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JMI Backs Greenlight Guru | Stripe's $1 Billion Stake Sale | Apollo, Ares and Oaktree Team Up on Initiative to Lure Black Talent
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Good morning and welcome to the WSJ Pro Private Equity newsletter. WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Laura Cooper leads off today’s slate of news with a report on JMI Equity’s investment in Greenlight Guru, a company that makes software for medical device businesses. Next, The Wall Street Journal’s Peter Rudegeair reports on an oversubscribed stock sale from payments processor Stripe Inc., in which Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake were among the buyers. Stripe offered investors the chance to buy stock from existing shareholders, but only about $1 billion was sold, while demand exceeded $4 billion, suggesting early buyers think the stock is going to go even higher. Finally, three big-name firms are launching a nonprofit foundation to attract more Black talent to their industry.
Now on to today's news...
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A view of the skyline of downtown Indianapolis, where Greenlight Guru is based. PHOTO: UIG/GETTY IMAGES
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Growth investment firm JMI Equity has invested $120 million in Greenlight Guru, an Indianapolis-based software provider that helps medical device companies with regulation and compliance, among other issues, WSJ Pro Private Equity's Laura Cooper reports. Greenlight Guru had previously raised seed funding from Indiana-based Elevate Ventures.
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Silver Lake and Sequoia Capital were among the largest buyers in a recent $1 billion sale of shares by Stripe Inc., which isn’t publicly traded, Peter Rudegeair reports for The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the transaction. The San Francisco-based payments processor became the most valuable private business to arise from Silicon Valley in March when a share sale valued it at $95 billion.
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Three investment firms are launching a joint initiative aimed at attracting more Black talent to their industry, which has struggled to do so despite numerous attempts over the years. Apollo Global Management Inc., Ares Management Corp. and Oaktree Capital Management LP are committing a total of $90 million over 10 years toward the effort, which involves partnering with historically Black colleges and universities, Miriam Gottfried reports for WSJ.
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$11.2 Trillion
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The total volume of corporate debt as of the end of March, according to the Federal Reserve, roughly half the size of the U.S. economy.
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Colleges and universities use technology from Ellucian Co. to run their operations, from enrolling students to fundraising and administration. PHOTO: DAVID L. RYAN / BOSTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES
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Blackstone Group Inc. and Vista Equity Partners have agreed to buy education technology provider Ellucian Co. from TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. The Reston, Va.-based company serves higher education providers in more than 50 countries with over 26 million students. TPG and Leonard Green initially backed the company about six years ago, acquiring a majority stake from Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity. Blackstone and Vista are investing through long-hold strategies.
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Growth investor Summit Partners has invested $70 million in student-data software company Formative in exchange for a minority stake in the Santa Monica, Calif.-based business, which is also known as Smartest Edu Inc. Existing investors including Emerson Collective, Fika Ventures, Mac Ventures and Rethink Education also participated in the transaction. The new capital is slated to help Formative enhance its products, including added support for teachers and administrators, according to an emailed news release.
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Bain & Co. has acquired Tech Economy, a financial technology business in London that specializes in due diligence work for private-equity firms and their portfolio companies, Mark Latham reports for sister publication Private Equity News. The company helps investors to assess the underlying technology of the assets they are seeking to acquire.
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Singapore sovereign-wealth investor GIC is joining with publicly traded digital infrastructure company Equinix Inc. to invest $3.9 billion in additional capital to build out a network of 32 data centers in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The centers are being designed to work with major cloud services providers, including Amazon.com Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.
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SK Capital Partners is backing Heubach Group’s purchase of the pigments business of Swiss chemicals company Clariant AG in a deal that values the operation at 855 million Swiss francs (or roughly $950.5 million), including 50 million francs payable based on this year’s financial performance, according to a news release. Langelsheim, Germany-based Heubach already produces pigments from four locations world-wide and employs about 1,000 people. The Clariant operations include 13 plants and roughly 1,900 employees.
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Lancer Capital is offering $3.15 a share to take private the holding company that owns the London Fog, Mossimo and Truth or Dare apparel brands, among many others, for a nearly 29% premium over the closing price of the shares on Thursday. The stock of Iconix Brand Group Inc. was unchanged Monday after jumping nearly 28% on Friday after the offer was announced. The deal values New York-based Iconix at about $585 million, including debt.
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Software- and technology-focused Berenson Capital has purchased video and telehealth company Interactive Digital Solutions in Noblesville, Ind. The company focuses on video and audio observation tools and virtual patient-monitoring systems as a way to reduce falls.
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TCV, the former Technology Crossover Ventures, is backing electronic medical records software maker Kipu Systems LLC. The Miami company provides its cloud-based software-as-a-service mainly to substance-use-disorder and behavioral health treatment organizations.
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Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.
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Boxed co-founder and CEO Chieh Huang, seen in 2016, started the company from his two-car garage in New Jersey.
