Keensight Capital announces HR software biz investment

An HR software company is the opening deal of the day, with Keensight Capital investing in the business.

Next, we feature a KKR-backed risk management company making an add-on, before we take another look at the Pollen Street Capital- and Bain Capital-backed merger between insurers Markerstudy and Atlanta Group – specifically the involvement of a continuation fund.

We then finish with some people hires at Synova and at Agilitas Private Equity.

Human resources

Keensight Capital has invested in Aconso, an HR software company headquartered in Munich.

Aconso focuses on HR document management systems, an ever more important tool thanks to the adoption of GDPR, the rise in flexible working and other factors, according to a release. That has led to double-digit growth and “strong profitability”, the release added.

Keensight’s aim is to grow Aconso internationally, particularly in the US. The company’s customers include Lufthansa, BioNTech, Deutsche Bahn and Starbucks.

Aconso’s founders will retain a “substantial” stake, the release said, and run the company.

Cybersecurity

KKR-backed Apexanalytix, a supply chain risk management company, has acquired Darkbeam, a cyber risk management company.

“When you ask business leaders about their top priorities today, they will inevitably bring up cybersecurity, supply chain and operational efficiency,” said Webster Chua, partner at KKR, in a statement. “With this acquisition, apex will extend its lead by providing an all-in-one solution for the world’s most complex global enterprises.”

Global cyberattacks were up 38 percent in 2022 compared with 2021, according to Check Point Research statistics cited in the release.

KKR made a majority investment in Apexanalytix in 2022.

Apexanalytix is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, while Darkbeam is based in London.

Continuation fund

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about Pollen Street Capital and Bain Capital Special Situations funding a merger between insurers Markerstudy and Atlanta Group that valued the latter at £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion; €1.4 billion). Atlanta Group is the personal insurance brokering business of Ardonagh Group.

Our colleague Adam Le over at Secondaries Investor has done a bit of digging and found that AlpInvest Partners, LGT Capital Partners and StepStone are co-leads in what is actually a complex insurance-focused continuation fund deal.

It now appears that Markerstudy and another Pollen Street asset – regulated industries software provider Aryza – were part of a two-asset continuation fund process worth £840 million. This GP-led process is understood to have been conceived last year and was run concurrently with the add-on acquisition of Atlanta Group.

The transaction is unusual due to the involvement of the separate M&A process, which was run concurrently. While Markerstudy’s acquisition of Atlanta was not part of the secondaries process, secondaries buyers wanted to ensure clarity around the M&A process before backing the GP-led, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Read more over on Secondaries Investor.

Partnering up

Growth investor Synova has appointed Oliver Bevan as partner. Bevan will focus on investments within the tech-enabled services sector, alongside fellow partner Alex Bowden.

Bevan joins from Waterland Private Equity where he served as UK head.

Synova also recently added Chris Snow and Adam Page as investment managers, and Jessica Collins as an investment executive, to its tech-enabled services team.

Transformation

Agilitas Private Equity has appointed Matthias Hansch as head of transformation and Alison Prout as an ESG transformation professional.

Hansch will be responsible for supporting Agilitas-backed businesses in the design and implementation of their transformation plans. He will oversee Agilitas’s five-person team of transformation professionals.

Hansch was previously an operating partner at Aurelius Group.

Prout will support Agilitas in its approach to responsible investment and sustainable value creation. She has experience working with organisations including Ceres, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Wildlife Fund.