Abenex, a long-standing player in European private equity, B-Corp certified and specialized in growth and buyout investments, is pleased to announce the first closing of its Abenex Small-Cap II fund, with commitments validating over 50% of its target size.
The first-generation fund of the Small-Cap team had gathered €125m of commitments.
The Small-Cap team focuses on private equity transactions in French and European SMEs following three investment themes (Health & Wellness, Safety and Value-added services), as a minority or majority shareholder. The Fund has already attracted the interest of a wide range of French and international institutional investors, including pension funds, banks, funds-of-funds and family offices, many of whom are existing investors, reflecting the solid and longstanding trust established with Abenex over the years.
As part of its investment strategy, Abenex Small-Cap I (fka Abenex Croissance I) invested in companies such as Ekoscan, specialized in ultrasonic, non-destructive testing, advanced solutions to effectively monitor critical infrastructures; ISCG, a school specializing in work-study training, particularly in the fields of human resources, management and digital marketing; and Inlog, a leading software editor for blood transfusion players and hospital laboratories.
Abenex Small-Cap I funds that just ended its investment period, has already completed two successful exits (Naturellement Gourmand exit in 2021 and Prevost Laboratory Concept in 2023) and two refinancings, enabling it to distribute over 40% of its paid-in capital to its Investors.
In addition, Julien Keignart has been promoted as Partner in the Small-cap team. He joined Abenex in 2016 and spent four years in the Mid-Cap team, where he contributed to investments in LP Promotion and Groupe Leader Insurance. In 2021, Julien joined the Abenex Small-Cap team as Director and recently contributed to investments within Phenomen.
Prior to this, he worked 10 years for the Crédit Mutuel-CIC Group, first in M&A and then in venture capital, serving on the boards of a number of start-ups and SMEs, including Capitaine Train, Expertissim, Sociabble and OliverStore.
Patrice Verrier and Olivier Moatti, Managing Partners, comment: “We would like to thank our investors for the trust they continue to place in Abenex and its team. We are convinced of the potential of our small-cap strategy, confirmed by the strong performance of Abenex Small-Cap I launched in 2018.”
Paul Bertrand, Partner, adds: “This new milestone in the development of Abenex Small-Cap activity confirms the relevance of our strategy and its adequacy with the market. We are currently working on a strong deal flow of attractive opportunities and, with this new vintage, we will continue to support the growth of SMEs alongside their management teams.”
