• Building on the success of its Strategic Financials Fund (‘SFF’), Cinven held the final close of its second Strategic Fund (‘Strategic Fund 2’ or ‘SF2’), raising c. €2.3 billion for its differentiated European mid-market strategy, exceeding the target fund size by c. 50% as it benefitted from a strong re-up rate from the SFF and welcomed a number of new investors to the SF2
• With a c. 75% increase in fund size vs its predecessor, the SFF, the SF2 aims to continue capitalising on the significant Financial Services opportunity identified by Cinven in the European mid-market, while replicating the SFF’s success across an attractive incremental opportunity set in the Business Services and TMT sectors
• Cinven’s dedicated SF2 team will target high-growth, asset-light opportunities in the European mid-market, leveraging Cinven’s leading European positioning, Sector-Regional origination matrix approach and large-cap specialist capabilities to drive alpha-oriented value creation
• The SF2 brings meaningful two-way synergies for the Cinven Funds and platform, including increased connectivity with key stakeholders across Europe’s sectors and regions, the deepening of Cinven’s sector-based thematic investing, and knowledge-sharing to benefit the respective Cinven Funds
International private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that it has held the final close of its second Strategic Fund, ‘Strategic Fund 2’ or ‘SF2’, raising c. €2.3 billion of committed capital and exceeding its target fund size by c. 50%. The fund size of the SF2 represents a c. 75% increase on its financial serviced-focused predecessor, the Strategic Financials Fund (‘SFF’).
Building on Cinven’s leading European positioning, Sector-Regional origination matrix and large-cap capabilities, the SF2 continues Cinven’s singular focus on private equity investing, while giving investors access to a differentiated European mid-market strategy led by a dedicated investment team. The SF2 team will primarily target control positions in high-growth, asset-light opportunities across Financial Services, Business Services and TMT, key sectors of strength for Cinven, and target opportunities in key regions of strength for Cinven throughout Europe.
Cinven’s Sector-Regional matrix is a key competitive advantage that combines the deep specialist expertise of its Sector teams with the local European networks of its Regional teams, supported by its functional specialist Portfolio and Capital Markets teams, and benefitting from the global reach provided by its North America team, with its US office supporting portfolio growth for European businesses expanding into the Americas. Together, these create differentiated origination angles for Cinven, allowing it to identify and unlock investment opportunities with significant alpha-oriented, transformational value creation potential.
Furthermore, the SFF and SF2 bring meaningful two-way synergies for the Cinven Funds and platform, including increased connectivity with key stakeholders across Europe’s sectors and regions, the deepening of Cinven’s sector-based thematic investing, and knowledge-sharing to benefit the respective Cinven Funds.
The successful SF2 fundraise underscores Cinven’s differentiated and focused European investment strategy, continued strong momentum sourcing attractive and high-quality investment opportunities, sustained progress driving realisations, and strong alignment and relationships with its Limited Partners.
The SF2 is co-led by Cinven Partners Luigi Sbrozzi and Michael Weber, who bring over 40 years of combined private equity experience, with a senior investment team of 16 dedicated professionals that continues to grow, combining the sector expertise across Financial Services, Business Services and TMT.
The SF2 has already signed four investments that are all performing strongly: Objectway, a leading digital end-to-end platform solution provider for wealth managers, banks and asset managers; Flint Global, a specialist professional services firm advising corporates and investors on regulatory, policy and economic matters; Ongoing Warehouse, a leading cloud-native Warehouse Management System provider; and Optio Group, a leading specialty insurance Managing General Agent (‘MGA’) platform. All four were high-quality founder/ employee-owned businesses where Cinven will partner with the founders and/or management teams to drive significant further value creation.
Bruno Schick and Jorge Quemada, Co-Managing Partners at Cinven, said:
“We are grateful for the strong support for the SF2 from both longstanding and new investors globally, that we believe is testament to our unrivalled European focus; sole focus on PE buyouts; decades-long track record of successfully investing through cycles; and full alignment with our investors. The significant step-up in fund size from the SFF allows us to capitalise on the large and attractive opportunity set we have identified in the European mid-market through our differentiated Sector-Regional matrix approach. We have been delivering strong performance momentum for our investors, both investing and realising, and continue to see a highly attractive opportunity set for dealmaking in Europe, both in the mid-market where the SF2 is focused and for our large-cap Flagship Funds.”
Luigi Sbrozzi and Michael Weber, Co-Heads of the Cinven Strategic Financial Funds, added:
“We are delighted with the successful close of SF2, giving investors access to a dedicated European mid-market strategy and team, building on the strong platform we established with the SFF, a very strong performer for its vintage. The SF2 targets high-quality, founder-owned businesses across Europe where we can apply our sector expertise and operational capabilities, both within the SF2 team and across the broader Cinven platform, that has amassed nearly 50 years of sector and country expertise, to drive transformational value creation in an accretive and synergistic way. The four investments we have signed are all performing on, or ahead of, plan, and we are really pleased with the quality and pace of deployment we have achieved so far.”
