Venture/Growth

Mistral has raised €3bn in a Series D round valuing the French AI company at more than €21bn, in what it says is the largest-ever equity fundraising by a European technology company.

Tasman Capital Partners expects its fourth private equity fund to be substantially deployed by the time it reaches a planned final close in March next year, having already put its first two platform investments in place after securing about 60% of its A$200m target.

Private equity firm Astorg says software businesses in its portfolio are already seeing teams operate at roughly three times their previous productivity - with improvements of up to 10x in specific development cycle times - but argues the bigger opportunity from AI will require companies to redesign how they operate.

The public-market software repricing has begun feeding visibly into private equity valuations, helping push global buyout returns negative in the first quarter despite most other sectors suffering only modest declines, new HarbourVest data shows.

Advent Life Sciences has hired former Colony Capital executive Gail Jermyn as investor relations partner, bringing in a fundraising veteran with more than two decades of experience as the firm looks to mobilise more overseas capital.

Molten Ventures has reached a £175m first close for its new Growth Fund after securing a £75m cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank, as the listed VC firm looks to scale the amount of third-party institutional capital it manages alongside its balance sheet.

Apollo and Triton have lined up a roughly $4.1bn exit from thermal management specialist Kelvion through a sale to energy technology major SLB.

India's National Investment and Infrastructure Fund has brought in PAG's private equity fundraising head Gauravjit Singh to lead its global capital formation effort after mobilising about $3bn of new equity commitments over the past two years.

Claret Capital Partners has scaled its flagship growth debt strategy by almost 50% through the €440m close of Fund IV.

Carlyle and sports-focused private equity firm Dynasty Equity were among minority investments in current Super Bowl holders the Seattle Seahawks, supporting the Khosla family’s $9.6bn acquisition of the NFL franchise.