Polish investment firm Enterprise Investors have made two highly successful exits recently – Magellan and Kruk. In the first case, the company reaped a 10x returns on its share sale in Magellan, a speciality finance company founded in 1999. EI has sold its 33.79 per-cent stake in the company – half its former stake, or 2,211,250 shares [...]

Polish investment house Enterprise Investors – through their EVF I fund – has agreed to invest an amount of EUR7 mln in Elemental Holding, currently the nation’s biggest recycler of electro and non-ferrous waste materials. In exchange, EI will receive a 10.2 per cent stake in the company. Apart from helping meet certain CapEx requirements, [...]

Enterprise Investors (EI), a Polish and CEE-focused investment firm has acquired a minority stake in Nu-Med – a radiotherapy centre based in Elblag in Northern Poland. The acquisition was made through its PEF VII, and may see the company consolidating its medical acquisitions in Poland to create a network of specialized health care centres across [...]

In what can only be considered a boom to e-baby commerce, three independent investments have been made in companies that sell babies’ and children’s products in Europe. First, Russian VC ru-Net has invested USD 6 mln for a 25 per cent equity stake in Esky, a Russian portal that serves the young children’s market. Another [...]

After a six-year cycle, Innova Capital has decided to sell its 70 per cent stake in Polish industrial parts manufacturer Donako. Co-owner Franciszek Zeleznik of Zeleznik Industrie Consulting has also sold his stake in the company. The trade sale was made to Austrian industry player Rudolf Weinberger Holding, and puts the company’s value at under EUR50 mln. [...]

CEE-centric investment firm Abris Capital Partners have met their hard-cap target of EUR450 mln for their Fund II. There were 21 investors for this fund against 18 for Fund I; of the 21, approximately half the LPs were from Europe, with the remaining being spread out over Australia, the Middle East and United States. Notably [...]

Amazon has recently acquired Polish TTS (Text-to-Speech) technology company Ivona as part of value addition services for the visually impaired. The relationship between the two companies is not new; Amazon has already been using Ivona’s technology for its Kindle users. Ivona (www.ivona.com) Ivona is a Polish company founded originally as Ivo Software in 2001. The [...]

Work Service, the top human resources outsourcing firm in Poland, has received a sizable equity investment of EUR 26 mln from Pinebridge Investments. Pinebridge will receive a shade over 20 per cent in the target company’s share capital, as well as two supervisory seats on the board. Clearance is yet to be received, but the [...]

The EBRD has decided to go for a second course of the Avallon MBO Fund with a kitty of EUR 27 mln this time. The transaction-specific fund will focus on MBOs and buy-ins in the small to medium-sized businesses, and aims to hit EUR 107 mln in investments. The Avallon II is following in the [...]

Horizon Equity has purchased ZWC “Miś”, a confectionery subsidiary of Delicpol, itself a veteran of the confectionery industry for over 50 years. The parent company is under the management of Resource Partners, considered to be one of the prominent investor groups in the region. The 100 per-cent equity sale will enable Delicpol to re-focus on [...]

Polish mobile games developer Tequila Mobile has raised nearly USD 500,000 (PLN 2 mln) in funding from SATUS Ventures and a SATUS-backed Polish seed fund called Accelerator AI NOT. The investment coincided with Tequila’s announcement about the launch of Tequila Games, a new studio dedicated to developing games. The core business, a gaming developers’ platform that [...]

Bupa, one of the world’s most well-known healthcare providers, has made a successful bid to buy the largest network of hospitals in Poland – Lux Med. The EUR 400 mln deal was the only contending offer from within the industry in the final negotiation phase, with BridgePoint, BC Partners and others being outside competitors for [...]

ARX Equity, a CEE-centric PE firm, has sold its stake in Lexum, a Czech and Poland-based group of hospitals specializing in eye care. The exit comes three years after ARX acquired Czech-based Lexum in 2009 through a management buyout, and two years after a bolt-on acquisition of Polish group Lexum-Medica. The strategic buyer in the [...]

A group of investors comprising RTA Ventures, Point Nine Capital, Piton Capital and a private investor group funding DocPlanner.com, a Polish online scheduling service for dentists and doctors. The group of websites received an amount of EUR 750,000 (USD 1 mln), which will be used towards expanding the network of physicians and dentists to other [...]

PrivacyProtector, a Polish start-up that has developed an encryption software for a safer browsing experience, has obtained seed funding from SATUS and FZ KPT. The company intends to propagate its paid software through viral marketing methods in partnership with popular Polish multimedia player developer AllPlayer. A free version will also be available, but with limited [...]

Highlander Partners, a Dallas, Texas-based investment company, has concluded its fourth investment deal in Poland through the purchase of ProService AT, a financial services company specializing in transfer agent services to large-scale funds – such as pension and investment) and individual distributors of financial products in Poland. Highlander has purchased the company from Skarbiec Asset Management, which [...]

Enterprise Investors, through its Polish Enterprise Fund V, has found a buyer for its 49 per cent stake in Polish small appliances maker Zelmer; the stake will be purchased by Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte, and the purchase price has been set at PLN 298 mln. The trade sale will be a result of Zelmer appointing Société Générale [...]

PineBridge Investments recently made two significant transactions – one in Turkey and one in Poland – of considerable impact. The Polish investment was in the form of purchasing additional stake of 25 per cent in Promedica24, a leading provider of services for the aged and general household care needs in the local and European market. [...]

Exactly a week after announcing the launch of the first Polish Venture Capital 2.0 Fund, Online Partners made their first investment: in Poland’s biggest platform for graphic design freelancing – Corton.pl. The unique model has clients ordering designs for their graphic media needs in the form of contests, which interested designers and graphic artists can [...]

VC fund SATUS Ventures has invested in two companies recently: Duckie Deck and LingApp. The former is an educational portal for children that works across several platforms, including iOS; the investment in the company by SATUS is to the tune of PLN 500,000, which brings total investment in the company to PLN 1.3 mln; the [...]