BV Investment Partners beats Fund VIII target

The size of the fund exceeded the roughly $430 million raised from its predecessor, BV Investment Partners Fund VII, which closed in 2007.

Vikrant Raina, managing partner of BV Investment Partners, told Buyouts that the same senior team remains in place for the new fund, earmarked to make eight to 10 platform investments in lower middle-market information and business services and communications companies. Besides Raina, members of the investment team include Louis Bertocci, Andrew Davis, Elizabeth Granville-Smith and Justin Harrison—all managing directors.

“We could have closed it sooner, but we were trying to get new, European LPs and we had to work within their allocation cycles,” Raina said. “We were successful and we ended up in an oversubscribed situation.”

BV Investment Partners has made two platform deals from the fund. The two companies are Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing Company, a marketing services, software, and data provider for consumer product manufacturers and retailers; and INetU, a specialist in providing complex managed hosting and cloud services to companies. Raina said both companies are growing their revenue and profit at about 25 to 50 percent a year.

Despite the high prices of LBOs nowadays, Raina said BV Investment Partners continues to find compelling deals.

“Cycles come and go, but if you remain focused on what you do well, which is understanding the industry you’re in and partnering with management, and implementing your operations plan the day you own the business, you’ll be successful,” he said. “Yes, valuation multiples are higher than they used to be, but if you have a business that you think can grow 35 to 45 percent, you’ll still do really well.”