Kennet Partners

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
TypeLimited company
IndustryPrivate Equity
Founded1997 (1997)
HeadquartersLondon, England, United Kingdom
Foster City, California, United States
Key people
Michael Elias, Javier Rojas, Eric Filipek, Hillel Zidel
ProductsPrivate equity funds
Number of employees
12
Websitewww.kennet.com

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

A more detailed list of Kennet's investments can be found on Crunchbase.[19]

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
  1. UK Kennet Venture Partners spins out from Broadview Archived 2008-11-23 at the Wayback Machine AltAssets, 31 March 2003
  2. Kennet Partners (Tornado Insider profile)
  3. Company website:portfolio
  4. Record Exit for Kennet eFinancial News, 22 May 2000.
  5. 3i and Kennet sell Paragon of Virtue European Venture Capital Journal, 1 March 2000.
  6. Phone.com acquires Paragon Software Mobile Info, 11 February 2000.
  7. Intersil to acquire No Wires Needed EE Times, 27 April 2000.
  8. Amdocs acquires Cramer Systems for $375 million Telephony Online, 18 July 2006
  9. Kennet website: Chipidea case study
  10. MIPS buys Chipidea Silicon Tap, 27 August 2007.
  11. Specific Media's Adviva Buy Aimed at Behavioral Growth in UK ClickZ, 13 March 2008.
  12. Specific Media acquires UK-based Adviva Tech news blog - CNET New.com, 12 March 2008.
  13. Interview with FD Mike Banwell, Aspective Limited TWST.com, 19 January 2004.
  14. eProject becomes Daptiv VentureBeat, 12 November 2007.
  15. "Recommind raises $7.5M for eDiscovery 2.0", VentureBeat, 8 October 2008.
  16. Sequans extends mobile WiMAX chip series EETimes.com, 20 May 2008.
  17. Dutch Wireless Audio Startup Raises First Round Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine alarm:clock euro, 13 August 2007.
  18. Private Company snapshot Business Week, September 2006
  19. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kennet-venture-partners/investments

Further reading
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