2018
Innova Capital exceeds a first close of its sixth fund at EUR 194m
Innova Capital, a leading private equity fund in Central and Eastern Europe, has confirmed the first close of its Innova/6 fund at EUR 194m, thereby significantly exceeding the minimum target of EUR 150m. At the same time, within twelve months up to the first close, Innova has achieved as much as 60% of the hard cap set out at EUR 325m.
Over 60% of the committed capital came from LPs in the company’s prior funds, with remaining commitments provided by new investors. Half of the capital raised came from commercial investors, while the other half from International Financial Institutions.
“Having been out of the market since 2009, we found ourselves in a different fundraising environment with a wide range of new inspiring challenges. We are very pleased to reach roughly 60% of the hard cap at the first close and we are looking forward to inspiring new investing opportunities for the fund”, says Krzysztof Kulig, Senior Partner, responsible for fundraising process for the Fund.
Innova/6, a Poland-anchored fund, will follow the strategy of its predecessors investing in the medium-sized companies with enterprise value typically ranging from EUR 50m to EUR 150m. Target sectors will include financial and business services, TMT, manufacturing, consumer products and services, healthcare and retail.
The fund’s investment model will focus on Innova’s two signature deal types: a Founder Succession deal in which Innova takes a majority stake and partners with business founders to build their company “to the next level” and a Platform+ investment, assuming acquisition of two companies and consolidating them on purchase, leveraging the income and cost synergies effectively.
To the date, Innova Capital has raised five investment funds totalling EUR 900m, with almost 50 investments across 10 countries in the region. The first two funds have already been liquidated. Innova/3 was one of the best performing European private equity funds in recent times. Fund Innova/4 is at end of the investment phase with nine companies in its portfolio, and eight exits already. Since 2010 Innova/5 fund has already invested in twelve companies with four successful exits. In January 2018, Innova completed its first deal from the new fund Innova/6 with Inelo & OCRK (a leading technology-based player active in drivers’ work time management systems for the transportation industry).
