BlackPeak Capital completes final closing of Southeast Europe Growth Equity Fund at €126 million
BlackPeak Capital successfully completed final closing of Southeast Europe Growth Equity Fund at €126 million, surpassing the original target of €120 million. BlackPeak Southeast Europe Growth Equity Fund is based in Luxembourg and is backed by the European Investment Fund, the EBRD, the IFC, Erste Asset Management, and leading regional pension funds.
“We are grateful for the continued support of our investors and for their trust and recognition of the potential of growth equity in Southeast Europe. The new Fund is a significant milestone not only for us, but also for the region, as it is one of the first funds with focus to channel significant investments of pension funds and asset management companies into the Southeast European economies via private equity,” commented Rossen Ivanov and Ivailo Gospodinov, managing partners at BlackPeak Capital.
The Fund has already invested in two companies – Verdino, a leading regional meat replacement producer, and euShipments, a leading regional integrator of logistical services for e-commerce shops. The Fund targets growth equity investments of €5-15 million in dynamic SMEs in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. The Fund focuses on partnering with the region’s outstanding entrepreneurs who have the ambition to build world-class companies on the basis of continued innovation, organic growth, and add-on acquisitions. The Fund has a generalist sector approach with strong preference for IT/software, niche manufacturing, business services, healthcare, and consumer sectors.
“We are increasingly seeing companies in the region, which are on par with their global competitors in terms of quality of products and services and we are very excited to partner with them to help them in their regional and global expansion plans,” commented Niklas Pichler, managing partner at BlackPeak Capital.
The Fund builds on the successful track record of BlackPeak Fund I, which invested in 12 companies, including in global innovation leaders such as Walltopia, International Power Supply, Software Group, Digitall, and others. BlackPeak Capital remains committed to making a significant positive economic, social, and environmental impact. Both Verdino and euShipments have started implementation of measures to become carbon neutral as part of the Fund’s ESG commitment.
The Fund benefits from the support of the European Union under the Equity Facility for Growth established under Regulation (EU) No 1287/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council establishing a Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and small and medium enterprises (COSME) (2014-2020) and from the support of the Invest BG.