With Intelligence by S&P Global
Deals
Singapore's Temasek Holdings and BlackRock are joining Alpha Wave Global and Premji Invest in a roughly $1 billion investment in Adani Airport Holdings in a deal that values the business at about $18 billion on a pre-money basis. The Indian company, a unit of Adani Enterprises, plans to use the proceeds to support airport upgrades and capacity expansion among other things, Kosaku Narioka reports for Dow Jones Newswires.
Cerberus Capital Management has agreed to acquire most of the Mechanical Engineering division of British defense manufacturer Goodwin through a carve-out for up to about GBP1.1 billion, or roughly $1.49 billion. The deal excludes Goodwin's Refractory Engineering Division and Technological Division. The London-listed company began a strategic review process in August that led to the sale.
Family investment firm Wildcat Equity Partners in Miami Beach, Fla., has emerged as a competing bidder for the U.S. operations of Australian shipbuilder and maintenance services provider Austal, suggesting its Wildcat Infrastructure arm would offer as much as $1.35 billion for the Mobile, Ala.-based business, regulatory filings show. Austal has already received an indication of interest in the unit from strategic buyer Hanwha in South Korea, which reportedly suggested last month that it would offer as much as $1.2 billion for the U.S. unit of Sydney-listed Austal. Wildcat is led by CEO Eric Nicolaides.
Healthcare technology and services investor Eir Partners has acquired Accumulus Technologies, a San Francisco company that spun out of Accumulus Synergy last year. Life sciences companies use the firm's software to interact with government regulators.
Healthcare-focused private-equity firm 1315 Capital has acquired the life sciences and diagnostics unit of contract development and manufacturing organization Argonaut Manufacturing Services, which is backed by Telegraph Hill Partners and New Vale Capital. The newly independent unit is renamed Aluris Sciences.
Midmarket firm New Water Capital Partners has acquired Lidworks, a family-owned company that designs and manufactures custom food, beverage and specialty lids.
Growth investor Knox Lane has acquired a majority stake in Sage Integration, a Kent, Ohio-based company that provides design, retrofit, installation, and maintenance of facility security products and services.
Farallon Capital Management joined a $275 million growth financing for clinical-stage biotechnology company Encoded Therapeutics. Other participants included Matrix Capital Management and Janus Henderson Investors. The company is developing gene therapies to treat neurological disorders and other maladies.
Silversmith Capital Partners has led a $110 million growth investment in Perry Weather, a Dallas-based weather safety and operations company. Arthur Ventures, which has led two previous investment rounds for the company, also supported the latest transaction.
Growth investor Halo Fund led a $100 million investment in Savvy Wealth, a registered investment adviser that uses artificial intelligence technology to work with other financial advisers. Investors in the latest round included Thrive Capital and Goldman Sachs. New York-based Savvy is on pace to generate $100 million in annual recurring revenue this year and oversees about $9 billion in client assets. Sandy, Utah-based Halo was set up last year by Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and longtime Accel general partner Ryan Sweeney.
Insight Partners and Medical Excellence Capital led a $62.5 million growth investment in biotechnology company TwoStep Therapeutics, which was set up in 2024 by a group of Stanford University professors and entrepreneur in residence Caitlyn Miller, who is now the company's chief executive. Stanford also backed the business and participated in the latest investment round. San Carlos, Calif.-based TwoStep is developing targeted cancer therapeutics.
Acadia Investment Partners is backing ChargeItSpot with a $60 million growth investment. The Philadelphia company operates the Asset Recharge Center, or ARC, enterprise device management system used to govern hand-held devices deployed in the workplace, such as code readers and scanners in warehouses and retail outlets.
Technology-focused European growth investor IRIS led a $40 million investment in remote heart monitoring company Implicity, joined by others including Rothschild & Co.'s Five Arrows alternative assets arm. The company operates device-agnostic systems that use artificial intelligence technology and integrate monitoring data to improve clinical efficiency and predictive accuracy.
Bregal Sagemount is backing electrical test equipment rental company A-Rent Test Equipment with a majority growth investment. The Burr Ridge, Ill.-based company was founded in 2019 with the support of a Sterling Partners investment. The company provides services to engineering firms, contractors, utilities and equipment manufacturers from four U.S. locations, with a fifth opening later this year in Hillsboro, Ore.
H.I.G. Capital has completed its investment in digital marketing agency Click Here Digital, which is based in Baton Rouge, La.
Lee Equity Partners is backing healthcare consulting company Marwood Group with a strategic investment. As part of the deal, Chris Librizzi, formerly of EY-Parthenon, has joined Marwood as its chief executive while Richard Jeanneret, a senior adviser to Lee Equity and longtime leader at Ernst & Young, has joined as executive chairman.
Add-On Deals
Exits
Computer chip maker Alif Semiconductor, whose backers have included Iconiq Capital and Fidelity Investments, has agreed to be acquired by Analog Devices for as much as $1.55 billion, including $1.35 billion at closing and $200 million in potential payments, Connor Hart reports for the Journal. Iconiq and Fidelity joined a March 2022 growth investment in the maker of application-specific integrated circuits that valued the company at about $705 million, according to data providers Forge Global and PitchBook. Alif's chips are used in microcontrollers and other gear that enables artificial intelligence technologies built into devices to interact with their environments.
