This week’s family/private investment office deals

The Deal of the Week involves more family office money backing a wealth management platform. More details here

Private Equity

Advance, an investment and holding group owned by S.I. Newhouse and his family, has bought The IRONMAN Group, which owned, organized, promoted, and licensed endurance events. Terms of the deal weren’ disclosed. 

Seed

Berggruen Holdings, owned by the German/US investor Nicolas Berggruen, has invested in Helm.ai, an artificial intelligence platform for autonomous vehicles. Berggruen was one of 14 investors seeding the Californian-based startup with $13 million. 

Series A

WestRiver Group, an investment group owned by Erik Anderson, the executive chairman of Singularity University,  has invested in Design Therapeutics, a biotech group. WestRiver was one of four investors committing $45 million to the Dallas-based group. 

Series B 

Sofina, an investment group owned by the Belgian-based Boël family, has invested in Qingzhu, a hotel group. Sofina was one of four investors committing an unspecified amount to the China-based group. 

Mousse Partners, an investment group owned by Charles Heilbronn, together with the Bill Gates’ backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, have backed Nature’s Fynd, a food company producing a protein from a microbe discovered in geothermal springs. The two investors joined four other backers, which together committed $80 million to the Chicago-based group. 

Burst Capital, an investment group owned by US-based Geoff Donaker, has backed Ada Support, a chatbot platform. Burst was one of six investors committing $44 million to the Canadian group. 

Series C

Atomico, the venture-capital business owned and led by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, has invested in Lilium, which is developing an on-demand air mobility service. Atomico was one of four investors committing $240 million to the German-based group. 

Series D

Revolution, Steve Case’s investment fund, has invested in Scopely, an interactive entertainment and mobile games company. Revolution was one of seven investors committing $200 million to the Californian group. 

TEV Ventures, which is owned by the German Haub family, has invested in Blickfeld, which offers LiDAR sensors and detection software for autonomous mobility. TEV was one of six investors committing an unspecified amount to the Munich-based group.