- Centana Growth Partners announced that it has raised $375 million for its second fund called Fund II. Fund II was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap.
Specialized growth equity firm Centana Growth Partners announced that it has closed its second fund called Centana Growth Partners II, L.P. with capital commitments from limited partners of $375 million. Fund II was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap.
Fund II is considered the successor to the firm’s debut fund. The 2015 vintage fund closed at $250 million in commitments.
Centana is going to build on the team’s investment track record and its thematic investment approach to identify and partner with financial services, fintech, and related enterprise technology companies that are solving sophisticated problems for and generating real value in the financial services industry.
“We are very grateful for the commitment and continued support of our existing and new investors who value our unique approach to investing,” said Eric Byunn, partner at Centana Growth Partners. “There continues to be an extraordinary amount of excitement within financial services and fintech. Our team has a tried-and-true formula for finding the real change-makers among the noise, drawing on our deep sector expertise, theme-based sourcing, and our advisory network.”
Centana is going to continue to invest in its core sectors and verticals, including asset management, insurance, banking, digital identity, wealth management, payments, capital markets, and enterprise technologies that sell into these verticals. And the company will seek out portfolio companies that have a proven business model — which is a maturing revenue and customer base.
“We founded Centana because we recognized how rapidly the financial services industry was evolving and adapting to new economic, regulatory, and technological conditions. This change drives continued demand for entrepreneurial companies,” explained Ben Cukier, partner at Centana Growth Partners. “This new fund will allow us to continue to help companies serving these markets accelerate their growth.”
Centana also has a talented management team who values a collaborative approach to drive their business forward. This fund is expected to invest between $5 million to $30 million in each category-leading growth company.
“Innovation remains at the core of every regulatory, market, and technology cycle, and we believe that the financial services ecosystem will continue to demand the solutions that our portfolio companies provide,” commented Steven Swain, Partner at Centana Growth Partners. “Our decades of experience investing in this area and our unrivaled industry network will help our companies meet their goals and expand their connections into the financial services industry.”
As of right now, Centana Growth Partners holds investments in 9 portfolio companies. Earlier this year, Centana led the $19 million Series B funding round in Ease — which is a modern SaaS insurance platform for SMBs. And the firm also participated in a follow-on $115 million funding round for Vena Solutions, a provider of cloud-based financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software.
Lazard served as a placement agent. And Proskauer Rose served as legal counsel for Fund II.
