Transatlantic growth equity investor Kennet has raised around £225 million for its largest fund to date, Kennet VI.
The fund was raised as part of a successful partnership with Edmond de Rothschild private equity, a cornerstone investor. British Patient Capital, Federated Hermes Private Equity and Bpifrance also committed to the fund.
Kennet has already begun to deploy this capital into B2B SaaS companies across Europe, including Screendragon in Ireland and the UK and Fluid Topics in France.
The private equity firm has continued to deliver exits, such as Eloomi in January 2024 generating a 3.1x cash multiple. This follows numerous successful exits in recent years including Nuxeo (5x), Dext (3.8x), CrossBorder Solutions (6.4x), Rimilia (2.5x), and Impartner (2.6x).
Kennet focuses exclusively on investing in established, high growth B2B SaaS technology companies which are founder-owned and either highly ‘capital efficient’ or fully ‘bootstrapped’ – built without external capital.
The investment from Kennet is typically the first external funding that companies receive and is used to scale and expand internationally, build world class management teams and build strategic value.
“This fundraise marks another important milestone for Kennet as we close our largest fund to date, with a significant number of previous investors participating in this fund,” said Michael Elias, managing director, Kennet Partners.
“At a time when the market has recognised that ‘growth at any cost’ is no longer rational, our long-standing conservative strategy has appealed to investors. Kennet’s risk-balanced strategy provides investors with the growth associated with innovative technology, while maintaining a low failure rate.
“We have proven over numerous fund cycles that capital efficient B2B SaaS businesses offer attractive investment opportunities and that helping entrepreneurs build outstanding management teams and enter global markets remains a winning formula.”