GOLD COAST: The Australian Investment Council has tonight announced the
winners of its 2022 Investing for Growth Awards.
The awards, judged by a panel of industry peers, were presented across nine
categories at the Council’s two-day annual Australian Investment Conference
on the Gold Coast. They are for outstanding contribution by Australian
private capital firms in growing and scaling companies, achieving excellent
financial performance in their portfolio company investments, and
accomplishing positive non-financial outcomes, including social impact in
the broader community.
Held at the JW Marriott, the event was attended by more than 480 private
equity, venture capital, private credit professionals, family offices,
superannuation funds, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds,
financial, legal and industry advisers.
Investing for Growth Award winners 2022
Category
|
Firm
|
Deal
|
Venture Capital Investment
|
OneVentures
|
Employment Hero
|
Corporate Venture Capital
|
NAB Ventures
|
Active Pipe
|
Small-Cap Investment Under $100MN
|
Quadrant Private Equity
|
Arq Group
|
Mid-Cap Investment $100-$250MN
|
Next Capital
|
NZ Bus
|
Upper Mid-Cap Investment $250- $500MN
|
Quadrant Private Equity
|
Probe CX
|
Large Cap >$500MN
|
Pacific Equity Partners
|
Intellihub
|
Firm of the Year
|
Quadrant Private Equity
|
|
Leadership in Diversity & Inclusion
|
Adamantem and OneVentures
|
|
Lifetime Achievement Award
(Posthumously awarded)
|
Grant Chamberlain, OneVentures
|
|
More about the Investing for Growth Awards
Venture Capital Investment
– OneVentures, Employment Hero
OneVentures worked extensively with the founders of Employment Hero prior
to formation of the business. The firm developed significant operational
synergies with the founders to create a company that has become a
fast-growing business with a strong value proposition providing HR and
payroll services to a global customer base.
Corporate Venture Capital Investment
– NAB Ventures, ActivePipe
Founded in 2015, Melbourne-based ActivePipe is an SaaS-based automated
marketing platform for the residential real estate industry. It allows
mortgage brokers to leverage insights on the buyer behaviours of potential
clients which inform automatically generated lending leads and emails to
their contact base. NAB Ventures supported ActivePipe through a number of
funding rounds, negotiated deals with major end-users and other industry
participants, and increased sales and output levels during the investment
period.
Small-Cap Investment Under $100MN
– Quadrant Private Equity, Arq Group
Arq Group was originally Melbourne IT – one of the first technology
companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Over its corporate
history, Arq Group acquired several service offerings to create two
distinct divisions of Enterprise IT services, and SME IT services. Through
a Management Buy-In, Quadrant acquired Arq Group's Enterprise IT services
division – a collection of the old Melbourne IT business, offering cloud
services; along with Outware providing digital services, and InfoReady,
providing data services. With management, Arq Group was transformed into an
integrated Enterprise IT services business with capabilities across
Digital, Data, Cloud, and Managed Services, working with some of the
largest companies and Government enterprises in Australia and is growing
its footprint in New Zealand.
Mid-Cap Investment $100-$250MN
– Next Capital, NZ Bus
Next Capital was introduced to NZ Bus during the peak of the pandemic. The
firm saw an opportunity to transition the business to the new operating
regime, consolidating, modernising an old-fashioned transport industry, and
driving the electrification / decarbonisation of the fleet while achieving
fantastic return for investors.
Upper Mid-Cap Investment $250- $500MN
– Quadrant Private Equity, Probe CX
Quadrant partnered with the management of Probe CX to significantly expand
the businesses’ cloud-based service offering to meet customer needs both
onshore and offshore. Probe CX is now the largest provider of outsourced CX
and BPO services in Australia and New Zealand, employs over 15,000-plus
staff and services more than 600 clients in 33 offices across the globe.
Large Cap >$500MN Large Cap >$500MN
–
Pacific Equity Partners, Intellihub
Pacific Equity Partners acquired Intellihub and Acumen in June 2018, and
Metrix in March 2019 and merged these businesses to create an industry
leading provider of smart metering services across Australia and New
Zealand. Intellihub completed the world-first A$1.45 billion Green Loan
financing under the Climate Bond Initiative’s Electrical Grids and Storage
criteria in 2021. The five-year facility, which had received various global
accolades, will fund the rapid rollout of smart meters to homes across
Australia and New Zealand.
Leadership in Diversity & Inclusion
– Adamantem and OneVentures
Adamantem incorporates diversity and inclusion across every aspect of its
operations from encouraging an environment where everyone has a voice, to a
comprehensive Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, an Inclusion and
Diversity Action Plan, cultural leave, and flexible working arrangements.
As a minimum, the firm has no single gender deal teams and requests the
same gender diversity requirements of its advisers.
OneVentures has a 50% gender balance and women comprise 70% of the firm’s
investment team. At a portfolio level, diversity is always considered
during the due diligence process and is discussed at all stages of the
company’s lifecycle.
For further information, please contact:
Robyn Tolhurst
Public Affairs Manager
Australian Investment Council
E: [email protected] | M: +61 436 388 919
About the Australian Investment Council
The Australian Investment Council is the voice of private capital
in Australia. Private capital investment has played a central role
in the growth and expansion of thousands of businesses, which when
combined represents a multi-billion dollar contribution to the
Australian economy. Our members are the standard-bearers of
professional investment and include: private equity, venture
capital and private credit funds, alongside institutional investors
such as superannuation and sovereign wealth funds, as well as
leading financial, legal and operational advisers.
The Australian Investment Council requests its name always
appear in full and not abbreviated or as an acronym.