Adient announced that it completed the acquisition of Futuris for $360 million. Futuris had been spun out of an Australian holding company with backing from Merv Dunn and Clearlake Capital. Fountain Partners became involved when Futuris began supplying seating for Tesla’s Model S. Fountain financed the initial set of equipment in Tesla’s Fremont factory as well as Futuris’ build out of its new space in... read more
SAN FRANCISCO, California; June 12, 2016 — Fountain Partners and Lift It Rentals announce a partnership enabling Lift It Rentals to access up to $6 million in equipment leasing. Lift It Rentals provides long term equipment leasing in the United States to various industries including commercial/residential construction, farming, oil/natural gas and industrial applications. The lease line of credit will allow Lift It Rentals to continue to expand its market presence and customer base. Paul Adkison, Founder and Chairman of Lift It Rentals said “as our organization continues to grow and expand, the need to for the right financial partner is critical. Fountain Partners worked to understand our unique business model and quickly realized the opportunity for everyone involved. The lease lines of credit they are providing will allow us to continue our high rate of growth and continue to expand into other markets that utilize our products and services.” Scott Diggs, President of Lift It Rentals added “Fountain Partners think like entrepreneurs and understood not only where we were but more importantly where we were going.” Lift It Rentals provides long term rental/leases of material handling equipment called a “tele-handler”. The company has strategically and exclusively focused on equipment manufactured by Merlo. Located in Cuneo, Italy, Merlo is one of the oldest and largest tele-handler equipment manufacturers in the world and first to introduce the unique, yet versatile, tele-handler in 1981. About Lift It Rentals: Lift It Rentals, LLC, founded by Paul Adkison in Charlotte, NC, provides long-term rental/leases of material handling equipment called “tele-handler” across the United States. Together with partner Scott Diggs, Lift It Rentals has strategically and exclusively focused... read more
According to PEHub : “Cytovance® Biologics, Inc. (“Cytovance”), a Great Point Partners (“GPP”) I, LP portfolio company and leading biopharmaceutical contract development manufacturing company (CDMO), announced today that it has been acquired by Hepalink USA Inc. (“Hepalink”) for $205.68M in cash. Through the Cytovance acquisition, Hepalink USA Inc. and its parent company Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. add a leading biologics CDMO to its current U.S. operations. Cytovance manufactures protein and antibody drugs for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world. “This transaction expands our ability to develop and grow both our domestic and international businesses and will accelerate our current expansion plans in our Oklahoma City facilities,” said Mr. Darren Head, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cytovance. He added, “Great Point Partners has been an outstanding private equity partner that arranged debt financings enabling growth, helped us recruit senior executives, and that provided Dr. Bernhard Hampl, former CEO of Sandoz USA, from their CEO Advisory Board as Co-Chairman.” The press release can be... read more
According to Businesswire: “CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ: CNMD) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held SurgiQuest, Inc. (SurgiQuest) for $265 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The transaction will be financed through a combination of cash and borrowings under a new credit facility. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of U.S. regulatory approval, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016…” The official press release and more information can be... read more
According to Clearlake Capital: “Futuris Automotive (“Futuris”), a leading global automotive components supplier, today announced the expansion of its North American business with the opening of a new manufacturing facility and design center in Newark, CA, one of several such facilities planned as part of Futuris’ growth and investment strategy in North America. Futuris’ Newark facility is 160,000 square feet, and includes state-of-the-art, vertically integrated equipment to manufacture automotive seating and interior systems. It will also include a design and craftsmanship studio as well as testing, validation and quality centers, and is expected to grow quickly to circa 400 employees…” “The Newark plant opened for business in August 2014, and is located in close proximity to Tesla’s vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, CA. Futuris is a key supply partner to a range of the world’s top vehicle producers, including Tesla, with contracts for the design and manufacture of full seat systems and headliner modules for both the current Tesla Model S sedan and the future Model X SUV. The Newark facility will initially be equipped to manufacture many of Futuris product offerings, including seat assemblies, welded seat frames, seat foam and headliner moldings…” The original press release and more detail can be found here.... read more
