Kennet Partners Explained
Kennet Partners is a private equity investment firm that provides growth capital to software, Internet and technology-enabled business services companies in Europe and the US.
Kennet Partners is headquartered in London, England, and has an office in San Francisco, California. The firm raised its fourth fund in 2014, bringing total capital under management to $700 million.
Founding / history
Kennet was founded in 1997 as Kennet Capital, a joint venture between technology investment bank Broadview International and asset management firm Electra Partners. In 2000, Kennet became a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadview. In 2003 the partners of Kennet completed a management buy-out and became independent.[1] Kennet's first fund was primarily targeted at early-stage technology investments in Europe. With its second fund, Kennet began making growth equity investments in both Europe and the U.S., and this has remained the firm's exclusive strategy to this day.
Funds and investments
Kennet has raised five funds:
- 1997 Kennet I LP (£48.3 million)
- 2000 Kennet II LP ($204 million)
- 2008 Kennet III LP (€201 million)[2]
- 2014 Kennet IV LP (€105 million)
- 2020 Kennet V LP ($250 million)
Institutional investors in the Kennet funds include Access Capital Partners, Adveq, Alpha Associates, BNP Private Equity, Credit Suisse, European Investment Fund, LGT Capital Partners and Siemens.
Investments
Since inception, Kennet has invested in 60 companies,[3] of which Kennet's most notable exits include Altitun,[4] Paragon Software,[5] [6] No Wires Needed,[7] Cramer Systems,[8] Chipidea,[9] [10] Adviva Media,[11] [12] NetPro, MedeAnalytics, GoViral, FRS Global, Prolexic Technologies, and Schoolwires.
Other investments include:
- ABA English
- Adikteev
- Aspective[13]
- BuyVIP
- Consul Risk Management
- Clearswift
- Conversica
- Daptiv (fka eProject)[14]
- Impartner
- Intelepeer (fka VoEX)
- Kapow Technologies
- Kemp
- Monis Software
- Orchestream
- RealityMine
- Receipt Bank
- Recommind[15]
- Rivo Software
- Rimilia
- Sequans Communications[16]
- Sermo
- Spreadshirt
- STS BV[17]
- Telemedicine Clinic[18]
- ThinkHR
- TradingPartners
- Ubizen
- Volantis Systems
Competitors
Kennet's investment strategy is similar to that of other growth capital investment firms such as Summit Partners, TA Associates and Insight Venture Partners. In Europe, Kennet competes with firms such as Eight Roads Ventures, Highland Europe, Scottish Equity Partners and the growth equity arm of Index Ventures. Competitors in the U.S. include JMI Equity and Summit Partners' Accelerator Fund.
References
Further reading
- How Much Bootstrapping Is Enough Javier Rojas, SoftGram 2008.
- A Q&A with Jon Craton, Founder, Cramer Systems Sandhill.com, 14 August 2008.
- How to convert to SaaS Sandill.com, June 2008.
- Bootstrapping, over crowding and capital efficiency: a contrarian view Prakash Muralidharan, Thoughts from the trench, 17 March 2007.
- Have you considered bootstrapping your business for success? Javier Rojas, Opportunity World, July/August 2006.
- Strategic Entrepreneurship: Why it is better to be bootstrapped than well-heeled Jonathan Guthrie, 7 December 2005.
- El Ciclo del Capital riesgo en Europa: Su gestion y aportaction de valor FUNDACIÓN DE ESTUDIOS FINANCIEROS, March 2005.
External links
Notes and References
- http://www.altassets.com/news/arc/2003/nz1925.php UK Kennet Venture Partners spins out from Broadview
- http://www.tornado-insider.com/radar/compShow.asp?compID=7478 Kennet Partners
- http://www.kennet.com/the-kennet-portfolio/ Company website:portfolio
- http://www.efinancialnews.com/homepage/content/585872 Record Exit for Kennet
- http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27610182_ITM 3i and Kennet sell Paragon of Virtue
- http://www.mobileinfo.com/news/news_2000_issue06/Phone_Paragon_soft.htm Phone.com acquires Paragon Software
- http://eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10811813 Intersil to acquire No Wires Needed
- http://telephonyonline.com/software/finance/amdocs_cramer_acquisition_071806/ Amdocs acquires Cramer Systems for $375 million
- http://www.kennet.com/portfolio/case-stories/chipidea-microelectronica/ Kennet website: Chipidea case study
- http://www.silicontap.com/mips_buys_chipidea/s-0010880.html MIPS buys Chipidea
- http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628737 Specific Media's Adviva Buy Aimed at Behavioral Growth in UK
- http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9891485-7.html Specific Media acquires UK-based Adviva
- http://www.twst.com/notes/articles/lzt096.html Interview with FD Mike Banwell, Aspective Limited
- https://venturebeat.com/2007/11/12/eproject-becomes-daptiv-aims-to-take-over-ppm-market/ eProject becomes Daptiv
- https://venturebeat.com/2008/10/08/recommind-raises-75m-for-ediscovery-20/ "Recommind raises $7.5M for eDiscovery 2.0"
- http://www.eetimes.eu/semi/207801197 Sequans extends mobile WiMAX chip series
- http://www.thealarmclock.com/euro/archives/2007/08/dutch_wireless_audio_1.html Dutch Wireless Audio Startup Raises First Round
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110519190157/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=9206384 Private Company snapshot
