Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here with today’s Wire. Move over DIY. Make room for DIFM. The good news for private equity investors in the growing “do-it-for-me” movement is that today’s consumers are willing to pay for services that yesterday’s do-it-yourselfers weren’t. The DIFM trend is being “driven by younger homeowners and those choosing to age in place,” explains Huron Capital partner Brian Rassel. The movement is behind Huron’s new lawn care services platform, which will be formally announced any minute. As PE Hub’s Aaron Weitzman reported a few hours ago, the Detroit private equity firm has acquired ExperiGreen Lawn Care, a Mishawaka, Indiana company providing a variety of services, including seeding and soil amendment, to residential customers. The DIFM movement is driving PE-backed deals throughout the home maintenance landscape, as PE Hub has been reporting all summer. Check out Obey Martin Manayiti’s story on PE interest in pest control and home inspection services. Also see Iris Dorbian’s story on PE investments in plumbing services. European healthcare platform. Main Capital will use its recent investment, Dutch healthcare software provider Avinty, as a platform for organic growth and acquisitions, with a particular focus on expanding in northwest Europe, managing partner Charly Zwemstra told PE Hub Europe’s Nina Lindholm. Oldenzaal-headquartered Avinty provides software to more than 400 customers in the Netherlands and Belgium with more than 65,000 healthcare professionals using it daily. Founded in 1994, the company was established by merging healthcare software providers Karify, Jouw Omgeving, Impulse, VIR e-care solutions, NederCare and AppNormal. For more, see Nina’s story. Explosive growth in secondaries. Apollo Global Management recently moved into the secondaries market with full force following the launch of S3, its sponsor and secondaries solutions business. Scott Kleinman, the firm’s co-president, spoke to Madeleine Farman for Secondaries Investor about the drivers behind the Apollo’s entry into the secondaries market. Formally launched on 4 August with a cornerstone commitment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority – bringing total new commitments to approximately $4 billion – the alternatives giant has been building out the platform over the past year or so, making high-profile hires from the likes of Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Tikehau Capital. At the time of the launch, the firm had already committed or deployed more than $13 billion across secondary and fund finance capital solutions transactions. Apollo anticipates substantial fundraising dedicated to S3 activities, particularly in equity secondaries, credit secondaries and fund finance. “Secondaries is a space we’ve been exploring for several years, that has proved to be very interesting and dynamic,” Kleinman said. Read the full interview here. The results are in. “Fundraising by private equity firms dipped in this year’s first half, as proliferating products in a crowded marketplace met with reduced supply due to over-allocated LPs,” Buyouts’ Kirk Falconer reports. “GPs may be experiencing longer fundraising timeline, delayed fund launches and related impacts.” Download Buyouts’ H1 2022 fundraising report. Peace, Love, and Understanding. Yup, I’ve got Elvis Costello lyrics playing in my head today. I’m seeing him perform tonight at Pier 17 in New York, and then I’m off to the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, where I’ll be hearing some different tunes at Tanglewood, including a performance by Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax. Aaron will write the Wire on Friday and Monday, and I’ll be back in the proverbial private equity saddle on Tuesday. Happy dealmaking until then, MK Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ... | 