Climate tech is hot, but VCs can't forget about water From Crunch Base: "It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans, and land." These fiery words come from the latest landmark U.N. report detailing intensifying, universal climate change impacts. They cover air, water and land. There's a fair amount of VC an...

The fall of the SPAC market has digital media companies in disagreement about best path forward From CNBC: The digital media industry has reached a strategic crossroads. Earlier this year, special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs) appeared to be the long-awaited savior of digital media companies. BuzzFeed, Vice, Bustle Digital Group and others with venture capita...

B. G., Opalesque Geneva: According to Dr. Pat Welton, founder and CIO of Welton Investment Partners, a U.S.-based quantitative and ESG hedge fund manager, the Covid Delta variant emergence is likely an intermediate-term positive for equities and bonds. On a related matter, even though market reactions are often attributed to ne...

From Business Insider: Tiger Global has become one of Europe's biggest startup investors, participating in $6 billion worth of deals. It has invested in 22 European startups in 2021, up from four in 2020, Dealroom data shows. Tiger's speed, cash, and hands-off approach has disrupted the way Europe's venture capitalists do business. More:...

SOL Global reaches settlement in legal battle with hedge fund MMCAP From The Globe and Mail: Canadian dealmaker Andy DeFrancesco and Toronto-based hedge fund MMCap Asset Management have reached a settlement in a six-month legal battle involving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares of Verano Holdings, an American cannabis company. The agreement...

SPAC IPOs show time is money with speedier deal chases From Bloomberg: SPAC bosses are finding they have to speed up their deal hunt if they want to attract investors these days. About half the blank-check companies that filed for U.S. listings since the start of June are giving themselves an initial period of 18 months or less to find an acquisition targe...

Apollo investors look past Black-Epstein tie to back impact fund From Bloomberg: The backlash against Apollo Global Management Inc. over Leon Black's ties with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is waning, with investors lining up to entrust the firm to manage investments dedicated to social responsibility. The New York-based firm expects to lock in more th...

SEC abruptly kills Ackman's controversial SPAC plans From Institutional Investor: The Securities and Exchange Commission has killed Bill Ackman's special purpose acquisition company's complicated plan to invest in Universal Music Group. On Monday, his SPAC, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, said in a letter to investors that it was pulling...

SPAC merger with space firm Momentus threatened by SEC fine From Bloomberg: A blank-check company's acquisition of space-cargo firm Momentus Inc. has been dealt a serious blow by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused both entities of misleading shareholders just weeks before investors were slated to vote on the deal. The regulat...

Decoding the SPAC opportunity From CNBCTV18: Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have been around since the 1990s. Yet, 2020 saw more SPAC IPOs than all previous years combined and was the first year where SPAC IPOs exceeded traditional IPOs. The first quarter of 2021 saw a continued expansion in the number of SPACs formed. In a statement on Apri...

The Tiger crowd just made new investments in these unicorns From Institutional Investor: Tiger Cubs and other Tiger Management descendants have made a number of fresh investments in unicorns in just the past week or so. Tiger Global, D1, Coatue, and Viking are among the Tiger-related funds that are putting money into billion-dollar-plus private companies. ...

B. G., Opalesque Geneva: Matt Breidert, senior portfolio manager and managing director of Listed Sustainable Infrastructure & Energy Transition at TortoiseEcofin, talks to Opalesque about the influence of the new U.S. ...

Reverence Capital seeks $1.7bn for new buyout fund From PE Insights: Reverence Capital Partners is seeking $1.7 billion for its third private-equity fund, re-entering the market less than two years after a predecessor buyout vehicle exceeded its target by 60%, according to people familiar with the matter. If the New York firm hits its goal, its latest fu...

How Tiger Global earned its stripes as the world's biggest unicorn hunter From Crunch Base: Tiger Global Management, already one of the most voracious startup investors in recent years, is roaring into 2021 more aggressively than ever. The 20-year-old New York-based investing firm - part hedge fund, part private equity investor - has not only quietly ...

The SPAC party gets going in Europe, this time with better terms From Bloomberg: By now we all know just how U.S. investors went crazy for SPACs at the turn of the year, pumping $90 billion into the special purpose acquisition companies from December through February alone. Blank-check companies raise money from investors in an initial public offering and ...

Bright Machines nears SPAC deal to go public From WSJ: Bright Machines is nearing a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public in a deal that would value the manufacturing-automation business at about $1.6 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The creator of a platform that uses artificial intelligence and robotics to aut...

From Bloomberg: With Democrats pushing for higher taxes on the richest Americans to fund President Joe Biden's infrastructure and climate initiatives, hedge fund managers are taking refuge in Puerto Rico. ExodusPoint Capital Management and Millennium Management have established subsidiaries on the island, according to local records. That could help portfolio managers at the firms re...

