Wayfair.com said it raised $36.3 million in equity financing from Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Spark Capital. The money will be used to grow Joss & Main, the company’s private sale site for the home. The site has nearly three million members and is operating at a $100 million annual revenue run-rate.

CHAMP Ventures 7 Funds has acquired a majority interest in the Queensland-­based marine logistics company Sea Swift. HarbourVest Partners is investing alongside CHAMP. Sea Swift has over 300 staff and 25 vessels, with current turnover of approximately $100 million.

HarbourVest Partners has agreed to buy the private equity portfolio held by Conversus Capital for $1.4 billion, or $22.11 per Conversus unit as of April 30. The deal is expected to hold an initial close during Q4 with subsequent closings occurring throughout 2013. In February, Conversus announced a review of strategic alternatives, including a possible [...]

BenefitMall and CompuPay have merged through an equity financing led by Austin Ventures and including HarbourVest Partners. The merger of BenefitMall and CompuPay will create a national provider of employee benefit and payroll solutions. PRESS RELEASE BenefitMall and CompuPay (together, the “Company”) today announced a merger of the companies through an equity financing led by [...]

Looking for an exciting opportunity in deal analysis, structuring and execution? Look no further than our first private equity job of the week.

Back in 2008 and 2009 I took an in-depth look at the performance of funds of funds and, well, found them lacking. I raised the question of whether they were worth the added layer of management fees and, in many cases, carried interest. This year I revisit the subject with a larger, 80-fund, pre-vintage 2007 [...]

Buyout shop HarbourVest Partners has promoted David Atterbury to the post of managing director, and promoted ten other individuals to principal and vice president. In Europe, Carolina Espinal de Carulla, Claudio Siniscalco and Hannah Tobin have been promoted to Principal; and Craig MacDonald has been promoted to Vice President. In Asia, Tim Flower has been promoted to Principal; and Kelvin Yap and Maggie Chan have been promoted to Vice President. And in the U.S., Ian Lane and Aris Hatch have been promoted to Principal; and McComma Grayson has been promoted to Vice President.

Things haven’t been going so great over at the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System. It faces increasing obligations to pensioners, is over-allocated to private equity and has lost staff from its PE investment team. Against that backdrop, the $25 billion pension fund has been seeking buyers for as much as $3 billion worth of its PE investments, one [...]

Renaissance Learning said yesterday that it did receive a definitive buyout proposal from Plato Learning that is backed by Thoma Bravo and HarbourVest Partners. Plato is bidding $15.50 a share cash, which includes $128 million equity plus $410 million in debt. However, Renaissance’s board said it is still recommending a lower offer from Permira Funds. Permira is offering $14.85 a share cash.