| PE groups buying up warehouses
The UK became the first country in the world to start using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday. Margaret Keenan was given the Pfizer Covid-19 jab as the start of a mass vaccination programme of 800,000 doses that will be dispensed in coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel, which includes independent scientific experts, infectious disease doctors and statisticians, recommended the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Thursday.
As we creep towards the end of a year that has already felt longer than 12 months for most, a notable shift in the mindset of investors could be one positive change to remember 2020 for, according to Kinson Lo, founder of London-based fintech investment platform Dot Investing.
In his feature for Private Equity Wire this week, Lo writes about how awareness of climate change, and environmental activism, have been gathering momentum across wider society for a number of years.
And while David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg have rightly been lauded for their efforts to support the cause, it may be a shift in where HNWs and professional investors invest their money that turns out to have a bigger future impact. Read it to find out more.
Ada Ventures closed its first fund at USD50 million, one year after its launch, with new investment from Big Society Capital and a number of other funds and individuals.
It is a first-cheque seed fund, and the team behind it is on a mission to make venture capital accessible to talent in the UK and Europe, regardless of race, gender or background. The fund aims to have the most diverse pipeline, and portfolio, of any fund on the continent.
Joe Shamash, investment director at Big Society Capital, who led the Ada Ventures investment, commented: “Our mission at Big Society Capital is to change the way investment flows to support organisations that improve lives - and thinking about equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental if we are to succeed.”
Out of the companies the fund reviewed in 2020, 43 per cent had at least one female founder. Over half of deal flow overall came in "cold" – without a so called ‘warm introduction’, which is good news as warm intros tend to typically be unhelpful for diversity.
In other news, JPMorgan’s Highbridge Capital is in talks to raise at least USD1 billion for a strategy dedicated to investing in SPACs and related financial instruments, according to reports, and growth capital group Highland Europe raised USD851 million this week, its largest fundraise to date.
KKR is approaching a deal for a warehouse portfolio, as the latest in a line of PE-firms that have been buying up warehouse space on the back of the growth in digital commerce fuelled by the pandemic.
Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire
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