According to the Wall Street Journal: ” Heaven Hill Brands, the privately held owner of Evan Williams Bourbon, said Thursday it acquired fast-growing Deep Eddy Vodka, which has doubled its volume annually since its introduction in 2010. The Bardstown, Ky.-based liquor company declined to disclose terms of the deal. Deep Eddy has been on the market since at least May and was valued by an analyst at between $165 million and $300 million. Deep Eddy posted a 130% increase in volume to 330,000 nine-liter cases last year, according to industry tracker Impact Databank. Heaven Hill said Deep Eddy has grown to more than 500,000 cases today. “It’s a fast-growing brand that we believe is not anywhere close to having tapped its potential in what is still the largest alcohol beverage segment in the industry,” said Max Shapira, Heaven Hill’s president. Mr. Shapira said Deep Eddy would operate as an independent company within Heaven Hill and continue to be overseen by its current president, Eric Dopkins. Distribution and production will be managed in Texas where Deep Eddy is based…” More details on the acquisition and... read more
According to the Wall Street Journal: “Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is backing another California startup, announcing a $120 million strategic investment in gaming company Kabam Inc. and a partnership to publish and distribute its free-to-play mobile games. The deal, which values San Francisco-based Kabam at more than $1 billion, comes after The Wall Street Journal reported Alibaba had held talks regarding a financing round for Snapchat Inc. that would have valued the mobile messaging startup at $10 billion. It also marks Alibaba’s latest push to reach more users before its upcoming initial public offering. The strategic infusion into Kabam is akin to recent moves by Chinese tech giants including Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to establish a foothold in new geographies by investing in tech startups. Alibaba has invested in nearly two dozen companies in recent years, specializing in everything from the delivery of large appliances to social networks and soccer clubs…” More on details and a link to the article can be... read more
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 29, 2014 — Fountain Partners announced it has provided a total of $13 million in equipment lease lines of credit to DigitalOcean, the world’s fastest growing cloud provider. The lease lines are helping DigitalOcean grow its customer base by expanding data centers worldwide, including new centers in Amsterdam and Singapore, as well as their first center in London opening this summer. Karl Alomar, COO of DigitalOcean, said his company began using an initial $3 million lease line of credit in 2013 — its first independent line for direct leases — to increase servers at its U.S. data centers, which were straining to handle 30%-35% month-on-month customer growth. DigitalOcean can add more than 4,000 customer accounts for every $1 million worth of servers. “More recently, Fountain Partners came in ahead of the pack again and offered another $10 million, becoming our first eight-figure line,” he said. Fountain recognized DigitalOcean’s need for international capacity with this lease line of credit that included $5 million for overseas expansion. “We had some international capacity before, but this was the first significant chunk of financing dedicated to international infrastructure. This helped us expand in Amsterdam and launch the Singapore data center this year with confidence,” Alomar said. “Fountain Partners understood the business model and got into the weeds of the business model more so than other financing providers. They had good foresight, business understanding, and they knew the market well. They were able to see the opportunity,” Alomar noted. “Fountain Partners was more entrepreneurial in thinking… interested in the direction the company was going rather than just where it was.” DigitalOcean currently... read more
Today Digital Ocean announced that it closed it’s Series A venture capital equity financing round led by Andreesen Horowitz. IA Ventures had invested in the Digital Ocean’s prior equity round during 2013 and participated again along with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund. The $37 million round comes after DO raised just over $3M in equity in the summer of 2013 and augmented that with a significant volume of venture leasing. Digital Ocean’s server growth follows the company’s popularity among users and the availability of equipment leasing for IT gear. Now that the round of equity is closed and announced readers will see many more charts and references to Digital Ocean’s server counts, popularity among developers and competitive positioning relative to Rackspace, Amazon cloud services, Google Compute Engine and others. Fountain Partners congratulates Ben, Moisey, Karl and Larry on all their efforts to build a great product for... read more
According to Inc. magazine Accolade, Inc. has been ranked the number one fastest growing healthcare company over the last three years on the 2012 Inc. 500. Overall, Accolade ranked thirty-third on the 2012 Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing companies. The 2012 Inc. 500|5000 is an exclusive listing of the nation’s fastest growing private companies ranked according to revenue growth percentage when comparing 2008 to 2011. Accolade ranked 33rd overall in the 2012 Inc. 500 survey. Accolade provides an innovative employee benefit that simplifies healthcare complexity for the employees of large employers. Each employee and their family get their own professional Accolade Health Assistant who knows them, knows their benefits, and helps them navigate the healthcare system. The personal connections Accolade Health Assistants nurture with each family result in healthier and more productive employees, greater employee satisfaction and commitment, and significantly lower healthcare costs for their... read more