Healthcare investor Great Point Partners has sold clinical trial services provider MLM Medical Labs to strategic buyer Labcorp. Greenwich, Conn.-based Great Point acquired the German company, which serves the life sciences and biopharma industries, in 2019.
Midmarket firm Albaron Partners in New York has sold Prime Wellness, which operates as Prime Psychiatry, to strategic buyer Beacon Behavioral Partners. Albaron first backed the Texas provider of outpatient and interventional psychiatry services in 2022.
Midmarket private-equity firm Point 41 Capital Partners has acquired Safe-Way Garage Doors from family-backed private-equity firm CW Industrial Partners. Based in Warsaw, Ind., Safe-Way Garage manufactures and distributes residential and commercial garage doors and related products. CW Industrial initially backed the company in 2021.
European buyout firm Mutares has sold its portfolio company NEM Energy and its subsidiary NEM Balcke-Dürr to a subsidiary of Korea-listed MiCo for an undisclosed sum. Mutares initially acquired the heat transfer technology company from Siemens Energy in late 2022.
Funds
London-listed ICG has closed its latest flagship structured capital fund ICG Europe Fund IX with EUR12 billion, or around $14 billion. The fund's final tally is roughly 50% larger than its predecessor, which closed in 2022, and it received nearly EUR6 billion in commitments from investors who also backed prior ICG funds. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the newest vehicle include Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, New Hampshire Retirement System, New Jersey State Investment Council, New York State Common Retirement Fund and Virginia Retirement System, according to WSJ Pro's LP Commitments database. ICG has already deployed about 22% of the fund across six investments.
Energy and infrastructure-focused EIG Partners in Washington has collected about $4 billion for its direct lending program, raising $1.9 billion for its EIG Senior Infrastructure Debt Fund VI and amassing another $2.1 billion from commitments to single investor vehicles. The total surpassed the firm's $3 billion fundraising target. The firm has already invested about $1 billion from the strategy in 16 deals.
ArchiMed has hit its EUR1.5 billion, or around $1.75 billion, upper limit for its MED IV fund, which focuses on investments in lower midmarket healthcare companies. The new fund is nearly three times as large as its predecessor, which closed with EUR650 million in 2021.
Jefferies Financial Group's Jefferies Credit Partners expects to amass about $4 billion in investment capacity for its European perpetual direct-lending strategy, with anchor commitments from Allianz Global Investors alongside investments from the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission. The firm has held a first close for the strategy. The anticipated total financing capacity includes two partnership accounts expected to close this year.
People
Harrison Street Asset Management has added Dan Fanelli and Dan Kim as managing directors, with Fanelli serving as co-head of the Chicago firm's U.S. investor solutions group in New York and Kim focusing on infrastructure from headquarters. Additionally, Managing Director James Choi is relocating to the U.S. to work alongside Fanelli as co-head of the U.S. group from a West Coast location. He was based in Tokyo as head of Asia for the group. Fanelli was previously with Prudential Financial's PGIM asset management arm while Kim was with EQT Partners.
Nuveen Private Capital has appointed Robert Rdzak as a managing director, consultant relations, to work with its Churchill Asset Management and Arcmont Asset Management groups in the U.S. and Europe and engage with institutional investment consultants. He will be based at Churchill's New York headquarters. He joins from Barings.
Frazier Healthcare Partners in Seattle expects to add Tom Rodgers as a senior partner starting next month and working with the specialist firm's growth buyout team. He most recently worked as chief strategy officer at prescription medicine distributor McKesson.
Specialist firm Taproot Capital has added Harry Bromley-Davenport as a partner focused on investor relations and fundraising. He joins from Rede Partners. Taproot provides seed investment capital for first-time private-equity funds and takes stakes in emerging firms.
Biopharmaceuticals-focused Sofinnova Investments has hired Dr. Merdad Parsey as an executive partner with its investment team. He was previously an executive vice president and chief medical officer of drug developer Gilead Sciences.
Midmarket healthcare investor Grant Avenue Capital has hired Edie Connor as director of executive talent, a new role at the firm to support its operating executive program as well as broader initiatives. She was previously with Oxeon, a healthcare-focused executive search firm.
Industry News
Technology investor Silver Lake is combining portfolio software companies Cegid and Silae in France, creating a single organization with an enterprise value of more than EUR10 billion, or $11.63 billion. Together, the companies currently supply programs used for back-office functions such as payroll management, taxes and finance operations. The businesses serve more than two million end-users combined, mostly midsize and smaller businesses and accounting firms in France. Silver Lake holds majority stakes in both companies and has backed Cegid since 2016 and Silae since 2020.
Pivotal-a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates that supports investments with overlooked managers, including women-is broadening its investment mandate beyond venture capital. The organization is backing two female-led private-equity firms: Awani Capital and Invidia Capital.
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