HarbourVest Partners, LLC, a leading global private equity investment firm, has backed Nova Capital Management to acquire and manage the assets of the West LB Growth Fund from West LB.
Nova, the specialist management company for private equity and venture capital portfolios, now has four portfolios under management and is responsible for some 40 companies. The management of this portfolio will be lead by David Tate and Olav Ostin who joined Nova in early 2004 to develop and lead the “ventures” business at Nova.
David Tate described the assets as: “A number of interesting late stage venture investments in emerging leaders in the technology, media and telecommunications, and life sciences fields including Cerillion Technologies, European Telecommunications and Technology, enteraction TV, Hyperwave, Mindmatics and Coley Pharmaceuticals.”
The transaction involved acquiring a German GmbH structure with the underlying assets consisting of a portfolio of 15 venture investments. For HarbourVest, this transaction constituted the third acquisition of a portfolio of European direct investments in 2004.
“We are seeing an increasing amount of direct secondary opportunities. As a direct investor ourselves, we are well equipped to evaluate this kind of asset and appreciate the type of work required to actively manage these portfolios. We have known and worked with the Nova team since 2003 and believe that they are well placed to maximize the value of this portfolio,” said HarbourVest principal Michael Taylor.