Specialist investment firm Corten Capital has held the €392m final close for its maiden fund, which will back technology-driven B2B services.
Corten Capital I stormed past its initial target of €300m, with commitments coming from university endowments and large family offices from North America, Europe and Asia.
Its investors all share the goal of creating value through innovation and growth, as opposed to financial engineering and cost reduction on short-term gains, it claims.
The vehicle will acquired technology-driven B2B services, information and software companies across Europe and North America. Corten will also look to invest into Governance, risk management and compliance companies.
Its portfolio will comprise of two or three platform companies and will give them a seven to eight-year investment horizon, continuous strategic and operational support.
Furthermore, it will give them capital aid for technology and product innovation, commercial acceleration, geographic expansion and M&A.
Corten Capital founding partner Simon Begg said, “Our fund close is very timely in view of the current economic backdrop, which creates uncertainty but also accelerates the imperative to digitalise and automate business operations across industries globally.
“With long term capital and no legacy portfolio, we are very optimistic about the opportunity to back and build companies with transformational growth potential in our sector.”
The private equity firm was founded by Joseph Schull, Simon Begg, Andrew Sukawaty and Don Robert.
Prior to Corten Joseph Schull and Simon Begg worked together at Warburg Pincus as head of Europe and European CCO, respectively.
Andrew Sukawaty has previously held executive and non-executive roles of private equity and public market investors and Don Robert has served as the CEO and chairman of Experian.
In a joint statement Corten founding partners Andrew Sukawaty and Don Robert said “Our team has a unique combination of investment, strategic and operational skills as well as deep experience in B2B services, information, and software, making us one of the most differentiated sector-focused teams in the industry.
“We apply our expertise to a limited number of commitments and act as thought partners to management, empowering them to take risks to deliver growth and innovation around a thesis led approach to long-term value creation.”
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