Oakley Capital (“Oakley”), a leading Western Europe-focused private equity firm, is pleased to announce that its latest fund, the Oakley Capital Origin Fund (the “Origin Fund”), has now closed to institutional investors with expected final commitments of €455m. The Origin Fund is Oakley’s first vehicle focused on investing in lower mid-market companies, building on the firm’s successful history of investing in this segment. Following strong investor demand, the Origin Fund was raised in just over six months and closed well above its target size of €350m.
The Origin Fund applies Oakley’s proven growth-focused investment strategy and focus on Western European buyout opportunities in the technology, consumer and education sectors, to smaller-sized companies. It will invest between €10m and €50m in lower mid-market businesses with typical enterprise values of up to €100m. As the Oakley funds have grown, with Fund IV most recently closing at €1.46bn in June 2019, the Origin Fund is a natural step for Oakley to enable it to continue to focus on this particular market segment, where it has achieved much success in the past. Oakley’s realised and unrealised track record in this segment has been 3.6x gross MOIC and 63% gross IRR as at 31 December 2020.
The Origin Fund will sit alongside Oakley’s existing funds and will benefit from clear synergies across the firm’s platform. Oakley will leverage its in-depth sector expertise across the team; its well-established organisational and operational resources; its long-term partnerships; and its unique deal sourcing relationships via its network of entrepreneurs and management teams.
The Origin Fund has a strong pipeline of attractive deal opportunities and signed its first investment, 7NXT, just three months after the fund was launched, demonstrating the strength of its differentiated sourcing model. 7NXT is a leading online fitness and nutrition platform in the German-speaking markets. It is a typical Oakley deal, sourced through Oakley’s existing relationship with CEO Markan Karajica, and demonstrates Oakley’s ability to leverage its wide network and reputation as an attractive business partner for entrepreneurs.
The Origin Fund attracted capital commitments from a broad range of high-quality investors, with almost three-quarters raised from existing investors, as well as meaningful commitments from Oakley’s entrepreneur network which has been so effective at generating proprietary deal flow in previous Oakley funds.