PHOTO: BOXED/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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A blank-check company led by a former Morgan Stanley Capital Partners executive has agreed to combine with grocery courier Boxed Inc. and bring it public in a deal that values the business at nearly $900 million, Jaewon Kang reports for The Wall Street Journal. Seven Oaks Acquisition Corp., the special-purpose acquisition company led by former Morgan Stanley managing director Gary Matthews, raised almost $258.8 million before expenses through an initial public offering in December. Investors in Boxed have included Japanese retailer Aeon Co. and family-office investors Alpha Square Group. The company, whose legal name is Giddy Inc., operates from New
York.
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Hellman & Friedman-backed Sprinklr Inc. plans to sell 19 million shares at $18 to $20 apiece in an initial public offering that could give the enterprise software company a market capitalization topping $5 billion, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Sprinklr last year raised $200 million from Hellman & Friedman in a deal that valued the customer-experience-management company at $2.7 billion. The New York-based company’s backers also include Battery Ventures and Iconiq Strategic Partners. None of the investors plan to sell shares in the offering.
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Vista Equity Partners is selling 6 million shares of Ping Identity Holding Corp., and may sell another 900,000 if underwriters of the public offering pick up their overallotment options, according to a news release. Vista acquired the identity verification company in 2016 and currently holds more than 32.7 million shares valued at almost $812.5 million as of the end of trading on Friday, according to a separate regulatory filing.
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Silver Lake-backed First Advantage Corp. plans to sell about 17.8 million shares at $13 to $15 each in an initial public offering expected to raise about $227.6 million at the midpoint of that range, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Investors including Silver Lake are expected to sell some shares in the offering, but Silver Lake would remain the majority owner of the company’s equity with a roughly 75% stake. The deal would give the Atlanta company an initial market capitalization of more than $2.1 billion at the $14-a-share midpoint.
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TA Associates has agreed to sell Paula's Choice LLC to global consumer brands company Unilever PLC, Sabela Ojea reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The Seattle company’s “science-backed” skincare products as well as its direct-to-consumer marketing have been models for the industry, according to the Anglo-Dutch marketer. TA initially backed the company in 2016.
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Symphony Technology Group is selling data-management software provider Winshuttle LLC to strategic buyer Precisely (formerly Syncsort Inc.), which is backed by Clearlake Capital Group and TA Associates. Symphony first invested in the Bothell, Wash.-based process automation company in May 2018.
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Humana Inc. said it would acquire One Homecare Solutions, a home health services company that is backed by WayPoint Capital Partners, a private-equity investment affiliate of family office investment firm Privet Capital.
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Valedo Partners-backed Norwegian software maker SmartCraft ASA has priced its initial public offering at 17.80 kroner a share, giving the company an equity value of about 2.47 billion kroner (or roughly $296.2 million), Dominic Chopping reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Growth investor Valedo will remain a significant shareholder in the company following the IPO. SmartCraft plans to list its shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
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Buy-and-build specialist NewSpring Holdings has collected an additional $120 million for its buyout strategy from investors led by Northleaf Capital Partners and Velocity Structured Solutions. The Radnor, Pa., firm said the added capital will support its current platform company investments and new deals involving lower midmarket businesses led by founders and family members.
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Flagship Pioneering, known for backing vaccine maker Moderna Inc., has raised $3.37 billion for its expanded seventh fund, which the firm closed last year but then reopened with a modified strategy. The firm has wrapped up fundraising for its Fund VII, after reopening it in April, adding $2.23 billion to its initial total, according to an emailed news release.
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Impact investment firm Lafayette Square Holding Co. has hired John Moran and Christopher King as managing directors and co-heads of Community Solar. Both previously worked for the renewables power group of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
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Health technology-focused Accelmed Partners has hired Eric Tansky as a general partner and Stephen Rubin as a partner. Mr. Tansky is a former managing director with Oppenheimer & Co.’s medical technology practice while Mr. Rubin is a former co-head of the private-equity group at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP.
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Africa-focused Helios Fairfax Partners Corp. has named Belinda Blades as chief financial officer. In previous roles, Ms. Blades has served as a strategic consultant to pension systems and companies and was vice president and financial controller with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan for seven years. She replaces Amy Sherk as CFO, while Ms. Sherk continues to serve as CFO of Fairfax India Holdings Corp.
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Former hedge-fund manager Dan Kamensky is headed to jail. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Gregory Zuckerman and Soma Biswas explain his downfall, highlighted by a battle concerning Neiman Marcus Group Ltd.’s assets.
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Toshiba Corp. said two executives and two outside directors would resign after they were accused of working with the government against foreign investors, the first fallout in a scandal that has highlighted Japan's business-government ties, Peter Landers and Megumi Fujikawa report for The Wall Street Journal. Sunday's announcement came three days after a report by outside lawyers depicted wide-ranging cooperation between Toshiba management, the head of the Toshiba board's audit committee and officials at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to block foreign shareholders from gaining board influence.
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Apollo Global Management Inc. has agreed to provide financing for as much as $500 million for credit facilities originated by Chicago-based Victory Park Capital for aggregators of merchants that sell their wares over Amazon.com Inc.’s website and other online retail sites. The financing will focus on asset-backed loans.
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