IVEST buys rights to Care Bears; PSG Equity on AppHub add-ons; SEC rules a Dodd-Frank moment

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IVEST buys rights to Care Bears; PSG Equity on AppHub add-ons; SEC rules a Dodd-Frank moment

Good morning Hubsters, Craig McGlashan here filling in for MK Flynn on the Thursday Wire.

We’ve got a deal that proved extremely timely this morning, with IVEST Consumer Partners set to announce that it has bought the licensing rights to a children’s franchise. PE Hub’s Iris Dorbiangot the inside story from IVEST co-founder and managing partner George Jones, who talked about how the investment comes at a great time for toys, thanks in large part to the summer blockbuster Barbie.

Switching sectors, we then hear from PSG Equity’s Matt Stone and Kate Nimmo about their firm’s plans for e-commerce software company AppHub– including how a recent add-on could leverage the power of generative AI.

Rounding out the Wire, we tackle the big regulatory news from yesterday, after the Securities and Exchange Commission showed its hand on some big rule changes for private equity.

Care Bear market

Opening today, we have a scoop byIris Dorbian, who reveals that IVEST Consumer Partners has snapped up the licensing rights to a popular children’s franchise.

Artificial intelligence

PSG Equity, a Boston-based growth equity firm that invests in software developers and tech-enabled service providers, announced in July an investment in AppHub, a San Francisco and New York-based e-commerce software company. At the same time AppHub revealed an add-on acquisition in Boost, an AI-powered search and discovery tool.

To find out more about the AppHub deal and PSG's strategy, PE Hub’s MK Flynnturned to the PE firm's Matt Stone, managing director, and Kate Nimmo, senior vice president.

Big changes

The Securities and Exchange Commission had the attention of the private equity industry yesterday as it adopted what my colleague Bill Myerscalled the “most sweeping new rules for the private fund industry since Dodd-Frank.”

We also took a look at some regulatory issues over on PE Hub Europe this morning, specifically about how using an IPO as an exit route can avoid some of the increased scrutiny given to antitrust concerns.

That’s all from me – Obey Martin Manayitiwill be with you tomorrow to take you through to the weekend.

Cheers,

Craig

Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ...

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