This week’s family/private investment office deals

Our Deal of the Week involves a family office and endowment head backing a SPAC to invest in companies. More details here

Unspecified Rounds

F-Prime Capital, a venture group owned by the Johnson family, owners of Fidelity Investments, has invested in Owkin, a machine learning platform for medical research. F-Prime was one of six investors committing $25 million to the New York City-based group. 

Holt Ventures, an investment group owned by the Texan-based Holt family, has invested in Transect, which provides solutions for environmental risk for renewable energy, oil and gas, transportation, and real estate customers. Holt was one of three investors committing an unspecified amount to the Texas-based group. 

Frog Capital, a London-based investment group backed by the German Engelhorn family, has invested in Modulr, a payments platform. Frog was one of four investors committing £18.9 million to the London-based group. 

Pendyne Capital, a family office owned by the Florida-based Collier family, has invested in Black Buffalo, which makes a smokeless tobacco alternative. Pendyne was one of three investors committing $9.8 million to the Chicago-based group. 

Inter Invest Capital, a Paris-based investment group owned by Daniel Petit, has invested in E-novate, a mobile trading desk platform. Inter committed €5 million to the French group. 

Aglaé Ventures, a Paris-based venture group backed by the Arnault family, has invested in Back Market, an online marketplace for refurbished electronics. Aglaé was one of four investors committing $120 million to the Paris-based group. 

Seed

Exor Seeds, the venture group owned by the Agnelli family, has invested in CorVent Medical, which makes ventilators for critical care. Exor was one of six investors committing $4.5 million to the New York City-based startup. 

Austin-Texas-based Bala Investments, owned by Rajiv Bala, has invested in ConverseNow, which automates and personalizes restaurant orders. Bala led the seed round worth $3.3 million; six others participated in the round for the Austin-based startup.  

TD Veen, an impact investment group set up by Norwegian Tor Dagfinn Veen, has invested in iSize Technologies, which is pioneering deep learning for video delivery. TD Veen led the round worth £740,000 for the UK-based startup; five other investors participated. 

Series A 

UK-based Becht Family Charitable Trust, an impact investment group set up by Bart Becht, a former partner at JAB Holding Company, has invested in DryGro, an agriculture technology company. Becht backed the UK group with £2 million. 

Lupa Systems, the New York City investment group owned by James Murdoch, has invested in Morning Consult, a technology company that offers global data intelligence & insights across business, economics, & politics. Lupa was one of two investors committing $31 million to the Washington D.C.-based group. 

Goodwell Investments, a Dutch-based sustainable investment group set up by Wim van der Beek, has backed EA Fruits Farm, a Tanzanian fruit and vegetable producer. Goodwell was one of three backers contributing $2 million to the group. 

01 Advisors, an investment group set up by two former senior managers at Twitter, Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, has invested in Braid Health, an artificial intelligence platform for the medical diagnostics sector. 01 was one of three investors committing $9 million to the San Francisco-based group. 

Bolton Equities, a New Zealand based investment group owned by investor Murray Bolton, has invested in Verteva, a fintech lending platform. Bolton committed A$33 million to the Australian-based group. 

French billionaire Bernard Arnault and US-based Joel Peterson, probably through his investment group Peterson Ventures, have invested in Workstream, an automated hiring platform for companies employing hourly workers. The two investors joined 17 other investors in a round worth $10 million for the San Francisco-based group. 

Biotech investor Paul Mannings, probably through his investment group PBM Capital Group, has invested in biotech group Kriya Therapeutics. Mannings invested alongside eighth others with a commitment of $80.5 million for the Palo Alto-based biotech. 

Bling Capital, an investment group owned by Californian-based Ben Ling, has invested in Vise, an AI-driven portfolio management platform. Bling was one of eight investors committing $14.5 million to the New York City-based group. 

Capricorn Investment Group, which represents the interest of Jeff Skoll as well as other investors, has invested in Span.IO, a cleantech group. Capricorn invested alongside nine other investors with a total commitment of $10 million for the San Francisco-based group. 

Series B 

Horizons Ventures, owned by Asian billionaire Li Ka-shing, together with Sofina, an investment group owned by the Belgian-based Boël family, and Verlinvest, the family investment group for the Spoelberch and de Mévius families, who are linked to the world’s biggest brewery group, InBev, have invested in Kopi Kenangan, an Indonesian coffee chain. The three investors along with four others committed $109 million to the group.  

Series C

Myer Family Investments, a family investment group controlled by the Australian Myer family, has invested in Judo Bank, a fintech banking platform. Myer joined six other investors in a round worth A$230 million for the Melbourne-based group. 

Forestay Capital, a venture group owned by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, has invested in Zenjob, an automated staffing platform. Forestay led the round worth €27.6 million for the Berlin-based group; four others participated.