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Kabbage co-founder Kathryn Petralia and BlueRun Ventures Partner Jonathan Ebinger discuss the explosive growth of Kabbage and where online lending is heading at Thomson Reuters' Venture Alpha East 2014 conference in New York. Alastair Goldfisher, editor of Venture Capital Journal, moderates. . Video date: March 26, 2014

Brazos Private Equity Partners, a Dallas buyout shop, will not be raising a new fund and will manage out the existing portfolio and wind down, according to Michael Salim, partner and general counsel.

Clairvest Group has launched its fifth fund targeting $500 million, according to a person with knowledge of the fund-raising. Clairvest Equity Partners V has a $600 million hard cap. Atlantic-Pacific Capital is working as placement agent. Clairvest targets mid-market buyouts in North America, seeking to invest between $15 million and $50 million in equity per company. The firm has overall generated a 2.8x return multiple since inception, the source said.

U.S. private equity firms have been steadily making their presence felt in Canada's mid-market, often by zeroing in on deals of interest and demonstrating a particular competitive advantage. An example of this trend was seen last month with Clearview Capital's $45 million take-private acquisition of Novik, a Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Québec-based manufacturer of polymer siding and roofing supplies.

Venture capitalists, who are overwhelmingly male, would rather fund a handsome guy than any woman, regardless of the female entrepreneur’s attractiveness quotient. In case it makes you feel any better, ugly men fared about as well as women.

Loral Space & Communications Inc, which holds a majority stake in Canadian satellite communications company Telesat Holdings Inc, has selected private equity firm Apax Partners LLP and two Canadian pension funds to negotiate a sale of Telesat, reports Reuters. The move marks a key step in an auction process for Loral, in which investors who covet control of Telesat need to bring another shareholder, Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), onboard. The three parties chosen by Loral - Apax, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan - are now expected to negotiate with PSP about a deal. At stake is a leveraged buyout that could reach US$6 billion to US$7 billion.

Private equity career advice for MBA candidates and others from experts including Brian Rich of Catalyst Investors.

Norwest Equity Partners has exited Shock Doctor after a near six year hold, selling the company to Bregal Partners.

Canadian private equity firm Annapolis Capital confirmed that it has to date secured $200 million in commitments for its seventh partnership, Annapolis Energy Fund VII LP. That’s effectively two-thirds of the way to the fund’s $300 million hard-cap target — a target that should be met no later than the fall of 2014. In that event, Fund VII will close at double the capitalization of Fund VI (2011). That’s quite an achievement for the young Calgary-based firm, founded in 2006 by managing partners Peter Williams and Jody Forsyth. And it augers well for a domestic oil and gas sector that has hefty investment spending requirements over the long run but relatively few sources of risk financing.

Montréal professional services consultant WSP Global is in acquisition-based growth mode. And the public company's two largest investors, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, are once again stepping up to help fund its deal-making. WSP has announced plans to buy Focus Corp, a Calgary-based provider of engineering and geomatics services to clients in the oil and gas industry. The price tag: just over $366 million. To finance the transaction, WSP will rely in part on the Caisse de dépôt and CPPIB, to make a private investment totaling $80 million.