| Private equity industry sees glimmers of hope in coronavirus crisis
It’s been a shorter week than usual with the long Easter weekend, providing some much-needed relaxation during the strange and turbulent times we find ourselves in.
This week KKR warned of “unforeseeable business impacts”, as it announced that it expects lower valuations for its portfolios due to COVID-19, while stating that the group has “sufficient liquidity.” Meanwhile, China published its GDP figures today showing a -6.8% GDP contraction for Q1 2020; which is slightly worse than consensus expectations.
Despite the private equity industry having had to scramble to cope in recent weeks, there is a potential ‘window of opportunity’ for PE – explored in this week’s feature – and glimmers of hope where funding rounds are either well underway or recently completed.
Tech companies in particular have seen an uptick in investments and funding, particularly within the office tech, delivery and payments space, among others.
GCM Grosvenor completed the final close of its Co-Investment Opportunities Fund II, committing to almost USD540 million in capital. Wednesday saw Push Technologies, a real-time data streaming and messaging platform, receive GBP10 million in its latest funding round led by Maven Capital Partners and Guinness Am.
Crypto Finance completed a Series B investment round, raising CHF14 million led by private equity fund Lingfeng Capital. Also on Thursday, Perwyn, BGF, MMC Ventures and Joe Wicks led a GBP33 million funding round in Gousto. The recipe box delivery service has joined the Coronavirus response effort, implementing contactless delivery for customers and donating 6,000 meals to The Trussell Trust foodbank network.
Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire
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