Biotech firm Roivant Sciences to go public via $7.3bn SPAC deal From Forbes: Seven years ago, Vivek Ramaswamy created Roivant Sciences with the aim of finding a new financial model for drug development. On Monday, Roivant Sciences announced it would be going public by merging with a special acquisition company in a deal that values Roivant at $7.3 billion. ...

Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: AssetMark, the turnkey asset management platform, is offering a new portfolio construction service to RIAs via the iCapital Network platform that services $73 billion in global client assets across more than 760 alternative investment funds. The customized alternative investments service on the AssetMark platform provides a curated selection of fully d...

A SPAC-tacular surge From FA Magazine: During a period of extreme volatility and a global pandemic, the initial public offering (IPO) market had a spectacular year in 2020 in terms of the number of new listings and proceeds raised, along with the rise in popularity for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) which have become one of the hottest investment tren...

'Frustrated' limited partners are questioning PE-sponsored SPACs From Institutional Investor: It's hard to imagine that private equity firms would have stayed out of the booming business of special-purpose acquisition companies. But private-equity-sponsored SPACs could lead to conflicts of interest with the firms' other funds, according to PitchBoo...

Amundi launches Just Transition for Climate fund From Bloomberg: Amundi has launched a European fixed income fund that will support energy transition. The Just Transition for Climate fund is managed by Alban de Fa?, head of fixed income ESG investing, and Dany da Fonseca, credit portfolio manager. The investment universe of the new strategy is based on the...

Investors sour on SPACs From Institutional Investor: Is the blank-check bubble bursting?Shares of many special purpose acquisition companies are down 20 percent or more from the highs they hit in February. Many of them are blank-check companies that have announced merger partners but haven't yet closed their deals. Stocks of numerous blank check c...

ironSource to go public via $11bn merger with Thoma Bravo-backed SPAC From Reuters: Israeli advertising technology firm ironSource said on Sunday it has agreed to go public through a merger with a blank-check company backed by U.S. private equity firm Thoma Bravo, valuing the business at $11.1 billion. The deal with Thoma Bravo Advantage, a special purp...

Where the world's most profitable hedge fund is investing From Guru Focus: Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Management is one of the most successful hedge funds of all time. Its flagship long-short equity fund has compounded investors' capital at 21% per annum after fees for the past 20 years. An investment in the fund at inception would have gr...

EcoR1 is launching a second SPAC From Institutional Investor: One of the hottest health care-related hedge funds is planning to launch its second blank-check company one month after its first one closed on a merger deal. EcoR1 Capital, headed by one-time Institutional Investor Hedge Fund Rising Star Oleg Nodelman, on Tuesday said in a regulatory filing. Th...

From Bloomberg: Two of the hottest equity market trends are headed for a clash as some ESG investors are having second thoughts about blank-check firms that have flooded the market. Early signs show that money managers wedded to environmental, social and governance themes are reluctant to buy into special-purpose acquisition companies before a target has been identified. That could poten...

VC fund investors not raising alarms over SPAC trend From Axios: Venture capital firms, formed to invest in startups, are increasingly becoming sponsors of SPACs, blank-check companies that bring later-stage businesses into the public markets. It's significant strategy creep, but so far there hasn't been much opposition from venture capital fund investors,...

Tribune Publishing agrees to $430m takeover by hedge fund From Boston Globe: Tribune Publishing Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, agreed to be acquired by Alden Global Capital LLC for about $430 million, putting a hedge fund known for firing journalists atop one of the nation's largest newspaper companies. Alden, which al...

Macquarie closes latest renewable energy fund at $1.9bn Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) has raised more than €1.6 billion for investment in renewable energy with the final close of Macquarie Green Investment Group Renewable Energy Fund 2 (MGREF2) - exceeding its initial minimum fundraising target of €1 billion. MGREF2 is a...

Databricks, a start-up whose software helps companies quickly process large sets of data and get it ready for analysis, said Monday it has raised $1 billion in fresh cash, including from a few prominent corporate investors. Amazon Web Services, Alphabet's CapitalG venture arm and Salesforce Ventures all joined in, according to a statement. Microsoft, which invested in Databricks ear...

Venture capital takes off: How the lines between VC and PE are blurring From PE News: As 2020 came to an end, Ian Connatty, managing director of British Patient Capital (BPC), had good reason to feel satisfied with the progress of the organisation that he helped set up in 2018. In the two and a half years since it was launched by the state-owned British Bu...

Lesser-known Tiger Seed launches long-only fund From Institutional Investor: A hedge fund whose largest investor is Julian Robinson Jr.'s Tiger Management has launched a long-only fund as part of a larger reshuffling of its investment vehicles. Tiger Legatus Capital Management, a so-called Tiger Seed headed by Jesse Ro that has remained under the radar, earlier...