professional services
Sequoia invests $5m in India's Vymo
Sequoia Capital India has committed $5 million in Series A funding to Vymo, an enterprise sales assistant based in India and the US.
Whiz Partners invests $22m in Japanese IT developer
Japan-based private equity firm Whiz Partners has agreed to invest JPY2.4 billion ($22 million) in Tokyo-listed software and marketing products developer Albert.
Japan's Monstar Lab gets $2.4m round
Monstar Lab, a Japan-based company specializing in global outsourcing services for IT companies, has raised JPY250 million ($2.4 million) from investors including Resona Capital.
Deal focus: J-Star helps Asiro bring law online
Asiro came into being as a means of addressing the demand-supply imbalance in Japan's legal services industry. New owner J-Star will help the company expand its platform
Sequoia leads $55m round for India, US-based Freshdesk
Sequoia Capital has led a $55 million Series F round of funding for India and US-based customer support platform provider Freshdesk.
J-Star acquires Japan’s Asiro
J-Star has acquired Japan’s Asiro, an online marketing platform provider for lawyers, for an undisclosed sum.
Ropes & Gray adds partner to Asia private funds practice
Vincent Ip, a Hong Kong-based partner with Ropes & Gray’s private investment funds group, has been promoted to partner.
Hong Kong tax policy: An unfortunate first
Hong Kong is the only major international center openly seeking to treat carried interest as income rather than capital gain for tax purposes. The private equity industry wants to know where it stands
US-based PE firm to pay $53m for Australian bookkeeping assets
A consortium led by US private equity firm Housatonic Partners will acquire a majority stake in the Australian records management unit of New York-listed business services provider Iron Mountain for $A70 million ($53 million).
Deal focus: OSI fills the labor gap
With Japan's demographic crisis promising more labor shortages, CLSA Capital Partners hopes to ride a coming wave of growth in the staffing services industry
China boutique investment bank CEC buys Siemer & Associates
Chinese boutique investment bank and advisory firm CEC Capital Group – formerly known as China eCapital – has agreed to buy US-based counterpart Siemer & Associates (S&A).
Australia-founded SafetyCulture gets $23m Series B
SafetyCulture, an Australia-founded developer of mobile software for safety inspectors, has raised A$30 million ($23 million) in Series B funding from a group of investors including Index Ventures and Blackbird Ventures.
Sixpoint hires Diamond Dragon's Tan to head Asia distribution
Placement agent and secondaries advisory firm Sixpoint Partners has appointed Joan Tan, formerly of Diamond Dragon Advisors, as managing director and head of Asian distribution.
CLSA acquires Japanese BPO firm
CLSA Capital Partners has acquired Japanese business process outsourcing (BPO) company Outsourcing Investments (OSI).
Deal focus: Tricor attracts a scarcity premium
Permira fought off the competition to secure Hong Kong-headquartered corporate and investor services provider Tricor Global. Now the GP plans to pursue a buy-and-build strategy
Everstone buys US-based CRM firm to support India expansion
Everstone Group has agreed to buy US-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions provider CustomerContactChannels (C3) with a view to helping the company expand in India.
Permira to buy Hong Kong-based corporate services provider for $835m
Permira has agreed to buy Tricor Holdings, a Hong Kong-headquartered business, corporate and investor services provider, from Bank of East Asia (BEA) for HK$6.47 billion ($835 million).
Q&A: Interchina Consulting's Barry Chen
Barry Chen, managing director at InterChina Consulting, discusses where investors get it right and wrong on M&A, whether they are foreign companies doing deals in China or Chinese players going overseas
Longreach agrees Japan BPO carve-out from Olympus
The Longreach Group has agreed to Nippon Outsourcing Corporation, a business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of Olympus Corporation. The transaction size was not disclosed.
Baring Asia agrees to buy Australia's SAI Global for $940m
Baring Private Equity Asia has agreed to buy Australia-listed risk management and standards compliance business SAI Global for an enterprise valuation of A$1.24 billion ($940 million).
CLSA-backed BayCurrent lists in Tokyo
CLSA Capital Partners (CLSA CP) has made a partial exit from BayCurrent Consulting as the company raised JPY28.3 billion ($272 million) through an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Side letters: A little extra
The proliferation of side letter provisions submitted by LPs as conditional on their participation in a fundraise is adding to administrative workloads. Private equity firms must negotiate carefully
New Zealand's Spotlight Reporting gets $3.6m Series A
New Zealand’s Spotlight Reporting, a cloud-based accounting services provider, has received NZ$5 million ($3.6 million) in Series A funding from investors including the Global from Day One (GD1) Fund II.
Singapore's EDBI invests US analytics player RetailNext
The investment arm of Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDBI) has made an undisclosed commitment to an Asia Pacific expansion drive by US-based analytics company RetailNext.