Kennet Partners

Kennet Partners

Type	Limited company
Industry	Private Equity
Founded	1997
Headquarters	London, England, United Kingdom Foster City, California, United States
Key people	Michael Elias, David Carratt, Javier Rojas
Products	Private equity funds
Total assets	$600 million
Number of employees	15
Website	www.kennet.com

Kennet Partners is a private equity investment firm that provides growth capital to information technology, Internet and business services companies in Europe and the US.

Kennet Partners is headquartered in London, England, and has an office in Foster City, California. The firm raised its third fund in 2008 with €201 million, bringing total capital under management to over $600 million.^[1]

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. Following the downturn in the global technology markets, the partners of Kennet completed a management buy-out and became independent in April 2003.^[2]

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 today the firm focuses exclusively on providing growth capital.

Funds and investments

From founding in 1997 to June 2008, Kennet has raised three funds:

• 1997 Kennet I LP (£48.3 million)
• 2000 Kennet II LP ($204 million)
• 2008 Kennet III LP (€201 million)^[3]

Institutional investors in the Kennet III fund include Access Capital Partners, Adveq, Alpha Associates, BNP Private Equity, Credit Suisse, European Investment Fund, LGT Capital Partners and Siemens.^[1]

Investments

Kennet is often the first institutional investor in a company and invests in founders that have bootstrapped their companies to $10 million or more in annual sales. Although Kennet focuses primarily on expansion capital, the firm also purchases shares from founders or earlier investors in certain cases.

Since inception, Kennet has invested in over 35 companies,^[4] of which, Kennet's most notable exits include Altitun,^[5] Paragon Software,^[6][7] No Wires Needed,^[8] Cramer Systems,^[9] Chipidea^[10][11] and Adviva Media^[12][13]

Other investments include:

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 Fidelity Ventures, Atlas Venture, Wellington Partners and the growth equity arm of Index Ventures. Competitors in the U.S. include JMI Equity and Summit Partners' Accelerator Fund.

References

External links

• Kennet Partners(company website)
• Tornado Insider Profile
• The Funded.com Kennet Partners profile
• PSEPS Directory
• Datamonitor Profile

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