Financial-Times

Sifted: VCs love to invest in software companies, but it isn’t every day that they buy them. Yet today, German fund of funds Equation is announcing its acquisition of VC fundraising software startup Betterfront Technologies. Both companies are based in Munich and declined to share details of the acquisition.

Next-generation asset management firm equation AG has today announced the acquisition of Betterfront Technologies to re-invent the archaic fundraising process in Private Markets and to facilitate liquidity for Venture Capital and Private Equity investors.

Betterfront allows fund managers to visualize their track record and connect seamlessly with their investors via a smart data room. Since its inception in 2019, the company supported emerging and established fund managers in raising more than €4B with its all-in-one fundraising platform. On a global level, and despite macro-economic and geopolitical challenges, $1+ trillion has been raised in each of the last six years, with expectations for Private Markets to reach $18.3 trillion in AuM by 2027 (Preqin).

Sifted: A lot has been made recently of American VC firms coming to Europe to splash their cash. But it’s a new generation of home-grown VCs — some of which don’t even exist yet — that are set to make a bigger splash.